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My mouth opens and closes a few times. “It’s… a bow?” I catch him rolling his eyes, and my jaw sets like stone. “I already hate this fucking school.”
“So, why the hell are you still here?”
“It’s not my choice.” My chest hitches when I realize this conversation is starting to veer down a road more dangerous than the one we’re currently careening down at what feels like fifty miles an hour.
“Then why accept it?” Owen’s voice is low and deep, a rough contrast to my much higher pitch when I blurt out, “Because I don’t want to hurt my father more than I already have.”
There’s a beat of silence between us before Owen speaks again. “That sounds about right.”
I glance at him, give him a double-take. He has a stormy look on his face, his jaw clenching, his eyes narrowed.
He looks every inch the spoiled kid I know he is. When I bark out a laugh, he turns those slitted eyes to me. “What?”
“Please.” I give him a dismissive wave. “I don’t know what your game is, but I’m not playing.”
His jaw clenches so hard I’m surprised I can’t hear his teeth grinding together.
“If this is some lame attempt to get laid… just a heads up, it’s not working.” I flip my head, sending my hair over my shoulder. “You don’t know what it’s like.”
His silence pulls at me like a black hole. I grip the steering wheel a little tighter, staring ahead like I can somehow will Pinecrest’s main campus building closer and be done with this awkward conversation.
“I bet you’ve never had an awful day in your life. If someone tries to do something bad to you, you just snap your fingers and it goes away.” I laugh bitterly. “Those people thatdare. But I bet no one is that stupid. I mean, you walk on water, right?”
But still there’s no reaction from him.
I purse my lips, forcing myself not to say another word, but God, it’s difficult. I can feel him staring at me, and his attention creates this magnetic energy that’s taking every ounce of my willpower to resist.
But I won’t give him the satisfaction. He knows what I’m saying is true. Owen Dalton is untouchable. Me? Evie Larsen? No one thinks twice about walking over me. Using me.
Destroyingme.
My chest grows tight. Anxiety setting in. This was the worst way to start the day. I should have stayed in bed. Walked to school. Never even have gotten in the cab that brought me to Pinecrest.
I did it for Dad. I owed him that much. But now that I’m here, it feels like a bad trade. Perhaps if I’d fought just a little bit harder, I wouldn’t have been forced to move halfway across the country, abandoning my mother, leaving my home, my friends.
Ha.Friends?
“Stop.”
For a moment, I think Owen can hear what I’m thinking and he’s ordering me to change my train of thought. I shove a lock of hair out of my face. “What?”
“Stop driving.”
“Oh.” I slow down so fast that we both jerk forward in our seats.
Owen sits for a moment before climbing out. If I thought my chest was tight before, now it feels like it’s trapped in a vise. Owen grabs the roof of the golf cart and leans in, his face set in that same expressionless mask as the night we met.
“The problem with people thinking you can walk on water, Evie, is that no one ever considers that you might be seconds away from drowning.”
I nibble on my lower lip as I watch him walk away. “Owen.” He ignores me. “Owen! Come on. You don’t have to walk. You can drive.”
He turns around, walking backward as he tilts his head to the side to study me. “And why the hell would I want to be seen with you?” he calls out. “I walk on water, remember? You don’t.”
