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“Don’t care.” Wes pulled the door open and shoved his brother outside.

I couldn’t contain my laughter when I saw Sawyer’s shocked expression right before Wes slammed the door on him.

“Your brother is ridiculous,” I said.

“Ridiculously handsome!” I heard Sawyer shout from the hallway.

Wes banged a fist against the door. “Go away.”

Sawyer laughed in response, but the sound soon drifted off as he wandered away down the corridor. It was only after a few moments of silence that Wes seemed to relax. “Sorry about that.”

“Sawyer is nothing if not entertaining.”

“Yeah, he’s a regular clown.”

I laughed, but my amusement quickly disappeared as I realized what we’d just done. “Shit,” I muttered. “I didn’t come here to kiss you.”

“But you did.” He grinned.

“Stop smiling. That can’t happen again. I refuse to ruin our friendship for some rebound kisses. I don’t care how good they are.”

His smile only grew.

“Why aren’t you listening to me? I think we both need to pretend that never happened. Okay?”

“Okay.” He nodded. His face was the picture of sincerity, but his eyes danced like he was just playing along and had absolutely no intention of forgetting our kiss.

“You’re almost as bad as your brother,” I muttered. “I’m going to go now.”

I opened the door to leave, and Wes leaned against the doorframe, watching me as I started down the hallway. “I’m glad wetalked,” he called after me.

I shot a scowl over my shoulder at him, making him laugh. I had clearly failed in my attempts to talk with Wes. We’d done a lot more than that. And a small part of me wondered if maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing.

CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO

Iwas running late to PE. I’d left my sneakers in my dorm room this morning and had to rush back to get them before making my way across campus to the school gym. I hadn’t had a chance to change yet either. I was almost to the locker room when a hand snaked out and caught hold of me from behind.

“What’s the rush?”

I gasped and turned to find Wes grinning down at me. He’d just emerged from the boys’ locker room, so I hadn’t seen him coming. He was already dressed for our sports lesson and didn’t have nearly the same urgency about him that I was feeling.

“I’m running late.”

He laughed and looked down at my school uniform. “I can see that.”

“And you’re not helping. I need to get changed.”

His smile simply widened. “You’re cute when you’re flustered.”

“Still not helping.” I blushed at the ease with which he called me cute and how it made me feel. He shouldn’t be calling me cute. And he shouldn’t be standing so close to me. I was trying to forget about the kiss we shared in his room, but it was all I could think about when his body was pressed against mine like this.

“You better get a move on, or you’ll be late to class,” he murmured.

I scowled at him because I had a feeling he knew exactly the direction my thoughts had been tracking. “That’s what I was saying,” I complained before turning to dart into the girls’ locker room. His soft laughter followed behind me.

I changed in what must have been record time before rushing to the basketball courts. One of my shoelaces was undone, and my hair was a mess from throwing my top over my head, but I didn’t care. I could fix it all when I got to class. I just hoped I wouldn’t get a detention.

I’d been worried about being late to class, but the teacher hadn’t shown up yet either, and most of the students were milling around on the bleachers. I joined Cress and Anna on one of the benches, and as I sat, I noticed Noah scowling at me from the other side of the court. I had no idea what I’d done to piss him off, but I chose to ignore him.