Bad Boy Has a Secret He Can’t Tell

Chapter 1

I went to a game with my crush.

When the camera put us on the jumbotron, he refused to kiss me.

On impulse, I turned and kissed the campus bad boy sitting next to me.

Because of that, his girlfriend bailed, and he told me I owed him a new girlfriend.

"You... you think I could do it?" I asked, my voice shaking.

He gave me a slow once-over and smiled, "Sure, but I, Logan Brooks, don’t do salad. I like my meat."

Me, seriously?

I’d had a crush on Ethan Walker, and the whole world knew it.

Everyone except Ethan.

The day of the game, the camera light hit Ethan’s face and mine.

My brain completely shut down.

Everyone knew the rule, if you got shown on the jumbotron, you were supposed to kiss.

The crowd went from screaming over the win to chanting at us.

"Kiss her!"

"Kiss her!"

I kept my head down and couldn’t bring myself to look at him.

I pictured how it would feel, I pictured three years of wanting him finally paying off.

Then the cheers turned into awkward noises, and he still didn’t move.

"Chloe Carter, I’ve always thought of you as my little sister."

Little sister?

Something inside me cracked.

So he texted his little sister good morning and good night every day?

He told his little sister he missed her?

Every holiday, he asked his little sister for gifts?

"I don’t want to be your sister," I said, staring at him like I was about to jump off a cliff, and he looked away.

That was when it hit me, he wasn’t clueless about my feelings, he just didn’t feel enough back.

I’d liked him for three years, and he’d been hung up on his dream girl for three years.

I dropped my gaze fast, but the tears still fell anyway.

Friends were all around us, urging him to kiss me, kiss me.

"Chloe’s a catch, man. You’re the one winning here."

"Just kiss her, everyone’s watching."

"It’s one kiss, she’s about to cry."

I felt like the saddest clown on earth.

Maybe I was hurt past the point of thinking, maybe I just couldn’t stand being laughed at by the whole arena, but I did something even I couldn’t believe.

I twisted sideways, lunged at the good-looking guy beside me, and kissed the campus bad boy.

In the blink of an eye, the stadium exploded again.

For about a minute, my mind was wiped clean.

I couldn’t even remember what happened after.

All I remembered was the roar of applause, and the look in his eyes like he could end me in two seconds.

And the kiss, it was unexpectedly soft, kind of springy.

"You getting up or not?" he said, sharp enough to make me flinch. "You planning to spend the night here?"

"Uh... no." I tried to stand, but I couldn’t.

I could feel his temper rolling off him, so I made a miserable face and whispered, "My legs went weak."

"..."

He looked like I’d shorted his brain out too.

He didn’t say a word, just grabbed me with one arm and hauled me back into my seat.

Then he kicked the seat hard.

"You pay for that," he said as he walked away, pointing at the seat under him.

I glanced down once and, oh my god, it was cracked.

"Okay."

I’d definitely picked a fight with the wrong person.

I was so done.

Chapter 2

When the crowd started filing out, Ethan was weirdly angry and didn’t even wait for me.

I jogged to catch up, and he spun on me like he’d been holding it in.

"When did you start hanging around people like that?"

"You kissed him in front of tens of thousands of people. Are you out of your mind?"

"He’s got tattoos, he hits bars, he gets into fights. He’s trouble. Is that really what you like?"

I had no words.

He knew exactly who I liked. He always had.

He just kept pretending he didn’t.

"Fine," I said, swallowing hard. "Maybe I do like that."

I didn’t want to stand there and fall apart in front of him again. I just wanted him to leave.

If he stayed one more second, I was going to lose it.

Ethan’s face went pale with anger.

Right when we were about to blow up completely, a group of guys walked toward us.

One of them, tall, moved past, then doubled back like he’d forgotten something.

Then he tossed out, out of nowhere, "Who said I wanted you to like me?"

I froze.

I looked up and met a pair of eyes that screamed trouble.

It was him.

The guy I’d force-kissed just a little while ago.

Hands in his pockets, a cigarette between his lips, chin tipped up like he owned the place, the kind of bad that made me want to duck for cover.

Instinctively, I tried to step behind Ethan, but Ethan shoved me aside.

"Weren’t you so brave a minute ago? What are you hiding for?"

I couldn’t believe it.

He actually left me there.

Just dumped me in front of a whole pack of guys and walked off.

I watched his back as he stormed away, and my stomach dropped straight through the floor.

A voice above me snapped me back.

"Your little crush took off," the guy said. "So how about we deal with our problem now?"

"I... do we know each other?" My hands started shaking.

I played dumb because I had nothing else.

I’d grown up around all kinds of people. Dyed hair wasn’t new to me.

But that blue-streaked hair, the kind that looked like it came with a warning label, I’d never dealt with up close.

I regretted everything.

Whatever courage I’d had in the stadium was gone.

He stood there and gave a low, mocking laugh.

"Come on," one of his friends said, like he was trying to calm things down. "Logan, you’re scaring her."

"Yeah," another one chimed in. "It’s not like it’s the first time you’ve been kissed. Why are you making it a thing?"

"Let it go," someone else said, nudging him. "He’s probably had one too many. Don’t mind him."

They must have noticed I was about to cry, because they kept trying to talk him down.

Logan flicked a look at them.

That was all it took for them to shut up.

"Let it go?" he repeated, dragging the words out, almost amused. "How do I wipe this off?"

He pinched the cigarette between his fingers and pointed at his mouth.

His lips were tinted red.

I stared.

That was my lipstick.

If I wasn’t imagining things, it was shade 999.

I hesitated for half a second, then dug into my bag with trembling fingers and pulled out a pack of makeup remover wipes.

"I think... you’ll need these."

Logan didn’t take them.

He just stared at me like he wanted to swallow me whole.

"Well?" he said. "Do it."

"Huh?"

"What, you want me to wipe it off myself?"

His tone was casual, but my nerves were a mess.

I had no choice. I stepped closer and carefully wiped his lips.

Up close, it was way too much.

The red on his mouth, the sharp line of his nose, the heat of him, it suddenly felt... intimate.

And my mind, traitor that it was, replayed the kiss. That soft, springy feel.

My face went burning hot.

Maybe it was my imagination, but I saw his throat move, like he’d swallowed hard.

It spooked me enough that my hand stilled.

"Are you going to take all night to wipe a mouth?" Logan caught my wrist, impatience flashing.

Then he let go like he’d decided something.

"Forget it. Toss my cigarette."

Before I could even react, he shoved the half-burned cigarette into my hand and turned away.

As he walked off, I heard his friends murmuring again.

"Why were you so harsh with her?"

"And handing your cigarette to her, that’s bold."

Logan’s voice cut through them.

"Shut up."

The guys went quiet, and then they disappeared into the crowd.

Only then did I finally breathe.

I looked down at my hand and realized my palm was soaked with sweat.

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