I’D DONE A LOT OF things in my life that weren’t very smart at all. Robbing convenience stores. Stealing cigarettes and alcohol. Cheating on tests. Skipping school. Taking drugs. Not kissing my mother before school the last day I’d seen her alive. I’d done it all, but for some reason as I followed the girl from the field and across the bridge this felt like the most stupid thing of all the stupid things.
Somehow, I knew even then that I was way over my head and not just because I was following and essentially stalking someone. Or not even the fact Sheriff Rothchild hated my ass and was basically looking for any reason to throw me in jail. No, those weren’t the things that gave me pause when I finally reached the island side of the bridge. No, it was her. The nameless girl who watched the stars. Two weeks of watching her and I was hooked. What would happen when I knew where she lived? What her name was? And God, I wanted to know everything. I wanted to know it all. Favorite colors, foods she loved, why she lay in that field. I wanted to know what her voice sounded like. How old she was. Because fuck if she didn’t look a little too young. I wanted all those things. It felt like my brain might explode with all the stuff I wanted to ask her. And that, that was the scary thing. I wanted too much. That too much was all things I knew weren’t for me. So, I’d stayed away. Until now, that was. And that’s why I knew this was dumb as fuck.
Still, I followed her home like a dumbass. I made sure to keep my eyes peeled for Sheriff Asshole and to stay far enough back that she couldn’t see me. I’d spent most of my life hiding, but the last fourteen days had been a true exercise in it and I felt like a damn professional. Ten minutes from the bridge we arrived at her home on the beach. I mean, these people might call it a home, but I called it a mansion. She walked in with her dog and I stood on the sidewalk in front of the house, staring. I noticed on the way home, I liked the way she walked. It wasn’t a stroll or even a fast-paced jaunt. No, she walked on the tips of her toes and almost never used her heels. It was adorable and almost reminded me of a slow skip.
I knew she was rich. I could tell from her clothes and from the sheer fact that she was from the island, but this blew my mind. I looked over the expensive cars in the driveway, my feet moving closer and into her front yard almost unbeknownst to me. I was eating up every little bit of information I could. Her address, the color of her house, when I heard the telltale whine of a door opening and then I knew I was truly fucked. So very fucked because I couldn’t move. I felt glued to the spot waiting, almost anticipating this moment. It was like I came here to do this. And maybe I had. It was like I couldn’t wait one more day to be closer to her. I was a fool.
The jangle of a dog’s collar followed by footsteps and there she stood, the closest she’d ever been to me besides that day with Boone and Grady. There she was, too skinny legs, too wide mouth and all. I was starting to like that mouth that looked like it held too many teeth. She wore black leggings and an oversized T-shirt. My mouth went dry and I ran a hand through my hair, but I couldn’t make myself move. My heart raced in my chest, my breath came fast.
She kept moving toward me until she stood at the top of the driveway and I stood at the bottom. Her feet were bare and her hair was down, blowing in the salty breeze coming off the ocean, and her eyes—they were on me.
She squinted a bit at me as her dog sat down next to her feet. Some protection he was. I looked on, afraid to move. I wanted to watch her from this close up and I knew what kind of crazy that spoke about me, but I didn’t fucking care.
I felt like we were in some sort of weird, twisted stare down until she finally spoke. “You.” It was said on a breath of disbelief and accusation.
It wasn’t a question and I wasn’t a big talker, so I just stood there, staring like the fool I was.
She stepped closer slowly, her dog at her heels until she was all the way down the driveway and standing not a foot in front of me. My heart thundered in my chest. I wasn’t a stalker really, but I had a feeling that tonight might be the first time in the history of my life that someone was about to call me one.
Her forehead scrunched as she looked me over. “Did you follow me here? From the field?” She bit her lip nervously. I wanted to touch my finger to it, beg her not to hurt that mouth I was growing to like.
But instead, I nodded, lost for words, letting her deep, almost sultry voice wash over me. Her voice wasn’t all like I expected and oh, had I expected. Because I’d thought of this girl more than I cared to admit. So, I paid attention, waiting for her next words, but all I could hear was the thundering in my heart.
This was a mistake, but it was one I was powerless to stop.
