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e I was determined. Probably a little stubborn. I was interested in why he ha
dn t. Most guys would have walked away. Maybe even taken a swing at me to get
their point across. I think Milo enjoyed the banter.
"I m not pretending," Milo finally said.
"Do you wanna come over?" I asked. "To my place. Tomorrow, around noon? I
 m going to barbeque. It ll be a small party, before school starts on Mon
day. Do you like apples? My dad makes these really good turnover things o
n a stick."
Milo raised an eyebrow at me. I couldn t tell if he wanted to laugh at my invi
tation, or stomp on it.
"Fucking hell, Nelson. Are you ever not harassing one of my friends?"
I frowned, grudgingly looking away from Milo s attractive features to glare
at Assface. Honestly, the guy knew how to get on my nerves lately. Before,
the problem had always pretty much stayed between Jame Graham and Caleb, b
ut ever since the arrest, he d been attempting to start trouble with me jus
t about as much as he and Caleb got into it. Currently, I wasn t in the moo
d for Jame. I just wanted to keep talking to Milo. So I did, turning back t
o face him, I smiled. "I thought you were his only friend."
Milo rolled his eyes, ignoring me as he faced Jame. "Ready to go?" Milo ask
ed.
Jame was still glaring at me, but responded to Milo s question. "Yeah. This
place is fucking infested with assholes."
"None of them bigger than yours, right, Assface?" I remarked, before I could
stop myself. Jame frowned at me, and I d be lying if I said that I didn t t
ake some satisfaction in that. What I didn t take satisfaction in however, w
as the abrupt way that Milo surprised the hell out of me, taking me complete
ly off guard with a shove to my shoulder as he stood up.
"Dude, shut up," I heard him say. It wasn t even a hard shove. If I d seen
it coming, I probably wouldn t have gone anywhere. But, it seemed, I was al
ready sitting on the edge of the cooler, and not particularly balanced with
my head tilted back as I drank my soda. I toppled over, my drink splashing
all over my face and running down my neck in the process. I coughed on it
as I landed flat on my back and looked up, stunned. Jame s cluck-like laugh
ter is what snapped me out of it, and I probably would have been angry if M
ilo hadn t been standing above me, looking as stunned as I did before his h
and went to his mouth and his eyes became wide with suppressed laughter.
I sat up, wiping my arm over my face to rid myself of some of the sticky liq
uid I d spilled, keeping my attention on Milo, rather than Jame. "I think th
at was uncalled for," I said rationally, and Milo dropped his hand, this tim
e laughing. It wasn t a cruel or annoyed laughter. More like a sincerely amu
sed chuckle, deep and soft, compared to his usually sharp voice.
"Oops," he responded, actually grinning at me before he turned around to f
ace Jame. "Ready to go..." Milo stopped, and I couldn t see his face, but
I saw Jame s when Caleb suddenly appeared behind him, shoving Assface asid
e. And as Caleb faced Milo, my best friend didn t look happy at all with h
is eyes narrowed and his jaw set.
"You did not just do that," Caleb growled, and as he moved towards Milo, ki
cking the flashlight aside in the process, I rushed to my feet and found my
self between Milo and Caleb, so close to each that I could feel Caleb s bre
ath on my face, while Milo s was on the back of my neck. I didn t hesitate
to reach out and grab Caleb s muscled arms, fully aware of what usually hap
pened when he started swinging them.
"Hey, it s fine!" I said quickly. "Caleb, it was nothing."
Caleb, was my best friend. But likewise, I was his, and if there was one thi
ng that he hated more than someone trying to fuck with him, it was someone t
rying to fuck with me. Even if that someone hadn t meant to knock me on my a
ss. At least, I didn t think he meant to. I found myself glancing over my sh
oulder suspiciously at Milo, wondering if I should stop trying to see a nice
guy under his gorgeous face if there really wasn t one. But, the thought wa
s short-lived as I realized just how close to me he was, his face a shadow t
o me in the dark. I imagined that if I even leaned back I d find myself agai
nst his smooth, toned chest, which might have been a nice place to be, in an
y other situation.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Caleb demanded, as someone lifted th
e flashlight and shone it towards us. "I saw him..."
"You saw me fall on my ass," I cut him off.
"Yeah, ya fucking klutz," Assface remarked from behind Caleb, and I wond
ered why God ever saw fit to give him a mouth.
Caleb shook my hands from his arms, and admittedly, had he turned around t
o face Jame, I wouldn t have really been in a hurry to get between them. B
ut to my surprise, I never even had to, because Caleb was still looking at
me, appearing confused and somewhat annoyed.
"We re leaving." I turned around to face Milo when he spoke quietly. His ey
es met mine for only a brief moment, and then he was passing me, his should
er gently brushing against mine before he paused momentarily in front of Ca
leb so they could exchange the standard I m-not-intimidated-by-you glare. T
hen, Milo was walking away, stopping to pat Jame s shoulder in a silent ins
truction for his ass-faced friend to follow. I watched, feeling a little co
nfused myself as they disappeared into the dark.
"Are you okay, Nels?" It was Haily s voice coming from behind the flashlight,
and I squinted in the light s direction.
"Yeah. You wanna find Joe so we can go?"
I didn t wait for her to respond. I reached down, grabbed my own backpack fr
om the pile and walked past the oak holding the scarecrow, my feet hitting t
he sand as I let instincts lead me towards the trail. I d hardly reached it
before Caleb was next to me, his backpack on his back and the entire cooler
in his arms. I sighed, and reached out to take one of the end handles withou
t him having to ask me to, and together we made our way uphill, careful to s
tay on the rugged trail beneath our feet.
"Hey," Caleb said. "What s with you and that guy?"
I looked in his general direction somewhat nervously as I ducked under a
low tree branch. "What do you mean?"
"Come on dude, you ve been weird about him for weeks," Caleb informed me.
"Like, what s with that? You go out of your way to be nice to him, then
the other day you have us following him home after community service... a
nd I saw him push you."
"We were just talking," I said somewhat shortly.
"Nels, what s your problem?" Caleb demanded, just as we reached the bridg
e, and I dropped my end of the cooler on the wooden planks beneath my fee
t so I could face him.
"Nothing, okay? I like his paintings, and don t think he s that bad. Is there
like a rule or something that says I m not allowed to talk to him? What? Bec
ause he s friends with Jame? He s not Jame, and it s stupid that..."
"Whoa... slow down. Fuck," Caleb responded. "No one said that. I m just w
ondering, okay?"
I let out a breath, forcing myself to deflate as I ran a hand through my shor
t hair and then nervously tugged at the stud in my right ear. I wished that I
knew what was bothering me all of a sudden.
"Nothing. Nothing s going on. I was just talking to him, okay? And, I m tryin
g to figure out why everyone s instinct is to hit someone all the time. You c [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]