Page 13 of Scarlett and the Kiss Thief

He drew a fraction of an inch closer to me. I hadn’t realized how close we were before. But now, if I stood up on my tiptoes, I could kiss him. I could finally feel what it would be like. I swallowed hard.

I felt as frozen as I had when I saw him kiss Gigi. But now…was he about to kiss me? I tilted my face up to his.

He pressed his lips together. “Deal.” He let go of my wrist and took a step back.

Wait. What?I grabbed my wrist where he’d been touching me and pulled it to my chest. I didn’t want to make that deal. I wanted to be able to flirt with whoever I wanted to flirt with. To make him jealous so he’d like me back.

But I was standing here in his varsity jacket because he thought my skirt was too revealing. And hadn’t he pulled me out of the cafeteria because I was flirting with Jacob? I stared at him. Was he jealous? I wanted to tell him no deal. That I didn’t want him to kiss anyone. And that I didn’t want to flirt with anyone else. But he was already opening up the doors to the cafeteria.

“Come on. Before Mr. Hill sees us out here and we get detention on the first day of school. I’ll even buy you some ice cream from the snack line.”

I barely processed his words. “I need to use the restroom first. See you in there.” I practically ran away from him. Because I needed to talk to Sophie. And I couldn’t talk to her right in front of Axel.

I sat down in a stall, pulled out my phone, and shot her a text. “Do you think Axel seemed jealous?”

“Um…yes. You killed it so hard. He went all caveman on you.”

It worked? I can’t believe her plan freaking worked!“He touched my face,” I texted back.And my wrist. And my butt.He’d touched me everywhere.

“Sexually?”

I didn’t know what she meant by that exactly. “I don’t know.”

“Wait, where are you right now?”

“In the bathroom. We made a deal.”

“You and the bathroom made a deal? I really don’t need to hear about your bowel movements, Scar.”

“No, me and Axel. He said he wouldn’t kiss Gigi ever again. If I promised not to flirt with Jacob. That’s good, right?”

I sat there and waited for her response. And waited. And waited. What was taking her so long? I flushed the toilet even though I hadn’t gone to the bathroom. And then washed my hands and waited some more.

Her response finally came. “So you can flirt with anyone but Jacob?”

I stared at her words.I don’t know.“I guess.”

“Screw Axel Stevens. He doesn’t own you. Flirt with whoever you want to. He can suck it.”

“But you said I made him jealous…”

“He’s playing stupid boy games. This is why I love older men. Because they know what they want and don’t have to play mind tricks. Get your butt back in here and stay on your mission until Axel begs you to not flirt with anyone but him. I promise, Scar, it’ll work. You just have to play a better game than him.”

“But if I keep flirting with Jacob…what if Axel kisses Gigi again?” Just the thought made my chest ache.

“Then they can dine together in hell.”

I laughed because I didn’t know what else to do. But Sophie was right. Axel hadn’t asked me out. Not even close. We weren’t any closer to being together. “I’m not good at games.”

“But I am. And with me in your court, we’re definitely going to win.”

The only problem was that this wasn’t a game of tennis. This was my life. But I trusted Sophie. She’d had tons of boyfriends over the years. My zero didn’t really compare. And I saw the way that Mr. Halifax had looked at her in class. She was about to catch her version of Axel. “Okay. So…what do I do?”

“You come back in here looking hot as hell and eat your ice cream.”

I couldn’t help but smile. It was really sweet that Axel had offered to buy me ice cream.

Sophie sent me one final text: “Phase Incest is still a go!”

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