...
❝He was the poison I was dying to taste on my lips.❞
...
I was a coward.
The coward who wanted to leave behind the wreckage of her life for the man who had tormented her for as long as she could remember. The boy who had spit venom at me gro...
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"GET OVER IT, RIBBON. It doesn't suit you to be so bitter."
My jaw tightened as I marched to the coffee machine, River hot on my heels even though I knew for a fact that he didn't drink coffee. "I am over it. Stop following me."
"I'm hardly following you if this is a public space. Last I checked, this spot doesn't belong to you."
"And last I checked, you don't drink coffee nor do you like confectionery," I countered, pressing on the mocha option and placing a cup beneath the spout.
"I'm perfectly fine with confectionery."
"Really?" I asked, grabbing a custard doughnut with a napkin. "Here. Eat this, then."
He just stared at it in distaste, as if it wasn't a piece of food but instead something nasty, something akin to chewed-up gum I'd picked up from the floor. "No, thanks."
I nodded, placing it back onto the tray. "That's what I thought."
He watched me as I tore apart a chocolate croissant and stuffed a piece in my mouth. I was about to tell him to stop watching me like a creep and move away when he reached out, thumb swiping along my bottom lip softly, spreading a soft hum beneath the skin. On my cheeks, on my chest and in the pit of my stomach.
To my absolute surprise, when he withdrew his touch, he lifted his thumb to his mouth, sucking the smidge of chocolate right off.
My jaw dropped.
"Don't look so shocked, Ribbon. Told you I was fine with sweets, didn't I?"
And the smug, cocky bastard sauntered away with that, having beaten me in Maths where he'd gotten a single mark more than me in our first weekly progress test since I'd taunted him and having one-upped me just now.
With a low growl, I grabbed my coffee and joined our friends, taking a seat next to Faye on the plush white sofa. When I glanced at River over the rim of my cup, he was in conversation with Alistair, allowing me precious seconds to observe him. The subtle mocking in his gaze had disappeared now that I wasn't the subject of his attention, his glee and the heat that seemed to encompass the blue ocean nowhere in sight. His jaw had relaxed and though he wasn't smiling, he seemed less rigid. Less harsh.
He graced a five o'clock shadow, not clean-shaven as he usually was, yet it only seemed to emphasise the sharp contours of his face.
Faye leaned in closer to my side. "You're making it painstakingly obvious."
I dragged my gaze away, surprised. "What?"
"That you're staring at him," she revealed. "That you're stuck in his orbit that he's managed to lure you into."
"He hasn't lured me anywhere." I frowned.
"He kind of has." She winced as she said it. "But he also seems as entranced with you as you're with him; the two of you are constantly staring at each other when the other isn't looking. If you both keep it up, the whole school will know before next month."
