“I am!” I insist and he only laughs harder.
I glare at him, taking a step back when I realize that he’s no longer holding on to my hair, and then I turn and bolt for the door.
The laughter cuts off immediately and a second later, I’m being lifted off the ground.
“Nope. You’re not walking home. It’s dark out and I know that you walked here,” he growls in my ear as I squirm to get out of his hold.
“I’m not getting in the car with you,” I snap, and he chuckles.
“Because of the curse?”
“It’s real!”
“No, it’s not, but don’t worry. We’re going to talk all about that.”
He carries me over to a workbench and grabs a set of keys out of the drawer there before he carries me outside and over to a new-looking Jeep.
“I can walk,” I tell him stormily.
“But the curse,” he says back sarcastically.
I try to kick him but he dodges me, and I seethe.
He’s not taking this seriously, but he will when something bad happens.
He opens the passenger door and sets me inside.
“I like you a little less now,” I inform him, and he just grins at me.
“No, you don’t.”
He closes the door and I glare at him as he heads around the hood and climbs behind the wheel.
“So tell me about this curse,” he says as we pull out of the parking lot.
“You mean the curse that you don’t believe in?”
“That’s the one.”
I debate telling him, but maybe if I can explain it to him, he’ll get it and he’ll stay away from me for his own safety.
A piece of my heart breaks at the thought of him avoiding me, but it’s for the best.
“I’ve been cursed since I was born.”
He glances over at me and I take a deep breath before I go on.
“My parents were musicians, and they had finally caught a break when they found out that they were pregnant with me. They had to turn down the record deal to raise me.”
“So they named you Record?”
“Yeah, they said that I was supposed to be their replacement. Something just as good as a label wanting to sign them, but I wasn’t. I’ve done nothing but mess things up for my parents and sister ever since.”
“How?” he asks, his fingers tightening around the steering wheel.
Good. He’s finally taking this seriously.
“Lots of stuff. They had to work to raise us and they hated their jobs. When I fell and broke my arm, my dad came to the hospital and missed a meeting with a big client and ended up losing his job.”