Page 22 of From Angel to Rogue

But she didn’t get the hint. “And you are?” she asked, slyly tucking her hair behind her ear.

“Landon,” I mumbled.

“Landon,” she said in her grating voice, and I immediately wanted to wash her lips with bleach. “Did you just move here?”

“Yes.”

“We should hang out.”

“No, thank you,” I said honestly this time. Whatever perfume she was wearing was already giving me a headache.

She looked taken aback, like no one had ever denied her presence.

“We should be going to the same school. Trust me, nothing is interesting in Bellevue. It’s the most boring town, but I know all the cool places. I could show you…”

I wanted the girl with the golden hair, who spoke random things, making my heart fill with the kind of intrigue I’d never felt before. I wanted Katy to come back already and save me from this perfume-riddled assemblage.

I mustered a smile, hoping she would leave me alone. Just then, I saw Katy rushing toward me, clutching a carton of milk in her arms. Her steps faltered when her eyes dragged over to the girls in front of me.

Sabrina followed my gaze, and her lips pulled into an ugly snicker as she looked at Katy under her nose. And I didn’t like it one bit.

Katy swallowed and walked over to me so slowly like it was the last thing she wanted to do. Just as she crossed Sabrina and her friends, they said something to her in low tones so fast that I didn’t catch it.

I wanted to interrupt them, but the cashier rang up my bill just then, slowly announcing my total. I threw a few bills and turned, but Katy was already by my side, looking down as she extended the milk carton. “Here.”

“Thanks.” I took it and cast a frown toward Sabrina and her friends, whose giggles only got louder.

For some reason, that made Katy stiffen, and her shoulders bunched up in tension.

“You okay?” I muttered.

She nodded but didn’t say a thing.

Thankfully, right at that time, the cashier was done. I retrieved the brown bag and took hold of Katy’s hand without a second thought as I hauled her out of there.

A tiny gasp slipped through her lips when my warm fingers laced through her soft ones.

I’d never held hands with a girl before, but right here, right now, it felt like we were a perfect fit.

CHAPTER 4

KATY

He was holding my hand.

Mine.

It felt so warm that the heat of it felt like it was burning my chest.

Today was definitely the most interesting day in my entire life. I didn’t just realize that I had a crush, but I also spoke to him. He agreed to be my friend, and now? I was walking home with him hand in hand.

That never happened to girls like me.

But it wasn’t something to overthink or read between the lines.

We hardly knew each other. Maybe this was something that they commonly did in the cities.

“For you,” he said just as we reached our house. He stuffed the pockets of his hoodie I was wearing with jam pies.

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