Page 48 of I Hate You More

I probably would have nodded, but I felt frozen by a strange churning anger that was swelling in my stomach. Why did the new kid automatically get on Ally’s good side? I made one mistake a few years back, and I’d been banished to her bad side for all eternity.

Movement caught the corner of my eye as Ally strode out of the house. She met my gaze and immediately averted her eyes, her steps quickening as she went to join her friends. She’d changed into a one-piece bathing suit, and a part of me wondered why. I thought she’d been enjoying the attention she was getting in the red bikini. She’d changed so quickly that I wondered whether I’d misjudged her.

I tried to draw my attention back to the conversation with Shane and Luke, but I couldn’t stop myself from glancing across the yard in Ally’s direction. She seemed totally unaffected by our run-in inside. She was smiling brightly as she talked with Tessa and appeared completely oblivious to the fact that I couldn’t stop looking at her.

I took another swig of my beer before forcing my eyes away from her once more. Ally Lockwood hated me, and I really needed to stop thinking about her. I also needed to stop protecting her at nightclubs, rescuing her from school cafeterias, and threatening douchebags who bullied her at school. I’d told myself that each of those actions were intended to help Shane, but I was beginning to reconsider if that was the truth.

Shane hadn’t asked me to do any of that, and though Ally and I butted heads constantly, protecting her felt as natural as breathing. I couldn’t help myself. I’d been looking out for her when I’d first convinced Declan not to pursue her at the dance all those years ago, and I was doing it again now. I wasn’t quite sure of the reason for my actions now, but all I knew was I didn’t like seeing her in trouble.

“Can I talk to you for a second?” I almost jumped out of my skin at the sound of Ally’s voice. It felt like only a few seconds ago I’d been watching her from across the pool, and I hadn’t noticed her approaching. I slowly turned and found her standing at my side, her attention completely focused on me.

“You want to talk to me?” I could hardly keep the disbelief out of my voice. Hadn’t we just talked?

“Definewant,” she muttered before she finally nodded. “Yes, I do. Can we go inside?”

I most definitely didn’t want to go back into the house with her. Not when I needed to keep as much distance as possible between us. Whenever she was close to me these days, my thoughts about her became jumbled, and all I wanted was to clear my mind again so I could go on back to hating her. But, apparently, I’d lost all self-control since I’d come to live at the Lockwoods’ house, because somehow I found myself nodding and following her inside.

We walked into the kitchen, and she opened the fridge, pulling out two cans of soda. She passed one to me, and I frowned down at the can, trying to remember if she’d ever done anything as friendly as pass me a soda.

“You don’t want one?” she asked, drawing the can back from me when I’d been staring at it too long.

“No, I do,” I said, quickly stealing the can from her grasp. My fingers lightly brushed against hers as I took it, and I swallowed a lump in my throat as I tried to ignore the tingle she left on my skin.

“So, you want to talk?”

Ally nodded, but her eyes were struggling to meet mine. It was like she couldn’t figure out what she wanted to say, but then she finally let out a hard breath. “Our fighting has to stop,” she said. Her words came out in a rush, leaving me in a stunned silence. All I could do was lift one eyebrow in response, unable to work out if I should believe what she was saying.

“I mean, I’d like it to stop,” she clarified. She let out another breath, and her eyes lifted to meet mine. A small, nervous furrow formed between her brows as our eyes connected, and there was a hint of apprehension in her stare. The vulnerability and openness I saw drew me in with surprising force, and I found myself unable to look away from her sapphire-tinted gaze.

An array of emotions seemed to flicker across the connection between us, but one sentiment seemed clear. She hoped I would agree. She seemed honestly tired of our bickering, and I felt the same. I found myself nodding before I’d even made up my mind.

Note to self: Ally’s eyes are hypnotic and should be avoided at all costs if I ever want to disagree with her.

“You think we can just pretend we don’t hate each other?” I asked. She flinched a little as I said the word hate.

“You were the one who suggested a truce,” she murmured. “And the truth is, I’m not even sure I do hate you. I’m just so used to fighting with you that I don’t know how to be any other way.”

My mouth popped open with shock. Had the ice princess really just admitted that aloud?

“We can’t just decide to be friends overnight, princess,” I said.

Her eyes hardened a little as I used the nickname, and I resisted the urge to grin back at her. I wasn’t completely fooled by this new, amicable Ally, and I could see her true feisty self was lurking just beneath the surface of her gentle expression.

“I wasn’t saying we had to be friends,” she fired back before seeming to quickly remember that we weren’t supposed to be fighting.

“So, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying we give this whole truce thing a go,” she said. “So, truce?”

She held out her hand like she wanted to shake on it. I eyed her palm warily but doubted that a simple handshake could hide a trap.

I let out a breath and took her hand in mine. “Truce.”

She smiled brightly up at me, and the skin around her eyes crinkled with genuine happiness. When she smiled like that, her beauty was devastating, and I forgot how I hated her. When my senses snapped back to me, I quickly dropped her hand and stepped away.

“I better get back to my friends,” she murmured before giving me another smile and moving past me.

As I watched her leave, something inside me changed. For me, the truce had always been about surviving the year, but I wondered if it could mean something different. I had no idea what our future interactions would be like, but after the brief glimpses I’d seen of Ally today, I couldn’t wait to find out.

---