Serenity (9 page)

. Ren looked up when she heard Jolin’s voice then slid slowly onto the ground. Patting the car as if making it better. A few of the kids stopped to stare at their pairing. She wanted to flip them off but was at the very least trying not to provoke an incident. Eventually, Elizabeth’s minions would track her down. She didn’t need to pave the way.

“If we’re going t-t-to work t-t-together there is a no sitting on the c-c-car rule.” He pulled the keys from his bag and manually unlocked the door. Ren moved to the passenger side and rested her chin on the roof.

“Gotcha, Casanova.” She slowly chewed a piece of gum. His eyes stared at her lip ring move with each chew before he dropped into the car, leaning over to unlocked her door. When she tried to open the door it wouldn’t budge. She pulled the handle harder but it was stuck.

“It won’t open.” She tapped on the window.

Jolin looked up from inside the car, muttered something she couldn’t hear, and leaned over to push on the inside of the door. With a loud screech the door popped open.

If his expression was any indication of his mood this study date was certainly not following the same path as the first.

Reluctantly Ren climbed in placing her bag neatly on her lap. She sat perfectly still except for the constant movement of her fingers as she picked at her nails.

“Rule two. You can’t smoke in my c-c-car.” He seemed to be setting the tone to this study session from the get go. Apparently he remembered what happened when he sat back and let her take control.

“Does it look like I’m smoking?”

Jolin laughed dryly. “Just k-k-keep it out of the c-c-car.”

“I suppose you don’t fuck in the car either. Don’t want to get…all over the seat.” The roar of the engine blocked out her words.

Jolin kept his gaze forward, refusing to let her get to him.

The drive to the library was quiet. After an intial statement of the rules for riding in Jolin’s car neither one of them spoke. Jolin parked, climbed out of the car, and waited for her to do the same.

“This is going to be fun,” she muttered to herself before trying to open the door. She pulled the handle and nothing happened. She pushed her shoulder into the door and it still didn’t budge. Ren ducked her head to look out the windshield at Jolin. He stared back at her unaware of the fact she was stuck in the car.

“Are you c-c-coming?” He asked.

“You’re car won’t let me out.”

Jolin’s eyebrows drew together. He walked to her side of the car and tried to door. Surprise it didn’t budge.

He pulled on it a few more times then shrugged. “C-c-climb over the seat.”

“I’m not climbing over the seat.”

“Then I guess you’re st-st-stuck,” he said dryly.

“God dammit. Go over there. I don’t want you checking out my ass,” Ren yelled through the window.

“My j-j-junk was in your face I would think you owe me an ass.” Jolin crossed his arms determined to stay where he was.

Ren frowned. “You wanted it there. I don’t want my ass up in your face.”

Jolin chuckled and shook his head. “I d-d-didn’t have much choice in the matter. You gr-gr-grabbed it.”

“I’m not getting out until you move.” She pulled her bag to her chest.

“Guess you’re rethinking what Mr. Carson said about your shorts not m-m-meeting dress code huh?”

“Fuck you.”

“Like I haven’t been t-t-told that a million t-t-times in the last couple weeks.”

“Shit,” Ren said under her breath then straddled the console and climbed out of the car. “Enjoy the show?” She pulled at the hem of her short shorts.

“Most definitely.” Jolin grinned, walking around the front of the car. “Let’s g-g-go.”

Ren wanted to be angry at him but seeing him smile after the shitty expression he wore on the way to the library made flashing him worth it.

Jolin

Thursday, October 17

4:00 p.m.

When they finally got settled at a table in the back and emptied their backpacks of their lab materials, Jolin decided to clear the air. “I think we should t-t-talk about what happened yesterday. What p-p-people are saying.” Jolin wished he could get through this conversation without the stutter. It was hard enough without drawing out the words in his sentences.

Her gaze flashed at him then took on a guarded look. “Are you going to give me more rules because I might need to start writing them down.”

He ignored her snarky comment and continued, “I want to ap-p-p…apologize for letting things g-g-get out of control. I’d never smoked b-b-before and I—well I—I’m not sure what I was doing.” He rubbed his hands over his face.

She stared at him for a long time before a small grin tugged at her mouth. “You aren’t sure what we were doing?”

