Page 71 of Cheater and the Saint
18
Saint
Angel was actually a demon in disguise, no matter what his name implied. He’d chosen the scariest freaking movie I’d ever seen in my life, and he’d insisted that we watch it with the lights off.
“I hate you,” I said, grabbing a pillow from the couch and placing it over my face as the music in the movie got really quiet. That only meant that something was about to pop out. “Jesus!”
Angel laughed before shoving more popcorn in his mouth. “Ah, quit being such a baby, Sainty-boo.” He assaulted me with some of the popcorn, throwing it at my face. “The scary dead girl can’t get you. She only goes after slutty college girls. You’re safe. Unless you have something you want to tell me?”
I whacked him with my pillow just as the ghost appeared and crawled on the wall toward a couple that’d been making out. They screamed—my scream blending with theirs—and they ran up the stairs, instead of out the front door. The idiots.
“I’ll never understand why they do that shit,” Angel said, mirroring my thoughts. “It’s like people in scary movies try to be as stupid as possible. No wonder they die.”
I reached for a starburst, and as I was taking it out of the wrapper, a bigboomsounded on the TV, and I jumped, dropping my precious pink starburst somewhere on the floor. “Shit.”
Angel dove into the floor to find it, popping up seconds later and placing it in my palm. “I don’t know if you want it now, though. I think there’s a hair on it.”
I cringed. “Yeah. No thanks.” We laughed and looked back at the movie. Being with Angel was easy. He was the kind of person that I could enjoy silence with, where we could sit there, both reading or on our laptops, and not feel awkward. “Why didn’t you go to the party tonight? Everyone was invited, right?”
“That’s not really my scene,” Angel answered, moving his gaze to me. “I don’t drink anymore, and that’s all those parties are. Drinking and fucking.”
My stomach twisted at thefucking. I had no right to be possessive of Leo, but I couldn’t help it. The thought of him all over someone else was like a knife to the chest.
“Why didn’t you go with your guy?” he asked, both of us now ignoring the movie. “I know you guys aren’t, like, official, but doesn’t it bother you that he’s out and getting shitfaced without you?”
“He can do what he wants,” I answered, going for a nonchalant tone, but missing the mark. I sounded upset.
Angel turned toward me on the couch. “Doesn’t it bother you if he fucks someone? It’d be hard for me to keep having sex with a guy, knowing he’s with other people, too. Maybe I’m just too jealous.”
“Guy?” I questioned.
In the time I’d known him, he hadn’t said one way or the other who he was attracted to.
“Yeah.” A shy smile curved his mouth, and he scratched at the back of his head. “To be honest, I was totally hitting on you the first day we met. But once I found out about you and Leo, I backed off.”
Not knowing how to respond, I just stared at him.
“Damn,” he said before snorting a laugh. “This isn’t weird at all. Sorry, I fucked up our night. I didn’t mean that I’mstillinto you or anything. I’m cool being friends.”
“Relax,” I reassured him. “I’m not weirded out or anything, and you didn’t ruin our night. No worries.”
“Good.” Angel smiled before tossing more popcorn at me. “Okay, scaredy cat. Back to the movie.”
Right as I looked at the TV, the ghost girl had jumped on some blonde girl and was vomiting black goo on her while her eyes rolled in the back of her head. I glared at the smiling Angel beside me. When my phone buzzed, I gladly took the chance to distract myself from the movie.
But then my heart dropped into the pit of my stomach.
Leo:Hey, wanted 2 let u kno I’m gonna have sex. Bcuz u said u wanted me 2 tell u first. B home later.
Even though I’d expected to get that text eventually, nothing had prepared me for actually receiving it. Leo was really going to do it.
An ache tore through my chest, my throat constricted, and before I registered what was happening, a small cry escaped my lips. I didn’t respond to the text. I was too angry, too hurt. I tossed it across the room and buried my face in the pillow.
“Saint?” Angel’s hand touched my shoulder.
“You were right,” I said as hot tears wet my face. I squeezed my eyes shut, but they slipped through anyway. “It does bother me. It shouldn’t, because it was my fucking idea to say he could. But it does. I’m such an idiot.”
“Oh shit,” he said, scooting closer and putting his arm around me. “No,he’sthe goddamn idiot, Saint. Not you. If he doesn’t see what he has right in front of him, then he doesn’t deserve you.”
