Page 64 of The Casualty of Us
“Oh yeah.” He jerks a nod. “Boyfriend number two had to pull him off.”
“Neither of them is my boyfriend,” I correct, rolling back to stare at my old friend, the ceiling, and lifting my hands up to rest on my stomach. “Which you know.”
He chuckles quietly. “Try telling either one of them that.”
“Graham is my friend,” I argue back sullenly. “We both know the game here.”
“If you say so,” Ollie starts, sounding entirely too much like our mother for my liking. “You know he likes you.”
“Graham likes me the way a clownfish likes an anemone,” I sigh, closing my eyes as the pounding in my head starts to come around again. “We’re mutually beneficial to each other, and we’re both smart enough to recognize that. He has something else going on too, but I don’t know what yet.”
A finger boops my nose. “Whatever you say, baby sister.”
“I do like him,” I admit quietly. “Just not like that.”
“Well, regardless.” Ollie clears his throat. “Your honor was fought for valiantly.”
“As if I need Hayes to fight for me,” I add, trying to push the thought away even as it springs up. “Fucking dumbass.”
“You have to allow your suitors to prove themselves worth—”
“I will still fucking end you.”
“Fine, fine.” He manages to keep the chuckle under his breath this time. “Understood.”
I scoff as something occurs to me, making me toss back sharply, “And let me guess, they weren’t punished at all for this altercation?”
“No, they were,” Ollie answers quickly. “Coach came out and started yelling at everyone within earshot. Hayes got sent to Sutton after that, and I haven’t seen him since.”
Whatever. “Hmm.”
No need to consider if he’s smart enough to get himself out of it after that debate display.
A couple of minutes of silence pass between us then, nothing but the steady echoes of our breathing answering back and forth in the air before his hand closes around mine. “Make peace with him, O.” He winds our fingers together, squeezing gently. “You set the world on fire, now it’s time to put it out.”
I open my eyes reluctantly, staring for another beat as his request loops around my head before turning to simply ask. “Why?”
“Because.” Slate blue eyes that are a mirror of mine flash with censure. “It’s time to stop and save yourself.”
I blink, curious where he stands about his roommate after this week. “Not him?”
“Him too.” His lips hitch up with a small grin. “Only because he’s been fucking unbearable this week, though.”
I swallow hard, fighting the sudden tightness in my throat and the pounding in my head to get out, “And if I want it all to burn?”
His brows fall, eyes moving between mine a couple of times and apparently not liking what he finds there if the sudden tension of his fingers around mine is any indication. “Remember.” He squeezes my hand hard, gaze stilling on mine. “After sixty million years, it’s the pangolin that walks by as the elephant mourns her baby.”
My lips part with surprise at his words—our words—in a way.
The ones I gave to him after the kidnapping.
The rest of it slips past my lips on instinct, needing to complete the whole. “And somehow, goodness prevails.”
He takes full advantage of my momentary lapse, reaching over to flick my nose with his free hand before I can stop him. “Fight the madness, baby sister.”
“Rude.” I scowl at him, reaching up to rub at my nose while turning back to stare at my favorite thing. Processing everything and admitting to myself that he does have a point becausethe only thing left of the pangolin’s original sidekicks are their fossils. Everything about him and the words ease that knot enough to have it unraveling, leaving me breathing out deeply, “Fine, I’ll make peace.”
“Good.”
