I picked up a leftover carrot and tossed it at her. It hit its mark, landing in her hair. She fished it out and dropped it on the table.
“No more complaining,” I laughed at her.
She smiled and wadded up her trash. “See you guys later.” She turned on her heel and her hair swished around her shoulders as she headed for the door.
“Well,” Jude continued to play with my hair, “we better get to class.”
I nodded with a small smile. “Yeah, class.”
After spending pretty much every moment with him the last week, it was weird to spend so much time apart. But class was necessary, and after this week I’d see him even less.
Oh God. I’d turned into one of those clingy girls that never wanted to part from her boyfriend. Damn. What an about-face from who I’d been before. It was strange—especially after spending so long hating him—but once I saw that Jude wasn’t the cause of all my problems it became impossible not to fall for him.
We tossed our trash in the closest trashcan and then he took my hand. His was warm and steady, clasping my smaller one. Even when he wasn’t trying he made me feel protected.
Instead of going separate ways, he walked me to class. Even in high school I’d never had a boy to walk me to class. It seemed Jude was making up for both of our lost time.
On the way we passed the spot where the guy had hit Jude, which led to our first kiss. That was the beginning of the end for me. Although, I thought he probably already had me before then.
Jude released my hand when we reached the building my next class was held in. “See you soon.” He lowered his head and lightly brushed his lips against mine. It wasn’t even a real kiss, but my body didn’t seem to know that. My fingers clasped his shirt and I leaned into him, letting out a soft moan. Jude made me crazy in the best possible way.
He chuckled and removed my fingers from his shirt. He kissed the tops of both of my hands before releasing them.
“Keep reacting to me like that,” he leaned forward, growling low in my ear, “and I’ll take you right here, right now.”
Oh God. A few weeks ago I would’ve slapped him and run away for saying such a thing, but right now…I was tempted to take him up on it.
“You’re not protesting, I like that,” he kissed the skin below my ear, “that’s progress.”
My blood roared in my ears. “Jude,” I panted his name.
“Later,” he said promisingly as he pulled away.
Immediately, I missed the warmth of his body.
I watched him walk away, a part of me in disbelief that he was mine.
“It’ll never last.” My head whipped toward the sound of the voice and found a gorgeous girl standing beside me. She had glossy, wavy black hair, dark eyes, and golden sun-kissed skin. “He’ll fuck you and leave you just like the rest. It’s what he does. And let’s face it,” she looked me up and down with a sneer on her lips, “when he does settle down it won’t be with someone like you.”
Knowing she’d made her point, she flounced away before I could reply. I was tempted to run after and claw her eyes out, but I reigned in my anger. She was just a jealous bitch and nothing to me.
But that didn’t stop the sting of her words or the pain I felt because of them.
Was she right? Would he leave me?
I’d avoided relationships for this very reason—I couldn’t bear the thought of having my heart broken—but I was in too deep now to turn tail and run.
But she made me wonder, would we get a fairytale ending, driving off into the sunset like those old movies, or were we destined to go up in flames?
???
“Something’s bothering you,” Jude commented as we walked to his truck.
“Just thinking about my paper.” Lie. I was still obsessing over what that girl told me. I couldn’t seem to get the words to stop playing on repeat ins
ide my head.
“Oh,” Jude shrugged, “stop worrying so much about it. You’ll get it right.”