Page 3 of My Best Bet

Two other boys barreled into him– a lanky blond boy with a buzzcut and blue eyes, and another boy with brown hair that had a slight curl to it and matching brown eyes.

Buzzcut boy stalked toward me. Shaking his head, he mumbled, “Well, c’mon, you wanna?”

I backed up a couple paces, my eyes bulging, the wordnolodged in my throat. Becauseno. I didnotwant to kiss him.What in the world was happening right now?

“Stop it, asshole,” the boy with brown hair grumbled. He grabbed his friend by the back of the shirt and shoved him away from me. “You’re scaring her.”

Buzzcut boy just laughed. “Alright, it’s on you then. Five bucks.” He wagged his eyebrows at him.

The guy that saved me just shook his head at his friend. Then he turned and his warm brown eyes found mine. “Sorry about them.”

“Sorry about them,” the other boys immediately mimicked, then cracked up laughing.

“Shut up,” he grunted softly, giving them a harsh look.

The two boys seemed to back off after that, dipping into the nearest locker room and leaving me and the nicer boy alone in the hallway.

I blinked at him, unsure of what to do, unsure of what to say.

“Iamsorry, they… they did that on purpose,” he grunted, tugging at the front of his hair. “Assholes.”

Replaying his words, my nose scrunched in confusion. “Huh?”

“Because it'syou,” he said quietly, keeping his eyes lowered. “And they know that I… watch you sometimes,” he mumbled.

Shock washed over me. “Youwatchme?” I asked slowly.

A faint blush colored his cheeks, and I was surprised to see it. For some reason, it seemed like this boy never got embarrassed. “I’m Colt. Colt Conover,” he said with a lopsided grin, placing his hand on his chest.

“Um…” I swallowed. “I’m Meredith… Bennett,” I finally forced out. “But my friends call me Mer.”

“Alright, Bennett.” He smirked.

No one had ever called me by my last name like that before. It made me feel kind of… cool.

Mullet boy’s head popped out from the locker room. “Five bucks!”

Colt’s shoulders deflated and he mumbled “such idiots” to himself. Hitching a thumb over his shoulder to where his friend disappeared, he said, “Please ignore them.”

“No, it’s…” I shook my head, feeling relieved now that buzzcut boy wasn’t stalking toward me to claim a kiss. “It’s okay,” I saidwith a light laugh. This boy, Colt, had a calmness about him that I couldn’t quite explain, but he put me at ease.

The hand he was raking through his hair froze. “It’s okay?” His eyebrows tugged together. “That they bet five dollars to kiss you?”

“I-I mean… ” Now my cheeks flamed. “Buzzcut boy is not okay,” I blurted out.

He threw his head back laughing, and a little thrill ran through me.Imadehimlaugh. Genuinely laugh.

“Buzzcut boy,” he said with a grin. “That’s a good name for him.”

“What’s his actual name?”

“That’s JP. The other idiot with the mullet is Richard, but he hates when people call him that. His name’s Richard Kappers, everyone here calls him Kappy.”

“Got it.”

“So…” He rocked back on his heels and licked his lips. “It’s not okay for JP, but… it is okay for… me?”

He was watching me so closely that I couldn’t seem to form words. I just shrugged, feeling my face burn again.

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