thirty-five
Cole
Shelovedit.
We spent the entire day riding every single ride without a line.
Finn had confided in us, while Rory and Hailey were off riding a coaster together, that he’d made a deal with a kid at school. In exchange for loaning us out the park for the day, he could have his car for the evening.
I’m rarely surprised, but this gesture had caught me off guard. Finn’s car was his baby. Had been since he got it last year. Rarely had he let anyone drive it, let alone borrow it for an entire part of the day.
It was crazy how far Rory had worked her way under his skin if he was willing to do that for her. Even more absurd was how much she had worked her way into all our lives.
The more she was around, the more at ease I felt.
Somehow, she’d even managed to convince Eli to ride a kiddy ride with her. Finn recorded the whole thing on his phone, using it as blackmail in the future. Our friend looking like a jumbled pretzel with how twisted his limbs were.
It made her laugh, and it made the edges of my lips curve up. She was at ease. Her long hair whipping around her face, screaming in hysterical enjoyment. That laugh was contagious.
I found myself smiling more than once throughout the day. The muscle in my cheeks hurt after a while, not used to the upward motion.
A pang hits my chest, realizing she never was carefree around me like that. I fought the urge to buy the park right then and there. Giving it to her if it meant seeing that look on her face every day.
That smile, almost as beautiful as her.
I shake my head, clearing it, as I take a seat. That was days ago. What was this girl doing to me?
Didn’t matter, I was about to ruin her brightness with my very own dark storm cloud. “There’s a party this weekend. You’ll be there.”
She doesn’t raise her head from her book, and it grates on my nerves. Rory used to do the same thing when she was a kid.
Licking her thumb, she flicks at the page edge like I wasn’t even there. Head locked in place. I want to snatch that book right out of her hands, forcing her to look up.
I wasn’t desperate enough to ask if she’d heard me, I know she had. Rory was being stubborn, like always.
“It’s atyourhouse, for Christ’s sake,” I drag out.
Sneering at the librarian when she shoots me a look. Not caring about keeping my voice down. She could screw off. I’m the wrong person to make angry at this school.
Besides, the place was dead empty, anyway, hardly anyone came in here unless they were trying to hook up in the back. For some aghast reason, she liked it here, for the actual books and not to fuck.
Cowering under my intense glare, the librarian looks back down at the stacks of books on her counter. Good call.
Rory pulls a breath through her nose. “Don’t care.”
“It wasn’t a question.” This is a nonnegotiable thing. Rory would be there, even if I had to drag her there myself.
Which would be ridiculous because she again, already freakin’ lives there.
“And yet, I still gave you my answer,” she says blandly.
“Not the correct one.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Rory pops her head up, eyes flaring. “It should.”
She arches her neck, questioning me. Her face a mix of hostility and curiosity. I still hadn’t answered her.