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“How?” Aaron furrowed his thick eyebrows, staring straight into me.
What the fuck was I doing? Was I seriously about to sit here and talk about this shit? No, this was stupid. I clamped right back up. “It’s not about me. Or you, Briggs. It’s about her. Either she likes you or she doesn’t.”
“Bullshit.” My eyes shot back to Aaron as he shook his head. “She likes him, we know that. What he needs is to be seen. To cross that finish line.”
“He’s an adult.” I pinned Aaron with a glare before looking back at his blonde counterpart. “Excuse me, Briggs, but you’re an adult.”
Briggs hunched over. Guilt poured into me as I caught the look on his face; his droopy eyes, that soft, sad frown that I’d seen so many times in the mirror. “She just makes me so nervous.”
I took a pause, attempting to melt away my general distaste as I realized he was just a fellow nervous boy trying to show himself to the girl he loved. “I’m sorry. I know what it feels like. I shouldn’t have said that.” He nodded in understanding. “I just figured out what Kai likes and the way she likes it, and that’s how I crossed the line.”
“That sounds sexy,” Aaron said, his amusement growing as he leaned up in his seat.
I ignored him with full intention, keeping my focus on Briggs. “What does Thalia like?”
He shrugged. His hazel eyes grew round in the same way Kai’s did when she was utterly confused. “Working out, surfing…”
I shook my head. “No.” I stole a deep, awkward breath from the air around me. “What does she…like? Don’t tell me, please, but think about it.” Briggs stared at me for a moment. He had no idea what I was referring to, and I had no desire to speak of something so private in such a public setting. Much less with strangers.
“Hey boys!” June interrupted us, wandering over to our seats. Thank god. It was a stupid conversation anyway. “What are we talking about?”
“How Jonah managed to—”
“Oli!” I cut him off right there. The asshole was about to win yet another file in my Oli Sucks Folder. “Nothing, June. Come hang.” June sat down happily to join us in meaningless conversation.
“So how did you two meet?” Briggs asked June and Oli.
I figured he was too nervous to keep talking about Thalia in front of June, because June would probably tell Kai, and while I was sure Kai knew of Briggs’ affections, she probably would’ve used the environment to scheme. Just as Aaron was doing. They were far too similar for my liking, but I pushed that thought aside for the time being. Finally, the conversation had been drawn away from me, and I could listen aimlessly or zone out completely.
“Oh, that’s a fun one,” June said. She looked at Oli with one of those smiles she always gave him right before he would insist they had some business in the bedroom to take care of.
“She said something wildly incorrect in history class, and I corrected her,” he said, flicking his eyes to her chest and back to her face.
June pointed a finger in the air and turned to look at the rest of the group. “No. I gave my opinion, which many people also share, and Oli got so mad about it he fucked me in the library.”
“Incorrect. I fucked you in the study of the Blue House.”
June visibly shifted in her seat as her eyes trailed to him once again.
Gross.
“I take it you two didn’t always get along,” Aaron said. Another intelligent observation from the world’s most astute man.
As I judged the giant from my seat, I felt a sharp tug on the back of my head. Someone had pulled my fucking hair. I turned around to find Kai standing right behind me, smiling at the rest of the group, pretending it hadn’t been her. She had meandered over quietly with Thalia, it seemed, and apparently, her goal was to act like a fucking child.
I humphed and turned back to the circle, and she placed her fingers softly on my neck, trailing her nails over my skin. Oh, fuck, that felt good. This was only the beginning of her revenge for the way I spoke earlier. I just knew it. A delicious shudder passed through my body before another sharp tug jerked the back of my head.
Once again, I spun around sharply. “Kai, stop.”
She looked into my eyes without a word, reached around to the back of my head, and tugged it again.
I launched up from my seat and stood face-to-face with her. “Pull it one more time.”
She lifted her eyebrows and looked at me sweetly. I was dangerously close to dragging her somewhere private by way of her wrists. She leaned into me slowly, taking a few extra seconds to wrap her fingers around the short pieces of my hair. A smile spread across her face as she waited, one…two…three.
In almost the same second she tugged my hair, she turned to run away. Typical. I quickly caught her, lifting her back toward the circle where all were seated. We smacked and pulled at each other for several seconds until I finally had her wrists clasped in my right hand behind her back. She giggled with the girls about my irritation, and I pondered a punishment much worse than bringing her somewhere private.
“You know what?” I said, far past frustrated. “You want to know how I did it, guys?” I signaled for Aaron and Briggs to watch as I tugged against her squirms before jutting my free hand under her shirt to her favorite spot on the left side of her ribs.
