I hoped I heard him wrong. He hadn’t said, Dunn, right? There was no way he could have read that anywhere. I had never written it down. Ever.
“Has a nice ring. I like it.”
“W-what?” I asked.
Before he could answer, Dwayne shouted, “Jordan’s married to me.”
“Naw, you’re my wife,” Jordan replied.
The class broke out in laughter.
Mr. Reeves put his hands up, motioning for everyone to be quiet. “It’s just an assignment. The point of this project is to budget yours and your partner’s wages, as you would in a marriage. I’m talking about house loans, auto loans, bills, groceries. That’s your final project due at the end of the semester. As the weeks go along, we’ll have other projects due.”
I could do this. I could be married to Gavin for a project.
Easy.
“Just so we’re clear, Rogers, I’m the head of household,” Dwayne told Jordan.
“Aw, look at you trying to take care of me,” Jordan replied.
I couldn’t help but burst out laughing with the rest of the class. When I turned back around to face Gavin, he was staring at my mouth.
“You should smile more often, Davis.”
My smile died, but I gave him a slow nod.
The rest of the class, we worked together on researching what career we were going to have. When the bell finally rang, I let myself relax. I got up to turn my desk around. Gavin, impatient to leave, bumped into me, and I froze.
My back was to his front. How easy would it be to lean back and stop holding it together for a few seconds and let someone else carry my burdens? I had no doubt Gavin would gladly shoulder them; that’s the type of guy he was.
“Scarlett,” he croaked.
I shivered.
His hand came around my hip, grazing the bare skin between where my shirt and jeans met. I gasped, and I swore I heard his exhale. His arm wrapped around my desk and finished fixing it in place. I had two choices: move so I could pick up my bag from the floor or bend over while he was behind me. Gavin went for option number three. He leaned into me, his chest to my back, while he grabbed my backpack from the floor.
“Thanks.” My voice was scratchy as I looped my hands through the straps.
“Anytime,” he responded in a smoky tone I had never heard him use before, but I found I liked a little too much.
It was official—I was the worst best friend in the world.
Six
“Fuck.” I slammed my hand against my locker.
I wasn’t thinking straight, evident by the pain radiating from my hand. Coach was going to kill me if it bruised.
Shit, school had barely started, and I had a stiffy all because Scarlett leaned into me. Fuck me, her ass didn’t even make contact with my cock, and I was in pain. Instead of moving out of the way, I was a dumbass and pressed against her back.
The way she smelled made my mouth water. The fragrance was light but sweet. It was the kind of smell that made you want to press your mouth against her neck so that you could inhale it better.
Don’t get me started on her hair. When I was a little boy, her hair reminded me of a lion’s mane, something majestic. When I was twelve, her curly hair reminded me of sunshine. Scarlett used to brighten my day just by showing up to class.
When I turned sixteen and saw her again, her hair brought on a new way to make me happy. She was standing in my dad’s driveway, in short-ass shorts and a tank top. Her hair was all over the place, beads of sweat formed around her head, and all I could think about was Scarlett laid under me, sweaty, her hair sprawled all over my pillow while she looked at me with those jade eyes full of want.
Then she kissed me, and damn, what a fucking kiss it was. It wasn’t anything wet or sloppy. All three times we’d kissed had been innocent. Tame. But for some insane reason, those three kisses were the ones I’d always remember. Not the first kiss from my first girlfriend, not the first kiss I got the night I lost my virginity, not the last kiss I gave my previous girlfriend before I moved in with Dad. And to finish off sounding like a jerk, not the first kiss I gave Gigi. None of them compared to the times my lips had been on Scarlett’s.
Now that I was older, I wanted to kiss her all over her body to see if she was sweet in other places.
That would never happen. I gave her the option three times, and all three times she’d turned me down. I got the message; there was no way I was pining for a girl who wanted nothing to do with me. But fuck, sometimes she would give me this look full of want, and it made me wonder.
“Hey, man, you going to the lake after school?” Jordan asked as he came by my locker.
The lake was behind Dwayne’s property. His parents were one of eight people who had a private lake behind their houses. The rest of his neighbors were older or with kids young enough that they didn’t mind when we hung out since we only used the jet skis during the day.
“Yeah, I’ll swing by.”
“Damn, Scarlett looks fine. Do you think she’s done being a psycho? Hell, I’ll put up with her crazy ass if she’ll let me hit—”
I slammed my locker shut and pulled Jordan by the collar of his shirt.
“I don’t care what the fuck you do, but leave Scarlett alone. She’s been through enough.”
“Am I interrupting something? Leave Jordy alone. You know he didn’t mean it when he touched my ass.” Gigi slithered her way between us, pushing Jordan back and kissing me on my jaw, then my lips.
Nothing.
I felt nothing when my girlfriend kissed me, but to hear Jordan talk about fucking Scarlett, that made me lose it.
“Fuck, Gigi, I said it was an accident. He already wants to kick my ass for calling your girl a psycho.”
“Is that true?” Gigi put her arm around my waist, pulling me closer to her.
“I know you don’t want her to be messed around.” I said what she wanted to hear.
Gigi beamed up at me. “You’re the best boyfriend ever, and I love you for it…but Scar needs to learn to stand up for herself. We have to stop babying her.”
I didn’t agree with her, but what could I say? Instead, I started to walk Gigi to our next class since we had it together.
“Besides, I think it’s cool if she hooked up with Jordy,” Gigi said.
I missed a step even though the floor was flat when she said those words.
“That’s cool.” I dreaded those words.
Truth was, I’d always thought of Scarlett as mine. She’d never dated anyone else. Sure, I knew she used to make out with guys at parties, but never anything more. And a part of me was glad, because it meant she didn’t care about anyone like that.
And when she was at her lowest, she came to me. It was me who made her feel better. It was me who made her world all right, even if it was only for three seconds.
What the fuck was I going to do when she found someone who was real?
Seven
When my cell phone started ringing, I stared at it, contemplating ways to get out of tonight’s party. It was always the same thing, always the same people, because God forbid they invited someone who wasn’t part of our crowd. I was so tired of it. Sure, the talking had died down, but it wasn’t like I didn’t know they were all just waiting for me to snap.