“N-n-no,” he stammered. “I know
what
w-w-we were d-d-doing. Fuck.” He ran a hand over his hair, staring down at the table. “I should have st-st-stopped so-soo…faster.”

“You didn’t like it?” Her voice was quiet.

“
Yeah
.” Jolin laughed a little too loud before he leaned back to cover his face with his hands. Regaining his composure he lowered his voice. “B-b-but I’m with L-l-l-izzie.”

Her mouth turned down. “Yeah you said that yesterday. No biggie. I was stoned.” Ren brushed him off. “I have to work tonight so if we could get started…”

Jolin’s mouth opened and closed. No biggie?
She’d had his dick in her mouth.
How could she just blow that off?

She met his stare. Unspoken words hung heavy between them. That’s when he noticed the red welt on her cheek and a bruise along her hair line.

“What happened t-t-to your face?”

Ren broke their stare down and fidgeted with her fingers again. She wasn’t going to answer him.

“Are you… okay?” He reached out to still her hands. She pulled back before he made contact.

“Can we just do this?” Her voice was tight, and he worried she was going punch him. He watched as she fought for control of her emotions.

Jolin grabbed the instructions for their project. “Okay.” He cleared his throat, mentally shaking the uncomfortable feeling he was left with. Here he was apologizing for letting things go too far while she shrugged the entire thing off as no biggie. Not to mention, while he was stressing over making sure she knew he was still with a girl he wasn’t actually with, someone was beating the shit out of her. Akeo was right. He was a self-centered asshole…and he didn’t want to be that guy with Ren.

Jolin cleared his throat again. “We’re supposed to choose an animal fr-fr-om an endangered area and d-d-devise a p-p-plan for revitalization.”

She cocked her head at him. “Did you always stutter? I don’t remember you stuttering.”

His heart skipped a beat. She remembered him. “N-n-no.” He tapped his head. “Football accident.”

“I didn’t know.” Her voice actually sounded sincere. Elizabeth sounded bored at having to wait for him to get his words out. She’d finished his sentences for him. Ren had yet to look annoyed by his stutter.

Jolin closed his eyes and willed himself to relax and get the sentence out without pause. “Head trauma. Short term memory screwed.” He shrugged. “Doctor said stutter is psychological.”

A frown tugged at one side of her mouth. “Got that all out didn’t ya?”

His jeans got tighter when he looked into her eyes. He dropped his hand under the table and readjusted.

She waved a hand in the air as if wiping the conversation away. “I don’t care. What animal do you want?” She slid a spiral notebook out of her backpack.

“How ab-b-bout the orangutans of B-B-Borneo. I always liked the show Orangutan Island.” He wanted her to know he wasn’t going to shirk all the responsibility to her.

“You watch a show about orangutans?” She raised her eyebrow. The silver ring encircling it sparkled. Jolin’s upper lip started to sweat. His keeping cool points were going down.

“Well…y-y-yeah.” He tried to make it sound like everyone did, and she was odd man out on this gem of a show, but she wasn’t buying it.

A little smile tugged at her mouth. He would give anything to get a full smile on her face. She didn’t seem to do it much. It disappeared before it emerged completely. “I don’t have a TV.”

“You c-c-can watch it online, t-t-too. A few of my friends don’t have satellite TV anymore. They stream through their computers.”

“Don’t have one of those either.” Her voice was so small if they weren’t in the silent library he wouldn’t have heard her.

Jolin cleared his throat again. “Well it will give us a head start on the r-r-revitalization aspect. They’ve already d-d-developed a rehab facility so we can take it from there. Since we’re behind it would be easy to use what they’ve d-d-done, then expand on it. We’ll catch up faster.”

She sucked on her lip ring.

He shifted in his chair and ran a hand over his hair. He hoped he didn’t have to stand up any time soon. “D-d-does that sound ok-k-kay?”

“What?” She released her lip.

“Orangutans?”

Her gaze never left his. He waited for her response. It was odd she had such direct eye contact. Most girls in high school diverted their eyes every time he tried to talk to them.

“I’ve never seen the show,” she finally said.

