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“Oh, come on. Don’t act like I hurt you. I was merely tapping your forehead. Didn’t even put any force behind it.”
“It didn’t hurt at all.” He picks at his forehead and I’m unsure why. “But you had gum on the bottom of your shoe.”
I fight back laughter. “Oh. Well, it serves you right for invading my space.”
“Your space?” He squints. “Since when?”
“Seriously?” I glare. “Since my dad had it built for me onourproperty.”
Jagger laughs, running his sticky fingers on a floorboard while trying to wipe the gum off. “What are you talking about? This is my family's property.”
“Shut up.” I laugh, though it’s not the least bit funny. Sure, the Coles’ family property butts up to ours, but we’ve got over twenty acres, and there’s no way my dad would buildmytreehouse on the wrong property.
“You’re wrong, baby Scar.” He tips his chin confidently. “Last year I walked our property lines with my dad and my uncle and this treehouse is, in fact, on Cole land.”
I run my hand down my face, watching him carefully to see if he’s joking, but he looks dead serious.
Finally, he laughs. “I’m just messing with you. It’s on your property, but you haven’t been out here in ages, so I sort of took over it.”
“You can’t do that,” I spit out. “This is private property.”
He drops down, legs bent and hands dangling over his knees. “Oh yeah? You gonna tell your daddy on me?”
“Maybe I will.”
He pulls a pack of gum out of his jacket pocket, unwraps it slowly while watching me, then pops it in his mouth. Rolling the wrapper between his fingers, he says, “Why are you here anyways?”
My response is immediate. “None of your business.”
“Why were you crying?”
He heard that?“Again. None of your business.”
“Is it because you weren’t invited to the movies?”
“Stop!” I shout. “Quit asking me so many questions.”
“Well. For what it’s worth, no one went. My sister got a flat and couldn’t drive us. By the time we’d have found a ride, the movie would be over.”
Oddly enough, that makes me feel better. Neo begged Maddie—or forced, rather—to go with them and I wasn’t invited, so here I am. Alone. Well, at least, I was.
“So where’s Maddie then?”
He shrugs his shoulders. “I dunno. I think they all went to Crew’s house.”
“Why didn’t you go?” It’s not very often Jagger and I talk, and it’s a bit uncomfortable. He’s at least three feet away, but it feels closer. Almost too close. Like there isn’t enough room for both of us in here and my lungs are having trouble taking in air.
“Needed to recharge my batteries.” He slaps his hands to either side of him onto the old wooden floorboards. “And this is where I do that. We all need an escape from time to time, don’t we?”
“Inmytreehouse?”
His chin lifts, and his eyes land on a shelf beside me. I turn to look and see some belongings I didn’t notice before. “You see that stuff? It’s mine. What in here is yours?”
I look around, though it’s hard to see much, due to the moon being our only source of light. Regardless, I don’t think I have anything in here at all. Over the years, it slowly got cleared out. “Nothing, I guess. Aside from the whole entire treehouse.”
“Doesn’t count.”
“Yes, it does,” I spit out. “It’s my place, on my property.”
