Movement caught my eye ahead, but I didn’t look up because I knew what it was. Desi Castro sat in our center’s lap, reverse cowgirl, and through the dim moonlight and shadows, I was pretty sure they were being fairly fucking stupid—albeit quietly—in the seat in front of us.
Her long, red locks draped over the back of the seat, and I finally raised my eyes as she leaned back against him, their lips barely touching as their bodies moved slow but rhythmic in the darkness.
Will rubbed his thumb across my finger, and my stomach flipped, the gesture comforting.
My phone beeped, and I turned over my right hand, unlocking the screen with my thumb. The phone lit up my place by the window, rain pummeling the bus as we drove through the dark night.
“Let me take you home,” it read.
I clicked my music off, glancing over and seeing his phone in his hand, too—the same text visible.
“No,” I typed back.
I couldn’t let him take me home. Not ever. I tried to pull away from his hand, but he clasped it tightly.
“Let me take you home,” he typed again.
I clenched my teeth and turned my eyes out the window. I tried to pull my hand away once more, but he grasped it, forcing it instead onto my thigh, his fingers grazing my skin there.
A bolt of lightning shot through me, but instead of being angry, butterflies swarmed in my stomach and I squeezed my eyes shut. Leaving him there.
My phone beeped, and it took a moment to look at it. “I want to hold you like that,” it said.
I glanced up at Miller and Desi again, his arms wrapped around her, and I pictured myself in Will’s lap, parked off some dark road in the rain, and it took everything I had not to look at him, because if I did, he’d know…
He would know that I didn’t always hate him. A sliver of my brain was starting to believe there was more to him.
But I shoved his hand off, biting the corner of my mouth to keep the emotions away.
“Cops came to the warehouse and took all the tappers,” someone said loud enough to pierce my earbuds.
I turned my head enough to see a cheerleader, Lynlee Hoffman, across the aisle, looking back at Will.
He sat there, his hand still under the hoodie, acting like everything was completely normal. “Oh, yeah?” he said.
But he didn’t give a shit.
Lynlee shot me a look, narrowing her eyes and lifting her chin, because if they found out there was a party, it was because I had told my brother, right? As if the cops had to be geniuses to figure out a win always equaled a kegger at the warehouse. Duh.
I turned up the volume on my music again, drowning out any other sounds and tapped my thumbs, typing out a message. “Take her home. She’ll drool all over your dumb haircut and extensive knowledge of micro-brews and penis jokes.”
I mean, he was a jock.
I felt him shake with a laugh next to me.
He typed, letters flashing on his screen. “I take you home, or I take you in my lap right here. Decide.”
I ground my teeth together.
Everyone would see that. If my brother heard about it, I’d…
Jesus.
Damon leaned up from behind us, squeezing Will’s shoulders and talking in his ear. Will laughed at whatever he said, no one the wiser.
My phone beeped again. “Almost there,” he warned.
I shook my head. “People will see,” I typed out.
“Then make sure they don’t.”
He pulled the hoodie off us and slipped it over his head, covering his white, sleeveless T-shirt and his tan, toned, beautiful arms that always made my mouth hang open like an imbecile.
We entered Thunder Bay, heading back to our campus where everyone would pick up their cars and head to parties, but I’d be walking and heading straight home, as always.
I stared out the window, seeing the village breeze past, the twinkle lights of the park, and my neighborhood before we got up into the cliffs where Will and the wealthy resided. Part of me wanted it. Part of me loved how good his attention felt, because he was cocky and confident and good-looking and smooth. He was popular, looked great in everything he wore, and I liked his smile.
He was untouchable, and he wanted to touch me.
Tonight, anyway.
My eyes dropped to my lap. Even if I wanted to, though, my brother would never tolerate it.
The phone vibrated in my hand once, and then again and again, but I just bobbed my head to the music like I didn’t notice. The school came into view, and liquid heat rushed my chest, but I ignored it. I was almost out of here, and he could spend the rest of the night taking whomever he wanted home, for all I cared.
We were nothing.
Another text came in, and I finally looked.
“When the bus stops, get in my fucking truck.”
I breathed out a bitter laugh. Aw, someone’s lost his temper.
“Why?” I asked.
And the next thing I know, the bus stopped, he yanked the earbuds out of my ears, and I sucked in a breath as he leaned into my face.
“Because you’re mine,” he growled in a whisper.
And all at once, the Horsemen rose from their seats, grabbed their bags, and charged down the aisle, leaving the bus first.
My heart hammered. What the—
Seriously.
Because you’re mine. I ignored the flutter in my chest as I grabbed my bag and fumbled for my dangling earbuds.
I mean, for Christ’s sake. What was his deal? Was I on some scavenger hunt he was doing or something? Nail the Nerd?
I rose with everyone else and stepped into the aisle, getting ready to leave the bus.
I’m not yours, Will Grayson.
And I’ll walk, thanks.
The bus emptied, engines out in the parking lot already firing up and headlights glowing in the night. I walked to the undercarriage to see if anyone needed help with their equipment, but it was empty already, the band and players quickly clearing out.
I turned to bolt and make my escape before he saw me, but Elle clasped my hand.
“We’re getting a ride home,” she said.
“Huh?”
“Will,” Elle explained, pulling me along. “He’s taking us home.”
“Um, no.” I yanked my hand away. “He’s not.”
“You don’t want me riding alone with him, do you?” She planted her hands on her hips. “A mature guy, used to getting what he wants?”
“Then you shouldn’t have agreed to it.”
Pivoting back around, I headed toward the gates to go home.
“But tomorrow I can say I rode in his truck,” she whined, jogging up to the side of me.
So? “No.”
He was only offering to give her a ride because it included me. It would only encourage him.
Elle fell back, and I kept walking.
“It’s nice to be nice, Emmy,” she called after me. “Please?”
I slowed, her pathetic whine making me feel guilty. I stopped and rolled my eyes, sighing. Him giving her a ride would make her year.
And who was I kidding? He wasn’t going to give up if I refused a ride tonight. The creepy-stalker-weirdo would follow me in that damn truck. Right up to my front door.
I turned around, seeing her already heading back into the parking lot, a morose slump to her shoulders.
“Wait,” I bit out.
She spun around, smiling ear to ear.
I joined her again, and we both walked over to Will’s truck, still parked.