“Shut up, Hollis.” He took the jacket from me and then grabbed one of my arms and shoved it through the arm hole. “Think I give a damn about the stupid jacket getting beer on it? You’re shivering.”
Tears spilled from my eyes. I wanted to snag Tori and run away from here, with my tail tucked between my legs. I would settle for melting into the giant pine tree at my back, but Adam had a firm grip on my elbows.
“Hollis,” he said, softer this time and clucked my chin up so he could look at me. I opened my eyes a moment and saw his concern. His eyes were twin black hole abysses, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. He was so beautiful. Poetic, in the way he looked at me.
His hands slid to cup my jaw and he stepped closer. I couldn’t even focus on him, not when I was so worried about how I must have looked. His breath washed over my face, but not in an unpleasant way. He was close enough to kiss me. And that sent my heart into a gallop. “Are you okay?”
We stared at each other one long moment. It could have been romantic, the way he held me, blocking much of the floodlight with his body. This was the moment, the time for something to happen. A little lean in and he could kiss me.
A droplet of ice cold beer slid down my spine and I arched in reaction. This wasn’t a moment from one of my books, nor was it a moment from any of the fairy tales I heavily consumed as a child. Adam hated me. I was soaked in beer and too embarrassed to ever admit that the note he received was written by me. The moment was ruined. And I was grieving as much for that as I was the fact that so many of our classmates had witnessed arguably my most embarrassing moment ever. And I had done nothing.