“Finn, you aren’t coming with me.” Raising my voice since he’s already at the bottom of the foyer.
Letting out a heavy sigh, he drops his hold from the wall where he’d been swinging his leg back and forth. Stretching out his muscles like he believes he’s coming with me.
Running is my thing. Notourthing.
I try again, unwavering. “Why don’t you go back to bed, and I’ll wake you when I get back?”
He thinks about this for about point two seconds before giving me a “nah.” Bringing his knee up and squeezing it to his chest, before switching and doing the other.
“What if I brought you up breakfast afterwards?”
I really want this time alone. Running is the only time I ever feel like I can breathe as backwards as that sounds.
This time he does openly ignore me, rocking back and forth on the heels of his feet and then shaking out his legs.
My nose scrunches in displeasure.
Before I know what’s happening, I’m down the stairs and right in his face. Why does he have to be so irritating?
“Finn, I mean it. It’s bad enough I’m being babysat at school. Let me have this one thing. Don’t take this from me too.”
A strangled cough comes from him then. I can see the fight on his face. A troubled pinch to his brow has me thinking I’ve finally gotten to him until his mouth twists roguishly. “How about we make a deal?”
I force myself to stay neutral even though, on the inside, I want to shoot him the middle finger and just take off. That’s no longer an option since he’s seemed to strategically block the door with his oversized frame. Guarding it like it’s his one life’s mission.
“I will allow you thisonething but,”—there is always a but—“in return, you have to come to my practices every day after school.”
My mouth gapes. Is he joking?
“What if I have plans?”
“Unless they involve Hailey, cancel them,” he deadpans.
My eyes flare. “Two practices a week.”
“Four.”
He is relentless.
“One.” A frosty layer cooling over my scoff.
“Three. Final offer.”
There is something so messed up about all this. No, that’s just Finn, or maybe it’s me for even humoring the stupidity of all this.
He’s making it seem like I don’t have my own free will.
We’re arguing about this, but not he or any of the other hellhounds know what I did the other day at Hardin. Wait until they figure out that little tidbit.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Finn asks when my grin turns saccharine.
I jut out my jaw. “Two.”
His face is already morphed into suspicion as his inhale turns choppy. Eyebrows pinned together in concentration as his thumb starts to stroke his chin. Debating.
“Only if it’s contingent.” Finally deciding.
“On?”