She shrugged and opened her bag of chips, popping one in her mouth and crunching away while she wore a damn smirk. “Or maybe I’m the one using him.” She waggled her eyebrows, and I couldn’t help but chuckle and shake my head.
Pixie was in a league all her own. “I really don’t want to go. I can’t stand him. He creeps me out.” Before she could respond, Aiden was setting his books on the seat in front of me and then sitting down. I swore the table went silent as Pixie and I stared at him and as the other students at the end of the table glanced over in our direction. He never sat with anyone and instead kept to himself during lunch.
“Hey,” he said in that deep, masculine voice that had tingles instantly moving throughout my body.
I had a hand around my water bottle and involuntarily squeezed the plastic, the crunching noise seeming deafening. I loosened my grip and gave him a smile, but I felt my face already starting to heat.
Now was not the time to be awkward.
“Hi.” We didn’t say anything else for long seconds, and I saw him glance at Pixie. I looked at her and could see she stared at him with wide eyes and this little smirk on her face.
Please don’t let her embarrass me. Please don’t let her tell Aiden how much I stare at him, even if he does probably notice.
“It’s Aiden, right?” she asked and rested her elbows on the table, propping her head in one of her hands as she looked at him. “I’m Pixie, Harlow’s best friend.”
He nodded and shifted on the bench-style seating so his shoulder was up against the window.
“You like it here?” Pixie asked, and I saw Aiden smirk.
“Sure” was all he said.
Pixie snorted but immediately started with more conversation. “So, Aiden, do you have any plans this weekend?”
I snapped my head in Pixie’s direction and clenched my jaw, giving her a look that told her to shut up. And even though she wasn’t actually looking at me to see my silent demand, I could tell by the smile she wore that she could see me well enough out of her peripheral.
She didn’t wait for him to respond before she started in again. “I was trying to talk Harlow into going with me to a party Saturday after the game. She’s not really having it, but I think if you tagged along, it would make is so much more fun.” Pixie looked at me then, her grin clearly shit-eating now.
Oh that bitch.
I narrowed my eyes at her, and she started chuckling.
“And if Harlow has somebody there to keep her busy, I can go do other things.” She was speaking to Aiden but looking right at me, and you didn’t have to be a genius to know what “other things” she was referring to.
I swallowed roughly and looked at Aiden. His expression was stoic, and his focus was on me, and in that moment, I felt like it was just the two of us—that Pixie wasn’t sitting right beside me, that there wasn’t a room full of students surrounding us, that the noise wasn’t ear-splitting.
He looked at me as if I were the only person in the world. No one had ever looked at me like that.
I didn’t know how many seconds passed, but I felt like it was a little too long by the way Pixie shifted on the seat beside me. Although it didn’t feel uncomfortable to me, I knew outsiders might think it was weird that Aiden and I couldn’t break eye contact.
“Well, Aiden? Are you game for this Saturday?” Pixie’s voice was excited, and I blinked a few times before looking at her.
I could’ve strangled her in that moment. She was good at trying to convince people of things, peer pressuring them. I looked at Aiden again, about to apologize, to tell him that he most certainly didn’t have to do anything he didn’t want to, but when he leaned forward slightly, all words died in my throat.
“If Harlow goes and wants me to be with her, I wouldn’t say no.”
Yes, that’s exactly what I wanted.
My heart jumped into my throat, and I felt my cheeks heat once again. He said it in such a deep, silky-smooth voice that I couldn’t help but feel it throughout my whole body, like he actually reached out and touched me.
“You hear that, Harlow?” Pixie prompted, but I couldn’t tear my gaze from Aiden. “He said he’s game. Now, you’re not gonna have him go to the party alone, are you?”
God, in this moment, I was so annoyed with her, but I also secretly loved that she said something.
“If Aiden goes, so will I.”
There, the words were out in the open, unable to be taken back.
But you know what? I didn’t regret them one bit.
Chapter Nine
Aiden
The bell for the last class of the day rang and I gathered my books, wanting to get the fuck out of here. I kept replaying the scene at lunch with Harlow’s friend asking me to go to a party. Fucking Braxton’s party. And if Harlow hadn’t been going, if it hadn’t been presented to me that I’d be there with her, I would’ve said fuck no and had no shame about it.
But if Harlow was going, I wanted to be there to protect her, to make sure no fucking assholes looked at her or even thought about touching her. I knew what drunk cocksuckers could be like. Hell no was I going to let her go alone into that fucking wolf den.
I felt possessiveness so deep in my body that it was like another living person inside me, like this stranger I’d never known existed was finally making himself known. But I embraced him. I let that fucker out and take control.
I made my way out to the parking lot and started passing the line of school buses, students loading into them. And then I saw her, Harlow in the line, her backpack slung over her shoulders, her focus on the cell in her hand. I felt my heart jump a little bit, felt a smile start to spread on my face. God, just seeing her excited me.
I could’ve kept walking, but instead, I went right toward her, gently nudged my shoulder against hers until she looked up at me, and fucking loved how I could see the excitement on her face. I swear her eyes fucking lit up when she saw me.
I was pretty sure I’d never felt anything better before.
“Hey,” she said in a soft voice.
“Hey, yourself.” I tipped my chin toward the parking lot. “Want a ride home?” Her smile brightened and she nodded slowly.
She stepped out of line and we headed toward my car. I didn’t miss the looks we were getting from some of our classmates. They could fucking stare all they wanted to. I’d never cared before, and I certainly didn’t give a fuck now. No doubt they were wondering what the hell she was thinking spending time with me.
Once at my car, she climbed in before I could open the door for her. Yeah, I was actually going to open the car door for her. The last thing I would’ve ever been called was a gentleman, not because I was that kind of asshole, but because I’d never felt this way about anyone before to the point I wanted to do things like this.
But it just seemed like the right thing to do and something I really wanted to do for her.
I climbed into the driver seat and looked over at her. She had a smile on her face as she looked at me. It felt right having her in the car beside me.
I didn’t say anything as I started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. I started heading toward her house, although that was the last place I wanted to go. I’d love to hang out with her, just go somewhere and talk, but I was too much of a chickenshit to actually ask her.