“Fine,” I grumbled, taking a swig from the can. I scrunched my nose up as the bitter, yeasty taste hit my tongue. It was like a gross version of kombucha—and I hated kombucha. The tequila shots I’d had at Dizzy last weekend were definitely a better choice.
I lifted the can and pointed it at him as I continued. “But you better believe I will not forgive you if Dad finds out.”
“He won’t,” Shane said. “It’ll be our little secret.” He winked at me before disappearing into the crowd.
I let out another sigh before taking another sip of the beer. I was hoping the taste would get better the more I drank, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
I slowly started making my way through the crowded room, searching for my friends. I couldn’t see Tessa anywhere, but Mia had joined the group of people dancing on the kitchen counter. She was with some of the popular girls we never spoke to at school and looked like she was having fun.
I shook my head at the sight. It was like a couple of drinks and a bit of music had completely erased the social hierarchy. I had no doubt those girls would be back to ignoring us come Monday though.
“Do you really think you should be dancing on another table?” someone murmured in my ear.
I jumped and turned to find Chase standing right behind me—far too close to me for my liking.
“Does it look like I’m dancing on a table?”
“No, but you were considering joining your friend,” he said, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
“And that’s a problem because…”
“It’s not a problem,” he quickly replied. “I’m just trying to watch out for you, as friends do.”
“Oh, so we’re friends now, are we?” I asked, trying not to smile. The idea was completely ridiculous, but I liked the sound of it far more than I should.
“Well, we’ve both agreed to put down our weapons, so I don’t see why not.”
I rolled my eyes. “I think there’s a slight difference between a cease-fire and friendship.”
“We’ve got to start somewhere,” he replied.
I tilted my head as I looked at him, surprised to find he actually seemed serious. When had we gone from unable to stomach being in the same room as each other to agreeing to a truce that might lead to friendship?
“When will the wonders of this house party cease?” I murmured, shaking my head. Chase frowned at my comment but didn’t get a chance to reply as Tessa appeared beside us.
“There you two are,” she said.
I took a quick step back so I wasn’t quite so close to Chase. He almost seemed disappointed as he turned to look at my friend.
“You were looking for us?” I asked.
“Obviously,” Tessa said with a laugh. “We’re starting a game, and we need more players.”
“I don’t play games,” Chase immediately replied. I begged to differ; he was the biggest player of us all.
“Well, you do now.” Tessa refused to take no for an answer, and she grabbed us by the wrists before dragging us up the stairs to Shane’s bedroom. I wasn’t sure what game she wanted to play, but given her insistence that we both get involved, I suspected it was something to do with the plan. She hadn’t run anything by me though, so I had no idea what she could be thinking.
Shane and a couple of football guys were already in the bedroom as Tessa dragged us in. There were also a few girls I recognized from the year below us, and I frowned as I scanned the room.
“What exactly are we playing?” I asked Tessa. She didn’t give me an answer though, and the more she avoided my questions, the more concerned I became.
Tessa walked into the middle of the room and turned to face the group. “Okay, so everyone has to write their name down on a piece of paper and then pass it to me,” she said.
The uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach went from bad to worse, but I did as she asked, taking one of the small scraps of paper she offered before writing my name on it and handing it back. Tessa winked at me before placing the paper in a hat, along with everyone else’s.
I was surprised that Chase was so willing to go along with it, considering he too had no idea what deviousness Tessa was planning. Tessa gave the hat a shake before she glanced around the room one more time with a look of excitement in her eyes.
“So, we’re playing seven minutes in heaven,” she said.
I started to groan. “We’re not twelve, Tessa.”
“That doesn’t make it any less fun,” she responded. “Actually, I’d say it makes it more fun.”
I shook my head at her, nervous shivers running down my spine. If she thought that putting Chase and I alone in a room for seven minutes was going to achieve anything, she was sorely mistaken.
I really hoped this was her way of making a move on my brother rather than the scary alternative. It was a slim hope to cling to though, as I knew Tessa would never be brave enough to start a game of seven minutes as a way to stick herself in a room with Shane.
Tessa shook the hat around once more before she dipped a hand in, pulled out a piece of paper and read the first name aloud.
“Ally,” she announced, giving me a sly grin. Before I could even react, she dipped her hand into the hat once more, and I couldn’t help but notice her gaze flicker in Chase’s direction.
No, no, no.
“And Chase,” she said, revealing the name on the second piece of paper. “You guys are our lucky first couple…”
I think she needed to look up the definition of lucky.
“So, where are we doing this?” Chase asked. He seemed almost accepting of our fate.
“I think your bedroom will do,” Tessa immediately responded.
My heart was fluttering with nerves now. I’d expected Chase to laugh and tell Tessa there was no way he was going to spend one minute in his room with me, let alone seven. He wasn’t doing a thing to stop it though. As he caught my gaze, the look in his eyes almost dared me to wimp out.
I squared my shoulders, refusing to back down. “Sounds good,” I said, as casually as I could. Tessa looked like she was struggling to contain her joy, but she managed to keep her cool and gave me approving wink.
