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Holding an umbrella over our heads, Blaise walked me to the front door and handed me my backpack.
As soon as we stepped onto the doormat, Mateo flung the front door open and grinned. “Hey, Blaise.”
“What’s up, kid?” Blaise said.
Mateo awkwardly rubbed his shoulder. “I wanted to thank you for earlier at school.”
Blaise tensed and nodded. “It’s cool.”
I glanced up at Blaise, heart racing. “What happened?” I asked, even though Piper and Maddie had told me what they thought had happened. But I wanted to see what Blaise would say because I expected him to boast and brag about helping out my brother, in order to get closer to me.
“Nothing,” Blaise said, shrugging and staying quieter than usual. “Just some kids.”
Mateo looked between us. “Well, I gotta finish my homework. I’ll leave you guys alone.”
But that kid usually had his homework done as soon as he got home, so he could play video games all night and not worry about stopping because Mom andIwere on his ass about getting his work done.
When Mateo left, I turned toward Blaise. “Someone was bullying my brother today, and you stopped it, didn’t you?”
Blaise shifted uncomfortably. “It’s nothing, Vera.”
“Stop calling me that,” I snapped.
Blaise widened his eyes. “What do you want me to call you?”
I threw my hands up into the air. “I don’t know, but not that.”
“Not your name?”
God, he was getting on my nerves.
“Can you be normal for once?! Where has the unapologetic, arrogant-as-fuck, dirty-talking Blaise gone?” I asked, staring up at him, unsure of anything that I wanted anymore.
He had been on me all day, apologizing, and now … this?This?!
“What do you want me to say to you?” he asked, his voice almost desperate.
Truthfully, I didn’t know what I wanted anymore. Did I want him or not? Did I like him or not? Was it attention from a boy that was making me all excited, or was ithisattention that really drew me to him?
Suddenly, Mom appeared behind him, holding her hand over her head to stop the rain, though that did nothing. She was already soaked from head to toe, her black hair clinging to her face and neck. “Vera, who’s this?”
Blaise stepped aside, moving the umbrella over her as well. I looked at him as he looked at me, his dark brown eyes softer than usual. I didn’t know what he wanted to say to me, but his voice sounded so fragile again.
“Nobody,” Blaise said, stepping back when Mom walked into the house to get out of the rain. His word cut like a knife in my broken heart. He looked over at me and moved back another step toward his car. “Not even a friend.”
ChapterTwenty-Six
VERA
Blaise slipped into his sports car and turned on the car. A wall of rain might’ve separated us, but I could fucking feel how hurt he was by those last few words he had said to me. I gripped the door, wanting nothing more than to run over to him.
“Vera,” Mom called behind me.
I stood at the door and frowned as Blaise pulled away from the curb and sped down the roads in the Redwood slums. He had come all the way down here not because he wanted to, not because he had to, but because ofme.
“Who was that?” Mom asked, glancing over my shoulder. “He looked familiar.”
“Who?” Mateo asked, walking out of his bedroom and grabbing some food that Mom had brought back for us from the diner that she’d worked a double at yet again tonight. He stole a handful of fries and stuck one in his mouth.
