Page 28 of The Lies that Bind Us, Part One

I gave her a look.

“I mean, you’re not exactly at your peak. You’re not healed yet. Is it smart to go after him right now, when you’re not at one hundred percent? Maybe we should wait. Maybe I shouldn’t go anywhere tonight.” Her hands were on her lap, and even though I couldn’t see them, I was pretty sure she fiddled with them.

“No,” I told her sternly, causing her brown eyes to flick back up to me. “You’re going. We’re going. If he comes up to you, you need to focus on getting him alone, away from the party. That’s it. Let me handle the rest.”

The sigh she let out right then put her earlier one to shame, and she bent over, reaching for her bag. I heard the sounds of a zipper being pulled, and then she straightened herself out and slid something over to me. “I got these for you, to help hide your face.”

Awe. She was thinking about me today. I wondered if she was thinking about me when I was thinking about her, wondering if she was a virgin. Yeah, no possible way our thoughts were similar.

I picked them up. Big and black and round. Aviator sunglasses. “You want me to wear sunglasses,” I paused, emphasizing these last words, “at night?”

Charlie nodded once. “Yeah, you know, like that song. You know it, right? You have to. It’s old like you.” She said it so offhandedly, I didn’t know whether she was trying to poke fun at me or not.

“Of course I know the song,” I said, shooting her a frown. “Do you even know what that song is about?”

“No, why?”

“I don’t know whether to be disappointed or insulted,” I muttered. Disappointed that she had no idea—and why would she? The song was old. Insulted because that song was way older than me. Like, way older.

Charlie’s hands were once again on her lap, and she stared at me as she said, “Put them on.” She looked so small, sitting there across from me, her shoulders too thin. It was like she needed to eat more or something. Skin and bones all around, so thin I bet when the wind gusted hard, it could easily pick her up and carry her away.

Why was I thinking of anyone getting between her legs? I didn’t care. I liked women with more meat on their bones, not girls who were the literal size of children. That was just gross. She was gross—-she was gross, and anyone who wanted to get with her was also gross. She should be a virgin. Someone like her shouldn’t be allowed to have sex. The world would be a better place without guys like that in it.

See? If she was a virgin, I wouldn’t be thinking about it.

Hmm… regardless of who her stalker turned out to be, maybe I should kill Zak and do the world a favor. It wasn’t so outrageous to think that anyone who’d touched Charlie should die a brutal and painful death.

Because it was gross. Yeah. Don’t mind me; just going to repeat that to myself for a while.

“Try them on,” Charlie said, but I didn’t move, too busy wrestling with my thoughts. “Come on.” When I still didn’t move an inch, she got up, strolled around the table and snatched up the sunglasses. She opened them and slid them over my ears, setting the glasses on my face so she could get a good look.

Her short frame didn’t even have to bend over, even though I was sitting. I was more level with her face than I could ever be standing, and that was why, when I turned my face to hers and let her take in my appearance with the sunglasses on, my hands tensed up.

She was close. So close. And now that my eyes were shielded by thick, black sunglasses, they dropped to a place they definitely shouldn’t.

Her lips.

“With the hair and the glasses, you don’t look like yourself,” she said, appraising me, totally unaware my gaze had drifted south of her nose. “I do see your blond starting to come through.” She lifted a hand, running her fingertips gently around my hairline on my forehead, as if to get a better look. “We’re going to have to dye it again soon—”

I didn’t doubt she was going to say more, but she stopped the moment I grabbed her wrist and jerked it away from my face. She let out the tiniest of gasps, having not expected the sudden movement, but she didn’t immediately try to pull herself away.

Her wrist was so goddamned small, my hand damn near could crush it if I wanted to. It bothered me more than I cared to admit, and I couldn’t even say why. Like, it made no fucking sense.

I let out a shallow breath, resisting every impulse I had to turn my entire body toward her. It’d be so easy to pull her onto my lap and then—

Shit. No.Fuck, and I could not emphasize this enough,no.

“Can you…” Charlie swallowed. “Can you let me go?” It was a good thing she couldn’t see through the sunglasses, because if she could, she’d be able to see the fire in my eyes, the way I couldn’t stop staring at that mouth.

I let her go, and she immediately took a step back. She quickly grabbed her bag off the floor and said, “I’ll be upstairs. Remember to meet me on the road at nine.” She didn’t look back once as she hurried away, which was probably a good thing.

What the fuck had gotten into me? My hands clenched into fists. I tore the sunglasses off my face and set them down, barely able to hold back a groan.

Seriously. What the fuck was that about?

Chapter Eleven – Charlie

My parents were shocked when I told them I was going out tonight. My mom had changed into her pajamas, while my dad still wore his UPS shirt, though he’d unbuttoned it. They sat together on the couch in the living room, both of them staring at me like I’d grown a second head when they weren’t paying attention.

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