Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 144571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
There was the grimness again, like she’d brought something down on his head, something he couldn’t avoid. “Yeah, we should.”
Some of her confidence wavered, but she shoved the thought aside. “Good. I thought we should talk because homecoming is in a few weeks and we haven’t made plans.”
“I think we need to talk about Jimmy Roads first.” He shook his head. “You promised you would stop.”
She bit back a groan. She’d kind of hoped he hadn’t heard about what had happened after the game. The fight—if one could call it a fight—had taken place yesterday, and she’d thought she’d gotten away with it. After all, the asshole probably didn’t want it to get around he’d been taken down by a girl. “He hit you with an eighty-mile-an-hour fast ball.”
She always tried to attend Coop’s practices. While it wasn’t baseball season, the team still got together to keep their skills sharp. They’d been playing a pick-up game Friday afternoon, and Jimmy was a dick.
Coop’s jaw tightened. “And you broke his nose. Do you know how fast I had to talk to make sure you didn’t get suspended? He wanted to go to the principal. Hell, they probably wouldn’t even suspend you. They would send you to alternate ed or kick you out.”
She’d thought the dude would at least have some dignity. She’d been wrong. Whiny-ass boy. “I didn’t mean to break his nose. I meant to have a talk with him. He’s the one who got handsy. I have the right to defend myself.”
Jimmy had been condescending. He’d parroted all the things Coop’s other “friends” said. She brought him down. Coop was just being nice letting her hang around. Their dads were best friends so Coop felt like he had to be friends with her. She was pathetic since she was chasing a guy who was far above her. Not that her patheticness had stopped the guy from putting a hand on her shoulder and offering to take her behind the bleachers and give her what Coop was never going to give her.
He was lucky it had been only his nose she’d broken. But she wasn’t a whiny punk who was going to cry to Coop. She’d handled it.
“You wouldn’t have to if you would just be…normal.” He took a long breath, seeming to try to keep himself in control.
“It’s normal to not want your boyfriend to get injured by a jackass.” Maybe she’d been wrong. He’d used that word. The one she hated. Normal. She wasn’t normal. She wasn’t feminine. She wasn’t easy to get along with. Why couldn’t she be more like Kenzie? Or better. Why couldn’t she be as perfect as her older sister, Tasha? Kenzie was still weird. If she hadn’t had Kala around to give her cover, Kenz would have been considered super weird. But Tash was perfect.
I don’t know, Ian. I sometimes wish she was a little more like Tash. Life would be easier for her.
Her mom hadn’t meant the words unkindly—hadn’t meant for her to hear them at all—but Kala had taken them to heart.
Coop was the one who liked her darkness. At least he had. He definitely liked it on those late nights when she would sneak from her house to his and he would put his hands all over her and kiss her until she couldn’t breathe.
“I’m sorry.” She needed to think about how her actions affected him. He probably thought she was emasculating him when she beat up the dudes who fucked with him. It had probably been pretty embarrassing, like he’d been the one who cried to her so she would deal with it for him. It couldn’t be further from the truth, but she could see Jimmy throwing those accusations in his face. “I should have let you handle it. I just got so angry with him.”
“I know. You never mean it,” he said with a sigh.
She could still save this. Guys were hard on each other. The locker room, she’d been told, was a dangerous jungle. Personally, she’d never been much of a team player. She put a hand on his. “Let’s go upstairs. Talking sucks. Let’s make out.” She squared her shoulders and pulled on every bit of bravery she had. “I’ve got an even better idea. Let’s do it.”
His head cocked. “Do it? Make out? We do that all the time.”
They did. In secret. In private. In public they were friends. Only friends. They weren’t ready to tell their parents they were something more. Or their siblings. Or their other friends. She was pretty sure Kenzie thought she was simply hanging out with Cooper. If Tash thought they were close to being really intimate, she would call their parents in. Only her best friend Lou knew they were getting physical.
But she was ready for everyone to know they were more than friends. What if he wasn’t?