“You’re not exactly secretive about it,” he said and walked toward his motorcycle. I shoved him in the back and he whirled around and grabbed my wrist. “Don’t start what you can’t finish, princess.”
“I finish whatever I start.”
He smirked then, like he was humoring a child.
I ripped my arm free from his grasp and controlled the urge to kick him in the leg like a four-year-old might. “How come I can’t Erase your memories?”
His humoring smirk was gone, replaced by fiery eyes—the first look of anger I’d ever seen him display. It was more intimidating than I thought him capable of. “You’ve tried to Erase my memories?”
As if he didn’t know. He had easily blocked my attempt. “Go die, Connor.” I turned and walked to my car, slamming my door shut. Why did I let him get to me so much? Maybe because he was the only guy I’d ever met who none of my abilities worked on—not my memory Erasing or my looks. He was the only guy I couldn’t control.
CHAPTER 17
Addie: Must learn what qualifies as a life-or-death situation.
My ringing phone woke me up. I groaned and pushed the hair off my face. “Hello.”
“Addie, hey, it’s Stephanie.”
I smiled. “Hi, Stephanie. How is cheer practice going?”
“Fine. Just two more weeks and then we get winter break. I’m so ready for a break.”
“You guys have a short break.”
“Does Lincoln High get a longer one?”
“We have six weeks off. But we don’t get as long in the summer.”
“So like year-round school then?”
“Yep.” I yawned. “So what’s up?”
“I was wondering if I could drag you shopping with me today.”
“For what?”
“Winter formal. I need to buy a dress.”
“Oh. Sure. Who are you going with?”
“I haven’t been asked yet, but I’m still hopeful. If I don’t get asked, I might just go with a bunch of girlfriends for fun. You should come too.”
I rolled onto my stomach and looked at the clock on my nightstand. Ten a.m. “To your winter formal?”
“Yeah. Come on. We’ll buy you a dress today too.”
“Sounds awful.”
She laughed. “I’m coming to pick you up. Be ready in thirty minutes.”
“Did you know he was going to be here?” I don’t know why I bothered putting that in question form. It should’ve been an accusation, because I knew it was true.
“Maybe.” She took a sip of her drink and stared at Trevor from where we sat by the indoor fountain in the middle of the mall. “It’s a fund-raiser the football team roped him into doing with them. Calendars or something to raise money for new uniforms.”
He was at a table set up in front of a sports store with about eight other guys, taking money and putting it in a metal box as people bought calendars. “So how did you know they roped him into it? Have you been talking to him?”
She smiled like she had been caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to. “We may have talked last night. I know you told me we needed space, but I couldn’t help it. I miss him.”
A twinge of jealousy squeezed my heart as I wondered who’d called who. I scolded myself for the thought. I had no claim on Trevor and no right to be jealous. Maybe I had read him wrong at the party. If he was still talking on the phone with her, maybe he did still like her. “You can do what you want, Steph; it was just a suggestion.”
She let out an airy squeal. “Okay, so what should we do right now? Should we go talk to him or buy a calendar or something?”
I laughed. “No, we should sit here and stare at him from across the mall like creepy stalkers.”
“Do you think the football players are shirtless in the calendars?”
I scanned the table of players, several of whom were pasty white and fifty pounds overweight. “Ugh. I hope not.”
She laughed. “So true.” She stood, apparently deciding it was now time to stop staring and start talking. “Let’s go.” She held her hand out for me, and I let her help me up. Then she tucked her arm around my elbow. “This is so fun. Thanks for coming with me today.”
“No problem.”
“I still think you should buy that blue dress. It looked amazing on you.”
“Well, after seeing you in that black dress”—I gestured toward the shopping bag she held—“I don’t think I’ll ever wear a dress again.”
“Whatever.”
We arrived at the table and waited behind several customers before we were finally in front of Trevor. He looked up like he wasn’t surprised to see us. He had probably noticed us staring at him for the last half hour by the fountain.
“Hi,” Stephanie said.
“Hey. How’s it going?”
“Just shopping for dresses for winter formal.” She lifted up her bag a little. I knew what she wanted him to do. She wanted him to ask her who she was going with. It was obvious.
He didn’t take the bait, and I couldn’t tell if it was intentional or not. “Nice.”
“Have you guys been doing good today? Raising a lot of money?”
“We’ve been busy. I think the team will do well.” He rolled a pen between his hands. That wasn’t a good sign for Stephanie—he wouldn’t even meet her eyes. Although that wasn’t a good sign for me either—he was looking at a pen. Stop analyzing him, I told myself. It was none of my business.
“Well, I want to buy one.” Stephanie set her drink on the table and started digging through her purse.
