Page 155 of Something Rad
My head snaps in Robbie’s direction at his call, my brows shooting up.
…Sara?
He’s up on his knees, his jaw clenched and the veins in his neck straining. A strand of his perfect hair has gone rogue, falling out of place and curling down in front of his left eye. I can see the slightest tinge of pink topping his cheekbones and ears, a color I’m not sure I’ve ever truly seen on him before. But then he tilts his head forward, and I catch another shade of pink in the light.
Baby pink lip gloss still painting his lips where Denise just attached herself to him.
Heat creeps up my chest at the image.
Her skin on his. His lips on hers. Her knees and chest brushing up against body. His hand on her waist. Her laughter tickling his mouth. His brown eyes fluttering shut.
Because. Of. Her.
I set my empty bottle down, sitting up on my knees.
“Okay,” Robbie says, nodding, his body relaxing. I turn my head back in Paul’s direction. He’s sat back down, but his eyes are still glued to me, his brows pinched.
I see Robbie sit up taller on his knees in my peripheral vision. “I think we’re done with this game–”
But I don’t hear anything else.
Because I’m too busy crawling across the circle and launching myself into Paul's arms.
thirty-two
ROBBIE
Sara sets down her bottle, sitting up, and the sweetest sense of relief washes over me.
Sara.
Yeah. I guess I let that slip. Not sure what came over me.
I clear my throat. “I think we’re done with this game–”
I don’t even get my full sentence out before the relief is immediately replaced with an entirely different feeling that I can’t even explain. It feels like a white hot fire poker is being shoved directly into my chest as I watch Cooper fall to her hands and knees and crawl straight forward across the game circle…
And just to the right of me.
Straight onto Paul Strothers’s lap.
Within the blink of an eye, she’s basically straddling him, her green skirt riding up and falling to the sides, exposing and pooling around her creamy white thighs.
“C–Coop–” My sputtered attempt at questioning her dies on my tongue when she grabs two fistfuls of Paul’s shirt collar and yanks him forward. He happily obliges, eyeing her with heavy lids like she’s a four course meal and flashing her a lazy grin just before she sinks her mouth into his.
The fire poker gives a harsh twist in my chest before it yanks itself free. I snap my jaw shut, gritting my teeth and trying to swallow against the gravel in my throat. I watch Cooper’s ruby red lips work against Paul’s, slow and deep and all-consuming, and my blood suddenly feels like it turns to ice in my veins, freezing me to the spot. I don’t know what’s happening. I feel like I’m going to combust. I don’t think my heart and mind have ever raced so fast. And especially never at the same time.
Butwhy?
This isCooper.
Why do I care what she does?
She can kiss whoever she wants. Good for her, honestly. It would do her good to live a little. Loosen up some. If it was up to me, I’d go with just about anyone other than Paul fucking Strothers, but I guess that doesn’t matter.
You’re right. It doesn’t. Because it’s not up to you.
I blink hard.This is crazy. Why am I worked up over this?This was the point of all of this at the end of the day, right? Cooper and I aren’t from each other’s worlds. We don’t run in the same circles. We stay in our lanes.Thisis my lane. The point of our arrangement was to push her outside of her comfort zone.
