Carly handed her a drink, and for the first time since picking her up, she relaxed, letting me relax right along with her.
In the mess of my doubts, I couldn’t shake the feeling that bringing her tonight wasn’t the smartest move. But deep down, I knew it was the one I wanted.
THIRTEENDAISY
Kye was so close to me now that I could feel the heat rolling off of him. I still couldn’t understand what was happening. We were fake dating, using each other for outings and meetings, but then here we were. He had invited me back here tonight and seemed content sitting by me.
He did not seem all that interested in making out, though. The guy had been a statue when I kissed him, and I almost died of embarrassment.
I kept throwing myself at him, and he kept kindly reminding me he wasn’t interested.
But then he was asking me to hang out more and sitting as close as he could without touching me.
Although now his hand was up against mine, and I was trying to figure out if that was on purpose or not.
I thought Kye would be uninterested or way too interested. This strange middle ground was confusing.
“Having fun yet?” he asked before taking a swig of his drink. He seemed so relaxed and calm. It was such a difference to the guy I always saw stalking around school and parties.
“I really can’t believe you are all so nice,” I said quietly. “And you would fight your friends before letting them get away with being an ass to me?”
“Absolutely. Honestly, though, I would fight for a lot less,” he said with a smirk.
“I don’t believe it. The fighting friends part. Obviously you’re happy to fight.”
“Do you think none of us have ever got into a fistfight? These guys would kill me if I was honestly rude to the girls.” He shook his head and looked around, his eyes falling on Ransom.
“Alright, honest question for you all. If I was mean to any one of the girls, would you hit me?” Kye asked.
A round of yes’s echoed, but Chase spoke up.
“I don’t think it’s the guys you need to worry about hitting you, though. If you insult one of them, I’m pretty sure they all take it personally.”
“All vipers,” Fox said to me. “And they will go for the throat.”
I looked at each of the girls, each one smiling and laughing. None of them looked particularly scary, but they weren’t disagreeing.
“Obviously, her ex-boyfriend’s friends were assholes. I’m just trying to prove my point that while we can be assholes, she is fine here.”
“You’re more than fine here,” Ash said. “These guys love us. They aren’t going to be mean to you in any way.”
“Come on,” Kye said, his arm moving to rest on the bench behind me. He still wasn’t touching me, but it felt close enough. “Just relax. You don’t have to keep up any appearances here.”
I was supposed to relax with him this close? The guy who had both beat a guy up in front of me and drove nearly an hour to come pick me up when I needed him.
“Fake dating appearances or all appearances?” I asked.
“All the fake appearances. Including the I’m a perfect prom queen appearance you seem to think you have to do.”
“You’re one to talk. You are sitting awfully close for someone who doesn’t need to keep up appearances on fake dating me.”
He shrugged. “Maybe I just want to? If I want to sit close, I sit close. Do you need me to move?”
“No. Do you always just do whatever you want?”
“I mean, yeah, do you not?”
“No. Not at all. Not even a little. There are rules and expectations. Won’t your friends think something else is going on?”
“I’m sure they are thinking a lot.”
“And you don’t care? They know this isn’t real.”
“I don’t think you understand how little I care about what other people think. Call me self-centered, but I don’t spend my days thinking about how other people see me. You shouldn’t either. Obviously, I care about what my friends think to some extent, but what I do is none of their business. And when you leave with me tonight, that is none of their business, and when you spend the night at my place, that is still none of their business. I don’t know why you think everything and anything needs to not only be on display, but talked about to everyone. That is not how I do things.”
“I guess with Dean, it had to be. He told his friends every detail, shared every intimate thing he could, and then it was just ammunition to use against me when they needed it.” I looked at the fire, and then back at him, my eyebrows furrowing hard. “Did you say I’m staying at your apartment tonight?”
“Yeah? I wasn’t planning on bringing you back to your dad’s after you’ve been drinking. I assumed that was obvious.”
“I mean, I would prefer not to because he’s like a drug-sniffing dog if I have alcohol on my breath, but I didn’t actually think you would want me to stay over.”
“I don’t really care. I have a couch to sleep on or a big enough bed,” he said, the words a normal conversation for him, but it made my stomach flip.
It wasn’t like I went to bed with a lot of people, but I didn’t usually go to bed with guys who seemed so uninterested in me.
“If you want to leave now instead, I can take you home.”
“No, I’m alright. I would rather stay.”