Not even my brother was coming to my rescue. He was too busy flirting with some junior, and I don’t think he’d even realized the game had started.
Reluctantly, I followed Chase down the corridor to his room. I felt like I was walking the plank, about to dive into shark-infested waters. Tessa was right behind me, like some kind of pirate captor, and I knew beyond doubt that if I didn’t choose to jump she’d be more than happy to push me off the end.
I glanced over my shoulder at my friend, glaring daggers in her direction. “You’re in serious trouble,” I hissed at her.
She grinned. “You can thank me later. Just remember to try and connect with him,” she whispered in my ear. “This is your chance to conquer step two.” She gave me one final nod of encouragement before she pushed me toward the door.
I shot her yet another scowl and followed Chase into his room. Tessa immediately closed the door behind me, giving me no chance to reconsider or try to leave. “Seven minutes, you guys. Have fun,” she called.
But as the door clicked shut and I turned to face Chase, I knew there was nothing heavenly about being closed in a room with him. Truce or not, this was going to be seven minutes of hell.
17
Ally
Chase stepped forward until he was standing right in front of me. I hated how he towered over me. He was such an imposing figure, but when we were close, it always made me feel so much smaller than I was.
“We’re supposed to be making out,” he said. There was almost a husky quality to his voice, and the moment I looked into his eyes, I really wished I hadn’t. He was staring at me with such intensity that it was like fighting against a strong current as I tried to pull my gaze away.
Energy flickered between our bodies, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how his touch had set fire to my skin when he’d gr
ipped my waist earlier this afternoon or how electric it had felt to be pressed against his chest. My eyes flicked to his lips as I considered what they would taste like, as I wondered if his kisses would be as strong and hard as his grip on me had been.
My heart pulsed in strong, hard beats as I tried to remember I despised him. We were standing so close to each other it was hard to believe my body had ever wanted distance between us. Every cell within me was alive and urging me toward him. But kissing Chase wasn’t part of the plan right now and definitely wasn’t something my body was supposed to desire with such intensity.
I dragged in a breath and quickly shook my head. “No, we just have to stay stuck in this room together for seven minutes, that’s all.” I moved past him and farther into his room, unable to stand being in the same space as him. He seemed to suck up all the oxygen around us when I got too close, and I felt like I could breathe more easily as the distance between us grew.
I tried to concentrate on Tessa’s advice about connecting with him. But what were we even supposed to talk about? I had absolutely nothing in common with the boy before me.
“So, I like what you’ve done with the place,” I said, waving a hand around the room. I hadn’t entered Chase’s bedroom since he’d first moved in, and not a lot had changed in that time. He’d done nothing to make the room his own.
Chase chuckled under his breath. “I was going for the minimalist look.”
“I can see.”
“Plus, I’m only a guest here. I didn’t really see the point in changing anything,” he added.
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. He almost seemed sad that his place at our house was transitory, and a flicker of guilt raced through me because I was planning to boot him from his temporary home. I swiftly looked away to focus on his room once more and attempted to push those troubling thoughts away. Chase was far from innocent, and I couldn’t go feeling sorry for him.
I continued to scrutinize the room until I noticed a heap of books stacked on the floor next to his bed. Like a moth to a flame, I couldn’t seem to help myself as I walked over and crouched down to read the titles. There must have been thirty books in the piles. Their spines were all crinkled from years of use, and many of the books were old classics I’d never bothered to pick up.
“You read?” I asked, glancing up at Chase over my shoulder.
“No. The books are just there because they look pretty.” He rolled his eyes.
“Hey, friend, we’re lowering our weapons, remember?” I said, making his mouth twitch in a small smile.
“Yes, I read,” he admitted, walking over and sitting on the bed near me. “Although I much prefer actual books to that Kindle you’re always carting around.”
“Hey, don’t diss the Kindle.” I continued to run my fingers along the spines of each book and read their titles. I was surprised Chase had even noticed that I read from a Kindle. I guess it was practically glued to my hand whenever I was in the house. “I doubt you could fit all these books in a suitcase, whereas I always have an entire library at my fingertips.”
“Your Kindle doesn’t smell like old paper.”
“Your books don’t light up at night so you can read in the dark.”
Chase chuckled. “Why on Earth would you want to read in the dark?”
I glanced over my shoulder and glared at him. “Why on Earth are you sniffing your books?”
He grinned widely in response. “Maybe I have a fetish for it.”
“Maybe I do too.”
I picked up a book off the top of one of the piles and sat on the bed beside him as I looked at the blurb. It was called The Book Thief, and the story sounded far more thought provoking than the type of reading material I would have expected to find at Chase’s bedside. To be honest, I wouldn’t have expected to find any books at all.
It felt weird that I’d hated him for so long, but I didn’t really know all that much about him. He was my brother’s best friend, he thought he was too good for all the girls at school, and whenever we spoke, we seemed to naturally fall into an argument. That was really all I knew about Chase Williams these days. He used to play football with my brother, but since he’d quit the team last year, that didn’t really feel like current knowledge.
