I’d figured Kyler’s dislike of Paul had been a one night, too many drinks kind of thing. “What’s up with the name calling? Paul’s pretty cool, and he’s been nothing but nice to you. What’s your deal?”
Kyler eased the SUV out into traffic. The set of his jaw was so hard I thought his teeth would crack. “I just don’t like him.”
I frowned, shaking my head. “Okay. Anyway, I invited him, so I hope you aren’t a jerk to him.”
“You invited him?” He cut me a quick look before stiffly returning his gaze back to the road. “You invited him to my mom’s place without asking?”
Staring at him, I had no friggin’ clue where this attitude was coming from. Kyler could be moody sometimes, though. Apparently this was one of those moments. “I totally said I was inviting him weeks ago, and you didn’t have a problem with it then.”
“I must’ve been drunk when you asked me,” he muttered, taking the road leading to the beltway. “Paul? Do you like him or something?”
“What?” I gawked at him. “He’s a nice guy.”
His long fingers thrummed off the steering wheel. “That’s not what I asked.”
It took me a couple of moments to answer. Paul was really nice and funny, and I probably wouldn’t kick him out of my bed for eating crackers. “No,” I said finally. “I don’t like him, like him.”
Kyler didn’t say anything to that and he didn’t say anything until we hit the beltway. “I think he likes you.”
I arched a brow, remembering how he’d accused Paul of eyeballing us last night. “You think he likes me?”
He nodded curtly.
Andrea had said the same thing countless times before, but I’d always thought it was her way of trying to get me to obsess over someone other than Kyler. “How would you even know that, since you obviously aren’t BFFs with him?”
“Why?” Easily hitting the express lane, he glanced at me. “Does knowing he’s got the hots for you change the way you think of him?”
“What?” I threw my hands up, frustrated. “This is a stupid conversation.”
Kyler flashed a quick grin, but his eyes were so dark they almost seemed black. “And I’m a guy. I know when another guy wants a chick. It’s in the way the guy looks at a girl. Says it all.”
I chewed on my thumbnail. Maybe there could be something there, because pining away after Kyler was stupid, and if Paul was willing… “You’re full of it.”
“He stares at you every time we go out.” He paused and reached over, tugging on my sleeve until I dropped my hand. “And if you want to know how he stares at you, it’s like he’s pretty much fucking you with his eyes.”
“Oh. Wow. That’s romantic.” A secret little rush of pleasure zinged through me, because it was nice to know that someone thought I was desirable, even if it wasn’t the one I wanted.
He snickered. “It’s the truth. Though, I don’t know what the guy is thinking.”
I turned to him slowly. “What does that mean, exactly?”
“Trying to get with you,” he finished, eyes narrowing as he peered at the green exit signs. “He’s out of his mind. You’re not…”
A slow burn filled my stomach, traveling through my veins like acid. I knew I wasn’t the kind of girl who had guys dropping their undies for her every day, but I wasn’t so bad off that a guy would have to be out his mind to want to hook up with me.
Anger bubbled up like water boiling over, but a deep hurt festered underneath it, fueling my words. “I’m not what? A girl who doesn’t randomly hook up with guys she meets in bars? Someone who obviously has taste and a sense of self-worth?”
His brows flew up. “Whoa. That’s—”
“That’s the kind of girls you go for,” I cut in, my hands clenching into tiny fists. “And just because I’m not like that, then no other guy could possibly want to be with me? Maybe Paul just has taste and doesn’t have a thing for girls named Mindy.”
“Okay,” he said slowly. A muscle popped in his jaw as he stared straight ahead. “First off, the last time I checked, I have superb taste. Secondly, I’m an adult. So are the girls I hang out with. Thirdly—” How many points is he going to make? “—It’s okay to have fun, Sydney. Fun. As in something that exists outside of reading books and going to class.”
My mouth dropped open. “I know how to have fun, you ass.”
Kyler smirked. “That’s bullshit. You’re the most uptight person I know. You’re—”
“If you say frigid, I will kick your ass and crash this car.” My heart thumped painfully. “Seriously.”
He looked at me then, almost like he was startled. “I wasn’t going to say that, Syd. I would never say that.”
“Whatever,” I muttered.
“Anyway, you’ve distracted me from my final point.”
“Oh, do tell.”
The infuriating half-smile was back. “There isn’t a damn thing wrong with the friends I bring home.”
“But there’s something wrong with me?” The moment those words left my mouth I wanted to punch myself. I don’t think I could possibly sound more pathetic.
“Other than the fact you should wear a sign that says ‘interact with at your own risk?’ No. Nothing at all wrong with you, sweetheart.”
“Oh, shut the hell up.”
Kyler drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, a sure sign he was close to losing his patience. “Sometimes, I don’t even know how we’re friends,” he said, running one hand over his head. “Honestly, I don’t.”
Tears sprang to my eyes, and I quickly turned my attention to the side window. Pressure clamped down on my chest, a powerful ache that made it hard to breathe. We really were the lion and the gimpy gazelle.
“Me, neither,” I whispered.
The drive was painfully awkward, on a level that jumping out of a moving vehicle seemed like a viable option. We hit a traffic snarl halfway there that added another hour and half to our trip, and then we hit a snow squall. After our little argument, Kyler had turned up the radio, leaving it on the hard rock station the whole way. Yep. He wasn’t in a better mood.
Sometimes I don’t even know how we’re friends.
Ouch.
This wasn’t the first time Kyler and I had bitched each other out, but usually we weren’t stuck in a car together immediately afterward. I couldn’t even lick my wounds in private.
About an hour out from Snowshoe, we stopped at a gas station to fill up. As he headed into the store to grab munchies, I checked in with Andrea.
“Where you guys at?” I asked, staring at my uneven thumbnail.
Andrea’s voice was muffled and then, “We’re stuck outside of Frederick. We hit this huge-ass snowstorm. It’s totally snowing us down. Ha. Did you get that—hey! Shut up, Tanner. It was funny. Tell him it was funny, Sydney.”
“It was funny,” I replied. “Back to the snow—is it a part of the nor’easter? Has it changed paths?”
“Looks like it.” She paused. “We might have to pull over soon and wait it out, so we’re going to be late.”
Late? More time alone with Kyler. Great. I wanted to bang my head off the dashboard.
“What’s going on with you?” Andrea asked. “It’s the start of winter break, our senior year, and you sound like someone ran over your cat and then laid it on your bed.”
Ew. I made a face. I had such weird friends. “I don’t know. Kyler and I kind of got into an argument earlier, so it hasn’t been a fun ride.”
Andrea laughed. “You guys argue all the time.”
“This was different.”
There was a pause and then her voice was real low. “Was that girl with him when you went over to his place this morning?”
I cringed, knowing Tanner and whoever else was in the car could most definitely hear the conversation.