I turn in my seat to look at him. “Okay…so where exactly are we in this whole girls versus boys thing?”
“I’m thinking about opting for both,” he says with a shrug. “Why miss out on half the fun?”
I pick his hand off his thigh and hold it between mine as we pull into the lot. “Just be careful. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
He rolls into a space and cuts the engine, then leans over and kisses my forehead. “Too late. My first girlfriend has already crushed my heart.”
?
Everything at school went pretty much how Jon predicted. I go straight to my job at the market after school and the manager, Gillian, puts me to work restocking the cereal shelves. There was apparently a run on Lucky Charms this morning, so I go to the stockroom to find the case then head back to the shelves.
It’s mindless work, and I let myself drift. Where I land is face up on the bed at the Half Moon Motel, Bran’s solid weight between my legs, driving into me. Every nerve ending in my body catches fire with the memory. Right here in the cereal aisle, my lips tingle and my breath catches and I’m fairly certain I’m about to spontaneously combust.
I close my eyes and trail a finger down my neck, remembering the brush of Bran’s lips there, the warmth of his breath feathering over my skin.
“Delilah!”
Destiny’s panicked voice calling my name rips me from the fantasy just as she grips my shoulder and whips me around to face her. Her expression is a toxic blend of anger and fear when she holds up her phone for me to see. On the screen is the picture of me in the studio audience, pressed against Bran. He’s got handfuls of my ass and I’ve got fistfuls of his hair, and we’re devouring each other.
“What the hell is this?” she shrieks.
I feel my face crumble. “I’m sorry, Destiny…it just…”
I can’t even finish the lie. It didn’t “just happen.” We’d been building up to it for weeks. If I’m totally honest with myself, I’ve wanted it to happen since that first night I walked into Sam Hill.
“You’re sixteen!” she reminds me.
I shake my head. “Bran didn’t know that until yesterday…after…”
Her eyes widen. “After what, Delilah? What else happened?”
I bring a hand up to my hide face. “It wasn’t his fault. It was all me. If he knew, he wouldn’t have—”
Her hands fly to her mouth as she cuts me off with her, “Oh my God!”
“I’m so sorry, Destiny. I know you like him.”
Her jaw flexes and rage burns in her eyes. I glance over her shoulder and see a tiny Hispanic woman staring at us from the end of the cereal aisle. Past her, Gillian watches from the counter up front. I knew Destiny and I would have to have this conversation, but I was hoping we could clear the air in private.
Destiny will understand when I tell her we’re in love. I just have to make her see that neither of us meant to hurt her.
But the next second, we knock into the Hispanic woman as Destiny drags me toward the door by the arm. We’re halfway down the block when I realize where we’re headed.
I yank out of her grasp before we make the police station door. “What are you doing, Destiny?”
“He’s a pedophile. You have to file a report. If he…” Her face crumples into a deep grimace as her eyes course down my body. “There might still be evidence.”
I shove away from her. “He didn’t rape me!”
“If he touched you, he did,” she says, her lip curling in disgust.
I shake my head and back away. “I won’t report him. He didn’t do anything wrong.”
I take off running, and end up at Sam Hill, but as my thoughts start to untangle, I realize I can’t go in there. Bran’s probably not here yet anyway, and if Destiny’s at the police station, I need to stay as far away from Bran as I can.
But I can’t let the police get their hands on me either. Because there is evidence. I’m sore and bruised and I don’t know how long DNA hangs around.
I keep off the beaten path and work my way up the hill to Jon’s, hoping he’s home from practice. When I get there, the Mustang isn’t in the driveway, so I sit on a rock under a tree in the woods behind his house and hug my knees to my chest while I wait.
When he finally pulls up half an hour later, I sprint for his car and jump in the passenger side.
“Whoa,” he says. “Sneak attack. Look, Lilah, I know this breakup has been hard on you, but—”
I slap a hand over his mouth to shut him up. “The guy I was kissing is twenty-six and my sister’s going to have him arrested.”
His eyes widen and when I don’t feel his mouth trying to move under my palm, I peel my hand back. He just stares at me. For the first time ever, he doesn’t have a comeback.
“I need somewhere I can lay low for a few days until Destiny calms down. Do you think your parents would let me stay here?”
He nods slowly.