Page 31 of The Pucking Kiss

“Let’s go,” I told her moodily and started walking, expecting her to follow me out.

The sound of her shoes clanking against the auditorium floor grew louder and louder until they finally caught up to me. “What’s up with you? You’re cranky for no reason.”

“I bet he was saying something real funny, wasn’t he?” I shot back, annoyed.

“Who? Karl?” Romai’s forehead crinkled with confusion. “He was just telling me a story about how he got interested in the sport.”

I rolled my eyes, “Yeah, and you sure loved listening to it.”

“Bryan,” she touched the top of my shoulder, urging me to look at her directly. “You know he was just being friendly, right? I mean, that’s the whole point of this entire thing. That I make more friends, I thought you’d be happy for me.”

“Out of all the people in the school, you choose to be friends with that guy?”

Romai shrugged her shoulders, “He was being really helpful and nice. I don’t know why you’d have a problem with that.”

“He’s just trying to use you to get information on me,” I told her.

She let out a chuckle, “Come on, you’re not serious, are you?”

“Trust me, Romai. I’ve known him longer than you have.”

She stopped walking altogether and crossed her arms out in front of her, seeming offended. “So, a person can’t be interested in just me without it being an elaborate plan that somehow involves you? Wow, you really seem to have a great opinion of me.”

“I didn’t mean it like that…” I sighed, feeling mad at myself for feeling jealous in the first place. “Let’s just get the lesson out of the way now. I don’t want to talk about any of it anymore.”

Romai frowned, “Fine. If that’s what you’re to act like, then so be it. Let’s go to the study room now.”

I followed her lead to the study room. At least learning physics would help distract my mind from all the weird thoughts that kept popping up into it.

Romai was just a girl I was helping out in exchange for free lessons. It would be a mistake to get my emotions involved.

Chapter 12

Romai

Bryan was acting super weird. He had barely said one word to me as we walked back to his house, opting to look at his phone instead. Now that we were in his living room with the course books sprawled out between us, I hoped that he had gotten over whatever was looming in his head.

“We’re going to do integration today,” I told him, pulling up a sheet of paper in front of me. “Do you remember anything about it from class?”

“Wasn’t really paying attention,” Bryan shrugged, his eyes still glued to his phone.

“You can’t use this while we’re studying,” I said, reaching over to take the phone from him.

“Hey,” he tried to swipe it back from me, “I was using that.”

“Well, I’m not here to talk to walls,” I told him, growing annoyed by his cavalier attitude.

“Maybe you should. I do it all the time since I’m home alone for the most part.”

My expression softened as I remembered what he had told me about his mother never being at home. I put down the phone and closed the books, scooting over closer to him.

“What are you doing?” he asked, surprised. “I thought we were meant to be studying.”

“We are, but we can ease into it. Now that I’m here, at least you have someone to talk to.”

“I have friends, Romai,” he replied, annoyance dripping from his tone. “Certainly more than you.”

“Oh, so are they here when you’re sitting around talking to the furniture?” I raised an eyebrow. The expression on his face changed immediately as he realized I had picked up on what he had said earlier.

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