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"Are you going with her?" she huffed.
I halted, and she slammed into my back. Spinning around, I shoved her into the locker with one hand. "Why are you acting like a clingy girlfriend right now, Alexi?" My tone was laced with rage. This was not how we worked; apparently, she needed to be reminded. She shrugged, not making eye contact. I leaned in, putting my face directly in front of hers. "You don't get to ask me questions about who I'm bringing anywhere."
She nodded and, without another word, disappeared around the hall.
Chapter 10
Harper
The heat from the fire burned my skin as my gaze locked on Christian through the orange and red flames. My lip curled into a snarl.
"You two gonna eye fuck each other all night?" Ryder asked, pulling me out of my daze of plotting Christian's murder. Christian forced me to come to a Valley party but hadn't said a single word to me the entire night. I'd stood by myself across the bonfire from him, devising ways to unalive him.
My gaze blinked up to meet his curious dark eyes. "Huh?" I asked, my brows pinched together as I stepped back out of the heat of the fire. I wasn't sure what he was talking about.
"You," he said, flicking his pointed finger and gesturing between Christian and me. "And Chandler." I most certainly was not eye fucking him. I was still furious. "You guys a thing now?"
"Not you too," I scowled, snatching the half-empty liquor bottle from him.
"He hasn't taken his eyes off you all night." He shoved a hand into the pocket of his dark denim jeans.
"He's plotting how he can ruin my life." I shrugged, flicking a glance back at Christian before returning my attention to Ryder. Ryder was from the Northside of the tracks but not the Valley. He hated the Valley Boys because he didn't fit into their model of what a man should be, and they tormented him for it. Ryder didn't play sports growing up. He was in the band until high school, when he let them ruin it for him with their constant bullying because they thought he was a band geek. Ryder was tall and unusually thin, with dark hair and eyes. Growing up, he'd had long hair, but recently, after years of bullying, he'd cut it. He had a baby face, and even though he was eighteen, he didn't shave yet. For some reason, all that made him an easy target for the Valley Boys.
As far as I knew, it wasn't necessarily Christian who tormented him, but that didn't matter to Ryder. Christian was guilty by association.
"Anyway, where have you been?"
"Suspended," he answered.
"Again?" He nodded, and I took a drink. Wincing at the harsh burn of the liquor. "What for this time?"
"Ditching." I narrowed my eyes. "What?" He threw his shoulders up. "Mrs. Morgan has a hard-on for me." Ryder was always in trouble. No one had it out for him. He was a natural troublemaker.
Ryder, Chloe, and I were the three amigos. We had all been best friends since grade school. They were the outcasts of the Northside, and I was the outcast of the Southside.
"So, really, rumor is, you and Christian are fucking," he said, taking the bottle back from me. "I didn't think he was your type."
I glanced in Christian's direction. Slouching in an old lawn chair, he was surrounded by girls throwing themselves at him. Two were already topless, bouncing their naked breasts in his face, but he wasn't watching them. His eyes darted back and forth between Ryder and me. I wasn't sure what my type was, but I was sure it wasn't him. I didn't have time to think about relationships and love, I was too busy surviving, but hopefully, that would come someday.But not with Christian.
"It's a long story." I sighed, rolling my eyes, grabbing the bottle again, and taking another long drink. "And no, we are not fucking."
"Your hair is down," he said, reaching up and brushing a strand out of my face. "I haven't seen it down in..." He paused, staring at the strand of hair deep in thought before his gaze returned to meet mine. "Forever."
"Yeah, I lost a bet," I lied, brushing the subject off.
"It's pret—" he started.
"Fuck. Off," Christian growled, storming towards me like a linebacker. Reaching down, he tossed me over his shoulder and stomped towards the grove.
"Put me down," I yelled, but wasting my energy fighting him was pointless. He carried me off the dirt road, past the grove, and down by the small lake before setting me down and pressing me roughly against the wall of the old boathouse.
"I didn't bring you out here to flirt with other guys. You belong to me for the next month. Which means—" He roughly raked his hands down my back and grabbed my ass, thrusting me against his solid chest. "This. Is mine." One hand still on my ass, the other sliding up through my hair and into my scalp, latching onto my hair, he yanked my head back, coming nose to nose with me. "These are mine," he breathed against my mouth before brushing his lips against mine. The sweet smell of liquor lingered on his breath. "Every inch of you. Is mine."
I sucked in a breath, squeezing my thighs together.
I couldn't deny he made me feel things, but I would never give him the satisfaction of letting him know. I was also still furious about his stunt earlier at school.
"You wanna fuck me?" I whispered, sliding my hand under his shirt and slowly running my fingertips along his waistband. Liquid courage coursed through my veins, pushing me to test the limits.
