When Ryne’s lips are a hair’s breadth from mine—I can’t help it—a low moan slips from me on an exhale. He pauses and chuckles, to which I respond by reaching around and pinching his ass.
“Sassy,” he murmurs against my lips, then tugs the bottom one with his teeth, sucking on it once before releasing it. Ryne’s lips finally meet with mine in an actual kiss and something clicks into place inside me. The kiss starts off slow; he brushes his lips over mine and makes soft, exploratory nips. Every little suck, every little nibble, every littleeverythingfrom Ryne leaves me wanting and needing more. The heat level picks up and our kiss becomes stronger and deeper. When my lips part in response to his demanding tongue, he plunges inside.
There are kisses, and then there arekisses. This is definitely akiss.
He sucks on my tongue and the effects of it shoot all the way down to my dick.
“Fuck, Dacen,” Ryne groans. “You taste so fucking good.”
This is amazing. This is Heaven. This is perfection. This is—the door flies open beside us. We both startle and jump apart. Bryce steps into the room, first looking to his right, and then his left, and when he sees the two of us, his eyes bug out. Ryne’s shirt is still out of place and a decent section of skin, the infamous V, is on display and he seems oblivious. I reach over and tug his shirt back down, then bring the ice back up to my forehead as if that’s going to distract Bryce from what Ryne and I were doing.
“Uh, Coach sent me to check on Becker.”
“And did you need something from the storage room?” Ryne snaps at him.
“I saw the cones in the hallway. Got curious. My bad.”
Got nosy is more like it. From the frown on Ryne’s face, he agrees with my silent assessment.
“Whatever.” Ryne glances at his watch and then over to me, nodding toward the door. “Let’s just go. It’s almost time to get started.”
Bryce turns so his back is against the open door and Ryne stomps past him and into the hallway. I go to leave next but Bryce steps in front of me, facing me. He gives me a quick glare, then turns around and leaves the room. What the hell was that all about? I follow behind, slowly shutting the door. Ryne’s already picked up the stack of cones, and by the time I turn around, the two of them are halfway down the hallway.
Okay then.
26
Dacen
Present Day
It should be against the law to have to wake up early and go to school on your birthday. I’m eighteen today, it seems like I should have the authority to decide to skip if I want to. But when I suggested that to Mom and Dad last night, they basically laughed in my face. Nicely, but still. Mom told me to savor the rest of my senior year because things will be very different after graduation. Dad asked how I plan to start college next fall if I suddenly form a truancy habit and don’t graduate high school.
Hilarious.
It’s funny how they let me do things like permanent and semi-permanent body modification, but skipping one day of school they won’t hear of. I still think I should have been able to skip just this one day, especially because it’s a Friday, but whatever. On the plus side, I’d woken up to multiple Happy Birthday texts, even one from Christopher which was a little surprising, and then had a video call with both Milo and Will for a few minutes while I gobbled down breakfast. Mom made me eggs and bacon, my favorite meal after tacos. When I got to school Evie gifted me a new set of pens and a pair of socks with little avocado icons on them, both of which I’m totally obsessed with.
All in all, it’s been a pretty good morning so far.
I pull one of my new pens out and flip open my planner. Evan plops down in his seat next to me in homeroom and grins when he sees what I’m doing. I eye him suspiciously.
“Is that a new glitter pen, Herschel?”
My grimace doesn’t deter him. He opens his mouth to speak but I cut him off. “Listen, it’s my birthday today, Evan, and I really do not want any drama or comments about these.” I hold up one side of my planner and my new pen.
He gives me a non-sarcastic smile, a rarity. “Happy birthday, dude.”
My eyebrows nearly fly off my face. “Thank you.”
A nice smileanda nice comment? It’s a damn miracle. Evan pulls his phone out of his backpack and faces forward. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch him bite back a smile as his fingers fly over the screen. I get back to my planner, half-listening as the morning announcements are delivered. A few minutes before the bell is scheduled to ring I start to pack up my things so I’m ready to head to first period, and my phone lights up with a text. When I unlock the screen and read it, it’s only three words,Happy Birthday, D, but my heart skips a beat. It’s from Ryne.
“How did he know—” I whip my head over in Evan’s direction just as the bell rings.
A sly little grin lights up his face as he slides out of his chair and swings his backpack over one shoulder. He starts to walk away but pauses, pocketing his phone as he turns back around. “For the record, Herschel, I’m actually rooting for the two of you. Just don’t tell Sutton I said that.”
I blink a few times and look down to hide my smile. As he walks away I call out after him. “Thanks, Evan.”
He waves over his shoulder on his way out the door. I shoot a text back to Ryne, thanking him for the birthday message, and at the last second before I hit send I add a red heart emoji. I try not to overthink and obsess about that emoji on my way to first period but my mind has, well, a mind of its own, called anxiety. It makes me worry about the dumbest stuff. I guarantee if things ultimately end up going to shit between Ryne and me, a year from now I’ll still be thinking about that text and wondering if that stupid heart emoji was our downfall. My brain’s weird.
