Page 34 of Writing Mr. Wrong

Mason kept kissing her, but all she could imagine was his friends stumbling on them. She reached for his hands and gently peeled them away as she whispered, “You have a game.”

He glared in the direction of his friends, who were still calling him.

“Go on,” Gemma said, giving him a little push. “It’s the finals, and you’re the star.”

He made a face. Then he bent to kiss her forehead. “Tomorrow, okay? I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She gave him a quick hug, and when she stepped back, Mason jogged out from the recessed doors.

“What were you doing back there?” one of his friends said.

“Taking a piss.”

Gemma rolled her eyes. Boys. She waited until they were gone, and then she slid out and took off before she missed the bus.

CHAPTER TWELVE

GEMMA

That had been the happy-for-now ending. The actual ending started the next day, when Gemma arrived at school to discover that someone had snapped a photo of her and Mason making out… and his friends were claiming he’d done it on a dare.

She’d been furious, but Mason would set them straight. She’d been sure of that.

It took all day. Then she was in the newspaper office, clearing out her things, when Mason came in and shut the door.

“Hey, Gem.”

She’d kept emptying her desk, possibly smacking each item onto the top a little harder than necessary.

“So, uh, you may have heard—” he began.

She looked up so sharply he inched backward. “That you kissed me on a dare? Yes, I heard.”

“I didn’t. My friends are just being jerks. I told them to stop.”

She looked at him. He shoved his hands into his pockets, rocked on his heels, and shrugged. “I wanted you to know it wasn’t true.”

“Okay, now I know.”

She waited for the apology. She waited for him to come closer, tryto kiss her again, and she’d duck out, still angry, but they’d talk and work it out.

Instead, he just stood there, rocking. “No hard feelings?”

She tried not to stare, even as her heart clenched. That wasn’t an apology. It wasn’t the prelude to another kiss. It didn’t even sound…

Oh God, it didn’t even sound as if heplannedto kiss her again. He had his gaze down, hands in his pockets, like he’d come to give her a chance to blast him and then he could flee. Take his lumps and get the hell out of her life.

“No hard feelings about the rumor?” she said. “Or the kiss?”

“Both,” he mumbled, and her heart cracked, but she slammed it back together and straightened.

“It was just a kiss,” she said. “No big deal.”

“Yeah…” His shoulders slumped. “Just a kiss.”

“I need to get my things. They want the office cleared out.”

“Sure.” He backed up to the door and reached behind him for the knob. “So you’re okay?”

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