Nina Carter, Carter
For this game there were rules.
silent. Among those I believed I knew.
But I understood straight away when I saw Jake showing Kayla's hand as if she were some kinds of weird prise.
Our conventions of behaving had shifted.
And after he quit passing for a fair player?
Then as well was I.
I worked all day trying to regulate my emotions.
Not wanting to answer. Try not to permit them to succeed.
But by the final bell run, my tolerance had collapsed.
Since Jake was not just holding Kayla's hand right now.
He seems to have never really touched me. As I had never truly mattered.
And the worst of all is also.
It was running as predicted.
Already, people were whispering about it. Jake and Kayla? Guess Nina was only a rebound.
Like I felt to be useless.
Like I used to be ignored.
Like the previous three years had shown nothing.
My whole-body tense with annoyance, I clenched my hands.
And when I turned to see Enzo slung against my locker with those sharp blue eyes—like he already knew exactly what was happening inside my head?
I behaved disrespectfully.
I walked straight up to him, grabbed his hoodie, and placed a kiss.
Just exactly, halfway across the hall.
The earth came to a stop.
P pauses. whispers are A book falling to earth some distance behind us.
Emp?
Was not slow.
He grabbed my waist, pulled me in, and kissed me harder, like he had been waiting for me to break.
And the worst element is also here.
I let him.
For once, as?
I did not want to think.
Said another way, I wanted to win.
Watching us start to split was the whole audience.
Someone very certainly had filmed it. Hell, by noon tomorrow, everyone working for the whole institution would know about it.
Still, the only answer I gave any thought was
The Jake.
Kayla stayed close to him as he stood across the hallway sporting an absolutely mysterious expression.
but his hands?
Their fingers knuckled white quite tightly.
fantastic.
Enzo rubbed his thumb over my lower lip and giggled silently. Carter, that was bold.
I let out a breath while heart kept hammering. Had to make sure the message was clear-cut.
His grin started to wane. Oh, everything was really obvious, all right.
He slung his arm over my shoulders and dragged me away as like he had just won the whole damn game.
But really down, deep down?
Not sure whether I had won anything at all.
Jake did not only show anger; the second I looked away
He seemed scary.
I saw it as the end indicated.
Jake could at last release himself after today.
Still, I ought to have known better.
On that evening?
I get once again an SMS.
Jake: We have yet to do.
I stared at the message, my breath too rapid and uneven.
Then my phone rang before I could decide whether to ignore him or answer.
Emma first arrived.
"Nina," she said, her voice strained with speed. "Nina," muttered the second I answered. " Jake is looking for you."
I stammered. "What Do you mean?"
He's meant to be upset.
I let out a strong breath. "let him be piss."
She responded no. You misinterpret. He is insulted not just here. Usually, background noise is like this. doors rattling.
Emma's voice fell to a whisper then. He is on his way to your house.
A frozen shot went right through me.
Knowing Jake made all the difference.
And when Jake Matthews arrived at make a choice?
He escaped stopping.
I scarcely had time to give the warning any thought when someone started pounding on my front door.
harsh and unrelenting.
Heart thumping, I took several breaths and finally opened it.
And he was among them too.
Jake is.
Sitting on my porch, his chest rises and falls too quickly and inconsistently.
crazy eyes?
"You really think this is over?," he said, getting right up to approach intimately.
I remained just where I was. "It's for me." a subdued laugh devoid of amusement. "Not, it's not."
I held my arms in folding style. "You are not allowed to get angry, Jake."
His nose opened out in a flare. "The Hell I Not."
I started to seal my mouth. You turned from your pledge to me. You cracked us.
"And now you're letting Enzo use you?," he fired.
I stammered, then corrected myself rapidly. At least he tells it straight forwardly.
Over his face flashed something—guilt, grief, something real and sincere.
He still had to finish however.
He went forward yet another stride, his voice now softer.
Deaths.
As you know, Nina.
a slow publication.
You are free to pretend however you choose. Show yourself as you have evolved. But you and me know the truth, not only here.
I breathed with great power. And what's that? questioned.
His gaze fixed on my lips.
One moment of passing.
too promptly.
really rather slow.
Then his voice barely above a whisper.
"you still want me." freeze.
For I hated how my body reacted to those words.
The degree of cardiac betrayal I went through.
But before I could say anything—before I could prove him right or wrong—another voice cut over the night.
"Leave her, Matthews," cries "step away."
We both pivoted.
And there, glaring just as hostile and threatening from the driveway?
Encz.
The tension hummed like a generator.
For Jake and Enzo.
Both of you are standing there.
Both not waversing in their rejection.
And me also?
locked in the centre.
In the middle between two storms.
Two boys unwilling to let go.
And I saw this went beyond just exacting revenge now.
It connected to who would burn first.
And I began to sink; it was going to be me.