People Like Us(23)



He totally stood out from the rest of the crowd. Bates students tend to dress to their status with a preppy spin, Polo Ralph Lauren and Burberry. The Easterly drama crowd favored a more hipster flair, with a lot of scarves, vests, skinny jeans, cardigans, and glasses. Spencer wore ripped-up jeans, a long-sleeved Red Sox ringer T-shirt, and a pair of scuffed Converses. But he exuded an air of confidence that struck me as both condescending and intriguing for someone so clearly out of his league. He looked like he rolled out of his bed and wandered over in the dark. I may have been abandoned on the island of misfit party guests, but I still looked awesome.

I placed my phone down. “Texting makes what look worse?”

“You’re supposed to be with Burberry.” He nodded at Brie.

“How do you know that?”

“It says so on her scarf.” He tilted his bottle back and I shot another desperate look at Brie, but she was deep in conversation. She gets stuck in, thick. But only when someone really, really sparks her interest.

“That’s not what I—”

“Because you keep looking at her, but she’s not looking back.” I turned back to Spencer, my face burning. “So you’re stranded. And pretending you have something better to do at a party just makes you look sadder. First mistake, introducing your girl to Justine. Second mistake, acting like you don’t care.”

“So what do you suggest?”

“Make her jealous.”

I laughed. “Not gonna happen, friend.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

I glanced around the room. More than one Easterly student was looking at us curiously, and there was unmistakable envy on some of their faces. I shot a glance over to Brie and Justine, and finally caught Brie’s eye. She raised a brow as if to ask what I was doing. I nodded to invite her over, but she shook her head and held her finger up like hold on a sec.

I turned back to Spencer. “Who did you come with?”

He grinned. “The question is who do I leave with? Want to help me decide?” He described a few of the girls in the room, gave me some pros and cons, and then, of course, made his pitch. “Or I could help you out with Burberry. You have two basic options. One, we grab a room. We can play blackjack and I Never all night, and no one will even know the difference. Two, we make out here on the couch. I know which one I prefer.”

I flicked my eyes over to Brie again. She had repositioned herself against the wall so she had a full view of me now. But she made no move to end her conversation or even to invite me to join them.

I adjusted my position so that I was angled in toward both Brie and Spencer, and leaned closer to him. “Amateur.”

An intrigued smile crossed his lips. “That’s a treasonous accusation.”

“Oh no. It’s a fact.” I took his beer and placed it on the floor and then pulled him to his feet and placed him at one end of the couch and sat down at the other, facing him, legs folded beneath me. “That’s not how jealousy works.”

His smile grew, but I also saw uncertainty and excitement flicker in his eyes. He was kind of cute. That didn’t take the sting out of Brie crushing my heart for the millionth time, but there was something magnetic about his smile. It made it easier not to look at her, at least. “No?”

I shook my head. “It’s a slow burn. We keep talking. Low voices, so no one else can hear what we’re saying. And every time I smile. Or laugh. I come a little closer.” To illustrate, I slid one inch toward him and lowered my voice to just above a whisper. “Just one little bit. You have to earn it.”

His breathing quickened a little, and I couldn’t help biting a smile. I had been waiting and wanting for so long with Brie, I had completely forgotten what it felt like to be wanted. It felt powerful. It felt sexy. He was sexy.

“What makes you smile?” Spencer asked, leaning in closer. There was something so tempting in his smile. Something dangerous and innocent at the same time. A paradox. This is why people like him, I decided. They can’t figure him out. I realized suddenly that we must be attracting a lot of attention, and wondered whether I had finally caught Brie’s. But I suddenly didn’t want to tear my eyes away from Spencer’s. Not even for Brie, especially after she humiliated me. I hoped she was watching.

“Back to your corner. This is the final rule. You don’t get to kiss me until my lips are breathing distance from yours. That means if I was a Dementor, I could suck out your soul.”

“Exquisite image. That’s a lot of smiles for someone who looked like they were ready to explode when I first sat down.”

“Challenge extended.” I smirked.

“That’s one.” He grinned, and the boyish excitement in his eyes was contagious. He wasn’t Brie but he would be a fun, sexy distraction.



* * *



? ? ?

AND HE WAS. He always was, right until the end. I never meant to fall for him.

I never meant to hurt him.

I certainly never thought he could hurt me.

Now he looks up at me from the bottom of the stairs with the most innocent expression, and I’m so tempted to ask if he wants to go for a drive that I actually take a step down toward him before he spins with a half wave and heads back down the path and I’m stumbling into his shadow.





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