Kane Richards Must Die (6 page)

I
spotted Lawrence at the end of the hall talking to none other than that pain in the ass Kate, and there was a small figure next to them with her back to me who I couldn’t quite make out.

As I dodged a couple of snotty bitches blatantly drooling at me from across the hall—had it been any other day I’d be lapping that shit up—I realized that the third figure was her. She didn’t turn, and I didn’t hear her voice, but I just knew it was her. I felt that same toxic magnetic pull she had on me.

And it was even stronger than it had been before.

I didn’t understand my physical reactions at all. The hairs raised up on the back of my neck, I’m pretty sure my eyes dilated, my heart was going crazy, my fingers were feeling tingly, and why the hell was it so hot in here all of a sudden?

I felt like I was choking on the thickening air and took a deep breath to pull myself together, thinking of what to say when I got there. Luckily enough, Kate gave me the perfect opportunity when she put her hand on Lawrence’s shoulder and murmured some shit about not telling anyone.

“Tell anyone what?” I asked, not really caring, but just using it as an excuse to hear Suranne speak. It had only been a few hours since I’d seen her, but she looked even better, and my eyes were eagerly lapping her up. I heard her sigh, and watched as her lips parted but then that cock-blocking Lawrence stopped whatever she was about to say.

“Nothing dude, don’t listen to ’em,” he muttered, glaring at them both. I don’t know what the hell they were talking about, but I could see Suranne’s lips twitch upward into a very small smirk and I couldn’t help but grin. She was so sexy without even realizing it.

She peeked up at me through her lashes, and I grinned even wider as her gray eyes pierced right through me. I reminisced about how her eyes had shone when I was at her house, and I winked at her. Her eyes seemed to widen before they tightened infinitesimally as if she was trying to keep herself in check or some shit.

And I swear to God I almost lost it when her lips pulled up and she smiled widely at me.

Damn.

And I thought it was only Ashley’s smile I loved seeing.

I would watch this girl smile all day if I could.

Her face puckered into a small frown, and her lips turned down at the edges as she eyed my face, concern now her main expression.

“You look tired,” she whispered. I knew I looked like shit, but having it told to you doesn’t really do much for your confidence. Then I felt pissed, because shit, you would be tired too if you walked in your home to find your Mom smashing glasses on the floor, completely wasted, and your sister bawling her eyes out in your room, wouldn’t you?

But I couldn’t feel completely angry, because the other reason that I didn’t get much sleep was nowhere near as bad.

And so I chuckled, and decided to give her a little reminder.

“Yeah, well, someone kept me up till three in the morning,” I told her suggestively, cocking an eyebrow, and was rewarded with a delicate blush coloring her cheeks.

I nearly groaned at the sight.

“Yeah, well, you don’t seem to be complaining,” she replied, her voice taking on a sly tone. I grinned back at her, because complaining was definitely something I wasn’t going to do.

“Especially when you won’t get the chance to do it again,” I heard my mind say to itself, and just like that, I was reminded of the shit I’d been reluctant to do all morning. And when she bit her lip I couldn’t help but divert my gaze to her mouth, wanting to do nothing more than lean in closer and kiss those damn lips till there was nothing left. When I forced my attention back to her eyes I was about to go crazy, completely lost in her stare. I gazed back, silently apologizing and willing her to understand.

 Even though I knew she wouldn’t. We were both brought back to reality by Lawrence clearing his throat, and inwardly I growled at him.

Like I said . . . cock-blocker.

Suranne snapped her head in his direction, and I decided to follow suit. Both he and Kate were looking at us suspiciously. Not that I gave a shit. I would quite happily let them watch if I was about to ravage her against her locker.

But I wasn’t. I was going to screw everything up, and I didn’t want to face the aftermath of Lawrence, grilling my ears off about how much of an asshole I am, and the smug look on Kate’s face, either. I was about to ask if I could speak to her alone, and get this over and done with, but when she blushed, and bit her lip again, I just . . . couldn’t. I couldn’t do it. I needed to find another way around this shit. And I wouldn’t be able to do that if she was there, right in front of me, all tantalizing and lip biting.

