I stare with a gaping mouth, surprised by the dark side showing through on this girl who looks like she’s never had a mean thought in her life.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to go there.” Keni offers a big smile. “I can be such a downer sometimes, but it’s not on purpose. I tend to say what I’m thinking and, well,” she shrugs, “I’m only human.”
I nod. “And, apparently, protective of your family. I get it.”
She beams at me, her green eyes vibrant. “I think you do, Huff.”
“So what else did River tell you?”
“That it took a shit ton of pushing to get you away from your parents. Can I just say how awesome that makes you? I mean, staying put to support your parents instead of running off at the first chance you had. Pretty noble.”
River has been embellishing my entire life, coating it with sparkles and serving it up to strangers as some glorious journey of sacrifice. “That’s not exactly true.”
“No?”
“I mean, yeah, I guess part of the reason I didn’t run off to college right away was not wanting to leave them alone, but I didn’t know what to study. Why waste all that money taking GE classes at a four-year?”
“Practical and kind.” She laughs and gives my shoulder a playful poke. “You are a rarity.”
She puts a small hand on my leg, and suddenly I realize this super-cute girl is actually flirting with me. Me! “Did River put you up to this?”
“Up to what?”
“You know, talking to me.”
“Don’t be lame. I actually wasn’t going to come tonight. I had a student council thing to attend—I’m class secretary until the new elections are held. But the meeting with the dean let out early.”
“So, again, why are you talking to me?” I say in the nicest voice I can muster. I really don’t want to sound like a dick, and it’s a legit question.
She jerks her head back. “Because you looked like a fish out of water and needed someone to hang with. Are you always this paranoid?”
Of course I’m paranoid. She’s hot, easily the cutest girl in the room, and she’s being nice to me. “Sorry. Guess it’s the tequila. I’m new to its powers.”
“Ah…” She snickers. “So you’re usually the shy type, huh? You know,” she leans in closer, giving me a whiff of her perfume. It’s something sweet, like her, “I think we can use more real men like you around here. But shhh…” She holds her index finger to her lips. “Don’t tell all the Neanderthals in the room. They’ll feel threatened and start throwing tantrums.”
Her lips curve into a gorgeous, sparkly-white-toothed grin.
I want her. And I’ve never really wanted anyone. But this girl is…well…like a bucket of sunshine, and I just want to dump her all over my head. Maybe I should take advantage of the liquid courage flowing through my veins and ask for her number, see if she wants to have coffee sometime. “Keni, do you want to—”
“Keni, what’s going on?” growls a deep voice.
That tall guy I saw in the kitchen earlier, the one with the cropped dark hair, is looming over us. From this new angle, I can see he probably weighs at least two hundred and twenty pounds. Pure muscle. I’m just a throw pillow to a guy like that.
“Oh, hey, Blake.” Keni hops to her feet like she’s been caught doing something she shouldn’t.
“You told me you weren’t coming,” Blake snarls.
“I changed my mind. I’m allowed to do that,” Keni says.
“Who’s this guy?” Blake glares down at me like I’m a shit-covered roach that just crawled out of a sewer drain.
Keni rolls her eyes. “He’s a friend of River’s. And don’t start, Bla—”
“Whatta you lookin’ at?” Blake says to me.
Great. Just what I need, to be humiliated in front of the first girl to ever flirt with me. Then again, what’s it matter? Looks like she’s taken, which means I mistook her kindness for flirting, like a desperate moron.
Keni gives Blake’s huge shoulder a push. “Knock it off. He was nice enough to keep me company while you were doing bong hits in the kitchen. And don’t think I didn’t see you, Blake.” She shakes a finger at him. “What the hell are you thinking, huh? You know you can’t take anything with that prescription. And your ass’ll be off the team if you test positive for anything more than a Tic Tac.”
By now, everyone in the living room has stopped what they’re doing to watch the drama. And apparently Blake notices because he squares his shoulders and makes sure to speak in an extra-deep, extra-loud voice. “What? You my mother now, girl?”
Keni crosses her arms over her chest, her green eyes flickering with anger. “Did you just call me girl, like it’s a fucking disease?”
Blake stares, probably too high to answer in a coherent sentence. Also, he’s backed himself into a corner. I wonder how he’ll get out of this.