Her brown eyes glazed over in thought and then snapped back to mine. “Wait. So you…” Her finger pointed at me. “You…Oh my God. You’ve been leaving me the notes?” Her words were incredulous, but no one was as shocked as me at the shit I’d been doing the last couple of weeks.
I nodded again, lifting my hand and looking for the tiny line on my forehead that Raven had told me about. I pressed the line, pissed off. Why was she so surprised it was me? Who the hell did she think it was? I was irrationally pissed off about some other dude stalking this chick and I didn’t even know her name. I was insane.
I reached in my pocket for a cigarette and a lighter, hoping like hell the nicotine would calm me the hell down.
“But I thought it was…” Her voice trailed off as I lit my cigarette.
I raised an eyebrow as an indication that she should keep going and tell me who the hell she thought had been watching her and leaving her notes. Because I was probably going to kill this man.
But instead she stepped back and pointed at me again. “Are you smoking?” Her lip curled in disgust.
I nodded again.
It was her turn to look disgusted this time. “Do you even speak?”
I nodded again and she shook her head in disbelief before reaching over the space between us and snatching the cigarette out of my mouth so fast I didn’t see it coming. I stood there dumbfounded. People didn’t snatch shit away from me. People were scared of me. Not this brave girl. I should have known.
“Smoking is disgusting.” She said it quietly like it didn’t matter, but I could tell it did to her. She bent over and put the butt out on the driveway before standing up again and shoving it in her pocket.
I smirked. “You gonna keep that?”
Her eyes ignited with anger. “No, I’m going to throw it in the trash because I’m not a litterbug.”
Shaking my head, I muttered under my breath, “Fucking litterbug.” She was being cute. The girl with the too long legs and too big mouth that I couldn’t get out of my mind was fucking cute, too. I was screwed.
I wanted to full-on smile at her cuteness, but I held my happiness close to my chest. God knew it always came with a price. And I was done paying.
“You kiss your momma with that smoke mouth?” she asked snarkily, clearly pissed off about my smirk.
I lowered my head and took a step back, running a hand through my dark hair. I wanted to tell this girl things. Things I had no business telling her, like that I didn’t kiss my momma with anything anymore. Instead, I asked the question that had been plaguing me since she’d seemed surprised it was me who had left the notes.
“Who did you think it was?”
Her face screwed up in confusion. “What?”
I stood straighter and licked my lips before answering. “Who did you think left the notes?”
I was feeling strangely vulnerable in that moment waiting for her answer and I didn’t like it one bit. Why did it matter to me who wrote her or didn’t? Or who else thought she was the most intriguing thing ever? For fuck’s sake, she was just another rich bitch from the island. Why did anything about what she was about to say matter to me at all?
She bit her lip again and I still wanted to reach over and pull it from her teeth. It was sexy that lip bite, innocent even, and for some reason that made it all the more attractive.
“I don’t know.” Her brow furrowed in thought and she looked away, almost like she didn’t want to tell me the answer to my question. But then her eyes landed on mine again. “I thought it was the other guy—”
“Boone?” I interrupted loudly.
A disgusted look crossed her face. “God, no. Not him. The blond. The other guy.”
I let out a long breath accompanied by a sarcastic chuckle. “Grady?” That guy didn’t even graduate high school and she thought he knew anything about astronomy. I would have laughed if the whole thing hadn’t annoyed me so much.
Her eyes brightened. “Is that his name?”
I pulled out my pack of cigarettes again. “You like him or something?”
“What? No!”
I walked out into the street and lit my smoke far away from her.
She started to follow me. “Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“But I don’t even know your name!” she yelled and stomped a foot.
I almost smiled again.
I turned and started walking back toward the bridge. I didn’t know hers either and I wanted to ask for it, but it was enough for now that I knew where she lived, what her voice sounded like, and the faces she made when she was pissed.
I’d take the things I did find out and leave before she made me kill one of my oldest friends.
“Next time,” I called out, trying my damnedest not to look back. I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of knowing what she did to me. Not when she thought Grady had left her the damn notes. It didn’t surprise me. He was the one who’d tried to get Boone to leave her alone, but fuck, it had been me who had ultimately stopped it. It had been me who watched her every night. It had been me who told her about the stars. Fucking Grady.
I was rolling my eyes when I heard her yell from behind me. “Tomorrow! You’ll tell me tomorrow.”