Page 47 of Wild Like Us
“Guys can have platonic friends who are girls, Banks. It fuckingexists.” I spread my arms.
He crosses his. “Sorry, I’m just a little fucking lost here. First she’s your sister. Now she’s your friend. Is she going to be your cousin tomorrow? Should I start pulling out the cousin-kisser jokes—”
“Fuck you,” I say plainly.
“No, fuck you,” he whispers hotly close to my face. “I want to fuckingshake you, Akara. Just accept the simple truth. It’s not gonna kill you if you do.”
It won’t kill me if I do.
His words somehow punch me backwards.
I sink onto the mattress and put my head in my hands.I’ve been flirting with Sulli?I think about how I stole her baseball cap, right after she clearly had a moment with Banks in the parking lot.
Shit.
Shit.
I’ve been flirting with Sulli. Every time she’s been interested in another guy, I’ve cut in…and teased her, messed with her hair and shoved her playfully.
I’ve flirted with her.
Will Rochester, her ex-boyfriend, told me to stopflirting, and I did back off my interactions with her because I didn’t want to ruin her first relationship. I couldn’t tell her why I was being standoffish, and when she found out, that almost cost my friendship with Sulli.
She broke up with him instead.
“Shit,” I mutter out loud.
Why has this taken so long for me to recognize? My brain…I’ve just shut off the possibility that Icouldbe flirting. Maybe because I didn’t want to stop, and now it feels like I have to.
SFO has told me I’ve been in denial, and it’s taken Banks yelling at me to finally see that I have been.
Banks sinks down on the mattress beside me.
I look over with reddened eyes. “This is all my fault. She should know what an advance looks like from a guy. I’ve screwed with that—with her.”
He squeezes my shoulder in comfort. “You’re not some Wicked Witch, Akara. It wasn’t out of cruelty.”
“Is jealousy any better?” I ask him.
Banks shrugs. “She’d understand.”
“Maybe she shouldn’t,” I mutter. “She deserves a better friend, better bodyguard—”
Banks shoves me. He literally shoves me off the fucking bed. My ass hits the floor and I look up at him like he’s nuts.
He’s smiling this stupid crooked smile.
And I start laughing. “Fuck you again.”
“Fuck you thrice.” He bites down on the toothpick. “If you try to beat yourself up again, I’ll just shove you harder.”
I stay on the floor, resting my forearms on my knees. “What would I do without you, man?”
“You wouldn’t be on the ground, for one.”
I let out another laugh. And I exhale, massaging my knuckles.What are you going to do, Nine?I’m a leader, and I havezeroanswers on where I need to go. Or what I even feel…
It’s all confusion.
