Page 16 of Risking it All

I stared at him, he stared at me with a soft expression, and my heart fluttered. Circling Gianna’s keys in my hands, I focused on the fire. “Thank you for taking her keys.”

“You’re welcome. Consider it my gift for the ride the other day.”

“Do you party often?” How many girls did he invite to parties and make out with?

“I come to them when I’m in the mood, but overall, they aren’t my thing.”

“So why are you here?”

“I’m attempting to be seventeen. How good of a job am I doing?” He gave me a lopsided twitch of a grin as if he were letting me into a private joke only meant for me.

I had absolutely no idea what his statement meant, but I liked how he smiled. “It looks like you’re doing as good as me, and in case you’re wondering, I think that’s a failing grade.”

“Damn,” he said. “That’s going to seriously hurt the GPA boost I’d been hoping for.”

My lips lifted higher than I had felt them go since February, and the stretch felt weird on my face. “Right?”

“Why are you here, Miss My Body Rejects Human Interaction?” Relic gestured to the hives on my arm I had been unconsciously scratching. I forced my hand to my side.

My short-lived smile faded, and his eyebrows knitted together as though that bothered him.

“I…think…” I drew out my answer because the truth wouldn’t make sense, and any lie I could come up with would be completely unbelievable, “I’m trying to make my parents happy.”

“That’s fucked-up, but I weirdly understand.” After a few seconds of staring at the fire, he eventually said, “I came because I hoped you’d be here.”

I swear to God an entire flock of doves hatched in my chest. “Ariel told me you invite girls to parties to kiss them.”

“I do,” he answered unequivocally and without an ounce of shame or remorse. “And I invited you and you came. So far, the night’s going well, wouldn’t you say?”

The way he stared at me made me feel like he was thinking of kissing me, touching me, caressing me in ways that would make my heart explode. My mouth dried out, my cheeks turned what had to be bright red, and I glanced away.

I was so nervous, so excited, so terrified at the idea of my first kiss, at the idea of Relic wanting to kiss me, that my entire body hummed. So, what did I do? Changed the conversation, of course. “If parties aren’t you’re thing, what is?”

“Raindrops on kittens and brown paper packages tied up in roses.”

“That’s not how the song goes.”

“My version does, plus it made you smile again.”

We went silent, looking out toward the fire, and I was oddly okay with the quiet. The overcast sky betrayed no moonlight or stars, but I took comfort in the familiar sounds of the crickets chirping. Before February, I was never scared of the dark, but now the night felt like a looming shadow ready to reach out and grab me. I shivered, thinking of a shadowy hand moving in my direction, and I swiftly switched gears. “Thank you for taking the heat off of me in therapy.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

He did, and from how he shifted his body weight, he knew it. Like shining a light on his good deed made him feel awkward. But he needed to know that was a massive deal for me. With Zuri pining me down, I had been three seconds from full-on vomiting. Puking would have made a scene, it would have been awful, and then I would have never found the courage to walk back into that school ever again.

“I can’t talk about it.” It was stupid to think he didn’t know who I was and what I’d been through. Everyone in our school did because one of my friends, I had no idea who, told a person, and that person told a person and then...everyone knew. I hated the idea of returning to class in the fall and dealing with all the fallout, but it had to be done. Truth was, I needed to regain a grip on myself before school began, otherwise my life would be one big nightmare.

Relic lazily swung his gaze back to mine, and he studied me for a few seconds longer than I expected. “You can’t talk about what happened to you, you mean?”

A punch in the gut as I breathed out the pain. I nodded, incapable of saying, “Yes,” like a normal person. I scratched atthe hives as they threatened to swallow my entire arm. Sweat formed along my hairline, and then, because I didn’t think I could handle any type of rejection, I played it off. “Point is, thank you for distracting Zuri, and you don’t need to say anything. I know I’m weird.”

“You’re not weird. You’re honest. There’s a big difference.”

The conversation needed to switch, or I was going to implode. “Why did you call me Mazie Hutchison if you know my name is Macie Hutchins?”

“Because there’s something broke within me that likes irritating people. I have to admit, you’ve kept me on my toes. You never move in the direction I think you’re going to go. Shift right when I think you’re going left.”

“Bolting from crowded rooms, piles of welts on my arms, paralyzed in conversation. I can totally see the draw. People are doing their online dating profiles all wrong.”

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