Page 79 of Enemies to Prom Dates
“You want totalkto me. That seems odd because you haven’ttalkedto me all week.”
I gritted my teeth. “I think, by now, you know why that is.”
She lifted her stubborn chin. “I’m here with Wick. We’re on a date.”
I peeked around her back and could see three other guys hanging out in his living room besides Wick.
“That’s a pretty crowded date,” I sneered.
She shrugged both shoulders. “Well, you know how it is. I wanted to make sure I was satisfied for my first time. If Wick can’t get the job done, then maybe one of the other guys—oof!”
I didn’t let her finish the sentence. I simply plowed my shoulder into her stomach and lifted her over my shoulder as if her weight was insignificant. Given that she was smaller than Gi, it was.
“Fitz Darcy! Put me down now!”
I walked off Wick’s porch and didn’t listen to a word she shouted. Not when she whaled on my butt cheeks with her fists, not when she tried to bite my back through the shirt I was wearing.
She wiggled and squirmed and called me every name she could think of and, had a police officer driven by, it might have actually looked like an attempted kidnapping rather than a lovers’ quarrel. Fortunately, one did not drive by and it wasn’t until we were in front of my house, because my home was also only a couple of blocks away in the other direction, that I put her back on her feet.
A little woozy from having been upside down for the last fifteen minutes, eventually she steadied herself and once she did, she attacked.
“You asshole!” she said, using her fists in a way that showed she’d paid attention in gym class when they were teaching self-defense.
I let her hit me in the stomach once, then again. Then I pulled her to me, her back against my chest, crossing her arms around her as I’d made her body into a straitjacket.
“Are you done now?”
“Not even close,” she snarled.
“I was trying to protect you! And you know it!”
“You humiliated me in front of the whole school, and I can protect myself!”
“Since when do you care what the whole school thinks?” I asked softly into her ear.
“Let me go.” She wiggled against me, which had the opposite effect of her intentions. Instead of letting her go, I only held her tighter. Because that was thing about Beth. She brought out this instinct in me that wanted to grab and hold on.
“Tell me why you’re really mad,” I said. “Just admit it and I can apologize for it.”
That stilled her.
“You hurt me,” she confessed. Probably easier to do because she wasn’t looking me.
“I’m sorry. When I found out they’d targeted you, it was the only thing I thought I could do to keep you safe.”
She shrugged out of my embrace and, this time, I let her go.
“I don’t know who is doing this, Beth. But it feels like they’re doing it to me. You shouldn’t have to pay for that.”
She snorted. “You honestly think I can’t handle the male population of Haddonfield High? Please, give me a little credit.”
I moved toward her slowly and she didn’t back away. I put my hands on her shoulders and she let me.
"Guys are bigger and stronger. That’s just a fact. And right now, there is no one I trust. I couldn’t risk anyone hurting you. I thought if it looked like I didn’t care about you, they would leave you alone.”
“You could have told me,” she said. And then some emotion overcame her, and she hugged me around my waist, pressing her face into my chest. “I thought we were over.”
I pulled her in tight and rested my chin on to the top of her head. “We arenevergoing to be over, Bennet. Don’t you get that? Never.”
