Page 51 of Liars

“Do you really want to take the chance that she could be in trouble and say you did nothing to help her?” Maddox pressed at my side.

She hesitated, torn between protecting Kaylor and helping her. “Can’t you just call her?”

“We would if we had her number,” Mason pointed out.

Poppy’s gaze bounced between the three of us. “Maybe there’s a good reason she didn’t give it to you.”

More like I didn’t care to ask. I bit back a curse. “Don’t screw with me, Poppy. You won’t like the consequences regardless of who you’re sleeping with.”

She flinched as I hoped. “You’re a dick.”

I took a step forward. “Where is she?”

A smug smile curved on Poppy’s deathly dark-cherry lips. “Behind you.”

I whirled, coming face-to-face with the root of all my problems. My pulse spiked. “Where have you been?”

“Maybe she was having sex in the bathroom,” Poppy interjected.

Mason snickered, and I nearly elbowed him in the gut.

A tick pulsed in my eye. Ignoring Nash’s toy thing, I glowered at Kaylor, wondering how such a small package could cause so much trouble in my life. It was better for my mental health to go there than to think of her having sex. I cursed Poppy for putting the thought into existence. My mind chose that moment to remember the feel of her warm, soft body on top of mine.

When I heard her whimpers as I prepared to run this morning, I should have kept going right out the front door instead of detouring into the family room and finding her tossing in her sleep. As I’d drawn closer to the couch, her cries grew louder and deeper, from a place of raw pain that could no longer be suppressed. Fresh tears had spilled from closed eyes.

My hand had lifted, only to stop from brushing her cheek at the last second.

I hadn’t meant to sit on the edge of the couch, but by the time I’d realized my mistake, it was too late. She must have sensed me somehow, or on a subconscious level, she felt the cushion dip under my weight, because the next thing I knew, she had her hands on me, tugging me toward her. I’d been too surprised to react at first. Then… I don’t know what the fuck happened. Her hands had slipped around my neck, and I’d tried to draw away, but she hadn’t let go, and as I’d sat up, she had come with me. Instead of risking her falling on the ground, clunking her head on the coffee table, and waking up the house, I had wound my hands around her, settling her into my lap. I had no idea how much time had passed with us sitting in the dark, but her cries had quieted, and her head had buried deep against my neck, so close, her warm breath had kissed my skin.

Then she sighed, and all I thought was what the fuck am I doing?

I came to my senses and attempted to lay her back on the couch, and that was when the sobs had started again, stirring something inside of me.

I hadn’t liked the feeling…hadn’t liked what she did to me.

I clenched my jaw, forcing out the too damn vivid memory. It clawed at the edges of my mind, demanding to be replayed, but I shoved it down. Now wasn’t the time. “How did you get to school?” I asked, trying a different route. Frustration churned beneath my words, dark and restless.

She blinked, those long, wispy lashes fanning over wide blue eyes, as if she too had been caught in the memory of this morning. A pink flush crept to her cheeks, blood rushing under her fair skin.

Was she thinking about it too?

Her tongue darted out to wet her lips before she spoke. “Poppy picked me up.” A small furrow appeared between her brows. “Did something happen?”

“Yes. You weren’t where you were supposed to be.”

Her lips parted in disbelief before she scoffed, the sound sharp and incredulous. “Call the fucking press.”

The murmur. The shift in energy. The charged air.

That was when I noticed it—the crowd.

Gym classes. Students lingering in doorways. Their wide, hungry eyes latched on to us, faces alight with curiosity like they’d stumbled onto the best kind of drama. Even the teachers weren’t stepping in. They were waiting, watching.

Because this was out of character for me.

I didn’t chase girls. I didn’t hunt them down. I didn’t single them out—not unless I planned to destroy them. If I wanted to salvage my reputation, I had to spin this in my favor, and turn the game back in my direction.

The easiest way to do that?

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