LUKE

“What’re you guys giggling about?” I asked Soph and Celia when I discovered them on a couple of old chairs behind the garage.

They straightened up, lost their teenage grins and eyed me.

Ceels tugged on her messy braid. “None of your business!”

But Soph cocked an eyebrow and leaned toward me with mischief in her grey eyes. That gave me a deep view of her cleavage that seemed to have grown overnight. At fourteen she was almost three years older than me, and never let me forget it. “You’re too young for this, Luke, go away!”

“Nah, think I’ll stick around,” I smirked, shoving my hands in my pockets, t-shirt baggy around my flat chest and small shoulders, puberty taking its sweet damn time to get to me. Didn’t mean I couldn’t admire soft curves when they looked as good as they did on her.

She’d become my every waking thought lately.

No coincidence that I’d found them back here.

I’d noticed she hadn’t come back inside after the trip to town she’d taken with the women of the house. When they all filed in, she and Ceels were missing. I waited as long as I could, but curiosity took over.

“Just tell me,” I half-heartedly shrugged, leaning against the old building, weeds crushed under my feet.

Ceels sighed, “You’re as stubborn as your dad.”

“But not as built as him,” Soph laughed.

With a shocked slap, Celia cried, “Don’t talk about the Badger like that! He’s like our uncle.”

With a sexy glint in her eyes, Soph shrugged, “I’m just making Luke squirm.”

“Not squirming,” I muttered, kicking the dirt. “Don’t care what you think about who.”

“You’re so stupid,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“You’re stupider.”

“You are.”

“You are!”

She got up and threw a punch, knowing I’d dodge it. We started sparring, grinning our asses off as we successfully evaded kicks, too. When we started panting, heartbeats racing, I laughed and backed off. “Okay, that’s enough.”

“Chicken?” she sneered.

“Nah, just don’t want to hurt a girl.”

Her beautiful eyes went wide and she lunged at me with a fierce, high-pitched, girly-growl. I slipped out of the way and she hit the ground.

“Fuck!” she frowned at the deep scrape on her arm. Picking herself up she kept staring at it.

“What do you care if you get scraped? Never bothered you before.”

She went to Celia, speaking with a private tone not meant for me, like I wasn’t here anymore. “You think he’ll care if I’m a bloody mess?”

Ceels looked closer, humming, “Mmm, it’s pretty ugly, but who cares?”

“I don’t want to tell him that I’m a fighter yet. He seems…book smart, you know?”

Confused I asked, “Who’re you talkin’ about?”

Over her shoulder, Sofia made a face at me.

But Celia was too excited to keep it a secret. “The cutest guy in town kissed Sofia today! It was her first kiss, and with Thatcher Martin! She snuck off while the moms were gettin’ their hair dyed, made out with him behind Krogers!”

Jealousy twisted in my chest, but I kept my face blank. Voice, too. “Sounds like an asshole.”

Sofia Sol snapped out, “He’s not one!”

“If you have to hide who you are to keep him hot for you, then he’s an asshole,” I walked away, acting like I could give two fucks, when inside I was dying.

Something hit the back of my head, and I barked, “Ow!” grabbed the wounded place and looked behind me. “Did you just throw a rock at me?”

With a satisfied smirk, Soph shrugged one shoulder. “Who, me? It just fell out of the sky.”

“Yeah, right,” I grumbled, heading back to the house as I heard Celia laughing behind her hand.

* * *

Atlas’s snoring was so loud a few nights later that I couldn’t sleep. I’d steered clear of Sofia Sol for days, trying to get her outta my head. My penis wasn’t cooperating with me. Felt like it never slept.

Grunting with impatience, I flipped the pillow to the cool side and slapped my head onto it, closing my eyes and willing myself to go to sleep.

A soft tapping on the door made me sit up, cocking my head as I wondered if I imagined it. I padded over in my pajama pants and peeked out, nearly bonking heads with Sofia Sol as she held her ear to the door. We jumped back and she pressed a finger to her lips, waved me to follow her.

Tip toeing to the small parlor on that floor, she closed the door and faced me. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Getting pissed at you. Thatcher is an asshole.”

My spirits lightened to the point of ridiculousness, but I kept my face blank. “Oh yeah? You find him kissing someone else?”

She made a face like that would never happen, and walked to an antique velvet chair, worn to the bone in parts. Sitting on it, she kicked off her boots and brought her knees to her chest. I decided to stand. It was the one chance I had of being taller than her, and that felt good.

“I snuck out tonight to see him.”

Frowning I muttered, “Oh.”

Staring off, a little moon-faced, she told me, “He’s so handsome, and clean, and comes from a rich family. We don’t go to public school, but believe me, he’s a God there. You can’t be a girl in South Vacherie and not know who Thatcher Martin is.” She dropped her legs and ran a hand through her shiny black hair, taking a deep breath. “So we were making out, and he had his hand down my shirt.”

My chest tightened.

Did I really want to know this?

No, but I needed to.

“And?”

“And it felt amazing, Luke. But I slowed him down, just to tease him, and we started talking some more.” Frowning like it just occurred to her, she said, “I guess it’s the first time we talked…but anyway!” Meeting my eyes, she announced, “He said some really mean things about his best friend. Called him stupid. Laughing when he said it, too, can you believe that? Said he only kept him around because Randy worshiped him. But that Randy had been kept back, had a learning disability. I thought he was joking, and when I realized he wasn’t, that was that.”

“You told him you had to go?” I ask, wanting every detail.

“I told him he was an asshole, got up, he got pissed, grabbed my arm and pulled me back, really hard! So I kicked the shit out of him.”

Covering a surprised burst of laughter with my hand I paced, cracking up. “Oh, that’s so fucking awesome!”

With a devilish smile she stood up. “He won’t touch a girl like that again. And I also told him that he’d better treat his friends with respect or I’d come back and break his other arm!”

In awe of her, I shook my head. “Wish I’d been there to see it. You think he’ll tell?”

“That a girl three years younger, kicked his ass? Hell no! Probably give the blame to some nameless stranger. Who knows? I don’t care. Dad’ll back me up if Thatcher’s parents come around. I just did what we’ve been taught. Probably saved some girls in the future from date-rape, you never know!” She shrugged, like it wasn’t a big deal. “Anyway, don’t tell anyone. I mean, I’ll tell Ceels, but nobody else, okay?”

I loved having a secret with her. Made me feel like I was on the inside. Held my hand to my heart and vowed, “Promise.”

She smiled, looking so pretty I couldn’t breathe for a second. “And I’m sorry I threw that rock at you. I knew you were right, and I didn’t like it.” Walking past me to the door she pointed at it. “Open that.”

Rolling my eyes I joined her. “Just because you had your first kiss doesn’t mean you’re a woman now.”

“Oh, yes it does,” she winked.

I opened the door.

And I would’ve done a lot more than that, if she’d asked me to.