AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Connor sat back against the wall in a swift movement, shattering the moment into thousands of pieces as he placed his hands on his knees. I reeled from the touches—and then the sharp lack thereof—as my brain struggled to process what happened.
“When you do that, he’ll chase after you,” Connor told me, blinking innocently at me. “The key is to makehimwant it, you know?”
I swallowed a gasp of air, both of my lungs aching from the ten seconds I’d been holding my breath. My skin tingled and hummed from the touch across my cheek, emotions hitting me in a whiplash of movement. Shock came first, surprised that such a small touch could trigger a physical response like that. Guilt, hot on its heels, because ithadtriggered a physical response.
Before I had a chance to even wrap my head around that, the door to the closet rattled as something heavy—a fist or a body—slammed into it. “Anyone in here?”
I jerked away from Connor—when had we gotten so close?—the scooter skipping across the floor, sending the wheel careening over my fingers that had been splayed against the ground. Red-hot pain lanced across my knuckles, sharp enough to spot my vision with sparks, painful enough that I let out a yelp before pressing my other hand against my mouth.
I hadn’t stifled it in time, though. “Whoa, uh—sorry,” the voice came again. “Didn’t mean to interrupt the festivities. Number?”
My pain-riddled brain took longer than necessary to realize that the mystery boy asked a question, one that I had no idea what the answer was supposed to be. I cradled my fingers to my chest and looked up at Connor, who rubbed a hand across his eyes.
“Number?” the voice came again, and the doorknob clattered as someone tried to open it. “Don’t make me get the keys from coach. No one will be having a good time then.”
Connor let out a heavy sigh. “Twenty-two.”
The doorknob stopped rattling. “Bray?” The disbelief was a thick sound, and I could almost imagine the dropped jaw and widened eyes that must’ve accompanied the tone. “Oh, uh…okay. Aye-aye, man. Hey, Jade.”
I locked eyes with Connor, absolutely frozen. Of course the guy would think I was Jade—who else would Connor, Jade’sboyfriend, be in a makeout closet with?
“Sorry to interrupt,” the voice called, and the person wrapped his knuckles against the door once more. “Walking away now.”
I winced, curling my fingers ever so slightly. My middle knuckles had a nice track mark through them, the dirt from the wheels of the scooter dusting across the inflamed skin.
A dull thud sounded in the small space, and I found Connor with his head leaning against the wall, his forearms on his propped knees. He had his eyes shut. “How are your fingers?”
“Not broken.” I gave them an aching wiggle. “What was it that you told that guy? Twenty-two?”
“It’s my jersey number.” He raised his eyebrows once, even with his eyes closed. “It’s kind of like a password. Or, in my case, like the nail to my coffin, because Jade’s going to kill me once she finds out I was in here with someone else.”
My pulse skipped a beat. “Why would she know?”
“Jade’s cheer practice moved to the gym since it’s raining, which means she can’t be in here with me right now. Once Kyle—the guy who knocked—figures that out, she’ll be the first he’ll go to.” Something about his words triggered him into motion, and he began collecting his things. “We should pack it up now, just in case.”
My brain filled in the unspoken meaning. BeforeJadecomes to investigate. Panicking, I gathered my things and carried the scooter back to the shelf. Yeah, her showing up when we were literally trapped in a closet sounded like the opposite of a fun time. I tried to imagine what would happen if the cheerleader came knocking. In every scenario, I’d be dead meat.
“Maybe if she asks, you can say you were in here by yourself.”
Connor didn’t answer. Gone was the gentleness to the hazel gaze, replaced with a hardness that I’d come to recognize as a trigger of negativity. I wanted to say something to alleviate the tension, something to take away a bit of his stress, but not a single line came to me. For the first time, my mind was blank.
Connor tucked his book underneath his arm and went to the door. “Wait!” I caught at his arm. “Where are we meeting next? We need to go over—”
“I’ll work through it at home and text you if I have any questions.” He withdrew his hand, expression as hard as stone. “Wait five minutes and then go.”
“But what if someone sees me?” I asked, but I’d finished my question too late. Connor already unsealed the door and disappeared through the small opening, leaving me in the skeevy closet all alone.
“We need to paint the walls in Room C and organize the brochure table right when guests walk in,” Mom was telling Dad that night at dinner. They were breaking one of their biggest rules: no work at the dinner table. Mom had her tablet open in front of her, tapping her stylus against her chin with one hand while trying to stab pasta with her fork in the other hand. “The entryway needs to be as organized as possible. Did Regina check to see if we have enough business cards?”
“She had to order more for the gallery, but Talia dropped off some for the school’s fundraiser department earlier today.”
Talia. Principal Oliphant.
Mom checked something off her list and studied it for another moment. “You’re going to be busy these next few days. You have all the supplies you need?”
When Jozie was still present for family dinners, instances like this were rare. With her, someone who spoke a mile-a-minute and hated silence of any sort, there was never enough time to be distracted by something else. And even if work overwhelmed our parents on rare occasions, I was never left sitting in silence on my own, like a fly on the wall.
“I’ll be painting tomorrow and then building the sets for Exhibit A hopefully the day after. I have the blueprints in the maintenance office to show you tomorrow, and we’ll get that finalized.”
