Besides, tonight I wanted to tell him how I felt.
Tonight I wanted to tell Cannon that I loved him, that I saw him as more than just my best friend.
14
Stella
We found ourselves at the party, bodies crammed inside, as well as out front and in the back. The house was on the outskirts of town, cornfields surrounding it, so the level of privacy was pretty extreme. It also meant there wouldn’t be any noise complaints.
For the last twenty minutes we’d been roaming around, plenty of guys, but mainly girls, clamoring for Cannon’s attention. I was pleased when he brushed all of them away, kept his hand wrapped around my waist, and refused to let me go.
Everyone kept handing him drinks, and after the fourth one being shoved at him, Cannon had started saying no. But I could see he was pretty buzzed, and I knew over time that the alcohol would only intensify in him.
“Are you thirsty?” he asked loudly over the rush of music.
I nodded. “But just water, or a pop,” I all but yelled back. Alcohol was the last thing I needed, even if liquid courage sounded heavenly right about now.
The look he gave me spoke volumes. He didn’t want to leave my side, but trying to maneuver ourselves through the thick crush of bodies also didn’t sound very appealing.
“I’ll be fine, Cannon. I can handle myself in the time it takes for you to get some drinks.” I gently nudged him, a smile on my face.
He looked unsure, hesitant. He looked like he wanted to argue, but I straightened my spine and nudged him again, gesturing for him to go because I’d be okay.
Cannon left and headed toward the kitchen, glancing back at me intermittently like he thought I’d disappear.
So I stood there and waited for Cannon to come back, feeling eyes on me, knowing everyone was watching me and probably wondering what the hell I was doing here. I was wondering what in the hell I was doing here.
I heard the sound of something crashing to the ground, and glanced over to where I knew Cannon was, where he’d gone to get us some drinks. Cannon stood toe to toe with some guy I’d never seen before, but then again, I didn’t know the majority of the people at this parry.
I felt out of place.
People moved to the side and I saw the cause of the crash, a keg having fallen off the counter.
A brunette pushed her way through the crowd and got between them, a very stupid move on her part because I could see the anger on Cannon’s face as he looked at the guy he was about to fight.
I pushed through the crowd of people that were now huddled around Cannon and the guy that was about to get his teeth busted in.
“Cannon?” I stopped beside him. “Come on. Let’s just go.”
Although I knew how sweet and kind Cannon could be, the truth was, he had a pretty short fuse when someone crossed him.
“How about you get the hell out of here?” the guy said to me. “Both of you,” he added, talking to the brunette now.
“He’s right, Stella. Step to the side as I put this motherfucker in his place.” Cannon cracked his knuckles.
I could see that he wasn’t going to stop this. Whatever the guy had said or done, it had pissed Cannon off enough he wasn’t going to let this go.
I reached out and touched Cannon’s arm until he looked down at me.
“Don’t stop this, Stella. I can’t. This fucker was talking shit and now he needs to be put in his motherfucking place.” His voice was hard, like steel.
“Cannon, let’s go. He’s not worth it,” I said again, knowing that if Cannon was going to go through with this, there was no stopping him. He wouldn’t end it until the other guy was lying flat on his ass. “Let’s you and I just go somewhere, talk, get away from all this … bullshit.”
He looked over at me and I could see the anger start to dissipate the longer he stared at me. He shifted so he faced me.
“That’s right, Cannon, listen to the bitch.”
Dammit.
Cannon smirked and turned back to face the asshole.
And then he cocked his arm back and slammed his fist right in the center of the guy’s face.
15
Stella
We found ourselves back at my house, my mom asleep, so it was easy enough to sneak Cannon into my room. I shut the bedroom door and leaned against it, my palms flat against the cold wood, my heart racing. I watched Cannon walk over to the bed and sit down. He looked massive on my small twin-sized mattress.
Looking at Cannon right now did funny things to me, things that had my nerves rising and my pulse racing.
You act like you’ve never been in the same room with Cannon before.