Page 18 of Something Like Sunflowers

My hands clench so tight my fingernails are causing bloody little crescents on my palms, but I don’t care. All I care about is what happens when that thing stops spinning.

Shane sets the bottle down, and it’s not like I can stop him. What am I supposed to say? I’m sweating bullets, but why? I’m pretty sure Devyn wants this fucker to kiss her. She came up here all dolled up looking for precisely him, and she can’t even argue that. She talked him up all summer long. It’s no secret she’s got herself a little crush, but I didn’t think she’d be this bold.

I also didn’t think he’d bite back. Fuckin’ shithead. She’s a freshman.

It’s Dusty’s sister. He’s our teammate. She’s off limits.

And if she’s off limits to me, then she is absolutely off limits to Shane.

I scoff at myself for even thinking like that. Devyn is most certainly off limits to me. And everyone in this room. And as the bottle stops abruptly, pointed at the girl in question, I lose it.

Shane leans in, angling his head, and I see her. She looks at me for one quick moment with a question nestled in her stare. A dare.

And that right there is all I need.

Shane will not kiss my girl tonight.

Abso-fucking-lutely not.

Devyn

Thirteen Years Ago

Before I know what’s happening, Shane is shoved to the ground, and I’m thrown to the side of him. My shoes crunch against the floor as I stand, the table flipped, and the bottle shattered all over the floor where two bodies are throwing punches at one another.

I don’t even need to see him to know one of them is Hunter. But why?

I don’t understand.

I came up here for Shane. I wanted to kiss Shane. Shane wanted to ask me to the dance, and Hunter stepped in the way. Then he blocks my chances at a first kiss with the star of the school?

“She’s Dustin’s little sister, bro! You can’t mess with her,” he shouts before throwing a punch into the side of Shane’s nose. I hear a gross crack and a growl as Shane spins and shoves his elbow into Hunter’s side.

“I don’t care whose little sister she is, Isaac. I think you’re just jealous she wants some of this,” he kicks Hunter in the gut and then rips his shirt off and does a quick belly roll show of his abs while some of the others in the room cheer him on, “and she doesn’t want any of that.” He gestures to Hunter, who’s sadly crumpled on the ground, and I cringe.

Why I care is beyond me. Shane might be as dumb as a doornail…and he’s certainly acting like a d-bag right now, but I knew that about him beforehand.

Hunter, on the other hand, has no excuse for his completely immature behavior, coming up here and fighting for me like he’s my boyfriend or something.

I pause at that. Because something about it makes me even angrier. And I don’t know if it’s anger that he acts like my boyfriend or that he isn’t my boyfriend. And I hate that. I hate how confusing he always is. Like this summer at the lake when he acted like something more was going on between us, and then became a total ass to me whenever my brother was around.

No, I know where we stand. It’s about time he knew, too. “Just go, Hunter!” Both boys stop throwing punches, but they don’t release one another as they look up at me. I’m still wrapped up in Hunter’s hoodie while I step up on my soapbox to reprimand him. “Stop treating me like I’m your responsibility. I’m not some little girl who needs to be taken care of, and it certainly wouldn’t be your job if I were.”

Suddenly, the room is dead silent. But the crowd is no longer looking at me or the shitshow on the floor. Eyes wide, flip phones out snapping photos, jaws dropped…they are looking behind me.

“No, that would be my job,” my brother’s voice booms.

Shane backs off as soon as he sees Dustin. Hunter pushes himself up, covered in blood and bruises, and it bothers me that it bothers me. Screw him for being a caveman; that isn’t my fault. It’s his own damn fault if he can’t handle a guy kissing me.

But it’s in the moment he’s looking between me and my brother, still dripping in sweat from fighting for my dignity that wasn’t even his to fight over, that I realize…Hunter Isaac has a crush.

On me.

Chapter 9

Devyn

He’s impossible,” I tell Shana through the Bluetooth of my 2024 hot pink Jeep Wrangler Unlimited that is absolutely the only good thing to come of my news anchor career. I can’t say I would have been able to afford this baby before I joined Channel Five, and the materialistic side of me says it was probably worth the sacrifice. This little thing is a beauty.

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