A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime(60)

Wait a minute.

“Yeah,” I tell her, taking my coat off, leaving it slumped behind me. “You told me you just wanted to keep it friends-only between us.”

“Right.” She tears her gaze away from mine, staring at the shelf closest to us, a sigh leaving her. “I’m so tired of feeling sad.”

“You need to take your mind off of it.” When she turns to look at me, I continue, “Your parents. Your family. You need a distraction. You said that yourself earlier, in class.”

“I’m not going to smoke a joint with you or eat an edible,” she says, her tone snotty.

Fuck, that snotty tone of hers is kind of hot.

“I wasn’t going to suggest it. Besides, I don’t have anything on me. That’s against school rules, remember?” I raise my brows, recalling how she caught us passing that blunt during lunch. Something we do occasionally and always on the sly.

I told Ez and Malcolm we need to stop smoking on campus out in the open and they agreed. None of us want to get kicked out, not this late in our high school lives.

“Right. Don’t want to break the rules,” she murmurs.

“You never do,” I point out, and she doesn’t answer. Guess there’s no need for it, since we know it’s true. “Want to break some right now?”

“What are you talking about?” she asks warily.

“Come with me.” I stand, holding my hand out to her.

She studies it for a moment before lifting her gaze to mine. “What are you up to, Crew?”

“Come with me, Wren, and I’ll show you.”

“What about our stuff?”

“We can leave it. No one’s going to come back here and mess with it.”

She hesitates for a moment before she settles her hand in mine and I curl my fingers around it, pulling her out of the chair. There’s no one around and the only person I’d worry about catching us is old Miss Taylor, but she’s overseeing everyone at her desk at the library entrance, so she won’t notice.

My steps hurried, I lead Wren deeper into the stacks, until we’re surrounded by nothing but row after row of books, the aisle becoming narrower. The stacks becoming taller, the lights dimmer. Until we’re standing in front of a nondescript wooden door, a shiny new digital lock sitting above the handle. I let go of her hand and enter the code, the green light flashing, and I turn the handle, opening the door with ease.

I glance back at her to see her mouth drop open in surprise. “Where does that lead?”

“Come with me and you’ll find out.”

“I don’t know.” She glances over her shoulder, as if fully expecting the dragon lady Miss Taylor herself to be standing there, breathing fire. “What if someone catches us?”

“No one is going to catch us,” I say with confidence.

She faces me once more, her gaze going to the open doorway. There’s nothing but darkness. “It’s not dangerous in there, is it?”

The only thing that might be dangerous to her is me, but I don’t say that. “Not at all.”

Wren walks through the doorway first and I follow behind her, pulling the door shut, all the light from the library disappearing completely, shrouding us in darkness. She gasps and I come up behind her, settling my hands on her slender shoulders.

“It’s okay.”

“I can’t see.”

“I’ll guide you.” I take her hand and pull her along, my vision clearing the longer we’re in the dark. I lead her toward the spot I want to show her, the room growing even lighter until we’re standing in front of a wall of windows that overlooks the entire garden that’s behind the library. “What do you think?”

She approaches the old windows slowly, tilting her head back, her gaze lifting to the ceiling. “They’re so tall.”

“A long time ago, this used to be a classroom. They closed it down in the eighties. Then it eventually became a hookup spot. They finally had to put a lock on it a few years ago to keep the students out. Too many people were sneaking in here,” I explain.

Wren does a slow circle, glancing about the mostly empty room, her nose wrinkling. “Where would they hook up?”

“Wherever. If you’re desperate enough to sneak off with someone, you can get pretty creative.” Shit, I’m suddenly feeling desperate to hook up with my so-called friend.

Such a bunch of shit. I don’t know why we’re dancing around this. Pretty sure she wants me.

And I definitely want her.

“I’ve never really noticed these windows before,” she says as she approaches them. I follow after her, stopping a few feet away from where she stands when she presses her fingers against the glass and stares out at the grounds of the school spread out before us.

“You have.” When she glances back at me, I continue, “It’s the big wall of windows you can see from the gardens. Ivy covers most of the building itself, so no one ever realizes it’s part of the library.”

“Oh yeah.” She returns her attention to the gardens, the gentle snowflakes falling onto the ground, slowly dusting everything in white. “I don’t come out to the gardens much. The statues creep me out.”

“Really?”

She keeps her gaze straight ahead, not even noticing that I’m getting closer. “Feels like they’re always watching me. It’s creepy.”