Chapter 4

"Sweet mouth on you." Julian had been standing there with his eyes lazily lowered, but at that his throat loosened and he let out a low snort of a laugh, a teasing glint rising in his eyes. "We'll be going now, then. Ex-boyfriend."

He leaned hard on those last two words on purpose.

The whole room went dead silent, the air frozen solid, that little exchange leaving everyone too tense to breathe.

Julian didn't care in the slightest what any of them thought. He took my hand and walked out without looking back.

By the time we reached the next room, every set of eyes had turned to land on me.

This was Julian's crew. I'd catch sight of them shooting hoops now and then when I passed the court.

"Lesley Fox, huh, the big honor student. Ranked first in the year, the one who's always kept you one spot down."

"Isn't she Ken Harding's girlfriend? Wait, boss, how do you two even know each other?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's her, all right. Boss, weren't you going to find Gwyneth James? How'd you end up dragging his girlfriend out here?"

Julian didn't bother explaining. He just tossed out two flat words. "Ask her."

Julian and I weren't close, not really. If there was one place our lives ever crossed, it was grades.

Our names were always stuck together at the top of the year, first and second.

They stopped arguing among themselves and turned their eyes on me instead.

Maybe it was guilt. All at once, with this many people staring at me, the scene from earlier came rushing back, and my words caught in my throat while my head went hot.

"You've got a nosebleed, kid."

Julian glanced up, tone easy and offhand, being helpful enough to point it out.

I fumbled a tissue out to stop the bleeding, dropped my head, my eyes darting away.

The way I was acting only made everyone more certain something was off.

"About what happened today. I'm sorry." I pinched the tissue, forcing a calm I didn't have on the surface, the tips of my ears burning a scalding red. "If there's ever anything you need me to help with, just say the word. I will, definitely."

Julian tilted his head and cut in, amused. "Who said you could kiss me?"