Foolish Summer | ✔

21 • S T E P H E N • 😵

I was gonna beat their asses, I thought when I turned to the three that interrupted us.

Waverly's face was the reddest I'd ever seen it, her gaze fixed on the hardwood floors of the hallway. Leaning against the wall, I shielded her from the dumbasses at the end of the hall. "Sorry."

She glanced up at me. "Friends of yours?"

"Not after I murder them."

Her lips curved into a small smile and worry I didn't realize I had dissolved. "Let me know if you need help with the bodies." She pushed away from the wall and headed down the hall in the opposite direction.

"Where's she going?" Toliver said, moving to follow her.

I pushed him back. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Nope, but apparently you do." He laughed, Marc and Alfie joining in.

"I know you're all virgins who couldn't get a girl if you offered her a Birkin, but that doesn't mean you have to try and mess things up for me."

I pushed past the three stooges and headed to the kitchen for something to drink. It was getting hot in that house, or maybe it was the way my heart was still going a mile a minute after that kiss that had me breaking a sweat.

I'd been thinking about kissing Waverly since that almost kiss at the book festival. It was definitely worth the wait.

"What I don't get," Marc said, the three of them following behind me, "Is why you'd drop a fine ass girl like Toya for some fat bitch."

If the top wasn't still on the bottle in my hand water would've gone everywhere from the way my grip tightened around it.

"You know big girls are insecure and desperate." Alfie laughed.

Waverly was anything but insecure. She was unapologetically herself. Comfortable in her own skin. She loved what she loved and didn't care what anyone else thought about it.

The complete opposite of me.

I should've said something, defended her. But I already knew what'd they say if I told them that I liked Waverly and it wasn't about the physical. It'd be like talking to three brick walls. So, I shrugged and took a drink of my water.

"She's gotta be putting out," Toliver continued. "And it's gotta be good because you haven't even looked at another girl since getting here."

Another shrug, another sip. It was all I could manage at that point. I was hot for a whole other reason. Knocking them out started sounding better and better.

They kept bugging me for details, asking me to rate Waverly on a scale of one to ten. How did I end up associating with those three?

I kept my mouth shut. I didn't know what would've came out if I opened it.

I was out of water and turned to get another from the fridge, thankful for the small break from their dumbasses.

Naomi, Waverly's friend, was in the kitchen, three sodas in her hand from the cooler next to the fridge. She was staring at me so hard I swear I felt my skin burning like she was shooting lasers.

Shit.

She left the kitchen. I wondered how much she overheard. Was she going to tell Waverly?

My first instinct was to find Waverly and explain to her that after that night I was never speaking to Toliver or Alfie or Marc again, but the three of them were still hounding me and they'd just follow me around.

I grabbed another water from the cooler and hoped Waverly would still talk to me after the party.

"I need your help." Dev materialized at my side. He dug around the cooler grabbing two flavored waters. "I know you're here with Waverly, but I need a wingman."