My brother was a jerk for doing his job, and when they couldn’t come at him, they came at me.
I saw Will dig something out of his pocket, and I watched him unwrap a piece of candy and lift it to his mouth, peeling the sweet off the paper with his teeth.
His eyes never left me.
“Take out your earbuds,” he ordered me as he chewed.
I narrowed my gaze.
“And stop acting like you’re listening to music and that’s why you can’t be bothered to deal with the people around you,” he bit out.
Every muscle in my body tensed, and when I didn’t listen, he tossed his wrapper onto the floor and leaned over, yanking the cord and pulling the earbuds out of my ears.
I startled, sitting up straight.
But I didn’t shrink. Not with him.
Now…he had my fucking attention.
Grabbing the cord from where it hung down to the floor, I rose from my desk, picked up my notebook and bag, and started to leave.
But then his hands were on me, pulling me down into his lap.
Everything in my arms tumbled to the floor, and liquid fire coursed under my skin.
No.
I gritted my teeth and shoved at him as Kai sighed and Damon snickered, neither one stopping him, though.
I struggled against him, but he simply tightened his hold, turning his face away from my attack.
Will, Kai, Damon, and Michael. The Four Horsemen.
I just loved these nicknames little wannabe gangsters gave themselves in high school, but someone should really tell them it wasn’t scary when you had to tell everyone how scary you were.
Every school had these guys, too. A little money, some connected moms and dads, and pretty faces without hearts to match. None of that was really their fault, I guessed.
What was their fault was that they took full advantage of it. Wouldn’t it be fun if anyone ever said no to them? If one of them ever paid for a mistake? Or ever said no to a drink, a drug, or a girl?
But no. Same story. Shallow, boring, tedious, ignorant, and insipid.
And while others may give in or pathetically protest before finally giving in, I wasn’t interested.
And he hated that.
I could scream. Get the teacher’s attention. Make a scene. But he’d only get the laughs he craved, and I’d get the attention I didn’t.
“Wipe that fucking glare off your face,” he warned.
I locked my jaw, not doing a damn thing he said.
He dropped his voice to a whisper. “I know I may seem like the nicest one, and you probably think I regret the shit I give you sometimes, and someday I’ll wake up and reevaluate my life and its purpose, but I won’t. I sleep like a baby at night.”
“You wake every two hours and cry?” I asked.
There was a snort behind me, but I didn’t look away as Will’s eyes sharpened on me. School was always the one place I had a reprieve.
Until I got to high school.
I rolled my wrists inside his fists, trying to pry him off. “Let me go.”
“Why are your cuffs wet?”
His gaze fell and he forced my arm up, so he could look closer.
I didn’t answer.
He looked back up at me. “And your eyes are red.”
My throat tightened, but I gritted my teeth together and yanked my wrists free.
But before I could escape from his lap, he grabbed my chin in one hand and wrapped his other arm around my waist, pulling me in. Against his body, and whispering so softly no one could hear him but me.
“Don’t you know that you can have anything you want?” His eyes searched mine. “I’ll hurt anyone for you.”
The weight on my chest was too heavy, it almost hurt to breathe.
“Who is it?” he asked. “Who do I have to hurt?”
My eyes burned. Why did he do this? He’d soften and tempt me with the fantasy that I wasn’t alone and maybe—possibly—there was hope.
His scent hit me. Bergamot and blue cypress, and I looked up at his brown hair, perfectly styled and rich against his perfect skin and dark brows. Black lashes framed eyes that looked like the leaves surrounding a lagoon on some stupid island somewhere, and for a moment, I was lost.
Just for a moment.
“God, please,” I finally said. “Get yourself a life, Will Grayson. You’re pathetic.”
And his beautiful eyes instantly hardened as he lifted his chin. He pushed me off his lap and shoved me back toward my desk. “Sit down.”
He almost sounded hurt, and I nearly laughed. Probably disappointed I’m not stupid enough to fall for his shit. What was he planning? Gain my trust, lure me to Homecoming, and watch as they dumped pig’s blood all over me?
Nah, not original enough. Will Grayson had more imagination. I’d give him that, at least.
“All right, let’s go ahead and get started,” Mr. Townsend said, clearing his throat
I grabbed my bag and notebook off the floor and slid back into my chair, tucking my earbuds into my pocket.
“Take out your books,” he instructed as he took a quick sip of his coffee and flipped a paper on his desk.
Will just sat there, staring silently ahead, and I faltered for a moment as I watched the muscle flex in his jaw.
Whatever. I rolled my eyes and dug out my copy of Lolita as the rest of the class found theirs. Except Will, because he hadn’t bothered to bring a bag or books today.
“We’ve talked about Humbert being an unreliable narrator in the book.” Townsend took another drink of coffee. “How we are all the righteous heroes of our own story if we’re the ones telling it.”
I heard Will draw in and release a breath. I focused on the back of Kai Mori’s neck, usually fascinated by how precise and clean the lines of his trim were.
I was having trouble concentrating today.
Townsend continued, “And how often a matter of right or wrong is simply just a matter of perspective. To a fox, the hound is the villain. To a hound, the wolf. To a wolf, a human, and so on.”
Oh, please. Humbert Humbert was derailed.
And a criminal. Fox, hound, wolf, whatever.
“He believes he’s in love with Lo.” The teacher circled his desk and leaned against the front, his paperback curled in his fist. “But he’s not completely ignorant of his crime, either. He says,” —he flipped open his book, reading from it—“‘I knew I had fallen in love with Lolita forever; but I also knew she would not be forever Lolita.’” He looked up at the class. “What did he mean?”
“That she’d grow up,” Kai answered. “And no longer be sexually attractive to him because he’s a pedophile.”
I smirked to myself. Kai was kind of my favorite Horseman, if I had to pick one.
Townsend considered Kai’s thoughts, but then prompted another student.
“Do you agree?”
The girl shrugged. “I think he meant that we change, and she would, too. It’s not that she’s growing up. It’s that she’ll outgrow him, and he’s scared.”
Which was probably what Humbert actually meant, but I liked Kai’s assessment better.
The teacher nodded and then jerked his chin at another student. “Michael?”
Michael Crist looked up, sounding lost. “What?”
Damon snorted at his friend, and I shook my head.
Townsend hooded his eyes, looking impatient, before restating his question. “What do you think he meant when he said she wouldn’t be forever Lolita?”