“You heard us?” Mom asked.
“Yeah.”
“He is just concerned. You don’t have to hide anything from him, Liv,” she whispered.
“I don’t trust that he won’t flip out and confront her again.” I told my mom everything, but I wouldn’t tell her what Molly had said today. It would hurt Mom as much as it had hurt me. And except for the Molly shit, Shane was the only other person who knew me as well as Mom did. “Who knows what she’d lie about next time. It could be more than just a kiss. She could claim he forced himself on her.”
“I know, sweetie.” Mom nodded. “Then tell him enough that he’ll stop worrying about you.”
“Liv… bring me a Snapple, please,” Shane called out from my room.
My mother moved to grab a bottle for him, placed it in my hand, and said, “Go.”
With his and my drink in hand, I did as she asked and found Shane lounging on my bed. I almost laughed at the difference in him when my dad wasn’t around. Mom was always cooler than Dad at giving us privacy.
So much so he smirked when I kicked the door shut. “I know how to relax you.”
I shook my head. “It’s not happening.” I put our drinks down on the end table as disappointment caused that smirk to fall off his face.
“Don’t you want to be adventurous?”
“Not even a little bit.”
“Now I have to deal with you cockblocking me too?” The pout and his question caused me to laugh, and I loved him more for the brief distraction. Jumping on the shift in my mood, he reached for me until I fell over him. “There’s my girl. I haven’t seen that smile since yesterday after I ate your pussy.” He untucked my white polo from the waistband of my khakis and slipped his hands under it. “How about a finger fuck?”
“Shane.” I shoved at his chest.
“What? I’m just trying to help.” We lay entwined for a few minutes before he cut right to the chase. “Tell me what happened today?” The way he twisted an errant curl around his finger reminded me of the hurtful things I’d heard about my appearance… and that led to the hateful thing Molly had said in chemistry.
My emotions got the best of me, and like an idiot I asked, “What do you see in me?”
He released the strand and scowled. “What the fuck are you talking about, Liv? No…” He shook his head in disgust, and amended, “Where is that coming from? As if I didn’t know.”
“I’m just curious. I know we’ve been in each other’s lives forever, and us falling in love was inevitable, but if you had met me yesterday, would I interest you?”
His anger only deepened as he cupped my cheek. “Yes, you would interest me. Look at you. Everything about you is gorgeous.” He searched my face, waiting for a response. What he received instead was a shimmer in my eyes from emotions that had nowhere to go but out. “And besides your beauty, you are the best person I know. Even my own mother, who is a saint on earth, comes second to you in my heart. So, yes… if I had met you yesterday, I have no doubt you would’ve caught my attention.”
I felt like a fool voicing one of my biggest insecurities out loud. And with our history, it was hard to believe him. Still, I remained silent, drowning in the insecurities that constantly simmered beneath my surface.
“I love you, Liv,” Shane went on to say. “Nothing will ever change that.”
I responded with the only thing I could say. “I love you too.”
Chapter Five
Shane
Alivia had been off for days. She blamed her period and stress on studying and the rainy weather. I finally got her to give me a quick rundown of more of the same—snide comments said loud enough for Alivia to hear. I knew there still had to be more that I didn’t know. For my girl to be so stoic about it meant it went beyond petty name-calling.
I wasn’t buying it.
Normally, Alivia was confident and headstrong. She had never asked me outright what I saw in her, as she’d done last night. That question indirectly filled in some of the blanks of what had been bothering her. Something had prompted that… or someone.
The entire situation infuriated me. Fuck Molly for making my girl insecure in any way. Alivia didn’t have a conceited bone in her body. More times than not, she had no clue how stunning she was, how everyone near her paled in comparison… and that made her even more beautiful.
Once home, I called Kim. After swearing me to secrecy, she reluctantly told me what Molly had said to Alivia in chemistry yesterday, and I saw red. Kim felt it was a guess, and I did as well. There was no way Molly would definitely know what had happened between Alivia and me. Still, I had had it with her bullshit.
But Alivia was right: confronting Molly would only fuel her to continue being a bitch. And after our last encounter, who knew what lie she would tell to hurt Alivia more. There was only one way to deal with someone as nasty as Molly.
Beat her at her own game… and I had a plan.
Determined, I squeezed Alivia’s hand in mine as I led her toward the chemistry lab’s doorway. Once the audience that I wanted had her eyes on us, I met that bitch’s stare just before I cupped Alivia’s face with my free hand and kissed her long and hard. Predictably, she tried to pull away, not comfortable with the public display, but I only held her tighter. Fuck that.
“Shane,” she whispered against my persistent lips. “Not here.”
“Yes, here,” I countered. I was sick of this shit.
“Okay, class… take your seats.” Hard-ass Hardy sauntered into the room, and his eyes landed on me. “Mr. Lair, do you belong in this class?”
I released her face and shook my head. “No, sir.”
“Then stop distracting my students.”
“Yes, sir.” He turned his back to begin writing on the whiteboard, prompting me to lean closer to Alivia. “I’ll be here before the bell rings.”
“This is stupid. I don’t need you as my bodyguard,” she whispered back.
“Too fucking bad.” After another shameless kiss that prompted snickering behind us and Hardy to twist and glare at me, I raised my palms, saying, “I’m gone,” and turned to leave.
Normally, I spent my lunch hour in the music lab, playing bass. But today there was someone I needed to see.
The halls were empty as I stormed through them, until a surge of chatter breached the silence when I opened the cafeteria door. Many sets of eyes focused on me while I stood searching for the person I’d come looking for. I found Jett Baxter in the far corner, surrounded by his loyal followers. Who the hell named their kid Jett? An airline pilot, that was who.
The closer I came, the more I heard of their ridiculous conversation about the play that won a playoff game. Thing was, that game happened six months ago.
I’d gotten along fine with Windsor-Horne’s star football player. I think having Alivia in my life had created the noncompetitive relationship we’d had over the years. I was off limits to all the girls in our class, and that had them all chasing him instead of the rock star spawn. Except for one.
Molly had no interest in me; she only pretended she did to get to Alivia. It was Jett she really wanted. I knew that because Jett had no problem bragging in the locker room of the times he had hooked up with Molly, but it never went beyond that, because he claimed she was too clingy.