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“Evan.” I leaned up on my tiptoes, sealing my lips to his. “Everything is fine.”
If I kept telling myself that, telling him that, maybe one of us would believe it.
* * *
“Come on, babe. It’s bullshit. You know I didn’t do it.” Jay’s voice cracked, the pain evident in his tight jaw.
Lilly’s body heaved with the force of her tears. “The note says…”
“I don’t care what the fucking note says. I didn’t touch anyone else. It’s lies, all of it. I love you, Lil, only you.” He reached for her, but she reared back, a fresh wave of tears spilling. The whole hallway watched the scene play out, whispering and pointing.
“Shit, shit.” Scarlett came up beside me, and then she was gone, moving toward them. She wrapped a protective arm around Lilly, shooting Jay daggers.
“Back off, Scarlett. This is between me and Lilly.”
“Walk away, Jay. She doesn’t need the entire school hearing this bullshit. Go, cool off.”
They stared each other down as Lilly cradled into Scarlett’s arm. Malachi and Vin appeared and managed to drag Jay away. The look of defeat and desperation on his face winded me. Sucked the air clean from my lungs.
“Beautiful, don’t you think?” a voice whispered over my shoulder. I didn’t acknowledge Kendall. It wouldn’t do me any good.
But I couldn’t help it when the word, “Why?” tumbled from my lips.
“Why not?” she said. “They walk around here like they’re untouchable. Scarlett Peters and her merry band of fucking freaks.” Venom dripped from her words. This was personal for her, and she was using me because it made it all the sweeter. “Two down, two to go.”
I didn’t ask what she meant.
I didn’t want to know.
* * *
“God, I love your neck.” Evan peppered kisses along my collarbone, threading his fingers into my hair, and my body arched into him.
We were on his bed, making the most of the hour before Ellen returned from the store.I moaned softly when his teeth grazed my ear. Evan rolled on top of me, nestling between my legs, pushing his jeans-clad erection into the apex of my thighs. “What do you want, Becca?”
It was such a loaded question. Only he didn’t know that. He didn’t know that I wanted to go back in time and change things. To erase Kane Larson from my life. To make different decisions. But a small part of me, the part of me here at this moment with Evan, knew that if it wasn’t for Kane, I would never have ended up in Credence. I would never have met Evan or Eli or Cindy or Scarlett.
I wouldn’t be here tangled on the bed with Evan.
“Evan, I…”
The sudden urge to tell him came over me—to share my deepest, darkest secrets. But if he knew, would he comfort me and tell me everything would be okay? Or would he leave me cold and alone? Disgusted by the girl underneath the mask?
I’d almost killed someone.
Until Dad had arrived, I’d thought for sure Kane Larson was dead, lying unmoving and twisted at all angles, blood seeping from his head.Blood.There’d been so much blood.
“Becca?” Evan nudged my cheek with his nose, coaxing me back to him. “What is it?”
Leaning up, I kissed him, quieting the noise and the memories I wanted nothing more than to erase. He held back at first, resisting my advance.
I looped my arm around his neck, splaying my fingers against his shoulder.“Kiss me. You have to kiss me,” I murmured. Begged. Kane Larson was like a stain on my soul that only Evan’s touch could erase.
“Talk to me.” His lips found my skin again, and I knew what he was doing. He was trying to coerce me into talking. I clamped my legs around his hips, arching into him, trying to ease the throb I felt.
“We can’t keep doing this,” he whisper-moaned.
He was right. We couldn’t. But when we stopped, so would this thing between us. I pressed my head back into the pillow, staring up at him. “You have your secrets, and I have mine, remember?” I threw his words back at him.