Chase had always been a bit of an enigma, but that didn’t change the fact he still drove me crazy. We both appeared to love books, but even then, we couldn’t seem to agree on how they were best read. His library was also completely at odds with my own. I loved everything paranormal and romantic while his books all seemed more historical.
I could feel Chase’s eyes on me and realized I’d been staring at his book for far too long, as I got lost in my thoughts.
“Is this any good?” I asked, tearing my gaze away from The Book Thief to look up at him. All thought of the book in my hands disappeared as our eyes met. I hadn’t realized we were sitting so close together. That our legs were brushing against each other. That our faces were only inches apart.
His eyes were filled with a myriad of emotions, but none that I could decipher, as he looked at me. All I knew was that he wasn’t shying away from me, and he wasn’t scowling at me like I was his mortal enemy.
I swallowed as I tried to recall what I was talking to him about, but my brain had decided to stop functioning because all I could focus on was a small fleck of gold in his light-blue eyes. I could smell a hint of beer on his breath and sunscreen on his skin, and where our legs touched, my skin buzzed like it had been hit by static electricity. There was a yearning ache in the pit of my belly that was almost impossible to deny. I think he must have been feeling it too because his eyes dipped to my lips, and ever so slowly, he started to inch toward me. The air between us crackled like the brewing of a storm, and I found myself leaning toward him rather than pulling away.
A loud banging started on the door, and it felt like a bucket of cold water splashing over my head. The strange urges I’d just experienced were completely extinguished, and I jumped back from Chase with such urgency it was like I’d accidentally gotten to close to an open flame. It was a relief we’d been disturbed. If we had been left alone for a moment longer, I had no doubt I would have been burned.
My eyes darted toward the door as it opened, and I stood up from the bed. Chase mirrored the action beside me, but I suspected he looked far less guilty than me. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him after the strange moment we’d just shared, and I wondered if he was feeling the same confusion as me. It had felt like he wanted to kiss me, but surely, that couldn’t be right. Chase Williams hated me, and he definitely didn’t want to kiss me. I hated him too though, so what was my excuse? I certainly hadn’t been thinking about the plan to get him out of my house when I’d been staring into his eyes. Perhaps I had been subconsciously working toward Operation Pest Control.
“Please don’t tell me you made out with my sister,” Shane said, scrunching his face up with disgust, as the door opened wide. Tessa was standing at his side, her eyes filled with mischief and a devious smile curving her lips.
“Are you joking? Of course not,” Chase immediately replied. His voice was filled with so much disgust my cheeks went hot with embarrassment. We hadn’t kissed, Chase was right, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t wanted to. And judging by the repulsion in his voice, I must have read the moment between us completely wrong. He was probably just leaning toward me to wrench his precious book out of my hands.
I frowned and quickly placed the book back on the pile. His reaction was exactly the reason why I couldn’t live with him the entire year. I schooled my features to cover the damage he’d inflicted with his cutting words before I faced Tessa and brother again.
“You should probably be grateful we’re both still in one piece after locking us in a room together for such a long time,” I said. I hazarded a glance in Chase’s direction as I spoke. His arms were folded across his chest, and his expression was as cool as ever. My words didn’t affect him, and I shouldn’t have been surprised
.
I walked from the room without a backward glance, my heart racing as I tried to gather my thoughts. I entered my bedroom with Tessa right behind me and fell onto my bed as I tried to process the last seven minutes.
“What happened in there?” Tessa murmured.
I pulled a pillow to my chest and hugged it tightly as I rolled onto my back to stare at the ceiling. Tessa lay down beside me so we were resting side by side.
“Ally?” she prompted when I hadn’t replied.
I hugged my pillow a little tighter. “I don’t know what happened in there.”
“You seem upset. Did he do something?”
A breathy laugh left my lips as I shook my head. “It was Chase, what do you think?”
“I think you seem awfully rattled.”
Was that what I was feeling right now? Rattled? It felt something closer to rejection. “I just struggle to be around him,” I explained. “You know that.”
“But when we opened the door, you guys were sitting so close, and it looked like you were about to kiss…”
I let out a laugh of disbelief at the suggestion. “Chase wasn’t about to kiss me. You heard him, he couldn’t have sounded more disgusted by the suggestion.”
“I don’t know,” Tessa replied. “I thought he sounded a little too defensive, like that was exactly what he’d been thinking.”
I moved onto my side to look at my friend. “You’re imagining things.”
“Am I?” she asked.
“Of course, you are.”
She pursed her lips and tilted her head as she looked at me. “Well, if you’re sure…” she said, clearly struggling to believe me.
“I am.” The firmness in my voice put an end to the conversation and dismissed any lingering doubts that churned in my stomach.
Chase probably just wanted his book back, and there was no way he was trying to kiss me. But when I woke up the next morning and found his copy of The Book Thief lying right outside my door, I had to wonder if perhaps I’d been wrong.
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