Page 12 of Soul Mates: Hercules Valentine and I

I fold my arms, hugging myself tightly. I think the shock is wearing off, and I’m starting to understand the gravity of what happened tonight.

“You must think I’m selfish,” I say.

“No,” he says without a hint of a pause. “You’re not alone.”

I turn to him with a curious frown. “What do you mean?”

His expression darkens. “They’ve done it before and gotten away with it.”

“They?”

He nods briskly. “O’Brien, Darby, Raymond Cromwell, Jayce Kilgore, and a few others.”

“I only know O’Brien and Darby. I mean, I know who they are. I’ve never spoken to Darby and only spoke to O’Brien tonight.” I sigh. “I don’t know. Maybe I should say something about what O’Brien tried to do to me. I mean, what if he had succeeded? It would’ve been…” I stop short of admitting that he would have robbed me of my virginity. As soon as we turn the corner to walk down my street, we slow our pace. “I don’t know. There’s nothing I can do now. I’m almost home,” I add.

He walks ahead of me and then turns to face me, causing me to stop in my tracks. “You’re a Grove. I’m a Valentine. We can finally get them if we can prove you have pinkies in your system.”

I lean away from him. “We?” I’m the only one who has to deal with disappointing my parents.

“I’ll tell the cops what I saw. And—”

My eyes expand as he takes me by the waist and guides me to one side of the sidewalk. We’re close—so close. Our lips nearly touch. Yes, we kissed earlier. I remember how his lips felt against mine, our breaths colliding. I want to kiss him again.

Three boys walk past us, and we’re still gazing into each other’s eyes. His hands on me seem so natural.

“Were you going to say something else?” I whisper breathlessly.

Hercules shakes his head. “Forget about it.” Silence lingers as I gnaw on my bottom lip. He drops his hands from my waist and takes a step back. “Do what you feel is right,” he says as he starts walking again.

I’m glad his pace is still slow. I walk beside him, arms crossed. I’m so confused.I have to do something, don’t I?

“Do you know the girls it happened to?” I ask.

He shoves his hands in his pockets. “One of them.”

I see my enormous house rising in the distance. We’re running out of time. But if we walk any slower, we won’t be walking at all.

I study his perfect profile. “Who?” I swallow, quelling my attraction because of the seriousness of the moment.

“This girl… Blossom.” He steals a glance at me. “Blossom Cantor.”

“I don’t know her.”

“She goes to Rollins-Campbell.”

“Oh.”

Rollins-Campbell is one of three all-girls schools in our district. I probably should have gone there. There are no Valentine sisters, only brothers, so by virtue of deductive reasoning, Rollins-Campbell couldn’t be Valentine country, and I probably wouldn’t have suffered through such a lonely year if I’d gone there. My mom gave me the option of going, but I didn’t want to attend a school with no guys.Boy, was that the wrong choice. Maybe…I look up at Hercules. Maybe I wouldn’t be right here, right now if I had chosen Rollins-Campbell.

“Blossom told me about the others.”

Distress grips me. “There are others?”

“Her and three others that she knows of. I think there are more. But O’Brien and his gang are popular, and their parents are assholes too. But you’re a…”

“I know. I’m a Grove.” I’m kind of irritated that he keeps reminding me of it.

We stare at each other as I think about what to do next. Could I go to the hospital and let them draw my blood? Could I face my parents? Will I do whatever it takes to make Hercules happy? With his sensual lips and his dimpled chin, I could view his face all day long.