Page 169 of Until We Burn
“Well, I…I like staring at you,” I stammer.
Diana’s brows arch up.
“Oh, absolutely fucking not,”Luke cuts in.“That line is giving creepy old man at the grocery store.”
“Tell her she’s pretty!”Wallace blurts out.
“Just compliment her!”Rowan commands.
“I-I don’t mean I like to stare at you in a creepy way.” I gulp. “I meant more like a ‘you’re pretty’ kind of way, because youarepretty! You have a nicely shaped head.”
Diana looks even more disturbed.
“At this point, you might as well tell her you want to eat her for dinner,”Rowan huffs.
Through the window, I can see the boys in the car. Rowan has his head down on the steering wheel and Luke pumps his fist in encouragement, while he holds up his phone to show Wallace clapping his hands on the FaceTime screen.
Diana sets the menu down and stares pointedly at me. “Kai, what’s going on?”
“Nothing is going on!” I choke out.
She rolls her eyes. “You’re a worse liar than me. I know something is going on because you’ve been acting squirrely all night.”
“Di, that’s ridic?—”
“Oh, shit, shit,”Luke whimpers.
“What?”Rowan hisses.
“Spider! There’s a spider!”
“Goddammit, Luke!”
“It’s scuttling towards me!”
Their screams rupture through my earpiece. I clench up, the noise piercing and jabbing into my eardrums.
“Putain!”
I rip out the earpiece.
Diana gawks at it, her glass of water freezing against her mouth.
“Di, this is not what it—” I sigh, realizing just how idiotic the words sound. I slump back in my chair and flick at the earpiece. “Honestly it’sexactlywhat it looks like.”
Diana carefully puts her glass of water down. “You mean, the boyswere directing you on what to say and do through an earpiece this whole time?”
“It was Luke’s idea,” I insist.
Diana makes a face. “And you thought following any idea of Luke’s was wise?”
Luke scoffs through the earpiece,“Alright, I fucking heard that and that hurts my feelings.”
I shrug, rubbing my forehead. “When you’re desperate, anything Luke says is wise.”
“I did not sacrifice my weekend just to be slandered like this.”
I groan and switch off the earpiece. Embarrassment makes me sink back into my seat. “I’m sorry. Our first date wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
