Until the End (Sea Breeze #9)(33)

How had this changed so fast? Just this morning he was barely talking to me. Now he wanted me all to himself.

“Okay,” I said, still unsure how I was supposed to respond to that.

Rock led us to the far corner of the room where a table sat empty. I could feel the eyes of everyone following us. It was like pricks of heat on my skin. I wanted to run out of the room. I hated attention, and this was by far the most attention I had ever gotten.

When he set our trays down, he pulled his chair over to sit right up against mine. His thigh was brushing up against mine as we took our seats.

“Eat,” he said close to my ear when I didn’t make a move to touch my food.

“I can’t eat with everyone watching me,” I explained, afraid to confirm the fact that we had drawn attention.

“They are getting over it. Most of them aren’t looking anymore,” he replied with a smile in his voice.

I cut my eyes to look up at him, and he winked at me.

“Please eat for me,” he said, reaching up to cup my chin. His thumb brushed my bottom lip.

“Well, ain’t this sweet. Damn more interesting over here than the usual place,” Dewayne Falco said as he pulled out the chair across from us and sat down.

“Dewayne,” Rock growled at him, startling me.

“Trisha don’t care if I sit here. Do you, Trisha?” Dewayne said, turning his amused smile to me.

“Uh,” I started to say, when Preston Drake sat down beside me with an extra milk carton in his teeth. He dropped it in his hand and set it down, then flashed me a crooked grin.

“The party has moved. I missed the memo,” he drawled, then opened his milk and took a drink.

“I don’t think Rock wants us here,” Dewayne said as he took a drink of his soda. “Not that we give a shit.”

Rock had gone solid beside me. He was angry. These were his closest friends. I didn’t want to be a reason they fought.

“No sweet tea today. What the hell is up with that?” Marcus Hardy said by way of greeting as he plopped beside Dewayne and put his tray down. “I need some sweet tea to get through the next class. Dead poets bore me.”

“Shit,” Rock muttered beside me.

“Rock ain’t being very welcoming, Marcus. He’s being kinda shitty,” Dewayne said, still looking completely amused by the whole thing.

Marcus gave me an apologetic smile, then moved his focus to Rock. “With us sitting here, y’all aren’t the afternoon’s entertainment,” he explained with a shrug. He was right. They were blocking a lot of the crowd.

“You good with them eating with us?” Rock asked me.

I nodded. I wasn’t ready to talk yet. Sitting with these four was a little overwhelming. I didn’t want to say something stupid, and I wasn’t sure I had anything to say to them, anyway.

“Guys, y’all know Trisha,” Rock said.

“It’s hard not to know her. You’ve been panting after her for over a year. We’re kinda tired of watching it. Thanks for giving him a break. We all appreciate it,” Dewayne said.

Preston chuckled beside me but didn’t pipe up. I had a feeling the only one out of these four who wasn’t scared of Rock was Dewayne. They were close to the same size.

“Dewayne,” Rock said in a warning tone.

Dewayne only smirked. “Am I lying?”

“Seriously, D. Shut up,” Marcus said, shooting him a disapproving glare.

Dewayne shrugged and took a bite of his burger.

Rock’s hand slid over my knee and stayed there. “I swear they aren’t that bad,” he assured me.

Smiling, I reached for a French fry. “I think they’re nice,” I told him.

They all four started to chuckle, and then Preston burst out laughing. I glanced at all of them, then looked up at Rock, who was smiling down at me with something warm in his eyes that made my heart flutter.

Rock

Trisha didn’t miss another football game. Once the season was over, I had my Friday nights free to spend with her. I never thought I’d look forward to football season ending. Any time I could have her alone were the best hours of my day. She hadn’t completely melted on me immediately, but over time she slowly began to trust me.

Now when I walked up to her in the hallways at school and wrapped her up in my arms, she came to me willingly. Kissing her sweet lips whenever I wanted to was also my favorite addiction. She not only let me have that mouth when I wanted it, but she kissed me back.

Life was f**king close to perfect. If I didn’t have to worry about her going back to that damn trailer every night, then it really would be perfect. Krit was dealing with some issues lately that worried Trisha. When last guy his mother had brought home had hit on Trisha, Krit had lost it and almost beat the man to death. Trisha had called me screaming and crying. My heart had almost stopped at the sound of her panic.

When I got there the dude was on the ground, unconscious and covered in blood, and Trisha had Krit in a corner talking him down while he glared at the man as if possessed. There was broken furniture everywhere, and even Fandora had a busted lip.

Apparently, he had backhanded his mother to get her away from Trisha. The kid was like a loaded gun. Trisha wanted him checked out. She was worried that he had some emotional damage from growing up the way they had. I was afraid the kid had a personality disorder. I’d been angry before, and if I’d seen the man touch Trisha I’d have beat his ass too. It was the glazed-over look in Krit’s eyes that concerned me.