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“You’re a prick!” she screams before she marches away.
The table remains quiet for a few seconds, the tension Cadence created still radiating.
“Well, she’s always fun,” JJ finally says, making everyone crack up.
Including me.
Arch squeezes my thigh, his gaze warm and just for me. And as I stare into his beautiful blue eyes, I realize that I wish this could’ve happened sooner. That I would’ve been accepted sooner.
My high school life would’ve been so different.
Iwould’ve been different.
THIRTY-SIX
DAISY
I’m leavingmy last class of the day when I see Arch waiting for me in the hallway, pushing away from the wall he was leaning against to approach me, taking my hand the moment he’s close enough.
I smile at him, feeling a little dazzled at this new side of Arch. The attentive, always-wants-to-be-with-you boyfriend side. I didn’t realize he had it in him.
“You busy?” he asks as we leave the building.
“Right now?” I think of all the homework I need to do. Plus, I have to study for a test and come up with the first paragraph of an essay that’s due in English by midnight tonight. “No.”
I shove all that work aside at the thought of being alone with Arch. Every other time we’re left alone with each other, we end up doing…things.
I’m dying to kiss him. Touch him. Feel his arms hold me close.
“Come back with me to my room,” he suggests, steering us toward the sidewalk that leads to the building where he lives. “You’ve never been there before.”
“I know. You never let me in your private sanctuary,” I tease him.
“Yeah, I’m not a big fan of bringing people back there. It’s my private space, you know? I don’t want JJ and the rest of my friends getting it all dirty with their shit.” He shrugs, his focus straight ahead, allowing me to study his profile for a moment.
It’s a beautiful profile. He is so attractive it’s almost painful. The minute we’re alone in his room, I’m going to tackle him. Kiss his firm jaw and his strong neck. That spot just behind his ear that makes him squirm…
I blink myself back into focus and smile. “Are you trying to tell me you’re a neat freak, Arch Lancaster?”
“Busted.” He smiles down at me and I swear my body feels light. As if I’m made of nothing but clouds and fairy dust, and that is the silliest thought I think I’ve ever had, but it’s true.
This is how he makes me feel, being in his presence. When he smiles at me. Like I have no problems and nothing can get me down.
Not when I have Arch with me.
I follow him into the building, noting how empty and isolated it feels in here. It’s not really used by the school anymore except for storage, and it’s where the Lancaster family members live when they’re in attendance. At least he has his sister in this building too. Otherwise, I think it would be way too lonely here.
We stop in front of a closed door and Arch taps at the keypad just above the door handle, the light turning green once he’s put in the code. He leads me inside the cavernous room, the door falling closed behind me with a quiet click and I stop, looking around, taking it all in.
The room is huge. He could probably have our entire senior class in here for a party and we’d all fit. There’s a giant bed against one wall and a desk nearby. There’s a massive dresser and a full-length mirror that stands in the corner of the room. There are two windows, both of them big, one of them overlooking the cottage where I live with my dad.
I turn to Arch, who’s dropping his backpack on top of his desk. “You can spy on me.”
“Yeah.” He unzips the front pocket of his backpack and pulls out a lip balm, uncapping it and slicking it on his lips. “I can.”
“Do you?”
“Not really.” My brows lift and he drops the lip balm on top of his desk, though it falls on its side and rolls right onto the floor. “Fine. I do. Sometimes.”
