“I fucked up.” He held his palms up, taking a step back when I straightened. “And I’m sorry. At the bonfire, she was talking crazy about you and Kinsley and tried to get me on her side by insisting you were still trying to push me out, and I should do something about it.”
“Did you dump her ass?”
He shook his head. “I’d already ended things that night after the fight, right after you asked me to talk to her about Kinsley.”
“And?” I raised a brow, crossing my arms over my bare chest.
“She didn’t say anything, Quinn. She just fucking laughed. Who the hell does that?”
“People like her.” The twisted, conniving weasel that she was.
His nose turned up as though smelling something terrible. “It wouldn’t surprise me if Rachel was in on it, though.”
“Rachel?” I cocked my head to the side, intrigued. “Rachel’s Kinny’s friend.”
“Come on, Quinn, she lives with Phoebe. When Kinsley’s tire got slashed, I saw her laughing like a fucking hyena as they drove home together.”
“You’re sure?” I seethed, clenching my fists around the paper.
“Saw it with my own eyes, man.” He rubbed his neck, looking more than a little disturbed. “It might have been a coincidence, and I don’t want to cause unnecessary shit here, but I think Kinsley needs to be careful who she hangs out with.”
I dropped my head, opening up the scrunched paper. “We’ve got some work to do.”
“Quinn, I have to know. Are we good? This is fucking killing me being on the outside. Josh hasn’t talked to me since the fight either, and the lies Phoebe told me, feel like they’re coming true.”
I faced him and stepped toward him. “How the fuck could you think that, after everything we’ve done, the three of us, what we’ll continue to do, I’d try to get rid of you? If this is about Ginny—”
“No.” He shook his head. “I know why she did what she did, I do, but you and Josh are so tight, I feel like I’m just there when you need me for something.”
I dropped my head and sighed. “You take different classes to us, you have a different schedule, and when we need to get shit done, we all skip. I don’t know why you keep bringing up non-existent shit.”
His insecurities pissed Josh and me off, but no matter what we said, Layton would get it into his head that we were avoiding him on purpose.
“Phoebe’s history,” he said, nodding his head. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I said those things about Kinsley and getting into her pants.” I stiffened at his words, recalling him going over to her at the beach. “If she’d have gone off with me that night, I was only gonna talk about classes, but she said no anyway. I know you like her, man, and I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you like that.”
I don’t like her.
“Apology accepted,” I said firmly.
“Are we good?” he asked again, one brow raised and that same side of his face in a wince-like expression as he waited for me to answer.
I smirked. “Sure,” I said finally. “But I need you to do something, and it’s gonna be fucking epic.”
“Anything, name it.”
***
‘Are you gonna ignore me today?’
The three dots appeared again, and I checked the clock on the wall as I sat in math class with Mr. Cunningham.
‘Depends. Are you gonna be a dick to me?’
‘No.’
‘Still putting on a show, or are we ready to break up?’
My gut churned, and my fingers tapped the desktop in agitation.
“Is everything okay?” Josh whispered. “You look serious.”
“Yeah, just thinking what to say so Kinny doesn’t kick my ass.”
His face twisted in confusion, his head tipping to the side. “Um, okay, I’ll leave you to it.”
“Whatever,” I mumbled, typing out my reply.
‘I won’t keep you much longer. Then you’ll be free of me.’
‘How sweet of you to allow me my freedom.’
She added a rolling eyes emoji at the end, making me crack my stern posture for a second.
‘See you in class, Kinny baby.’
A facepalm emoji followed, and everyone turned to me when I laughed.
“Something more important than your college education, Mr. Dexter?” Mr. Cunningham asked, looking down his pasty nose at me. “Or are you done interrupting my class?”
“Right now, yeah,” I said, grinning at him like I’d lost my mind, and I probably had. “But I’m far from done.” I lowered my voice but made sure he could still hear me. “Unlike your kid.” I turned to Josh, he held out his fist, and I bumped mine to his.
“Layton at play tonight?” he whispered.
“Yeah. Got a new toy box he’s checking out,” I replied, and the pair of us grinned. I was going to enjoy the fireworks when this shit went down, and if I could pull off what I wanted, it was going to be one helluva fucking display.
When we find you, you’re fucked.
Chapter 9
Kinsley
“What’s going on?” I stood by my desk that Quinn now occupied, leaving the seat in the middle empty. “Why are you in my seat?” I looked him over, seeing he had his legs stretched out in my way, the blue jeans tight across his thick thighs.
“My girl needs to be right here,” he said with a smirk. He held out his left arm towards his usual space, showing off muscles that I’d not been able to forget holding me. At that time, they'd been covered by the hoodie that was currently in my possession.
“I don’t like this,” I said, eyeing the pair. “Josh?”
“What?” He shrugged. “I’ve got nothing to do with it.”
“Hmm.” With cautious movements, I slipped into the space, my head going from side to side. “Why do I feel like I’m being set up for something I’m not going to like?”
After my impromptu meltdown and blurting out my reasons for being here, I hadn’t known what to expect. And this… This had definitely thrown me for a loop.
Quinn’s eyes slipped to mine, the hard stare gone, flooring me. Completely gone. “Kinny?” he whispered.
“Yeah?” I continued to watch him, looking at his face, his jawline, his little nose freckles, his lips that were exploring mine just a couple of nights ago…
“You’re staring, baby.”
“I know,” I replied truthfully. “Isn’t that what girlfriends do?” I batted my eyes, trying to act all sweet and innocent. “They stare at their boo, right? And their boo just loves it.” God, I had to stop myself from laughing at his expression, his cocky smirk slipping, replaced with hesitation. “They positively eat it up like the finest candy.” Oh, I made sure to put a little extra oomph into that word.
Quinn opened his mouth but closed it again, the first time I’d seen him unable to immediately clap back with a snarky response.
He leaned to the side, his dark blue pools fixed on me, never faltering. Before I could react, he grabbed my desk and yanked it to him, just like last time, our tables barely an inch apart. “There’s my girl,” he growled, his tone oozing with promises of retribution, his words sending shivers down my spine. “I just can’t keep my distance from you, can I?” He snaked his left arm over the back of my seat, the tips of his fingers drawing circles on my shoulder. While I continued drowning in his gaze, he pulled his arm back, stroked down my ponytail, and lifted it, taking it to his face. His eyes closed while he inhaled deeply as though savoring whatever my hair smelled like. “Mm, I’ll never get enough of that.”