He took a calendar from a box on the floor beside him and put it on the table. “Did you figure out why your grandmother’s grave is at Pioneer Park?” He looked at me with the question.
That single look sent my heart pattering a million miles a minute. Stephanie gave me a sideways glance. Crap, I knew I should’ve told her. I just didn’t want to make a big deal out of nothing.
“Apparently, that’s where she’s been. I just didn’t realize it was so close.” I didn’t feel like I could tell the truth without an explanation, considering most people didn’t have graves moved.
Stephanie’s wallet was slightly too wide for the narrow opening of her purse, and when she finally tugged it free, it smashed into her drink. As the cup fell, Trevor tried to save the calendar in its direct path and ended up knocking the entire metal box of money off the table.
The box flew toward the floor, money floating out of it slowly because time had changed to a crawl. I shouldn’t have done it, but it was my instant reaction to grab the box, closing the lid as I did, and shove it back on the table. Only a few stray coins hit the ground. I quickly removed my hands from the box, but it was too late. I met Trevor’s stunned eyes.
Stephanie was too busy scooping the ice back into the fallen drink to notice. “I’m so sorry. The calendar is soaked. I’ll totally pay for it.”
But Trevor was still looking at me.
“That was a close call,” I said.
He lowered his brow, then turned his attention to the two quarters on the floor by my foot. I reached down, picked them up, then placed them on top of the cash box.
“How did you do that?”
“Do what?” I asked. “I saw that your elbow was going to knock it off the table. I just stopped it from happening.” My head throbbed, and I tried not to lean on the table for support.
“No. My elbow did knock it off.”
Stephanie held out a ten-dollar bill. “Here. For the calendar.”
“You don’t have to buy a damaged calendar, Stephanie. It’s no big deal.” He handed her one that wasn’t wet and took her money, carefully removing the two quarters from the top of the box and lifting the lid. The money inside was a mess, sideways and jumbled. He straightened a few piles. Then he looked at the ground again and back at me.
“Well, we better get going.” I tugged on Stephanie’s arm, but she gave me that look like she wanted to stay and talk and I wasn’t helping. “There are people waiting to buy calendars.” Sure there were seven other guys sitting at the table, but still, I just wanted to leave. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t let a stupid cash box fall on the ground. So glad I used my ability to save a metal box from certain destruction.
“Yeah, we better go,” Stephanie said. As we walked away, she bit her lip. “Is something going on between you two?”
“What? No! I asked Rowan for help. Trevor tagged along. Really, it was no big deal.”
She brushed at a wet spot from the spilled drink on her shirt. “I should’ve stayed and talked to him. I was hoping he’d ask me to the dance.”
“You have to leave him wanting more,” I said, remembering Laila giving me that advice at some point in the past. “Always understay your welcome.”
“What does that even mean?”
I laughed. “I have no idea.” Just as we were about to round the corner, I heard my name.
“Addison!”
I turned to see Trevor walking toward us.
“Can I talk to you alone for a minute?” he asked when he reached us.
“Yeah, sure,” Stephanie said, the hope in her voice so apparent.
“Um.” He looked at Stephanie, and I could tell he didn’t want to hurt her feelings when he said softly, “I meant Addison.”
This was one of those dramatic moments in books where the main character was supposed to say, Anything you need to say to me, you can say in front of my friend. But that was the problem. I knew what he wanted to say, and he absolutely couldn’t say it in front of my friend. So instead I tried to put him off so Stephanie wouldn’t be hurt any more than she already was. “We’re kind of in a hurry.”
But he took the drama that was supposed to be mine and used it. “It will only take a minute, but I can just ask you right here. What are—”
“No!” Great. Now I was going to look like the biggest jerk. “Sorry, Stephanie. I’ll be right back.” I marched past him and into the empty tiled hall that led to the bathrooms. I faced him.
He squared off in front of me. “What are you?”
“Excuse me?”
“Tell me I’m crazy.” He looked into my eyes, and the intensity of his stare, the set of his mouth, the angle of his brow—it all seemed so familiar. Like I had been here before with him staring at me like that. It caught me off guard, softened my resolve, and I hesitated. I had to look away. I knew what my father said about lying and how one of the first indicators was when someone couldn’t look you in the eyes.
“You’re crazy,” I said to the wall over his right shoulder.
“While looking at me.”
He must’ve known the lying rule too.
“I have to go. Stephanie’s waiting, which, by the way, you should really ask her to winter formal. It would make her day.”
“Addison.” Why did he call me that? And why did I like it?
He put his hand on my shoulder. I met his eyes again, my heart beating in my throat. His normal friendly exterior was stripped away, replaced by a vulnerability that made me want to tell him everything. “You’re crazy,” I whispered, then walked away.