Page 40 of Loving Bad
Being with him made me feel nervous and aware of the effect that he had on me. I ran my tongue over my bottom lip as I remembered what he'd done to me in the janitor's closet. The car ride was fairly quiet and before I knew it he was pulling up in front of some old burger joint I'd never been to before. It looked a little run down. The sign above it looked like it had seen better days and only half of the name lit up. It was small inside with only a few tables and chairs.
"It might not look like much, but they make the best burgers," he assured me as he helped me out of the passenger side by taking my hand. The small gesture made the butterflies in my stomach flutter with excitement.
We walked in and gave our orders at the counter and Sin paid for the food. I hadn't expected that. Just before I'd left, I'd stuffed my phone and money into my back pocket. Sin held our drinks and straws in his hand as he walked to an empty table. It wasn't like the place was really busy. There were only two other people sitting at another table eating their burgers. I had to admit the burgers did look good.
"So why did you decide to go to college?" he asked as we sat down at a table and he handed me my soda and opened up his.
"It just seemed to be the next logical step," I said with a shrug. "What madeyoudecide to go to college?"
"I wanted to prove I could do it," he answered.
"Who are you proving it to?" I asked the personal question not sure he would answer me.
"Myself."
"Why?" I asked the next logical question. He pressed his lips together for a moment.
"It's a long story," he replied. In other words, he didn't want to talk about it. "I want to know more about you," he prompted, trying to steer the conversation back onto the subject of me.
"What do you want to know?" I asked with a shrug. His question had made me a little apprehensive. It was the same feeling I got when people were prodding too close to the past that I didn't want to reveal.
"Tell me about your family," he suggested as he fidgeted with the straw. I wanted to be able to tell him enough to keep his curiosity satisfied but not enough for me to be scared that he would look at me differently.
"My parents are dead," I said without emotion. His eyes looked at me sympathetically.
"That sucks," he said.
"Yeah, it does," I agreed. "My brother Connor looked after me."
That was about as much as I wanted to reveal.
"How did your parents die?" He asked the question I'd been dreading. I didn't want to tell him the truth so my only alternative was to lie.
"They died in a car accident," I lied effortlessly.
"My father died," he stated out of the blue as his eyes dropped from mine to the straw he was still fidgeting with.
"I'm sorry," I said automatically. It was what you said to people when they told you something like that.
"It's okay—he was an asshole," he informed me as he met my gaze. There was a story behind that statement and I wasn't sure if he was ready to tell me yet. Sin seemed to tense once he'd mentioned his father.
"So how long have you and Slater been friends?" I asked, trying to change the subject to lift his mood. At the mention of Slater, his mood changed and he smiled.
"We used to live next door to each other and we've been friends from the time we could walk," he told me. I hadn't known them for that long, but I could see the type of friendship they had went deeper than a conventional friendship. It was like they were family.
"Do you have any siblings?" was my next question.
"No, I'm an only child," he replied. My life would have been very different if I'd been an only child. As annoyed as I got with Connor's overprotective nature, I was glad I had him. Our burgers arrived and we began to eat.
"Mmm," I sighed as I took a bite of the food. He was right, it was so good.
"I told you," he said with a smile. Most of the time he was intense, but for those brief few minutes he was relaxed and easy-going. I liked to see this new side to him.
He didn't seem to be the type to open up so the fact that he'd told me a few things about himself made me feel just a little bit closer to him. He seemed to be less the ‘hard bad-boy’ persona and more just a boy who had problems like everyone else.
After we finished our burgers we walked back to his car. It had been a nice and unexpected evening. By the time we got back to the dorm, it was really late. He got out of his car and walked me to my dorm building. I was nervous because I wasn't sure what happened next. I turned to face him.
"Thank you, that was nice," I said, thanking him for the non-date.
