Page 24 of Under My Skin
I frown and swallow my bite before bringing my attention back to Everett and his perfect post-shower hair. “Do you still have a car?”
“I have a second helmet,” Everett offers carefully, like he knows exactly what my response will be.
I shake my head and go back to eating. “No.”
He leans his elbows on the counter across from me. “Scared?”
There’s a playfulness to him that I don’t appreciate right now. “No . . .” I answer slowly. “I don’t get on bikes with boys. That would be stupid.”
He grins at my response. Holding a hand to his bare chest, he says, “Is that all I am now? A boy?” Straightening, he shakes his head. “I’ve known you since before you started school, Luce.”
He’s the only one who’s ever called me that. Even when we were younger, he’d walk in through our kitchen door, nod to me eating a snack, say, “Hey, Luce,” and then go straight to Simon’s room. I never knew why he did it, but I liked it. It made me feel like I belonged even though I never spent much time with them.
Now that I’m older, I might like it more. “You’re still of the boy variety,” I answer flatly before taking another bite. The bowl is getting low though, and I’m not sure what I’ll do once I can’t escape this conversation by stuffing my face.
He lets out a bemused laugh, and I bite the side of my cheek to avoid smiling at the sound. “Come on, I’m pushing thirty. At this point, I might as well have ‘safe driver’ stamped on my forehead.”
I eye him warily, taking longer to chew than I need to.
When I don’t respond right away, he pushes back from the counter. “Up to you, but I’m leaving in thirty if you want a ride.”
He holds my stare as he walks a few paces backward, and when my only response is to take another bite, he chuckles and turns back toward his room. I crane my neck, trying to catch aglimpse of the ink on his back, but all I can see is that it’s massive.
As soon as he’s gone, I breathe more easily. I finish my cereal and wash the bowl before grabbing my clothes out of my bag and going into the bathroom to change. I’m still not sure if I’ll take him up on his offer, but one thing’s for sure, I need to snap out of this haze and clear my head of Everett Meyers.
Chapter Fourteen
EVERETT
Her hair isup in her signature ponytail, blonde bangs framing her face as she stands beside my bike and stares down at the helmet in her hands. She’s wearing leggings with a lightweight sweater and my leather jacket for the ride. She might as well be drowning in it, but something about seeing her wear something of mine has me hoping this isn’t the only time she gets on my bike.
“You don’t have to,” I say for the millionth time as I get seated. “If you wake up Simon, I’m sure he’ll take you in his car.”
She finally breaks her unwavering stare from the helmet to look back at the apartment behind us. “He’ll be in a bad mood if I wake him up.” Bringing her bright blue eyes up to meet mine, she adds, “And I kind of want to do this alone.”
I wait another beat, giving her a little more time to consider. “It’s only seven minutes, Luce.”
She blinks, her eyes clearing. “I remember seeing you do a wheelie on Chester Avenue once.”
“Yeah. I won’t do that.”
She bites her lip. “And that other time you took off so fast you left tire marks.”
“I won’t do that either.” She’s listing things from years ago. Ican’t even remember the last time my bike had only one wheel on the ground. And leaving tire marks? What was I, sixteen? “Look, how about I give you the most boring motorcycle ride of your life? Does that sound good?”
She taps her fingers against the hard outer shell of the helmet before huffing. “Fine. But if you kill me, Everett, I swear to God, I will haunt you.”
I pull my own helmet over my head. “Just in time for Halloween.”
She narrows her eyes as she lifts the helmet, but I hold out my hand to take it from her.
“You might need to loosen your ponytail first.”
She pauses for half a second before handing me the helmet and pulling her hair free. It’s longer than I thought it would be. Waves of blonde fall over the dark leather of my jacket, and if I thought I liked seeing her in my clothes before, this definitely just confirmed it.
Lowering her ponytail, she gives it a quick twirl and lets it fall over the front of her shoulder. Seriously, when did she start looking like this?
“The helmet?” she says with an outstretched hand, and I realize I’ve been staring at her for too long.
