Page 43 of Puck You
“She’s too busy for us,” Caroline snarked in a playful tone.
I gave her an exasperated look.“Professor Lang assigned us an entire book to read before class on Friday.”And my sister is giving me heartburn with all the worrying I’ve been doing.
“Meals should serve as an obligatory break,” said Kent before he bit into a large sandwich.There was a twinkle in his bright blue eyes, and I was positive it had everything to do with his proximity to my blond roommate.She might not have realized it yet, but Kent had itbadfor her.
“That’s just your excuse to eat, like, ten meals a day,” Caroline said.
He flashed her a smile and flexed his biceps.“I’m a growing boy, what can I say?”
“Is this a thing now?”I asked, motioning around the table with my fork.“Two weeks ago, we were deciding whether or not to toilet paper your house and hang tampons from the sad-looking bush in the front yard.”
Lydia choked on her drink at my confession.
“It’s a historical house, you know.Any damage would have certainly assured your expulsion.”
My heart rate spiked at the sound of Sebastian’s voice.He appeared over Kent’s shoulder, one hand gripping the strap of his backpack and the other palming an apple.Holding my gaze from across the table, he lifted the fruit to his mouth and bit into it.My breath hitched at the resounding crunch.
“Are we all friends now?”he asked, taking the seat beside Kent, placing himself directly in front of me.
“If ‘we’ excludes you, then yes,” I said with a sweet smile.
Sebastian grinned.“Does that mean you won’t be attending my birthday celebration this weekend?”
“Finally turning five years old!”I exclaimed.“You must be proud.”
“It’s a big milestone.I can even count to ten.”
“I can bring a cake.Would you prefer dinosaurs or race cars?”
He scoffed.“Cars on a cake are tacky.Anyway, Landon is already handling the cake.”
The thought of Landon being in charge of anything that required planning made me laugh.“If you put him in charge of the cake, I’m confident strippers will burst out of it the moment you light the candles.”
“Well, too bad you won’t be there to see it.I don’t allow non-friends access to my family lake house.”
“I’m completely devastated,” I deadpanned.
“Are they fighting or flirting?”Kent asked.
I promptly kicked him under the table, a silent warning to shut his mouth.
“So,” Bryce said after a long moment of silence.“Got any big birthday wishes?”
I didn’t miss the way that Sebastian’s gaze jumped to me, those green eyes of his blazing with an intensity that, for a moment, looked a lot like wanting.But it was gone in a flash, so quickly that I convinced myself I was imagining things.
>> <<
Gabs
Hey ...
Are you ever going to talk to me again?
I just need to know you’re alive
Are you done being mad at me?
It’s been like two weeks, come on ...
