Very Bad Things (Briarcrest Academy #1)(26)

Leo let out an exasperated breath and ran both hands through his hair, his fingers twitching as he let them fall.

I ignored him and turned to say something to Cuba when Leo grabbed my elbow. “I need to talk to you. Now,” he said, steering me away from Cuba and Sebastian. Dumbfounded, I let him. Once we got out of earshot, I came to my senses and jerked away. “Stop dragging me around. What is so important that you couldn’t say it in front of them?” I said heatedly, looking back at Cuba and Sebastian, both of them watching. Cuba appeared unconcerned, but Sebastian seemed to have a smile on his face.

He shook his head, his face serious with his brows pulled down. “Nora, you think I don’t know Cuba already, but I do. He comes over to the gym some, and Sebastian talks about him a lot. He’s dated lots of girls this summer, all at the same time and then dumps them. When I said you needed a healthy relationship, he is not who I meant.”

I scoffed. “Maybe I don’t want healthy. Maybe I just want to hook up. Ever think of that?”

“I saw your list, Nora. I know what you’re planning to do. And I don’t want you to make a mistake. You think you want to be bad, but I think that maybe whatever happened to you was what was bad. Not you.”

My mouth opened in shock. “You read my private journal? How could you, Leo? That was personal.”

“Because you ruined my car. Because it’s obvious you’re a girl who’s crying out for help,” he said.

“Please don’t help me anymore. I don’t need your pity. I can take care of myself.” I seethed.

“Listen to me. I want to . . . I don’t know . . . get you through this. You seem like you’re on the edge of doing something terrible, and you don’t have to do bad things to get attention—”

“You think I’m doing this for attention?” I gasped out, shaking my head at him angrily. “You want to fix me?”

He faltered and struggled to find words. “No, it may appear that way, but that’s not what I meant—”

“Stop,” I said, holding my hand. “First of all, if I want to be fixed, I’ll call a shrink like you hinted at this morning. Secondly, just because we spent the night in the same bed does not mean you know me. You have no idea if I’m good or bad, you have no clue what happened to me, and you can’t tell me who I can date. If I want to get drunk, I will. If I want to snort some coke, I will. If I want Cuba, then I’ll enjoy every dirty moment. I’m not afraid of getting my heart broken, Leo. There’s not one there to break. Thirdly, why do you give a shit, anyway? You basically told me to stay away from you.”

I whipped around, heading for the park exit, not even turning to wave bye to Sebastian or Cuba.

I heard Leo call out to my retreating back. “Dammit, Nora. Come back! Don’t walk away from me!”

I kept going, yet I stupidly prayed he’d come after me. Tell me that he wanted to keep me from Cuba because he felt the connection between us. But that would be a lie because now I knew the truth. He’d read my journal and only felt sorry for me.

I hated pity. Despised it. It was a wasted emotion.





Chapter 8


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Leo

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“If love is the answer, then I’m changing the question.” –Leo Tate

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As I walked back to the gym from the park, I wasn’t thinking about the contractors who were there, working on getting the pool in. Nope, I stuck on Nora and how she made me forget every practical thought in my head. She’d driven me insane today at the park, licking that ice cream cone and talking to Cuba. And he’d been all over her, standing next to her, wiping ice cream off her face, grinning at her. Even when I’d been talking to Tiffany, I’d been distracted, watching their annoying flirtation play out.

Nora . . . she did something to me. I’d spent half an hour in the shower this morning, jerking off to her, thinking about her big green eyes, how she’d touched my tats at breakfast, the way she smelled like fresh peaches. Most of all I kept remembering her in the bathroom, tall and sexy with breasts perfect for cupping in my hands.

I’d said she was too young, but maybe it wasn’t just the age difference. Because the more I got to know her, the more I saw that the age factor wasn’t the big deal I was making it out to be. Maybe it was a convenient excuse. A part of me knew that besides the age, I simply wasn’t good enough for her. I’d end up treating her like all the other girls I’d known. Like shit.

And I didn’t want to be part of her destruction. Just a number on her list.

My eyes were caught by a camera shop’s storefront, and it reminded me of Teddy. It was sometimes hard to tell how he felt about things, but I’d sensed he taken a liking to Nora. She needed something to keep her out of trouble, and maybe helping Teddy would be good for her.

I strolled inside the shop to check it out. Teddy’d mentioned his sister didn’t have much money to support his film habit, so I looked around and talked to the clerk some about what types of pictures Teddy took. I ended up spending about a hundred bucks on regular film plus some black and white. Knowing how Teddy loved to take pictures, he’d be thrilled with whatever I got because he wasn’t hard to please.