Tears of laughter glimmer in his eyes. “I was just picturing Blaise actually going out on a date and trying to ask a girl out.”
Confusion tap dances inside my mind. “You say that like he’s never dated.”
“That’s because he hasn’t,” he says in all seriousness. “Not really anyway.”
I think back to how he acted like such a player—my initial assumption of him. “Does he know that? Because he acts the opposite.”
He scans me over with intrigue. “Just what exactly has been going on between my brother and you?”
I chew on the end of my pen. “You should know. You’ve been there for most of it.”
“Not the first time you met.”
“That was probably the worst.”
“Why?” He’s even more intrigued and then his gaze zeros in on my neck.
Fuck, I think he can see the hickey.
“Um, because he called mebabyandsweetheart, and then acted like an asshole when I told him a very colorful way to go fuck himself. It was like no one had ever told him off before.”
“That’s because people rarely do. It’s the curse of our last name,” he explains while struggling not to laugh. “I don’t know what’s funnier—you telling Blaise off, or Blaise trying to flirt with you? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him flirt with anyone. Although, I’m guessing that hickey on your neck means you guys have gotten passed the flirting stage.” He bites back a grin to which I glare at him. He gets his funny look on his face that I can’t quite read but I have a feeling he’s about to annoying me. “You should let me get a taste some time.”
“Oh my God,” I groan, directing my attention to the front of the classroom.
I hear him chuckle. So much for being the nice one. Turns out, Rhyland is the flirt of the group. The problem is, he does it in a way that makes it hard to be irritated with him. In fact, I’m not even sure how I feel right now.
Rhyland finally decides to face forward, but not before whispering, “Look, I know Blaise and I gave off some first rough impressions, but I promise if you’ll give us a chance, beautiful girl, we can be friends.”
He leaves it at that, not giving me a chance to reply. Or ream into him for calling me beautiful girl again.
But honestly I’m not sure I want to. Honestly, I’m kind of tired of all of this fighting. I feel like I’ve spent my entire life fighting everything and maybe it’s time to let off a little bit on it. But how am I supposed to just stop something I’ve been doing for practically forever?
21
HADLEY
My sisters are surprisinglyupbeat as we drive home from school. I assumed, since people hadn’t let up with the whole flyer incident, that they’d be mopey and in desperate need of some ice cream. Instead, they’re all giggles and jokes and chatting about hot guys.
“Speaking of who’s hot …” Payton slides forward in the back seat and rests her arms on the console. “How was your morning with our sexy next-door neighbor?”
So much for not thinking about Blaise. “I’m assuming you mean Blaise?”
“Well, sexy could describe any of them,” she says, “but yeah, I’m talking about Blaise. Unless you spent the morning with more than one Porterson?”
“Actually, Alex was with us,” I tell her, only because I already told Londyn.
Payton crinkles her nose. “God, I feel so bad for you. He’s so annoying. I’ve heard a lot of other people say terrible stuff about him.”
“He’s got quite the rep for being a douchebag,” Bailey agrees. “The rest of Portersons don’t seem so bad. Well, Rhyland and Jaxon don’t. I know you hate Blaise, even if you two did kiss the shit out of each other.”
Payton snickers. “Hell yeah, they did.”
“No, we didn’t,” I protest, knowing I’m so full of it. That kiss yesterday was hot, just like that whole licking thing that happened between us, which FYI, I am never telling my sisters about. They’d never let it go.
“Sure, you didn’t,” Bailey singsongs, perfectly in pitch.
“It’s okay if you did,” Londyn reassures me from the passenger seat. She has a soccer ball on her lap and is twisting her hair up into a messy bun. “I know I said a lot of crap about them the other day, but I think I’ve decided not all the Portersons are bad. Alex is not included in that assessment. And Blaise … I’m still undecided about him. He seemed like such a jerk when we first met him, and then that stupid bet … But I don’t know if I’m right or not.” She looks at me for my opinion.