She was going to regret all of this.
“Come over here,” I said softly, and I took her arm and led her over to the side of the building and out of sight of anyone else wandering around. I leaned my head close to her and spoke sternly. “Let’s get something perfectly straight between us, and I am by no means talking about my cock. You aren’t coming near that.”
She snorted, and I gripped her arm a little harder.
“Ow!”
“Shut up.”
“What the fuck, Thomas?” she snapped at me. “Are you going to shove me in a locker, too?”
“No, I have much more interesting plans for you,” I informed her.
“You aren’t going to hit me,” she said with conviction. She narrowed her eyes at me. “You can’t do anything to me!”
I leaned into her, pushing her body back against the brick building. I tilted my head and placed my mouth right up to her cheek.
“You know what would be a damn shame?” I purred against the edge of her ear. “If your dad’s credit report ended up with a bankruptcy on it—and some really bad credit card debt to boot. I bet he’d have a hard time trying to pay for your college then, wouldn’t he?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Crystal pushed against the bricks, twisting her body and trying to get a little distance, but I wasn’t going to have any of that. She glared at me.
“I mean with one phone call and about ten minutes, I can fuck up your dad’s credit score so bad, he’ll never get the loan he wants. Never. It won’t ever go away, because even if he gets it cleared up as a mistake, which wouldn’t be until you’re twenty, I’ll just fuck it up again. You hear me? That little ‘get out of the small town’ dream of yours would be dead on arrival.”
Her face went a little pale.
“Not to mention how much it would suck if the pharmacist screwed up his heart pills.”
“What the hell?” she said in a breathless whisper.
“Don’t fuck with me, Lloyd,” I warned. “Consider yourself relegated – you no longer play in this league. If you try, you’ll lose, big time. And by don’t fuck with me, I mean don’t fuck with my girl. You stay the hell away from her because if she hears one more thing from your mouth—directly or indirectly—I’ll fucking destroy your family. Got it?”
Her body tensed, and she nodded. I released her arm and gave her a little push back toward the school entrance.
“Get the fuck away from me!” My nostrils flared as I glared at her.
She didn’t need to be told twice. I retrieved my bag and continued on my way.
Nicole had calmed down a little by the time I got back to the car. She was sitting with her feet up on the seat again, and I tried not to cringe. I remembered what her locker looked like and decided I was going to have to do something about it. I settled into the driver’s seat and turned the car on before I looked toward her.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Not really,” she replied. She stared out the window.
“What did she say?”
“I really don’t want to repeat it.”
“You said you would,” I reminded her.
“I didn’t agree to anything,” she snapped as she turned her head to look at me. “Besides, even your own conditions included you telling me what you were going to do. You go first.”
“Fine,” I said, grateful for the out. “Forget it, then. She won’t say anything else to you.”
I backed up and pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street. I still kept my speed at twenty-four miles per hour, crawling along and enjoying just being in the car with her. Nicole leaned her head back against the seat and sighed.
“You know, it’s bad enough just coming to a new school during your senior year,” she said. “Now I have to deal with all this shit, too? Seriously, Thomas—I don’t know if I can handle all of this.”
She held her hands over her face again, which I really, really hated. Aside from not being able to see her face—which I quite liked to look at—she was obviously upset, and I didn’t know what to do about it. She had taken care of me when I was a mess, but I didn’t know how to return the favor. All I could cook was mac and cheese. So I did the only thing I could think of, which was to try to convince her I would take care of it without actually giving her any details. I didn’t think she would care for the details.