“Dude, we should probably go man, coach is all over me saying that I’ve been slacking. I need my main man to help me out a bit,” I muttered to Lawrence, chuckling and punching his arm, ’cause if I didn’t get away from her now, I would break down, tell her everything, and then push her against that damn wall and mash my lips against hers. But I knew I couldn’t tell her about my mom, like I said before; she’d think of me as a dick. And even worse, she’d feel sorry for me.

And I don’t need pity.

I was vaguely aware of Lawrence walking down the hall, and Suranne watching after him, but I was still focused on her lips. I didn’t want to leave them, but if I kissed her now I’d have to explain shit and I didn’t want to.

Lips and pity, or nothing at all?

And even though I was aware that the heavens up above enjoyed screwing around with my life, I didn’t expect that they’d go all mercifully vengeful on my ass by sending some bronze-haired chick up to me to kiss me on the damn cheek.

And I knew it was stupid, and I was going to totally regret it, but after these two shitty days I came to the conclusion that to let people in is far more tiresome, frustrating, and downright scary than to push them away.

And just like that, lips and pity became a much worse scenario than nothing at all, and I desperately tried to communicate this to Suranne using my eyes, apologizing and hoping that by some miracle she’d be able to read my mind. But she seemed far more amused with the chick hanging on my arm than anything else, and so with one last look at her lips, I did what was easiest for me. I pushed her away. And when I put my arm around the chick I didn’t even know, and saw Suranne’s jaw drop, and her face twist in what could only be pain, I knew that maybe I’d pushed her a bit too far, and that there would be no going back.

So I turned away from her, and got the hell out of there, ’cause there was nothing else I could do. With every step I took, my chest ached more to go back. But I kept walking, with only two words prominent in my mind.

I’m sorry.

A
fter a whole bloody hour of trying to pull myself together, and wiping the tears off my cheeks, I took a deep breath, crossed the field and made my way back into the school building. Second lesson was approaching, which was biology, and luckily Kane wouldn’t be in my class. He was the last person I wanted to see right now.

I heard the first bell ring and quickened my pace, trying to reach the class door. As I walked through the halls, the other students were eyeing me, half of the girls looking smug, before turning to their friends and yammering quietly, and the other half just looking at me with pity in their eyes. News obviously got around that the new little British girl fell for the famous antics of Kane Richards, and everyone was making quick work of the latest gossip.

In my haste to reach class I arrived early and the only other person in the room, thankfully, was Lawrence. He had his head in his hands, elbows on the desk, and seemed to be silently muttering to himself. I walked quietly up to him, and placed my hand gently on his shoulder but was shocked when I felt him stiffen underneath me and shake my hand off as if he was disgusted to have me even touching him.

“Lawrence?” I questioned warily, but he just cringed at hearing my voice, then finally turned to face me. However, this time it was my turn to cringe.

Lawrence looked angry. But not just an “I’m pissed off” kind of angry.

No.

It was much worse than that. This was a broken, disappointed, and rejected “how could you” kind of angry, and from the looks of it, it seemed to be directed straight at me.

“You just don’t listen, do you?” he glared, his warm, ocean-blue eyes now transformed into a cold, icy blue that was considerably darker than the norm.

“You just . . . don’t . . . get,” he trailed off, sighing and shaking his head before holding it in his hands once again. I stood there with the hand that had been on his shoulder still hovering slightly, my eyes wide and my body stiff from the shock of his words as he continued speaking menacingly, his voice sounding low and hollow from his head being surrounded by his hands.

“We told you, the first day, Kate and I TOLD you what he was like, and you . . . you just. Don’t. Damn. Well. Listen.” He sneered at me, his voice sharp, cutting through me.

I stood there, blinking uncontrollably whilst his words swirled around in my head.

“Lawrence . . . I—I . . . it wasn’t even . . . I . . .” I stuttered. It was impossible to even think coherently so speech was definitely out of the question. He was right, I knew I should have listened to them both and just ignored Kane, but I honestly felt that I had witnessed a different side of him, and he said he didn’t compare me to his past girls.

He said I wasn’t like them

He said I was different.

He said I was better

He also
kissed
me.

Then he chucked me like I was nothing.

I wonder how many other girls he had used the same lines on, just to get them to drop their pants.

