Very Bad Things

“No?” I arched a brow, staring hard at Leo, my breathing getting faster. “You’d like it. I didn’t do the norm and get the ring or barbell. I got these little angel wings that you screw onto the side. It’s right here,” I said, taking my finger and tracing it around my breast where the piercing lay underneath my shirt. I remembered touching my breast for him the night before; I wondered if he was thinking about it, too.

His nose flared wide, and his eyes jerked back to my chest, and I knew he could see the imprint of the piercing because I’d seen Shayla’s, and she’d been wearing a bra. I arched a bit forward so he could see better.

Cuba whistled, his wide grin making me chuckle. He was a lot like Sebastian, handsome with a tinge of arrogance, but instead of seeming conceited about their good fortune in the looks department, both of them managed to not take themselves too seriously, and it worked big time, making them even hotter.

And Leo, he stared at me and then at Cuba, his mouth a thin line, like he wanted to throttle us both. We were spared what would have happened next when Sebastian walked back over to us.

He must have caught the tail end of our conversation. “Hey, don’t forget about me. I wanna see this piercing,” he said, grinning at me and then cutting his eyes at Leo, like he wanted to gauge his reaction to what he’d said. I paused, wondering what that look had meant.

“I was kidding about flashing my boobs in the park,” I laughed. “But, I’ll show you later,” I said to Sebastian.

Leo let out an exasperated breath and ran both hands through his hair, his fingers twitching as he let them fall.

I ignored him and turned to say something to Cuba when Leo grabbed my elbow. “I need to talk to you. Now,” he said, steering me away from Cuba and Sebastian. Dumbfounded, I let him. Once we got out of earshot, I came to my senses and jerked away. “Stop dragging me around. What is so important that you couldn’t say it in front of them?” I said heatedly, looking back at Cuba and Sebastian, both of them watching. Cuba appeared unconcerned, but Sebastian seemed to have a smile on his face.

He shook his head, his face serious with his brows pulled down. “Nora, you think I don’t know Cuba already, but I do. He comes over to the gym some, and Sebastian talks about him a lot. He’s dated lots of girls this summer, all at the same time and then dumps them. When I said you needed a healthy relationship, he is not who I meant.”

I scoffed. “Maybe I don’t want healthy. Maybe I just want to hook up. Ever think of that?”

“I saw your fucking list, Nora. I know what you’re planning to do. And I don’t want you to make a mistake. You think you want to be bad, but I think that maybe whatever happened to you was what was bad. Not you.”

My mouth opened in shock. “You read my private journal? How could you, Leo? That was personal.”

“Because you ruined my car. Because it’s obvious you’re a girl who’s crying out for help,” he said.

“Please don’t help me anymore. I don’t need your pity. I can take care of myself.” I seethed.

“Listen to me. I want to . . . I don’t know . . . get you through this. You seem like you’re on the edge of doing something terrible, and you don’t have to do bad things to get attention—”

“You think I’m doing this for attention?” I gasped out, shaking my head at him angrily. “You want to fix me?”

He faltered and struggled to find words. “No, it may appear that way, but that’s not what I meant—”

“Stop,” I said, holding my hand. “First of all, if I want to be fixed, I’ll call a shrink like you hinted at this morning. Secondly, just because we spent the night in the same bed does not mean you know me. You have no idea if I’m good or bad, you have no clue what happened to me, and you can’t tell me who I can date. If I want to get drunk, I will. If I want to snort some coke, I will. If I want to fuck Cuba, then I’ll enjoy every dirty moment. I’m not afraid of getting my heart broken, Leo. There’s not one there to break. Thirdly, why do you give a shit, anyway? You basically told me to stay away from you.”

I whipped around, heading for the park exit, not even turning to wave bye to Sebastian or Cuba.

I heard Leo call out to my retreating back. “Dammit, Nora. Come back! Don’t walk away from me!”

I kept going, yet I stupidly prayed he’d come after me. Tell me that he wanted to keep me from Cuba because he felt the connection between us. But that would be a lie because now I knew the truth. He’d read my journal and only felt sorry for me.

I fucking hated pity. It was a wasted emotion.

“If love is the answer, then I’m changing the question.”

–Leo Tate

AS I WALKED back to the gym from the park, I wasn’t thinking about the contractors who were there, working on getting the pool in. Nope, I stuck on Nora and how she made me forget every practical thought in my head. She’d driven me insane today at the park, licking that ice cream cone and talking to Cuba. And he’d been all over her, standing next to her, wiping ice cream off her face, grinning at her. Even when I’d been talking to Tiffany, I’d been distracted, watching their annoying flirtation play out.

Nora . . . she did something to me. I’d spent half an hour in the shower this morning, jerking off to her, thinking about her big green eyes, how she’d touched my tats at breakfast, the way she smelled like fresh peaches. Most of all I kept remembering her in the bathroom, tall and sexy with breasts perfect for cupping in my hands.