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A few teenagers gathered around a table in the middle of the empty food court. A janitor set up a sign indicating a wet floor. A homeless guy clutched his shopping cart and stared at me and Noah from across the room. Oh, I don’t know. Wander around by myself, probably end up dead, stuffed in the bottom of that guy’s shopping cart. “Maybe head to the arcade and hope someone left some quarters on the table so I can play pool. ”
Noah raised an eyebrow. “You play pool?”
“Aires taught me. ” The sound of Aires’ laughter as we played replaced the screaming in my head.
Noah hopped off the stool and enveloped my hand in his. The gesture took me by
surprise and caused my heart to stutter. He pulled me off the seat. “Come on, let’s go see if Aires taught you pool like he did math. ”
We walked toward the arcade and Noah shifted his hand to allow his fingers to rest beside mine. My heart galloped like a horse. This was Noah Hutchins. The Noah Hutchins that refused steady relationships or even dating. The Noah Hutchins that only wanted one-night stands. A stoner. My opposite. And right now, everything I wanted.
NOAH
Echo withdrew into her hair the moment she entwined her fingers with mine. I hadn’t touched weed in over a week yet somehow I floated above the ground, my blood ran warm in my veins and I felt high—no, not high … invincible.
“Can I ask you a question? I won’t mean to offend you by it,” I said.
Her hand went limp, but I clung to it, not allowing her escape. “I guess. ”
“Is there a meaning behind your name?”
We reached the arcade. A few middle-schoolers hovered around a game with a mock machine gun. The sound of bullets flying amid screams blared from the game. A college student flipped through a comic book behind the glass counter full of cheap prizes from ski ball tickets. I squeezed Echo’s hand tighter and led her past the game to the empty pool tables in the back.
Reluctantly, I let go of her hand and pushed a couple dollars into the coin machine.
“My mom was obsessed with Greek myths. I’m named after the mountain nymph, Echo. ”
Aires’ name suddenly made sense, too. I plunked two quarters into the table and the balls rumbled out of the slot. Echo immediately tossed them onto the table. “Eight or nine ball?”
“Eight. ” Nine was more complicated. I already planned on playing at sixty percent capacity, hoping she’d have a good time. “What’s the myth?”
She set the balls into the rack and flipped the triangle away. “There are several, actually. You break. ”
I’d met several girls like her; terrified to break because they couldn’t hit more than a few balls off the group. Better she break and get one in than nothing at all. “Ladies first. ” I couldn’t wait for this game to be over so I could teach her how to break properly. Images of her body pressed against mine, bending over the table, caused my jeans to get tighter.
“Your funeral,” she sang and my lips turned up at her flash of confidence. Echo twirled her pool cue like a warrior going into battle, never once taking her eyes off the cue ball. She leaned over the table. I focused on her tight ass. My siren ate me alive with every movement. As she took aim, she no longer resembled the fragile girl at school, but a sniper.
The quick and thunderous cracking of balls caught me off guard. The balls fell into the pockets in such rapid succession, I lost count. Echo rounded the table, once again twirling the cue, studying the remaining balls like a four-star general would a map.
Damn—the girl knew how to play.
“Stripes,” she called. Echo bent over the table to make her second shot. Her beautiful breasts were right there for me to see, but I wanted to do more than observe, I wanted to …
“You should put your tongue back in your mouth. You’ll get all cotton-mouthed if it dries out. ” She sank two stripes with one shot.
“I can’t help it you’re hot. ” I loved it when she dished it out. “The myth?”
After sinking two more shots she finally missed. Now it was my turn. Sixty percent capacity wouldn’t cut it with her. Hell, one hundred percent may not even be enough.
I worked the table while Echo settled onto a stool. “Zeus enjoyed affairs with nymphs on earth and his wife, Hera, didn’t quite approve of his extracurricular activities. So he sent Echo, a beautiful wood nymph, to distract and entertain Hera while he did a little entertaining of his own. Hera finally figured it out and punished Echo by taking her voice, cursing her to only repeat what others said.
“After this happened, Echo fell in love with a jerk who didn’t love her back. Echo wandered the woods, heartbroken, crying until there was nothing left to her but her voice, which still haunts the earth. ”
Some of us were named after Bible personalities, others from a dart thrown at a baby book. Echo was named after a psychotic Greek myth. I sank two balls into the right pocket. “She didn’t like the names from normal fairy tales?”
Echo laughed. “Those were my fairy tales. I grew up understanding the story behind every constellation. What Greek god was mad at whom. Love, lust, anger, revenge. I slept with the light on for a long time. ”
I missed my shot and swallowed the curse. Echo pranced to the table with a wicked grin on her lips. I craved nothing more than to kiss that pretty little smirk off her face. Instead, I yanked one of her silky red curls. Her laughter tickled my skin.
