Page 20 of For Three Seconds

Scar and Gav, two halves that would never make a whole.

“Why are you here?” I repeated.

“I was…” He cleared his throat. “Gigi and I were worried about you when you didn’t show last night.”

I swallowed, wondering if he was lying to me. Gigi hadn’t texted me since yesterday afternoon. I didn’t know how worried she was.

“Dylan and I decided to spend some time alone.” Sure I made it sound suggestive, but he didn’t need to know Dylan was gay and that Audrey had been with us.

“Like a date?” he asked.

His eyes were roaming down my body, and it was wrong. I knew we should go out with everyone else, but in stolen moments like this, for seconds at a time, I could pretend he was mine.

“Sure,” I mumbled. “Now out.”

Gavin got up, and I went and opened the door for him. He was passing by when he stopped right next to me. I felt him, and I smelled him, and I wanted to get lost in him. He leaned down, and I closed my eyes. Three kisses, three seconds, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for more.

His mouth was by my ear shell, and I felt his lips moving against my sensitive skin. “Dylan is gay. Unless you grew a dick, I don’t think he’d get what he needs from you.”

Fuck me.

When I opened my eyes, he was chuckling and making his way down the hallway.

I was going to kill Dylan. I was supposed to be the only one who knew. If shit came to a head, I was supposed to be his beard. The only person I was mildly interested in fooling knew Dylan was not into me like that.

Just my fucking luck.

I slammed my door and changed quickly, but I stayed in my room for a lot longer. When I came outside, my brother was coming back from the store.

“Okay, boys, what do you have for me?” Nick asked with excitement.

My brother loved the game differently than Gavin did. Nick loved plays: making them and watching them being executed. He played in high school, but his passion was in teaching it.

Having the guys in my living room felt like old times when my parents were alive. My mother would start cooking, Gigi and I would be gossiping nearby. Crazy how life can pull the rug under you.

I sat there watching them until all their talk bored me, and I fell back asleep. A hand caressing my cheek woke me. Gavin stood there in my living room, looking down at me.

I didn’t say anything, scared that I might be dreaming and I would ruin it.

“It was supposed to be you,” he whispered.

Before I could rationalize what he said, he grabbed his backpack and left. My heart was beating fast and wild.

What was supposed to be me?

Jordan came out with a half-eaten sandwich. “Where’s Gav?”

I pointed to the door.

“Fucker’s my ride home. Later, Scar.”

Gav and Scar. We were two halves that would never make a whole.

If things were awkward between Gavin and me, it didn’t show. He didn’t go to school on Monday, and when he came back on Tuesday, he acted like I was just someone random person sitting in front of him.

Our group project was uncomfortable, to say the least. I wondered why he’d said what he did, and he acted like he’d never dropped a bomb on me. At the end of the day, it wasn’t like I could say a thing.

He was my best friend’s boyfriend, and I was nothing of concern to him.

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