“Just drive,” I clipped out, my eyes wide as they darted around looking for any sign that I’d been caught.
“Don’t look so worried,” he said smoothly. “No one will even know you’re gone.”
I threw him an ‘are you for real’ look and he chuckled darkly.
“It’s easy for you to say,” I said. “You’re allowed to do whatever you want and no one bats an eye.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”
His eyes swept over me, making me shudder and my tummy clench. But I tried to ignore his suggestive tone, the flare in his eyes.
Too late, you already gave him all the power agreeing to cut class.
“If you want to go back, I can—”
“Just drive,” I repeated.
“As you wish.” Jason smirked as he pulled off and headed out of the school gates. “You know, it might help if you breathe.”
I shot him daggers and he chuckled again.
A few seconds of silence passed and then he said, “I was sorry, about Sunday morning.”
“No you weren’t,” I replied, resigned more than angry. Jason was Jason. He hadn’t promised me anything, and I hadn’t asked for anything. So the fact I was in the car with him when I should have been sitting in third period English wasn’t lost on me. But I couldn’t seem to make rational decisions when it came to Rixon’s bad boy star quarterback.
Maybe I was more like Jenna Jarvis and the gymnastics team and cheerleaders than I realized. But they didn’t have a list. They didn’t want to live every second of senior year as though it was their last.
I did.
At least, that was my excuse for my behavior of late.
“You’re not what I expected, Giles,” he murmured, his words making me sit a little straighter.
“Am I supposed to know what that means?”
I was me. Nothing more, nothing less. Until recently, Jason had made no effort to hide the fact he found me annoying. But now he looked at me differently, talked to me in a way I never expected.
It was all very confusing.
Any normal girl might have believed it meant she was special or that she was capturing the heart of the guy she liked. I knew better. I knew you didn’t capture a guy like Jason, you were granted an audience; allowed to breathe, to talk, to be in his presence.
And for some reason, right now in this moment, he had chosen me. Given me the royal nod. I smothered a nervous laugh.
“What?” he asked as my eyes drilled holes into the side of his head.
“Nothing.”
“I can hear you thinking from all the way over here, spit it out.” The corner of his mouth lifted.
“I’m just wondering what it’s like to be you. Loved by an entire town, worshipped by most of your classmates. Guys want to be you, girls want to...” The word lodged in my throat.
“You can say it, Giles, I won’t tell.”
“Fine, girls want to fuck you even though they know that’s all they will ever get from you.”
That made him shift uncomfortably in his seat.
Good.
Asshole.
“Maybe I’m worth the ride,” he threw back, and I snorted.
“No one is that good in bed.”
“Is that a challenge?” He glanced over at me, daring me with his dark intense gaze.
“Shouldn’t you be watching the road?”
“I don’t know, the view from here is pretty incredible.” He winked before turning his attention back to the road.
I silently screamed at my emotions to batten down the hatches because whether he knew it or not—planned it or not—Jason was knocking down my defenses one by one.
He’s Jason Ford. Jason freaking Ford. He doesn’t date.
He doesn’t do commitment.
He doesn’t fall in love.
Internal pep talk over, I smoothed down my skirt and said, “So where exactly are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“I bet that’s what you say to all the girls.” I winced at how desperate the words sounded. But I had a serious case of foot-in-mouth syndrome on a good day, let alone when Jason was around to flummox me with his smooth lines and easy charm.
I waited for his reply, but it never came. Instead, he pressed his lips together as if to keep his reply from escaping.
Weird.
Silence followed. Thick and heavy; the kind that didn’t feel uncomfortable but wasn’t entirely comfortable either. I forced myself to look out of the window, to watch the town roll by, giving myself space to breathe and prepare for whatever Jason had up his sleeve.
Eventually, we began to slow, but only because Jason had turned off the main road onto an overgrown track that meandered through the trees.
“The lake?” I asked, a thrill shooting through me. He’d brought me here before, but we’d parked in the sandy lot at the entrance. Jason showed no signs of stopping this time.
“Don’t worry,” he said, “we’re not going swimming. Not today, anyway.”
The car jerked and bounced over the uneven terrain. I hadn’t been out here in years, since me and Hailee had stopped swimming at the lake a few summers ago.
“What?” Jason’s gravelly voice washed over me.
“We used to love it out here.”
“So why’d you stop coming?”
“You’re kidding me, right? The summer after you stole Hailee’s clothes and bike and she had to walk home half-naked in the blistering heat... sound familiar?”
His lips pursed.
“You were a total jerk to her.”
The car came to an abrupt stop near the water’s edge. “Yeah, well things change.”
“Do they?” I asked, desperate to know what he was thinking, to get inside his head and uncover his deepest darkest secrets.
When he didn’t answer, I whispered, “What are we doing, Jason?”
“I thought it was pretty obvious.” His lip curved smugly.
“Jason…”
“What do you want from me, Giles?”
“I want to know you. Not the Jason Ford everyone else gets to see, the real you.”
“The real me, huh?” he scoffed. “I don’t think anyone wants to know the real me. All they want is the football star, the jock, the guy who can propel them to social greatness. People want the illusion, not the real thing.”
“I do.” The words came out small.
“And what if you don’t like what you find?” His expression softened, not much, but it was there. “What if underneath the number one jersey there’s nothing but darkness?”
“I don’t believe that. You care, Jason, I know you do. About Hailee, about your friends…” About me. The words lodged in my throat. “You’re not just the conceited asshole you let everyone believe you are.”
“Let’s get one thing straight,” he said, his eyes pinning me to the spot. “I am. I’m not the reformed bad boy and I’m not looking to be changed by...” He swallowed the words and I felt myself flush with indignation.
“You think I want to change you?”
“All girls do.”
“Let’s get one thing clear, Jason,” I shot back, my voice low and sultry, “I’m not all girls.”