Page 120 of Landon & Shay: Part One

“What year are you?”

“I’m a sophomore. A junior in a few months, though!” she added, as if that made me more interested in her. It didn’t. I didn’t care who she was, I didn’t care where she was from. I just needed to know she’d follow through with my plan.

“So…” She curled her hair with her finger, and dammit, I wished she was Shay. “Do you use tongue, or—”

“I’m not going to make out with you,” I cut in.

“Oh?”

“Nothing against you. You’re beautiful, but my heart kind of belongs to someone else.”

“Then, why are you even playing this game?”

“It’s complicated. I do need your help, though. When we walk out of here, I need you to act like we hooked up. And really sell it, too. Then, it’s a win-win for us both. You get to say you hooked up with me to your friends.”

“And what do you get?” she asked.

“Not really your business, but trust me, I get what I need.”

She arched an eyebrow. “You don’t even know my name, do you?”

“I don’t.”

“Why would I want to help a guy who doesn’t even care to know my name?”

“I didn’t say I didn’t care. I simply said I didn’t know it. So, tell me.”

“Jessie.”

“Okay, Jessie, nice to meet you. You seem like a top notch girl. Do we have a deal or what? We’re kind of on the clock here.”

She bit her bottom lip. “Okay, deal. But! I get to say we used tongue.”

“By all means.”

Before we walked out of the closet, Jessie pinched her cheeks to make herself look flustered. She walked out of the closet and gave an award-winning speech about how my tongue was shoved down her throat.

Shay stood in front of the closet with her face was drained of all color.

“Are you serious, Landon?” she asked, stunned by what had taken place.

I stuffed my hands into my pockets and shrugged. “Like I said, we were just a bet. Nothing more, nothing less.”

I saw it happen, too. The moment she let me go. Her eyes that were, seconds ago, filled with emotion were now ice cold. She stood taller and rolled her shoulders back. “Okay. You wanted me to stop caring about you? Congratulations, Landon. You win.”

I hated myself more than ever. Especially since I was going to push her further and further away. “I know I won, Sunshine. That was the whole point of the bet.”

“Don’t call me Sunshine,” she hissed.

Then stop being so bright.

“Look, are we done here? I got what I wanted from you already, so I’d really like to—”

Slap.

Shay’s hand flew against my cheek, and her voice cracked. “Fuck you, Landon.” Instant guilt found its way to her eyes. She pulled her hand back, still a bit shocked that she actually had enough nerve to place her hand against my face. Her voice dropped, and she lowered her head. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, taking a few steps back.

She turned and hurried away, leaving me standing there with a crowd. If you ever wanted a woman to stop messing around with you, all you had to do was humiliate her in front of a crowd. There was no coming back from that kind of destruction.

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