Page 79 of Hooking Up
"Starfish?" Dean asks.
Brendon rolls his eyes.
Iris laughs. "Is that still a thing?"
"You know a guy? Or do it yourself? You can tell me." Dean mimes zipping his lips. "I can keep a secret."
She looks back to me. "Can he?"
I shake my head. Not even a little.
"My ex… sometimes. Not usually, just when he… just sometimes." Her gaze goes to the view. "God. This is beautiful."
"He say that too?" Dean asks.
She laughs. "No. He was light with the compliments."
"And my boy Williams?" Dean asks.
"My lips are sealed." She laughs.
Dean is teasing her.
Now he's okay with her?
What the fuck happened in the last ten minutes?
Iris stops in a patch of shade. She bends over to set her backpack on the ground and pulls out a water bottle. "Is he always this…"
"Annoying?" I offer.
"Hot and cold," she says.
Brendon stops in the shade next to her. He looks to me and raises a brow. "You really don't get why he's pissed?"
I shrug.
"Fuck, you're like a teenager." Brendon shakes his head.
"That mean you want to fuck me?" I ask.
He doesn't take the bait. "You're not my type."
"It's obvious. He feels threatened." Iris looks up at me. "Like you're gonna stop hanging out with him now that you have a girlfriend."
"But we're not—"
"I know. But maybe he doesn't believe that." She sprinkles water over her forehead. It drips off her chin and onto her chest.
"He gets the same way whenever Sabrina shows up," Brendon says.
Iris turns to him. "Who?"
He shoots me areally?look.
Really. It's my baggage. I can keep it close.
She turns to me. "Who's Sabrina?"