“You c-c-can come to my house. There’s b-b-back episodes online.” Jolin’s enthusiasm at her coming over was out bit out of proportion for the event. He slid back in his chair and tried to regain his cool persona.

Her expression didn’t waver. “I don’t really like to watch TV. I prefer to read.”

“Then you can read all the b-b-books, and I’ll watch the show.” He had a feeling this was her way of saying there was no way in hell she was coming back to his house.

“Look. I have to work tonight so if we could divide the information up and decide who’s going to do what, I need to head out.” Ren leaned back and flipped her hair off her neck.

“Where do you work?”

She challenged him with her green eyes. “Perks.”

Perks was the local coffee hangout. It wasn’t exactly on the way to his house, but he didn’t want to end their time together yet. “I can drive you.” He met her challenge and told himself he would not divert his gaze first. His heart beat faster when the feeling of her mouth against his came flooding back.

She raised that eyebrow.

A noise he wasn’t even aware he could make came from deep in his throat. God had he just growled at her? He felt his ears turning red and made a quick decision to bail. “I’m going to get a few more b-b-books.” He pushed his chair out and escaped to the dark stacks of books in the back of the library. He leaned over his knees and pulled in deep breaths trying to cool the heat growing in his stomach. “Shit. You’re an idiot. You need Liz b-b-back.” He chastised himself.

She hadn’t made a sound walking up behind him. Or if she did, he was so wrapped up in his embarrassment he hadn’t noticed. Her black boots came into view in his peripheral vision. He stood and let his hands drop to his sides. Looking at her made him wonder when exactly he had lost his mind. Her vanilla scent filled the air around them, pushing back the musty smell of the old books.

“I don’t think this is where the orangutan books are.” Her voice brought goose bumps to his skin.

“The hell with it.” Jolin wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and pulled her to him. Any thought he had that kissing her was only good when he was high was quickly put to rest when her mouth met his.

He wrapped his bad arm around her waist, but didn’t have the strength to pull her close so he used his hips to swing her around and up against the bookshelf. Ren’s mouth sat unmoving beneath his own. He wanted her to touch him, to run her hands through his hair like she had in his room, but her arms hung unmoving at her sides. He deepened the kiss encouraging her to open her mouth against his.

She placed her palms on his chest and pushed against him.

Jolin released his hold on her and ran the back of his hand over his mouth.

“You need Elizabeth back,” she quietly repeated his words.

Shit, she’d heard him. He stood against the stacks of books and watched her walk away.

Then went after her.

She stood with the table between them shoving books and papers into her messenger bag.

Jolin leaned over and grabbed her hands. “Don’t leave. I screwed up. I’m sorry.”

She jerked her hands away and pulled the strap of her messenger bag over her head, adjusting it between her breasts.

He waited to see what she was going to do, but she’d already made up her mind. He was an asshole. Akeo already told him that. Apparently it was harder to change his ways than he thought. Without a second glance she headed to the stairs.

“Dammit!” he yelled. Then apologized when the occupants of the upper floor all shooshed him. He shoved everything into his backpack and took off after her. At least he knew she didn’t have a car.

She was out the door and already across the grassy park surrounding the library when he caught up to her. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. “I didn’t me-me-me…” The word wouldn’t come. Jolin lowered his head and breathed in through his nose, out through his mouth. “mean…”

Ren pulled away and crossed her arms in front of her. “Why don’t you watch your monkey show and give me your notes? I’ll put together the presentation and put both our names on it. I won’t rat you out. No one will know.”

At least she was talking to him.

“No.”

“Look.” Ren dropped her eyes to the sidewalk and toed a crack with her boot. “I…” She cocked her head at him. “I’m not going to…” She waved her hand around gesturing toward the front of his pants.

“I’m n-n-not asking you t-t-to.”

Her look told him she didn’t believe him.

“I didn’t ask you to before,” he said quietly.

“You didn’t have to,” she finally said.

-oOo-

After some heartfelt convincing he wasn’t trying to make the rumors come true, Ren agreed to let him take her to work. The ride was quiet except for the clicking of her constant picking at her black nail polish. Jolin tuned in a rock station on the radio. Ren turned her head to look out the window.

Jolin pulled into a spot near the front of the coffee shop. “When d-d-do you get off?”