Archer’s blonde hair was a little ruffled, messed up as if he’d just rolled out of bed. He wore a blazer over his shirt, nice dark jeans that hugged his assets perfectly. And, yes, that boy had everything reason to look so drop-dead gorgeous with what he was packing under there. The muscles, the dick—I mean, really, you’d have to be blind to not be able to appreciate him.
I said nothing as he sat beside me and set his books down on his desk. It took him almost a full minute to meet my eyes, which seemed a little weird, and when he did, the expression he wore was not the usual friendly face he’d always given me. No dimples, no smile.
What the hell…
Oh, wait a minute. I knew what this was about. This was because we’d hooked up, and he was probably worried I’d be clingy or something. Hah. Right. As if I wanted him to be my boyfriend or something.
The thought instantly riled me up, and I turned my head to the side, staring hard at the ground. Of course hooking up with him was stupid. What the hell was I thinking? Hint: I wasn’t. Normally I was very logical when it came to that sort of thing, but something inside of me just snapped when I was over his house.
If I could, I’d take it all back.
Eh, not really. It was a fun time.
I let Archer stick to his silence all period, and after the bell rang and everybody got up to go to their second class of the day, I followed Archer out of the room. Once we were in the hall, I tugged on his sleeve, stopping him. We stood off to the side in the hall, out of the crowd hustling to get to their next class.
This talk couldn’t last forever, otherwise we’d both be late—and Mom would kill me if she heard I’d been tardy already—so I had to keep it succinct.
“Hey,” I said once his blue eyes met mine. A color so crisp and clear even the waters in the Caribbean were jealous of their hue. His head was bent towards me, his mouth a thin line. His six-foot frame was hunched; he hardly looked like himself, and I hated it. “Are you okay?”
Maybe I was overreacting. Maybe this wasn’t about me.
“I’m fine,” he said, though he said nothing else to elaborate.
Okay, maybe this was about me.
“If this is about what happened last week,” I started, “just forget about it.” Maybe it’d be easier if we both forgot about it. Hooking up so soon had been downright stupid. I honestly didn’t know what I’d been thinking.
“I can’t,” Archer finally spoke, sighing as he ran a hand through his blonde hair. “That’s the problem.”
I blinked, not sure where he was going with that. “Why is that a problem?”
“It just is, okay? Just…give me space.” Archer said nothing else as he turned and disappeared in the hall, blending in with the other students, leaving me alone to wonder just what the hell he’d meant.
Why was it a problem? Did he plan on spending the last half of his senior year solo? I didn’t get it.
Ugh. Boys. Stupid no matter where you went or how much money they had.
Truth be told, I was still fuming about that little encounter by the time lunch arrived. I sat at the table with a huff and unrolled my bagged lunch. Crackers and cheese, nothing too special. Didn’t even know why I needed a damn bag. Stupid.
No, wait. That wasn’t stupid; Archer was stupid. Yeah.
Vaughn was already sitting by the time I did, and he watched me with his dark, penetrating stare for a while—at least until I met his eyes, for then he said, “Something bothering you, Jaz?” He cocked his head, eyes somewhat narrowed.
He sure had the intense stare down pat, didn’t he?
For whatever reason, I didn’t want to tell him about my little hookup with Archer. Even though Vaughn and I weren’t…well, anything, I just couldn’t. Maybe because, even though his family business was obviously shady as shit, I kind of liked him. Thought he was cute. Whatever.
Vaughn did look ridiculously sexy in that suit. His slender frame, even the tattoos. He’d been a smoldering hottie Saturday, and I’d be lying if I said certain thoughts didn’t run through my head when he and I were alone in that office. Even though I was a little freaked out about the urn and the ashes—because I still never found an obit for Ollie’s previous wife, which didn’t sit well with me—it was impossible not to wonder what it’d feel like for him to pin me against the wall and…
Do other stuff. Ahem.
“Yeah,” I said, deciding to turn it around on him. While the lunchroom around us was a cacophony of sound, our table was silent for a few minutes until I asked, “What business does your family have with Ollie?”
Vaughn set his arms on the table, and for a split-second, my eyes fell to the words written on his knuckles. Hate and pain. What kind of rich family would want their kid tatted up like that? Then again, maybe his family didn’t like the tattoos either. Maybe he’d turned eighteen and decided to get them for himself regardless; it was as plausible as anything else.
“Why are you so curious about everything?” he questioned.
“I told you, I just want to make sure my mom and I are safe.”
“And I told you no one is safe.”
True. He did. And just like then, it was very ominous to hear now. Felt like the beginning of a horror movie, when the dirty man at the gas station in the middle of nowhere warned the main characters not to go where they were going.
Unlike those characters in the movies, though, I had to ask, “Why?” Why was no one safe in Midpark? Why did it feel like Vaughn knew what he was talking about? Why, why, why?
“You heard what happened years ago, but things around here have been steady,” Vaughn explained. Today he didn’t bother getting any food; I never understood why he wasted the food, because he never ate it. “It comes and goes. I’m no psychic, but I bet the worst is planning on coming around again.”
Right. Very mysterious, very cryptic, very aggravating and pointless.
“So you’re saying you think my mom and I should leave?” I decided to ask what I’d already thought about. Finding a place to live would be the hardest thing, but we’d make do. We’d figure it out. We always did.
“I didn’t say that.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I’m saying bad things happen, and money tends to cover it up. If you’re not careful, you might find out something you don’t want to know.”
“Like what you and your brother were doing over Ollie’s house on Saturday?” I offered, hoping to trip him up.
A slow smirk crawled across Vaughn’s mouth, and I watched it form. I wasn’t really a fan of the tattooed bad boys, but for Vaughn, I could definitely make an exception. He wasn’t someone I’d bring home to meet my mom, but I was sure he’d be good for other things.
Wow. All right. Clearly, I had sex on the brain—which was stupid, considering what happened last week with Archer.
“I’d be very careful asking questions like that,” Vaughn whispered, his voice low. So low I could hardly hear him with the noise around us. Everyone else, chatting away without a care in the world. “You might just stick your nose where it doesn’t belong, and then what would happen?”
“What?”
Vaughn said nothing, leaving me an insane kind of curious.