Page 47 of I Hate You More

It wasn’t until he was out of sight that I let out a breath. Was it really so hard for him to believe I’d apologize when I was wrong? And why was he so defensive when I thanked him? My plan to get him to date me was obviously floundering. I hadn’t managed to bring up the truce yet, and he’d barely seemed to notice my bikini.

What really concerned me though was my own reaction to him just now. There must have been something seriously wrong with me, because I had liked it when he touched me and a twisted part of me wanted him to touch me again. He despised me, and I hated him, and I was left wondering why my body hadn’t got the memo.

15

Chase

I shouldn’t have leftmy room.

That was all I could think as I joined my friends by the pool. I kept glancing back toward the house and my hands were clenched into fists at my sides as I tried to stop recalling the feel of Ally’s soft skin.

We’d run into each other by accident, and I didn’t mean to touch her, but now that I had, I couldn’t seem to erase the memory from my mind. My hands were still prickling from the contact, and the strawberry scent of her shampoo lingered in my nostrils. I struggled to understand how a girl I hated could elicit such a response from me. I didn’t like it and couldn’t let it happen again.

I blamed that flimsy red bikini of hers. I’d been minding my own business in my bedroom, but then I’d taken a look out the window to see how the pool party was going, and I’d seen what she was wearing. She’d been prancing around the backyard with Luke, and the sight had pissed me off enough that I’d decided to join the party. I’d been trying to do the right thing and give her some space until she came to her senses about the poster prank and finally realized I wasn’t the culprit. But on seeing the bikini, I’d changed my mind. How could she get upset about stripper posters and then wear something like that?

And now, thanks to that stupid bikini, I knew she didn’t blame me for the posters anymore. She’d actually apologized, which I was still unable to believe, and she had looked at me like she saw more than just her enemy for once. I couldn’t remember the last time she’d regarded me without hatred clouding her eyes, and I found myself both wishing for that hatred to return and fearing it at the same time. It was so much easier to dislike her when she so clearly despised me.

I hated that her big blue eyes were so alluring when they weren’t filled with spite and that she’d fit so perfectly within my grasp. When she’d stumbled into me, our bodies had seemed to meld together like two puzzle pieces, and a small, stupid part of me hadn’t wanted to let her go.

I let out a groan and rubbed my eyes. Our bodies fit together like two puzzle pieces? That girl was making me lose my mind.

“Everything all right?” Shane asked, coming over and handing me a beer.

I took the cold bottle and opened it, knocking back a long drink before I replied. “Just bumped into Ally.”

The corner of Shane’s lips lifted in a smirk. “Did you now?”

I nodded, not liking the knowing look in my friend’s eyes.

“Avoiding her isn’t going very well then?” he asked.

I let out a short laugh. “You noticed that, huh?”

“I notice everything…” My friend’s eyes bored into me as he spoke, and I wondered if he could read minds. I certainly hoped not, because he was the last person in the world I’d want to know about my puzzle-piece moment. Well, aside from Ally.

“So, are you guys over it?” he prompted.

I shrugged. “She did thank me for dealing with Declan.” But that didn’t mean I was done avoiding her. Given how confused I’d felt toward her lately, steering clear of Ally was probably still a good idea.

“Good,” Shane replied before a frown creased his brow. “I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me he was behind the posters so I could help you defend my sister’s honor.”

“I had it handled,” I replied. Shane was talking a big game, but he’d never do anything to risk getting in trouble during football season. He was too important to the team, and I would never have put him in that position by telling him what Declan had done. I’d already let all those boys down when I stopped playing last year, and I couldn’t let them down again.

“Did you guys see Jordan’s backflip?” Luke asked as he came to stand at Shane’s side. I’d barely said two words to the new kid since he started at Fairview, but Shane seemed to have taken him under his wing. “He nearly hit his head on the side of the pool. That guy’s crazy.”

Shane smiled and shook his head. “He’s taken so many knocks to the head in football that I doubt the pool edge would do much more damage. I swear his skull is made out of metal.”

I chuckled and nodded in agreement. “There was a party last year where he charged guys twenty dollars a go to hit him over the head with a log he found in the woods. He was rich by the end of the night, but I had no idea how he was still standing.”

Luke’s eyes widened as I told the story, and he glanced over his shoulder toward Jordan. “That’s absolutely mad.”

“That’s Jordan.” I shrugged. If you looked up mad in the dictionary, he would be right there as one of the examples.

“I saw you talking to my sister earlier,” Shane said. His eyes were trained on Luke, and he appeared surprised the two of them had interacted. I’d seen them barrel into each other at lunch on the first day of school, so it wasn’t news to me they had met. Still, my hand instinctively gripped my beer bottle a little tighter as I waited for his response.

“Yeah,” Luke said. “Ally’s really sweet. I mean, she’s got a bit of attitude, and I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of her, but she’s been really nice to me since I started at Fairview.”

Shane laughed. “True, Chase somehow got on her bad side years ago, and he’s still paying for it.”

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