Page 30 of Loyalty, Lust, Love

He nodded and watched her as she got out and went inside the house. Twenty minutes later, he entered the treehouse in basketball shorts and a T-shirt and flopped onto the gigantic bean bag next to Fateema.

“Here.” She handed him an ice pack, and he held it against his lips. “I’m sorry, Lynx. If I hadn’t?—”

“This wasn’t your fault, so don’t try to take the blame.”

His speech was a little muffled because of the ice pack against his lip, but she understood him.

“You only went because I wanted to go. This kind of is my fault.”

“No, some people are just assholes and like to start shit with people for no reason. He was one of those people.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Did you know he’s Presleigh’s boyfriend?”

He looked at her and shook his head. “I had no clue. He punched her in the face and didn’t even see about her. That’s crazy.”

“Yeah. She’d be crazy to stay with him after that.”

“She wasn’t talking to me like she had a boyfriend.”

“You think they tried to set you up?”

“Set me up? Nah, I don’t think so. If you’d seen the look of shock on Presleigh’s face, you wouldn’t think so either. Her expression was what made me turn around and duck. I hope she’s okay.”

“Yeah, that whole thing was crazy. Y’all looked very cozy. You like her?”

“No, I don’t know her to like her. I was only talking to her to pass the time.”

“Why haven’t you ever had a girlfriend?”

He shrugged and removed the ice pack from his lip. “I don’t know. I never got past the talking stage with the few I was interested in. Why haven’t you ever had a boyfriend?”

“Be serious, Lynx. These boys just started looking at me at the beginning of last year. Besides, I wouldn’t know the first thing about having a boyfriend.”

“Do you want one?”

“Do you want a girlfriend?”

“I asked you first.”

“I don’t know. I guess if I found a nice enough boy.”

“Good luck with that.”

“What about you?”

“Not really. I mean, everything I’d do with a girlfriend, I do with you, besides sex.”

“Oh my God, Lynx. Are you a virgin?”

“Why you gotta say it like it’s a bad thing? You’re a virgin too.”

“I know, but I’m a girl.”

“Just because I’m a boy, I’m supposed to be slinging my dick all around the school?”

“What? No, of course not. I’m just surprised.”

“You shouldn’t be, because you know I’m not like that. I’ll be honest, though. I have had my dick sucked a few times.”