I wanted to say all of this to him, but for some strange reason there was something buried deep within me that also wanted to defend him, even after he’d worked me over. I wanted to yell and cry and scream that Kane isn’t what everyone thinks he is.

But how could I?

He just proved everyone right not an hour ago.

And now everyone was laughing and sneering behind my back. Hell, Kane was probably one of them, bragging how he had me hook, line, and sinker, before something else came along. This was apparently a copper-headed, gold hoop-wearing, trout-smelling bitch.

As if that wasn’t enough, Kate was probably just as mad as Lawrence was, and if I thought he was bad when he was angry, he had nothing on Kate.

Damn.

And so the tears started silently running again because all I wanted to do now was just get a ring from my mum telling me she had arrived back so I could catch the first available plane and get the hell out of there. Leave all this behind me and forget it even existed. Go back to my real home, call my real friends, flop down on my real bed, walk to the fish and chip shop and have some real food, and guzzle a ton of Red Bull. Go to college like I was supposed to, meet a decent guy who was nice, and friendly, and gentle, and caring, and much better looking than Kane.

Pshh . . . Who was I kidding? There was no one better looking than Kane. Perfection doesn’t do his looks justice. He was much more than perfect.

Lawrence’s eyes widened and he sighed. “Suranne, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry, I just,” he ducked his head and kept his eyes on the floor, “I thought you were different,” he muttered.

“Lawrence I don’t know what you think is going on between Kane and me but I can assure you I haven’t done anything with him.”

Apart from kiss him in the early hours of the morning. And fantasise about him constantly.

His head snapped up and he looked at me in shock.

“You haven’t had sex with him?”

In my mind? Definitely.

“Uhh, no,” I replied, shifting my eyes from side to side, hoping that my blush wouldn’t betray me and my nightly dreams.

He seemed to believe me and he sighed in relief. His mouth spread into a wide grin and he patted the chair next to him as the class began to slowly fill up with students. I sat down next to him appreciatively and smiled back. “I’m sorry about what I said,” he murmured, his blue eyes warm and shining again as they gazed into mine.

“It’s OK.” I smiled back at him and he raised his hand slowly, brushing the tears away from my cheeks softly with the pad of his thumb. His eyes flitted to my lips for a few seconds before the teacher came in, and he reluctantly pulled away from me.

The day followed on sluggishly for me after that. At the end of every lesson my chest tightened and my heart thudded in my chest from the thought of running into Kane in the halls.

I never did, and for that I was grateful.

I did, however, have Lawrence escort me to all of my classes and was glad that he was here for me. I could tell from all the stares and the sideways glances from other people that, unlike them, Lawrence didn’t judge me anymore. But unlike them, he knew I hadn’t had sex with Kane Richards. They didn’t.

The bell rang to signal the end of school and I breathed a sigh of relief as I was met at the door by Lawrence, his bright blue eyes gleaming and a wide grin that, if Kane hadn’t existed, would count as being extremely sexy. He slung his arm around my shoulder and we made our way into the parking lot. I had accepted a ride home with him at lunch in the hope that I wouldn’t run into Kane.

I was taking no chances.

“So, Suranne, uhh, I was wondering, if umm, maybe, I don’t know, I just guess I would like it if you came back to my place and we hung out for a while. Kate’s always with us and I think it would be pretty cool if it was you and me,” Lawrence stuttered as I leaned against the passenger door and he leaned over me, his arm resting on the roof of his car, next to my head.

“Uh, sure,” I said absently, my eyes flitting around the lot, subconsciously looking for Kane. If I could get him on his own maybe I could scream at him and possibly spit in his too-beautiful face.

Or maybe kiss him again? Wait, what? Where the hell did that come from?

“Hey,” I heard Lawrence murmur whilst his hand cupped my chin and pulled me to face him. “You still with me? Looked like you were miles away.”

My breathing sped up as his eyes darted to my lips, his breathing heavy and warm against my face as he leaned in closer.

“Suranne,” he whispered quietly and before I got the chance to respond, his lips came dangerously close to mine, desperate and wanting. His hand snaked into my hair and held my face to his.

“What the fuck is this?!” I heard a familiar voice next to us exclaim and Lawrence quickly pulled away.

I turned my head to the side slightly and smirked.

Hi, Kane.