Page 35 of A Little Bit Reckless
“Hey, Bow.”
I jumped again, even though I knew Bru was coming, and both guys looked at me weird. Bru had merely greeted me, and I nearly jumped out of my skin again.
I pushed back some of my curls. They always escaped my bun. “Hey.”
“Hi.” Bru lifted his hand again. It was a little awkward this time, but that made sense. I mean, a lot of awkward things were happening lately. He quite literally and figuratively helped me off a ledge recently. Bru pocketed his hands. “Ambrose.”
“’Sup.” Wells avoided Bru’s gaze, but he couldn’t once Bru sat down. Wells’s head cocked. “What do you think you’re doing, kid?”
I forgot Wells called Bru that sometimes. It was a nickname Bru’s brother, Ares, gave him.
Bru apparently knew exactly what he was doing because, once he sat with us, he started taking things out of his messenger bag. Things like his MacBook, an actual notebook, and various writing materials.
“I’m here to help Bow tutor you,” he said, and both Wells’s and my eyebrows shot up. Bru frowned. “I’d rather avoid another trip to the ballet I guess.”
My heart sunk. It was well known that our dads took both of them on a punishment trip to the ballet recently. It was something my dad and his best friends Royal, LJ, Jax, and Ramses usually did when one of the guys messed up.
I wanted to be sick. Bru and Wells being punished was my fault this time, and that was well known too.
Why did Wells cover for me?
I didn’t know, and I certainly didn’t ask him to. He may have said something to me that took me over the edge that night, but it wasn’t his fault I got there. Truth be told, I got there all on my own.
I gazed around again. I was looking for someone in particular. Someone I didn’t see, even though he always came through the quad around this time.
Swallowing, the tension in my body moved toward the sudden environment I found myself in. Wells stared at Bru. Like stareddaggersat him for some reason, and Bru was acting like he didn’t even notice. He just kept arranging his materials, and, once he finished, he glanced up at me. “So, what’s with the Archer thing?”
That gave Wells pause again, and me, too.
My heart thudded. “What do you mean?” Of course, I knew what he meant, but I was still in shock. I was just like I had been when I heard the name come out of my own mouth that night.
I shouldn’t have said it then, just like it shouldn’t be addressed now, and Wells sharpened those daggers he stared in Bru’s direction.
Bru shrugged. “You called Wells that, and I was just curious about it.”
I said nothing. I didn’t know what to say, and honestly, I’d already said too much, bringing up old things. It was weak, but all I did was look at Wells. He wasn’t saying anything either, but he did look like he wanted to tackle Bru.
Wells’s jaw moved. “It’s just a dumb thing made up by our parents,” Wells said, and my stomach dropped. It plummeted.
He faced me. “Squeak used to always get herself into scrapes. The girl would literally fall over her feet, so I helped her out from time to time. Looked out for her for Thatch or whatever.”
“So how does the Archer thing come into play, then?” Bru pushed, and I wished he’d stop. I wished this all stopped. That history was ringing in my ears, and it hurt, my insides burning, caving.
Wells’s expression cooled. “It was a play on our names. I was protective, and my middle name is Archer. Our parents joked that I was the archer, and she was my bow. The archer and his bow.”
The archer and his bow.
“Anyway, the term stuck, and Squeak started calling me that,” Wells continued, saying that history as if it was nothing, and I supposed itwasto him now. His mouth formed into a hard line. “Like I said, it was dumb.”
Itwasdumb, and I felt like a fool for calling him that for as long as I did. I was just a dumb kid, a stupid kid.
Bru focused on Wells, frowning.
When Bru finally let up and veered his attention to me, I was looking at our books. I wanted to get our study session done and get out of there.
I wanted to disappear just like those nicknames.
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