Rebellious and Reckless - Michelle A. Valentine Page 0,1
rakes a hand through his brown hair. When I don't say anything, he lifts one eyebrow in challenge.
My eyes narrow as it hits me that both of those snide sentences he spoke earlier were meant for me. "Excuse me?"
He sighs and shuts his book before pushing himself out of the chair. "Look, you seem like a sweet girl. Save yourself the heartache and forget it. You don't have a snowball's chance in hell with him."
"Rude, much?" I fire back, hating his comment.
He shrugs his large shoulders and strand of hair falls across his forehead. "Just honest. Move on, Sky. You're not a blip on his radar."
"And how would you know?"
"Because I do." He grabs his book. "He's my brother, and I know him better than anyone else."
My eyes widen as Mr. Tattoo turns and stalks out of the building. Shock quickly wears off and morphs into full-on embarrassment at the thought of Luke finding out the library chick has a crush on him.
2
SKY
The campus cafeteria is a ghost town, which is exactly why my best friend, Mylie, and I always pick to have a late lunch. Mylie isn’t really a people person, as confirmed by her T-shirt of choice today, which reads, “I Hate Peopleing.” Most people say they don’t understand how we’re friends because we’re so different, but we clicked freshman year. I’m a total book nerd, painfully shy, and always worried about what people think about me, while Mylie is a little on the wild side with the pink streaks in her blond hair paired with the little diamond stud in her nose. She always seems so confident, and I envy that about her.
I slide into a seat across the table from her. “How was class? Did you decide what you want to do for your project?”
She nods as she takes a bite of her apple. “Gothic Steampunk era.”
“Oh, I bet that will be cool. Sounds like a young adult book cover. If I had half your graphic design talent, I would be designing book covers for a living.”
She rolls her eyes. “Everything to you is a book or movie. I swear you’d live in one of those books you read if you could.”
“I so would. Everything’s better in books…including boys.”
A wicked grin washes over her face as she gazes over my shoulder. “Speaking of boys. Luke Finnegan just walked in.”
I groan and drop my head, looking anywhere but in Luke’s direction. Normally, I would practically break my neck for a chance to gawk at my crush, but knowing I just made an idiot out of myself in front of Luke’s brother in the library makes me want to die of embarrassment.
Mylie reaches over and presses the back of her hand against my forehead. “Whoa. You sick or something? This isn’t like you to miss out on a drool session when it comes to the campus’s hottest quarterback.”
I grimace. “Something kind of happened between Luke and me today.”
Her green eyes dance with excitement. “What? And you let me sit here for five whole minutes and haven’t told me this juicy tidbit of information yet? This seriously makes me question our friendship. Spill.”
I launch into our brief encounter at the library, and how as I was basking in the post-conversation glow, his brother witnessed how love-sick I was when Luke walked away.
Mylie’s lips twist in confusion. “Wait. You’re telling me another hot Finnegan is walking around this campus somewhere. How did I not know about this?”
“I didn’t say he was hot.”
“You most certainly did. You said he was tall, muscled, tattooed. Hello. That’s bad-boy hot. I must track down this unicorn.”
Oh, Lord. I just sent her on a mission. She loves a good mystery, which is why I always tell her she should rethink her major from graphic design to criminal justice. While I don’t deny the other Finnegan brother was most deliciously sexy, he isn’t my type. I don’t go for the rebellious type. Those kinds of guys are fun to read and fantasize about, but they’re too much for me to handle in real life.
My back stiffens a bit when Luke sits at the table next to us. He digs into his lunch and checks his phone, completely oblivious Mylie and I are watching him intently, practically wiping drool from each other’s chins.
“I still can’t believe there’s another one of him floating around campus. Looks like there’s one for each of us now, so we can stop the argument of becoming sister wives and sharing Luke.”