This Christian was so different than the Christian of sixth grade, far different than the Christian I’d known from weeks ago, when I’d transferred back to River High. This Christian…was likeable. Dateable. Definitely more kissable than the angry Christian back at that first basketball game, when he’d stolen a kiss from me just to make Alec jealous.
This Christian was dangerously close to my heart, I realized. Just like that. Mean comments and glares aside, it’d been fun flirting with him the past few weeks. I looked forward to chemistry almost as much as I did photography with Xander. And Alec…God. I couldn’t keep seeing them while having real feelings for Christian.
That…that would be a problem for another day. Not tonight.
Tonight, however, was the perfect time to finally ask Christian what I’d been meaning to ask him for a long time. Whether I trusted him or not didn’t matter. This whole date could be good for one thing, at least. One step closer to enacting my plan.
“Are you going to Snowball?” I asked, sounding worlds more confident than I felt.
His eyes narrowed somewhat, as if he thought this was a joke. “Why? I assumed you’d be going with Alec.” He still didn’t know how close I was to Xander, which was a good thing. He wouldn’t be looking out for him at the dance.
“Alec and I are friends,” I said, the lie sour on my tongue. I wanted to take it back instantly—friends didn’t do what we did. Friends didn’t love each other. I…I loved Alec, and Xander. And, in spite of it all, I was starting to love Christian too, I think.
Damn it. I was weak after all.
Christian started to smile. “Just friends, hmm? I don’t think that’s what he wants to be.” A pause lingered before he said, “Are you sure you’d rather go with me than with him?” One last warning, one final chance to do a one-eighty and pretend like I didn’t bring up the dance. This was my way out, and I could’ve taken it.
I could’ve taken it and forgotten all about my plan.
No. After everything, I wasn’t going to forget about my revenge. Christian, whether he was nice to me or not, had helped ruin my life. He was the reason I had scars on my wrists. He’d made me feel like I wanted to die—there was no coming back from that.
I had to do this.
“I bought a dress, and I was thinking of you when I bought it,” I told him, watching the light from the dashboard shine in his sapphire eyes. “I want to go with you, Christian, as long as you want me.” A statement that could’ve meant half a dozen different things.
“Okay,” Christian said. “Then it’s a date. You and me, Elle. You and me.” His voice lingered on the last sentence, and it took all of my self control to not throw myself at him, to keep myself from showing him what a real kiss was like.
I said nothing as I got out of the car, still wearing his basketball sneakers. Since it was near midnight, I was quiet as I headed up to the house and entered through the front door. I needn’t have worried, though, because my dad was still awake, and he was pissed.
Yep. Totally grounded, for the first time in my life, at age eighteen. Go figure.