I was certain of it.
She knew that she was driving me crazy with the whole Eli thing tonight. She knew how to get under my skin.
And she did. Every move she made, every time she said something stupid like I didn’t know her.
I fucking knew her.
I knew her better than any of these people she puts on a show for. She wasn’t as perfect as she made them believe.
“Do you need to get that?” Allie looked toward my pocket where my phone kept buzzing.
“No.” I drove down the street without thinking. “I’m pretty sure it’s just Frankie threatening to cut my balls off if I let something happen to you tonight.”
“You told Frankie that we were together?”
“No.” I tapped my fingers against the steering wheel. “I told Olly, and if you haven’t noticed, those two don’t keep any secrets from one another.” Then the thought hit me. “Was I not supposed to tell them? Do you not want her to know that you’re with me?”
“No. I don’t care.” She laughed, and I looked over just as she was messing with the edge of her shorts.
They were short enough to show off her perfect thighs, and I wanted to bury my fingers in them. I wanted to see what they would look like covered in the marks of my hands on her.
“I’m sure she’ll have questions, though. This is a bit odd.” She waved back and forth between us. “You’re my enemy, and here I am out getting snow cones and surfing and doing whatever else you come up with after my date with someone else.”
“I’m your enemy?” I cocked a brow.
“Well, you aren’t exactly my friend.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “If anyone heard the way you normally talk to me, they would call me a masochist for doing anything with you.”
“It’s not that bad, is it?” It was. I was cruel to her. We both knew it, but most days I couldn’t help it. It was the only way I could stand to be around her.
“It is.” She looked out the window, and I wished she would just look at me. I wanted her to yell and scream and tell me how much of an ass I had been, but she never did. She just took it.
And that just pissed me off more.
Because I knew that she did so because she felt some sort of guilt over what happened between us. Some part of her, I didn’t know how small, still cared about me in some way. And it was so fucked up.
I turned down the old back road we used to frequent all the time as kids, and Allie looked back to me.
“Where are we going?” There was a bit of panic in her voice, and I knew why. She hated this place with a passion.
“The old Sneed mansion.”
The old house wasn’t really a mansion, but it was close and it had always seemed like one when we were young. The legend was that the place was haunted. Some said the old man’s wife had died inside. Others said that it had been haunted for decades.
All I knew was that this place had always scared the hell out of her, and I used to force her here with the rest of our friends because it meant she would hold my hand like it was her lifeline.
She would never say no because she didn’t want anyone to know she was scared. She had always been a brave thing usually to a fault.
“I am not going in there.” She settled into her seat and crossed her arms with an attitude.
“You have to say yes. It’s a part of the deal.”
“Not to this.” She pointed out the window as I pulled onto the dark dirt road.
There were no streetlights, and the house was completely blocked off by a large fence. I hadn’t been here in years, not since the last time I came with her, and I didn’t even know if the house was still standing.
The last time we were here, it was barely hanging on.
“How long has it been since we’ve been in there? We need to write our name on the wall.”
The infamous wall that we all used to dare each other to sign our names on. We have done it at least a dozen times already, but it was normally during the day, and we normally had a crowd with us.
“I don’t care, Carson. I’m not going in there.”
“You seriously can’t still be scared of this place.” I slowed my car as we finally made our way toward the front gate, and I pulled off on the side of the road and cut my lights.
It was so dark that I could barely make out the tall fence to my side, and I knew that there was probably no way in hell I was going to actually talk her into this. But that was fine. Let her say no.
Without her yes, our deal was off, and she wouldn’t be able to say a word when I continued to ruin her dates with that douchebag.
“Fine.” She unbuckled her seat belt and leaned forward to look out the windshield. “Do you have a pen?”
“I do.” I chuckled and leaned forward to pull a pen out of my glove compartment. My hand skimmed past her leg as I reached inside, and I tried to pretend like I didn’t hear the way her breathing changed just slightly when we touched. Or how my dick hardened almost instantly.
I flipped the pen between my fingers for her to see before tugging it into my pocket.
“Are we really going to do this?”
“Yes.” She was trying to psych herself up. “Let’s go before I lose my nerve.”
She climbed out of the car with a nervous smile on her face, and I realized that this might have been the best idea I had all night.
Chapter Ten
Allie
Letting Carson talk me into anything was a bad idea.
I already knew that, but this was probably taking it to the extreme.
It was pitch-black, I was tiptoeing through the overgrown grass, and I couldn’t stop giggling.
“You’re going to get us caught.” Carson looked back at me over his shoulder, but for a guy who was reprimanding me, he had a big smile on his face.
“We probably shouldn’t be doing this at all.” We finally made it to the old wooden fence, and I attempted to peek through the broken slats to get a good look at the house. It was so dark, I could barely see a thing, and the memories of how scared I used to get when we did this in the past crept up my spine. “Actually, this is a terrible idea. Let’s go back.”
“Do not be a chicken, Allie. We used to do this all the time.” Carson bent down on one knee near the fence.
“I was a lot more gullible then, and I would let you talk me into anything.” I stared at the house again, and parts of it looked like they were ready to fall at any given moment.
Carson patted his other knee for me to step on. “I don’t want to go over there first.”
“Can you jump this fence without me?” He cocked his head and watched me, and we both already knew the answer to that question.
“I could try.” There was no way I would make it over that fence without his help.
“Go ahead then.” He nodded to the fence. “Your head barely reaches the top of it, but be my guest.”
I rolled my eyes and stepped my foot onto his thigh as I gripped the edge of the fence. “I’m not as light as I used to be.”
Carson’s hand came down on my ass, and I squealed and spun around to face him. I could not believe he just smacked my ass.
“Get your ass up there. I’ve got you.”