Page 20 of No Romeo
“I swear to God!” Wolf’s voice echoed over the open water. “If you’re fucking Voldemort in that lake, you will never hear the end of it.”
We both shoved away from each other like we’d been caught doing something bad.
My face burned when I swam around Hendrix toward the pier.
“Man, I’m not fucking her. She almost drowned.” No thanks to him.
When I reached the ladder, Wolf folded his arms over his massive chest. “Poor Kyle. But, once a cheater…”
The insinuation boiled my blood. Kyle was my friend.
“Fuck off, Wolf.” I hoisted myself onto the pier. “Like I would ever touch Hendrix again.” The lie nearly choked me.
Wolf tipped his head back, staring at the sky. “Please, for the love of God, put some clothes on.”
“Grow up. I know you’ve screwed far worse.”
He groaned. “I forgot how annoying you were.”
Hendrix hauled himself out of the lake. It took everything in me to turn my gaze away from the wet T-shirt clinging to his carved muscles.
When I bent over to reach for my clothes, a massive splash came from behind me.
“Dude,” Wolf coughed. “What the hell was that for?”
“Looking.”
When I turned around, the conflicted expression on Hendrix’s face nearly killed me, but I couldn’t study anything that had happened tonight too closely.
“Thanks for not letting me drown in body soup.” I wanted to say more, and that was the problem. There was too much between us that couldn’tbesaid.
Don’t fucking do this to me.
I’d hurt him, and I would keep hurting him. That was why I walked off and kept going. Why I needed tokeepgoing until I was nothing but a distant memory in Hendrix’s life.
I’d already done enough.
Chapter7
HENDRIX
I watched, confused as hell, as the darkness swallowed Lola.
I’d wanted that apology for two years. Now that I had it, it didn’t change a thing. It didn’t make anything better; it just made me feel more like shit.
“You’re a dick.” Wolf pulled himself up the ladder. “I wasn’t looking at her.”
“Bullshit.” I yanked off my soaked T-shirt, twisting the water out before I headed across the field to the party.
“You’re one doomed motherfucker, Hendrix,” Wolf called behind me.
And from the way it felt a few moments back when Lola’s slick body had been plastered against me in the water, I hated to say it, but I thought he was right.
The next morning, before school, Wolf dropped me by the electric company.
We’d sold enough weed at last night’s party that I was able to pay the reconnection feeandbuy a Slushie. Which was good seeing as how that girl never showed up about renting the room.
I stood outside of the 7-11, slurping back the drink while I stared across the street at the school parking lot. Specifically at Kyle’s red Honda. He had a Chewbacca sticker on the back windshield.
