ooks up. The tension between us is so electric it crackles in the air.
“You paid my bail?” I know she’s rich, but she had to put up at least a thousand dollars cash to post bail with the bondsman, maybe more.
She shrugs and stares down at her shoes. “Seemed fitting, since you only got arrested because of me.”
“Maybe I’m just a shitty fence climber.”
“Maybe you’re just a shitty liar.”
I can’t help but laugh, and the minute I do, her eyes meet mine again. She’s right, I am, but not about the reason I got arrested—about her. To tell myself that she’s just some private school brat following her sister around is the biggest joke of them all. I’ve known it since the night we met, when she stood there looking like a deer caught in the headlights. Like Bambi.
“Thank you,” she tells me, the honesty in her voice hitting me straight in the chest.
“Don’t sweat it.”
She looks as if she wants to push it further, to make sure I fully understand how thankful she is for my sacrifice, but she decides against it. “Come on. I’ll drop you off at home.”
I follow her toward her car, and when I see it, my jaw drops. Never in my eighteen years of life have I ever seen something so beautiful. A white Lamborghini Aventador roars to life as she hits the auto start button on her keys.
“That’s your car?” I balk.
She nods. “It was my birthday gift.”
Birthday? Tessa never mentioned it being her birthday, and I’m sure as shit she’s the kind to gloat all day about it.
“When was your birthday?”
“Next week.” She walks around to the driver’s side, and the two of us get in. “My parents have to go visit my sister at college so they decided to celebrate early.”
I hear what she’s saying, but I’m too busy admiring the interior to answer. It’s all white, looking like something out of a dream. This car is hands down worth more than my entire neighborhood, and here it is, in the hands of a seventeen-year-old Goody Two-Shoes. I don’t know whether to be jealous or ridiculously turned on as I watch her navigate the roads.
“So, what are the chances of you letting me drive this thing?”
She chuckles, shaking her head. “About the same as the chances of you not being an asshole.”
“There you go again with the harsh words. See, Bambi? I’m already a bad influence on you.”
“That’s debatable. And besides, if anyone should be taking credit for my language, it’s Tessa. That girl curses like a sailor.”
Laughter bubbles out of my mouth involuntarily. “Yeah, I’ve noticed. Not you, though, you’re…different.”
“Yeah,” she sighs. “I’m different.”
I can feel the instant the mood shifts. The playfulness is gone, and the frown on her face threatens to rip my chest wide the fuck open.
“Hey, I didn’t mean it as a bad thing,” I say in an attempt to lighten things back up again, but it’s no use.
She pulls up to my house and brings the car to a stop. “Thanks again. Next time, I promise I’ll listen when you tell me to go home.”
I get out of the car and lean down to look at her one more time. The way she looks in the driver’s seat of this car is enough to make me combust on the spot. I don’t know what it is that makes the next word leave my mouth, but there isn’t a damn thing in the world that could stop me.
“Don’t.”
8
DELANEY
I make my way through the crowded halls, only wanting to get from my locker to Savannah’s unscathed. You would think there’s some reason to panic with the way kids rush around this place, but there isn’t. Just a normal day in private school hell.