“Kelsey’s younger brother?”
Of course he would remember Kelsey. She was only one of many who had slept with Gray when he’d been in high school. But, unlike most of the other girls he had hooked up with, she had really only wanted one night with him. They had even stayed friends from what I had seen, and she had gone to a few of the band’s shows when they would play gigs at some of the local bars.
“Yes, Kelsey’s brother.”
“He’s a douchebag, Kas.”
“Most guys are,” I tried to tease. “Just look at your friends.”
“Let me take you to the parties,” he surprised me by offering. “I can promise you will have ten times more fun with me than that assclown.”
“Gray, I told you I don’t even know if I want to go. I thought maybe we could all hang out Saturday night after the ceremony. I haven’t seen Jace in almost a year, and it’s been even longer since I saw Kin. And I want to spend some more time with Alicia if I’m going back with you next week.”
He stopped at a red light and turned his gaze on me, his shoulders even more tense than they had been when I had mentioned Kevin. “If?”
“If what?”
His face tightened, his eyes shuttered as he tried to read me. “You said ‘if I’m going back with you next week.’ I want to know what that means, exactly.”
I mentally cursed my choice of words and blew out a long sigh. “It means I’m going to miss Alicia. We’ve gotten really close since Christmas. I love her just as much as I love you and my brother, and I’m going to miss her. So yeah, I’ve been thinking about staying for the summer.”
The light turned green, but Gray didn’t attempt to move forward. “Kassa…”
Several of the vehicles behind us honked their horns, and I could actually hear one old man cursing, but Gray just sat there, not bothering to touch the gas.
“We have to go now.”
“No, we have to talk about this. I have been going out of my fucking mind missing you, so goddamn excited for you to graduate so you could move out to Cali with us. Now, you’re telling me that’s not going to happen?” Disappointment and something else twisted his handsome face, breaking my heart.
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“I just told you why,” I cried, not wanting to go down this road with him now. Or ever.
“But Alicia has been yapping my ear off about how excited she is for you to come out with us. You have four boxes of shit sitting unopened in your room right now, Kas.” He turned slightly, putting his hand on the back of my seat as he leaned forward. “Talk to me here, baby, because I’m confused as fuck right now.”
More horns blew behind us and several drivers drove around us when there was no oncoming traffic. The road rage going on around us was real, but he didn’t seem to realize what was going on outside of my car. His eyes were focused solely on me, those sand-colored orbs trying to see inside me and read all the chaos going on inside my brain.
I pushed my hair back from my face and turned in my seat so that I was facing him, but it also gave me a few extra inches of space between his face and mine. “Look, I haven’t made up my mind yet, so can we not talk about this right now? I don’t want to get into it.”
“Fine,” he muttered and sat back. The light had already turned red again, but I was thankful it’d changed. “But we will talk about this later, Kassa.”
Joy.
FIFTEEN
Kassa
“Are you sure you don’t mind picking us up tomorrow?” Kin’s voice filled my ear as I stood in my closet, trying to figure out what to wear. “I mean, we can rent a car if you’re busy. I know how crazy the day before graduation is.”
“No, it’s not a problem. I’ve had so much time on my hands lately that I have already done everything that I needed to prepare for Saturday. All I have to do is be at school by seven tomorrow night for practice. You can tag along if you want. I haven’t seen you and my brother in forever. We could go get something to eat after.”
“That sounds like a plan, babe,” Kin assured me. “But are you sure you want to spend that time with us? Don’t you want to hang out with friends since you’ll be coming back with us next week?”
I grimaced and finally picked up a pair of jeans. The jeans were ever so slightly tighter now that I had curves from working out so much. Turning, I looked at myself in the full-length mirror, liking the way my ass looked in them.
“Kas?” Kin called out in a singsong voice when I hadn’t answered her.
I turned the phone onto speaker and started looking for a top that would go with the jeans. “Nah, most of my friends are already partying pretty hard. I bet half of them show up hungover for graduation. Alicia has already promised vengeance if I look like crap the day of.”