Page 217 of Something Rad
Her skin is like ice against mine, goosebumps covering every exposed inch.
“You need to get warm!” I shout back at her, matching her volume. Luckily, the music playing from the party is so loud and certainly drowning out our voices from the other side of this door. We’d surely have raised a few eyebrows by now if not.
Cooper lets out a growl. “I don’t n–need anything! Esp–especially from y–you!”
I manage to get her feet over the edge of the tub and plant them on the floor of the shower. She lets out a gasp as soon as the water hits her. I reach over, trying to turn the temperature even warmer, but she yanks back the curtain and tries to jump out as soon as I do.
“Cooper!”
“Just le–leave me a–alone!”
My body has a mind of its own, and before I even realize I’m doing it, I’m throwing my jacket off my shoulders and climbing into the shower, forcing Cooper back. She starts flailing her arms, but I reach up, grabbing her wrists in my hands.
“Are you c–crazy?!Wh–what are you d–doing?” Cooper growls.
I transfer her right wrist to hold it in my left hand with her left wrist long enough so I can whip the curtain closed behind me, sealing in the warmth. Within seconds of me doing so, I can see the color slowly returning to Cooper’s face. She doesn’t seem to care though, too focused on getting angrier at me by the second.
“L–let me out!” she screams, simultaneously shoving against my chest and shifting so she’s out of the path of the shower stream.
“Why are you so goddamn stubborn?” I grit, forcing her back under the water.
“Why do you even c–care?” She snarls, spinning out of my grasp, escaping the water again.
I grit my teeth as I turn to face her, grabbing her and yanking her into my chest before she can even reach for the shower curtain.
“Get off of me!” she snaps. “Why does it m–matter to you anyways?”
Great question, I think to myself.
I don’t even think I have an answer.
Liar.
Itdoesn’t matter.
Shematters.
Regardless of how much I wish she just wouldn’t.
I spin both of us around, stepping forward so that the shower is running down Cooper’s back, causing her to let out a hiss. “I’m trying to help you, Cooper.”
“I don’t need your h–help!” she grits, squirming in my arms.
“You are goddamn unbelievable,” I mutter, forcing her back.
Heat rushes her face, her brows scrunching together in anger. “You are the most infuriating human I’ve ever met,” she hisses through her teeth.
“Ha!” I throw my head back. “Try looking in a mirror sometime, Cooper.”
She pushes against me, but I push harder, and her back hits the wall of the shower, the warm spray coming down hard over the two of us.
A humorless laugh comes out of Cooper. “God, I haven’t appreciated the last two months enough,” she shouts at me through the water.
My spine straightens. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I mean, don’t get me wrong,” she says, shaking her head. “It’s been nice. But I think I forgot too quickly what it’s like to not want to constantly wring someone’s neck. To not feel like I’m going completely insane all the time.”
My tongue pushes into my lower lip, catching the water droplets falling freely onto it. Shower steam clouds around us as I look down at Cooper, narrowing my eyes. “Yeah, you’re right,” I agree. “I forgot what it’s like for my blood to not be boiling twenty-four hours a day. To not be fought tooth and fucking nail on every single thing I do and say.”
