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I didn’t like his tone.
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
Rio looked at his wrist, very much watch free. “It has been all of…what? An hour since you last stared slack-jawed at the pretty little popular chick?”
Had he been anyone else, I’d have thumped him. “Shut the fuck up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know your mooning’s got worse the last three weeks.” He put his finger to his chin. “Gee. Wonder why that is?” He tapped his finger on his chin. “What happened three weeks ago that might have made you completely obsessed with her?”
Steve snorted and I glared at him. He dropped all appearance of humour.
“I’m not fucking obsessed with her.”
Rio gave me ayou serious?glare. “If you’re not obsessed, why are we standing around here like a bunch of twats?”
“Roman Lombardi is beautiful!” Hadley suddenly yelled and we all turned to look at her.
She was standing up, her arms spread wide. She threw me a wink and I felt the seething frustration wafting off Rio in waves. Hadley topped it off by blowing me a kiss, but I wasn’t much bothered about Hadley Reynolds. I was more interested in Piper’s reaction.
She was laughing so hard she stuck her face in her lap as Hadley dropped beside her and they did what can only be described as dissolve into ridiculous giggles. It was times like this that Piper Barlow actually looked happy. Properly happy. It was intoxicating.
“You fucking fucker,” Rio muttered.
I held a hand to him but couldn’t take my eyes off Piper. “I haven’t touched her. I don’t want to touch her. You have at it.”
“If your eyes weren’t glued to Barlow, I might have called bullshit.”
“You got a thing for her something?” Steve chuckled. It didn’t matter who he was talking to.
“Is my cock a thing? Because Piper fucking Barlow just has to ask and I’ll gladly give it to her,” I answered him.
Steve laughed.
I could feel Rio’s gaze on me, but I didn’t look at him because I knew what I’d see in his eyes. Questions. Comments. Things he didn’t want to say, and things I didn’t want to hear.
Maybe my interest in her had grown in the last few weeks. Call it a consequence of seeing her almost every day. Proximity and all that. It was unsurprising that I’d become more invested in her. That didn’t mean I was obsessed.
I’d thought she was eminently fuckable before I moved houses. I didn’t think she was any more fuckable now than she’d been three weeks ago. I just thought about it a little more than I used to.
What I would never admit to Rio was that it was more than just that I thought she was fuckable. I was drawn to her. Like she was a literal magnet to whatever writhed in the pits of the remnants of my soul.
Mum knew my quip about the environment was shit, but I wouldn’t have been able to tell her the truth had I been inclined. I didn’t know what the truth was.
Piper just drew me in like a moth to flame. Like darkness to light. Cold to warmth.
So when she seemed extraordinarily huddled in on herself that afternoon on the way home from the bus stop, I found myself busting to say something to her – anything – that might bring back that light.
“What?” she asked as she pulled off her headphones.
“So… Hadley thinks I’m gorgeous?”
By the way she rolled her eyes, I was sure there were many choice words going around her head. But in true Piper Barlow form, all she said was, “Yes.”
“Sweet,” I chuckled. “She need my number?”
I didn’t want to give Hadley my number, but I wanted to see what Piper would say to that.
She opened her mouth, then closed it and kept walking. I could only laugh as I rode around her on my board.
