Page 5 of No More Spies

She stopped. It would be far smarter to keep walking. Theydidn’t come back from this. His mom didn’t like her. An ache pulsed throughher. She’d always thought Eve liked her. She wondered if Alex thought she wasbad for Cooper, too. Yes, it would be better to walk, but these were her lastminutes with him and she couldn’t lose them. No matter how brutal they became.She turned his way. He was ghostly, caught in the shadows from the pool andsecurity lights. “It means if you ignore me and I ignore you, then you get whatyou want. No one will think you’re friends with the nasty bitch, and you canmove forward and become everything Mommy wants you to be. You might behomecoming king one day if you play your cards right and hang with the popularpeople.”

“Don’t bring my mom into this. She didn’t mean it that way.”

There wasn’t any other way to mean it. “You have to saveyourself from me, Coop. Except I’m a motherfucking hero. I’m going to do it foryou. You want to let assholes like Jimmy walk all over you, who am I tocomplain?”

He wouldn’t be hers to defend. He would be on his own.

Except he wouldn’t be. He would have all his friends, andall the kids they grew up with would likely take his side because he was Cooperand she was…she was who she was.

“He’s not walking all over me,” Cooper argued. “I wascrowding the plate. It’s baseball. Are you planning on beating the crap out ofthe guys guarding me when I play basketball?”

“Not anymore,” she admitted. She gave him a shrug like noneof this truly mattered. “You’ve made yourself clear. It’s fine. I’ll move on tothe next guy.”

She wished she hadn’t said the last part. The look of painon Cooper’s face would stay with her forever. Except it wasn’t pain she saw inhis brown eyes. It was so much worse. It was pity. “Kala, there’s no next guy.I’m sorry. I’m not handling this well. I don’t know how to tell you we’removing too fast and I’m not comfortable. I’m fifteen. I care about you. Ireally do, but you are so intense and I’m not ready.”

He never would be. She would always be too intense. Alwaystoo much. He would find his sweet girl to take to homecoming, and then he wouldgo through a string of them until he finally settled down with his white picketfence and two point five kids.

She would probably be dead by then, and it wouldn’t matter.He’d always been a dream. Maybe he represented a part of herself craving somenormalcy.

She wasn’t going to get it. “You snooze, you lose, bud. Havea good high school experience. It’s when you’re going to peak, so enjoy it.”

He went pale.

Fuck. “I didn’t mean that.”

“I know,” he replied. “But it still hurts.”

Yes, she should have kept walking. “Well, I’m sure your newfriends will comfort you. Look, there’s no way for us to avoid each other sohow about we agree to be polite.”

“I don’t want to be polite, Kala. I only know if we gettogether now, I don’t think we’ll be together in the future. I don’t think wemake it through. It would be better to be friends now and see what happens.”

Friends? She’d never really been his friend. “Sure. But inthe spirit of our new friendship, I’ll forego these Saturday nights. I don’tthink friends should do what we’ve been doing.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let it get this far.That’s on me. Kala, I’m sorry I let you think…”

She wasn’t going to stand here and listen to all the wayshe’d played her. She hadn’t thought he was capable of playing her. “No need. Weunderstand each other now. You’ve said what you needed to say. Good-bye. Followme and we’ll have a problem.”

When she walked away this time, he stayed in the shadows.

* * * *

Cooper watched Kala walk away and wished he hadn’t had thetalk with his mom earlier today. He should have kept it all to himself. Suckedit up like a man, but no, he had to seek validation or something. They’d beensitting in the movie theater arcade. He’d found himself alone with her whileVivi and Hunter had been playing the latest video dance game. He’d beendrinking a coke, and somehow all of his worries about how close he and Kalawere getting spilled out.

“Are you sure you’re ready?” his mom had asked.

And he’d known he wasn’t.

“You have to be careful, sweetie. She’s far more fragilethan she seems,” his mother had said. “She loves the way her father does, andthat can be amazing when paired with maturity, but right now she has all ofIan’s intensity with none of the life experience that tempered him. She’s goingthrough a phase, and it’s a hard one. I should know. I went through it too, andit can feel like you’re drowning. The problem is sometimes when you try to savea drowning person, they take you down with them.” She’d pulled in a long breathand sat back as though it had been a hard conversation for her. “I know you’vecared about her for a long time, but you’re both so young. Is there any way youcould wait a little longer?”

He watched as Kala walked away, her slender form swallowedby darkness, and realized he might be waiting forever because his girl wasn’tknown for her sense of forgiveness.

His girl.

Damn. If she was his girl, shouldn’t it be easier? Shouldn’tit be like their parents? They were surrounded by long-term married couples whogot along and never had any drama. Kala was never-ending drama.

And now she wouldn’t let him walk her home. He seriouslyconsidered following her, but he valued his balls. She would take them sincehe’d broken her freaking heart. The look in her eyes would stay with him forthe rest of his life. He hadn’t been trying to hurt her. It would have beenbetter if she’d cried, but she wouldn’t cry in front of him now.

He should never have touched her. He shouldn’t have moved itpast friendship.

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