Page 8 of Reckless Roses
“How did you like jumping off the pier the second time?”
I shrug. “Felt the same as the first, I guess? Fun. The boys are annoying.”
His brows furrow. “Me?”
“Never.” I shake my head, hiding a laugh.
That’s true. Zach, despite being only a year older, is far more mature than Leo and Everett. I don’t know if it’s because the two of them are my brothers—Leo not technically, but since he moved in with us and my parents have become his legal guardians, it seems like the more fitting title—and therefore destined to bother me, or if it’s because there is something special about Zach himself.
Zach and I don’t have much in common, not the way August and I do. He doesn’t read for fun, and I don’t play sports. He’s popular, and I hate the general population most days. But every time I speak to him about books, he understands exactly what I’m saying. Every time I have an irrationally bad day, he reminds me that there are far worse things to be upset about in life than mean girls at school or accidentally finding my twin brother’s nude photos on our shared computer. He doesn’t treat me like a child, and he doesn’t allow me to act like one either.
He makes me feel older, and that makes me think harder.
Plus, he’s… My eyes trail down the length of his bare torso. He’s broad, toned, covered in muscle. He looks like an athlete, and I never thought I’d care much about that, but…well, his body definitely makes my heartbeat low in my stomach, so it’s doing something for me.
“Elena,” he rasps, snapping me out of my stare-down with his pecs. “I asked you a question.”
“What?” I realize he’s still holding the strap of my bathing suit.
“I asked you to describe what it felt like to jump off that pier using one of your big-girl-book words.” His hand runs down the length of my arm, leaving goosebumps in its wake.
I roll my eyes. Zach doesn’t read, but he at least has the basic understanding that reading expands one’s vocabulary. Everytime he comes over, or we meet up on the beach, he asks me to tell him a word I read that day. I’m always searching for the craziest, most astounding words to impress him with, mostly because I like the way it feels when I make him laugh.
It doesn’t take long to find a word fitting of the way this moment feels.
“Exhilarating,” I breathe.
“Hmm.” He smiles, stepping into me. Suddenly, the beach and the pier and everything around me disappears. All I see is him. Smooth skin, dark eyes, full lips. “I’ll bet I can give you a much better use of that one.”
“How?” My voice is hardly a whisper, no doubt drowned out by the sound of crashing waves, but somehow, he hears me anyway.
“Have you ever been kissed, Elena?”
I shake my head.
“Do you want to be?”
I nod, glad he’s not asking me for a word right now, because they don’t exist to me.
I’ve been watching Zach Hayes for over a year now. I’ve been trying my damnedest to garner his attention and make him laugh. I’ve seen his hands and felt his skin in my daydreams—the ones I have when I close my eyes at night, too. I always wonder if he watches back, if he could be thinking the same thing. It feels impossible because he’s older, smarter, more popular than me.
And yet…he’s asking to kiss me.
Wings flap inside my chest as his hand hooks around the nape of my neck, twisting in my hair. He tilts my head upward, and suddenly, his drops down. I let my eyes fall closed, and I don’t just feel my heartbeat in my stomach—I feel it in every cell of my body. My head is swimming; my feet don’t feel like they’re on the ground, but in the clouds.
Electrifying. Burning. Thrilling.Exhilarating.
Words float through my mind as Zach presses his lips to mine, and I wonder if these are the words to describe what falling in love feels like.
4
ELENA
“VIDEO GAMES” - LANA DEL REY
AGE FIFTEEN - MAY
“Augustus, you’re not being helpful.”
