Page 57 of Unfix Me

Kai:Aren’t you gonna tell me I’m hot too?

Shaking my head, I dropped the phone into my backpack. I may have decided to try out this authenticity thing, but that didn’t make it easy. I’d hoped that I would wake up this morning with a pep in my step and a new lease on life, but it wasn’t that simple.

“Hey,” a guy said from beside me.

I looked up at him, trying to place his face. His name was Parker or something like that. “Yeah?”

“I need this seat. My eyesight sucks.”

“What?”

When I realized who he was, I turned around. Kai raised a challenging brow and shifted his eyes toward the seat beside him, the one this other guy had been sitting in for over a month.

“Uh, I’m gonna stay here,” I told Parker.

My phone buzzed and, curious bastard that I was, I pulled it out of my bag and read the text.

Kai:Ass. Here. Now.

Pretty please.

With a sigh, I picked up my stuff and stood. The room wasn’t completely full yet, but there were enough eyes in here to make me feel self-conscious. They were all watching me and making assumptions, I just knew it.

I dropped my bag with a thud and plopped into the seat. Kai grabbed onto the bottom of it and pulled me closer. The chair legs squealed against the floor, drawing more attention.

“Kai,” I hissed.

He flashed me an innocent look. “What? You were too far away.”

“What the hell are you doing?”

“You kissed me. I’m clingy. Now we’re here.”

My nostrils flared and my jaw ached from how hard I clenched my teeth. He bit his bottom lip and rolled it back and forth for a minute.

“Relax. I’m not gonna plant one on you or anything.”

“They’re all gonna know,” I muttered.

“If I was sitting with any of my other friends, nobody would think anything of it. Trust me. They’re not paying as much attention to you as you think.”

“Okay, but if they are…”

He shushed me, putting a finger to my lips. I swatted it away but regretted it when I saw the playfulness flee from his eyes. After a quick glance around the room, I took his hand, threading our fingers, and shifted so that they were concealed.

“You do look hot,” I whispered. It wasn’t as much about the people around us as it was the fear of saying it aloud. The words almost got stuck in my throat.

He flashed me a heart-stopping smile. Thankfully, Professor Montaghue walked in, so I didn’t have to panic as I got lost in it. I tried to pull my hand back, but Kai kept a death grip on it. I thought West was the needy, touchy-feely one, but clearly, they had more in common than I’d given them credit for.

This is wrong. Everybody can see you.

Taking measured breaths, I listened to the lecture. Kai seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to emotions. He stared at me for a moment, then released my hand, but shifted his leg so that his thigh was pressed against mine.

“Compromise,” he whispered, smiling at me again as he casually hung his arm over the back of my chair.

This felt less like a compromise and more like I’d found my way into the best dream of my life. I never wanted to wake up.

Chapter 20

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