Page 12 of A Little Bit Reckless

My friends weren’t bad people. Many of them were just dudes, and I found I got along much better with girls in general. Another one of my best friends, Fawn, was a girl.

I really pushed the run with Bow today. We took some of the more elevated areas through campus, but I made sure to keep my strides slow. Bow was the exact opposite in regards to Thatcher in size and general stature. She was barely five feet, if that, and it took her several strides to catch up with my one.

“Come on, Bru,” she laughed, sprinting ahead of me. She was a ball of energy, and I felt stupid for trying to take things slow. My legs may have been longer, but Bow could talk and move a mile a minute.

“Hold up,” I said, easily catching up to her. Once I did, she charged off, and I got nothing but her back. It seemed we both needed the run, because the pair of us were thoroughlyexhausted by the time we wrapped around back to the quad, and later, to my car.

We sat in my Audi and warmed our hands on the vents.

It was so weird I had such a nice car. It was so weird I had paid tuition and never wanted for anything. My parents, the Mallicks, were incredibly generous.

There was a lot of history there with the Mallicks. They adopted me after finding my sister, Noa Sloane-Mallick. She was their biological daughter, and, though I wasn’t their biological son, they took me in too. I had a family again. My sister and I both did after we tragically lost the people who raised us.

I could write a book about tragedy, but every day I found the past more and more behind me. I found I didn’t dwell on it so much and embraced my future.

It was easy to do with people like Bow, Fawn, and all my other friends in my life. I was grateful to say I had very few worries these days, but the ones I did I was reminded of often.

Bow and I were barely in my car before her phone buzzed, and she had it out again. Her face shot up in color once more and very few people in her life made her look that way after hearing from them.

“That Wells?” I asked, though I shouldn’t have asked. “I heard from Thatcher you’re tutoring him.”

I didn’t get that almost as much as I didn’t understand why he seemed to have an issue with her.

That’s none of your business.

It may not be, but Wells Ambrose was pissing me off these days, and I had no problem getting in his business.

Bow froze before slowly lowering her phone. She gazed up at me. “It’s not him, but Iamtutoring him.”

“Why?” I asked, forgetting about who she was texting. She and Wells had my attention now.

Keep your mouth fucking shut.

I should but I wasn’t. My eyes narrowed. “He’s not very nice to you, Bow.”

Truth be told, Wells wasn’t nice to many people, but that was just the dudes in my friend group. They were aggressive.They were guys, but Wells in particular seemed to single Bow out. He always had. Even in high school he appeared to have a distaste for her.

Why is he your every thought?

He wasn’t myeverythought, but he did piss me off, and Bow was literally the nicest person in the world. She didn’t deserve his aggression.

You don’t either.

That was neither here nor there, and I watched as Bow slipped her phone in the pocket of her jacket.

“You’re right. He’s not,” she said softly. Her small shoulders lifted. “But he’s not a bad person. He’s not, and I understand.”

“Understand what?”

“Him I guess.” The wobble returned to her smile. “We’ve known each other a long time, and it doesn’t help being mean back. I mean, what’s the point?”

What’s the point.

My back hit my seat, her sweetness, herkindnesstoo much. She was giving Wells way more allowances than he deserved.

You are too.

I swallowed. “You’re a good person, Bow. You are, and you shouldn’t let anyone push you around.”