Page 14 of Free Fall

He doesn’t know what to do at first. I can see him in the mirror over my dresser. He rubs the back of his neck, looks at me then the door. “I’m just a phone call away.”

“Yeah,” I say, keeping my head down and pulling out a notebook I have in there.

“Bye, Briar,” he says. With that, my bedroom door opens and closes.

When he’s gone, I turn and stare at the closed door. The first track of tears fall down my face. I’m sad when we do stuff, and I’m sad when we don’t.

I’m just a mess of haywired emotions.

6

I’m startled out of bed by the sound of my alarm. I blink, gasping for air like the sound of the incessant beep is choking the crap out of me.

What the fuck? I didn’t set my alarm.

“Good morning, Shortie,” a too bright voice says.

I cock my head to the right and see Cade Farmer sitting in my desk chair where I left my bookbag still half open from yesterday. “What are you doing here?” I snap, pulling my covers up to hide my exposed skin.

He laughs. “You don’t have anything I haven’t seen before, Briar. Get your ass up.”

I look at him like he’s crazy. “Did my parents let you in here?” That doesn’t sound like something they’d do. They especially wouldn’t do it if they knew his reputation.

He smiles, displaying his perfect set of white teeth. “Of course. They actually like me.”

I groan and flop back on the bed. Cade has always been an early riser. When they all used to spend the night here once upon a time, Cade would already be up by the time the rest of us got our asses out of bed.

“I thought it might go like this,” he tsks.

Suddenly, I hear the trickling of water and a pitter patter as liquid hits my sheet. Soon afterward, I feel a splash on my arm. “Cade!” I throw the sheet off me, but Cade just ends up throwing an entire cup of water in my face. I blink. Droplets of water settling on my lashes. “What the fuck?”

He smiles like he’s won Student Athlete of the Year. “I figured you’d be more likely to take a shower if you were already wet.”

“Goddamnit,” I growl as I look at the mess he’s made.

“Come on,” he says, whipping the sheet all the way down the bed. The front of my tank top is soaked, clinging to my breasts. “Well, hey there, Briar.” His eyebrows raise suggestively. “Nice to see you this morning.”

When I look down, I notice my nipples are standing at attention. “You’re such a pig.”

He just laughs. His reputation around school is well known. He’s never had a steady girlfriend because he likes to sample a lot of different girls, and I mean a lot. “Get your ass in the shower. I’m picking your clothes out today. And don’t think about running to your parents. They okayed this, and it won’t work anyway because they’ve left for work already. It’s just you and me, baby.”

Cowards.They probably didn’t want to hear my wrath when all this started. “I really fucking hate you,” I grumble as I get out of bed.

“Not the first time I’ve heard that and certainly won’t be the last.”

When I stand, I’m in a wet tank top and underwear. The same outfit I greeted Lex in the other night. A string tugs on my heart again at the conversation we had last night. I certainly fucked that one up. For a while, it felt like the only person I could talk to was Lex, but then things escalated, and all I wanted was him. His body, I mean. His skilled fingers. His freaking tongue.

Jesus. I’m giving myself hot flashes this morning. I need to reroute my thoughts pronto.

A piece of clothing gets thrown in my face. When I pull it away, I notice it’s my mom’s robe. “Put this on when you come out. Your mom made it mandatory. I mean, I wouldn’t care if you walked around naked, but…”

I groan in frustration, grasping the robe in my hands as I stalk off toward the bathroom, grumbling to myself the entire way. The nerve of him. I slam the door behind me and stare at myself in the bathroom mirror, leaning over the sink. Part of my now dark hair is matted to my head from where he dumped water on me. My heart still hasn’t calmed down for the intrusion of my alarm clock either.

A loud knock comes on the door. “I don’t hear that water running.”

“Are you going to barge in and make sure I’m actually under the water too?”

“If need be, but I’ll need special permission from Mama Page.”

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