Page 66 of Tell Me It’s Right

“Thanks,” I mumble.

Liam meets my eyes as I step into the kitchen, then smirks as his gaze falls to the bookstore logo on the bag. He looks a lot better today, though I can’t see his hands from this angle. I can’t help but wonder how bad Miles’s face is.

I hope he looks like roadkill.

Liam stares at me a moment longer, his eyebrows lowering at whatever he sees on my face.

Wordlessly, I take my books and head for the basement stairs. I’m nearly to the bottom when I hear Liam say, “I’m gonna run to the bathroom.”

“No need to announce yourself,” says Leo.

Footsteps creak on the floor overhead, but then they start down the stairs, so light I almost can’t hear them.

I’m sitting on the edge of my bed when Liam’s head appears around the corner.

“Hey,” he says quietly.

“Hey.”

He doesn’t come far into the room, just a few steps from the stairs, and crosses his arms over his chest as he leans a shoulder against the wall. “Find anything good?”

“Huh?”

He nods at the bag beside me. “At the bookstore.”

“Oh.” I stare at it. “I—I don’t know. I just kind of grabbed a few random ones.”

When I meet his eyes, he’s frowning.

“Are you all right? You seem off.”

“Oh,” I say again, feeling off. Feeling…confused. About a lot of things, really. But namely why he’s down here talking to me. And why he had to lie to Leo about it. And why I was so relieved the moment I walked in the door and saw him here. “Have you…have you heard from Miles’s family or anything? About pressing charges?”

He blinks and pulls his head back an inch. “That’swhat—you’re worried aboutme?”

“Well, yeah,” I all but laugh. As if picking him up from jail isn’t as far from my normal routine as you can get.

He stares at me in a way that makes me feel like I’m under a spotlight. Slowly, he peels off the wall and sits on the bed beside me. “I haven’t heard anything from them yet.”

“But you think they will. Press charges.”

He nods once. “I’m not worried about it, so I definitely don’t want you to be. I’ll deal with it when it comes.”

How can he possibly not be worried about it? I peek at him out of the corner of my eye and find him already staring at me, namely, my mouth.

To see how visible your injuries still are, the same way you were looking at him.

“What did you tell Leo?” I ask, letting my hair fall in front of my face to hopefully conceal the way my cheeks are burning. I gesture at his hands. “There’s no way he didn’t notice.”

“I told him I got into it with Miles at the skatepark.” My head whips around. “I said nothing about you,” he hurries to add. “But I figured gossip moves fast around here, and he’d probably hear about it, so I tried to keep it as close to the truth as I could. Just made up some excuse about him getting Asher back into drugs.”

I nod slowly. “And he bought that?”

He shrugs, and his shoulder brushes mine. “Seemed to. It’s not far off.”

For some reason, having him this close has my heart beating faster, like I’m doing something I’m not supposed to. He runs his hands up and down his thighs like a nervous tick. His knuckles are bruised and swollen, enough that he’s notably not wearing any of his rings today. He wets his lips and opens his mouth to say something, but then the doorbell rings.

He holds my eyes for a beat longer before murmuring, “The pizza.”

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