I think I now get what authors mean when they describe a man’s voice asgravelly. Up this close, he’s still horrifyingly unkempt with that overgrown hair of his, and he’s still way too thin to be conventionally attractive…but…he’s also kind of beautiful in the same way that somber classics are.
Whoa. Okay, Rose. Let’s not go there while we’re using him as much-needed support against his will.
Managing to find the feeling in my legs well enough to get his jacket on, I put a tiny bit of distance between us and chew my lip. “I, um… I really appreciate the honesty. I always try to be honest. It gets me in a lot of bad and awkward situations, but I prefer knowing the truth, no matter what. Feelings can be dealt with after.”
“Agreed,” he says, still refusing to look at me.
I watch him for a couple seconds, surrounded in the body heat of his coat, which smells better than his too-long hairsuggested it would. Something clicks inside my head, and my eyes widen. “Wait a second.”
He winces.
Yeah, hebetterwince. I frown and fold my arms in the oversize sleeves; I am wearing a tent. “Were you ogling me up until you discovered I was a minor?”
Slenderman Guy clears his throat. “Not my proudest moment.”
My face heats with a different kind of embarrassment, and a breath sticks in my chest as all the time-stopping magic undoes itself. It’s pouring again. It’s loud. The kittens are crying.
“Ogling you wasn’t my intention for coming down here. I couldn’t…” He blinks, and his gaze drags fingers across the canopy of his umbrella. “I couldn’t see the…detailsfrom my window. I just saw a girl crouched in the rain.”
Well, I appreciate thehonesty. What in the world does he mean bydetailsthough? Against perhaps all better judgment, I turn my back on him, open the coat, and look down at myself. In another flash of lightning, I discover that while my bra is a modest white, the pink lace accents and bows are bleeding through my school uniform without a singular care in the world.
Oh. My. Word.
Curse my school for being all preppy andwear this super thin, super sleek dress shirtfancy. I whip the coat closed and exhale a horrified breath. Okay. Cool. A stranger saw that. A stranger wasenjoyingthat before his morals kicked in. Lovely. Neat. Nice.
Help.
“Are you a bad person?” I whisper.
“Right now, probably.” The sharp intake of his breath cuts through the sound of the rain. “It’s not like I’m responsible for your modesty, though.”
He has a point. But also basically curse him.
“Rose Briars!” Mrs. Allen shouts from over in the direction of what might be my dorm.
My eyes go huge as I look that way, and the only thing I can think is that I may very well be inhugetrouble. “Crap,” I whisper, looking at the kittens then at Slenderman Guy. “Crap.”
“Rose Briars?” he asks.
“Yeah, my parents arehilariouslyoblivious to the weight of the title they’ve rested upon my shoulders. I don’t need to hear it from an ephebophile.”
He snorts the start of a laugh and muffles it as fast as possible into a cough. The hint of a smile on his lips draws my attention a little more completely than I want to admit. “Is the pedophilia breakdown suddenly common knowledge for high school students?”
I huff. “I like words. And I like when my words arecorrect, thank you very much.”
The smile that remains teasingly in place is a little distracting. It makes me forget everything.
“Rose Briars!” Mrs. Allen screams, the urgency ticking it up a notch.
I wince, pulled from the trance. Looking down, I clutch his coat closer around myself and shoot him a desperate look.
“Keep it,” he says, like I haven’t seen inside the campus store and know for a fact this thing is like eighty dollars.
“I couldn’t…”
“Consider it my repentance. Also, it’ll spare you from giving shows to anyone else who doesn’t realize you’re a baby.”
My eyes roll. “I’m not a baby.”
