Page 5 of Love Hazard
Her name fell off the tip of my tongue. “Hazel.”
I don’t know how she heard it the minute I was out my door,but she blinked her eyes open and looked up at me, their blue color so damn pretty. Her hair was longer, and she’d matured, thatwas for sure, but she’d always been innocent and beautiful—despite the mouthher great-grandma left her with.
I had no clue why girls with fuller top lips than the bottomones seemed to always have the final word, but Hazel was proof of that. It waslike she had to make up for something. And after her first insult, I wasfreaking obsessed with that full upper lip, as if one taste despite her bitterwords would make everything okay. Her eyes were always stormy unless she wasreading a stupid book, and her legs dangled so far down when she was in thattree that she’d gotten nicknamed The Jolly Green Giant in school.
That was then. This was…wow.
I crossed the yard and jogged over to her. It was familiar,finding her next to or in the tree. She wore a gorgeous, strappy dress thatmade you taste summer on your tongue and brought up thoughts I shouldn’t havebeen thinking. Like kissing her, which I’d always known wouldn’t happen sinceher dad was certifiable when it came to his daughter dating. One time, at aparent-teacher conference in high school, I’d sworn I’d overheard some kid inthe hall crying because Travis had warned every boy in school to keep it intheir pants or he’d send Hazel’s great-grandma in to teach them etiquette.
I wasn’t sure what dinner and dress etiquette had to do withanything until I realized that half of them had to take it to graduate. Andthen I had this very extreme nightmare where she had a needle and kept pokingthings and laughing while the school burned down around her red high heels.
I shuddered. “Yo.” I wasn’t surewhy that was the first word out of my stupid mouth, but I couldn’t take itback. The wind had already brought it to her. “Hazel.”
Her eyes didn’t leave mine as she took a step toward me inher red heels that reminded me of her great-grandma—small kitten heels thatcould do as much damage as a perfectly pointed stiletto, almost like she wasflying incognito for any sad sucker out there who had the balls to hit on heror call her pretty.
I took a step back, then one forward, because…why should Ibe intimidated? The past was the past, and there was no reason for her to hateme. I was here to—
“You sick, sick, sick…” Okay, why was she repeating sickover and over again? And why did I suddenly feelemotionally attacked with a need to sprint back home to my safe space by mymotorcycle? “Bastard.”
Shit, was she going to grab a heel?She reached for one, then the other. Oh, no. She was going for double ornothing.
Was I snake eyes?
She suddenly dropped them and walked barefoot toward me.“You are the absolute worst. Look, I know you’re going through things, too, butyou made my life a living hell. And now you have the audacity to be all like, ‘Yo, Hazel’?”
She said it like I was one step away from getting a prisontattoo.
I coughed out a curse and forced my best smile. “I mean, Ithought it was more or less like a, yo,Hazel,” I said in a softer, more inviting tone.
She shook her head. Her blond hair was brighter and fellacross her shoulders in soft yet aggressive waves. “No, your tone was all,‘Hey, bro, water under the bridge.’ Well, the water is firmly,”—she huffed—“firmly…“
I frowned. “Under the bridge. Because the flow of water istechnically under the bridge, unless you have a flood, which then means youmight lose the bridge, and—“
“Stop, just stop.” Tears filled her eyes. “I just graduated,my great-grandma is dead, and I’m celebrating hertoday. I don’t want to fight. Just go home.”
“But…” I shoved my hands into my pockets, hoping to lookinnocent. “I just came to say hi.”
“Oh.” She smirked and crossed her arms. “To the grossgiant?”
I could have sworn every part of my body went numb. “Whatare you talking about?” Seriously, what was she talking about?
“I know what you said when the rumor started. That I was thegross giant. And you said it to literally every guyin school. But to have you say it? You know, one timeI thought we were friends.”
“We were frenemies. And not to correct you, but I never saidthat. Asshole Josh Prichards,who always had a stick up his ass because you turned him down, did.”
She looked away and down at the ground where her red shoeslay. Damn, they even looked pretty against the greengrass. “Still, you weren’t nice.”
“Guys are rarely nice when they like someone or find themintriguing,” I pointed out as I circled her. “In fact, a lot of times, wedefault into asshole or stupid mode. It’s the mostunfair thing in the world because, the minute you want to say, ‘I like you,’you end up pulling a ponytail and laughing, or stealing a fruit snack, thinkingthey’ll chase you and ask why so you can get them alone. Wait, that partsounded creepy. I meant adult fruit snacks. This is not first grade. Actually, I’ll stop talking now. It went downhill after thesnack.”
She smiled down at her bare feet. “Doesn’t mean I like anasshole.”
“Doesn’t mean I like a spoiled princess, but…” I walkedcloser. “At the risk of you biting me or kicking me in the balls, I’m reallysorry about your great-grandma. She was special.”
She sniffled as her hair fell like a curtain across herface, and all I saw was the upper lip getting bitten. What the hell was wrongwith me? “Thanks, but I think it’s better if we stay enemies.”
I snorted. “You’ve never dealt with an enemy or a truebattle a day in your life.”
Her head snapped up, Exorcist-style. Later in life,I would say it twisted all the way around until she stared back at me and stolemy soul. “What? What was that?”