One Kiss

Chapter 6

Zay slumped in his seat with a grimace. "That is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen."

Alyssa looked over her shoulder across the cafeteria. "They're a very cute couple."

"I hate you," Zay muttered.

"Hey, you had your chance," she told him.

"Still hate you," he grumbled. "Not like he tried very hard, one kiss, and then he gave up and started dating Marlow."

"Zay, you shoved him off, what did you expect? He wasn't going to wait for you forever."

"He didn't even wait a week," he snapped and grabbed his things. "Right, I'm out of here before I puke."

Alyssa watched him go with a sigh before she glanced over to where West sat with Marlow, their heads close together, smiles on their faces. "Right, excuse me for a minute," she told Josh.

He groaned. "What stupidity are you planning?"

"I'm insulted that you believe I'm going to do something stupid." She stood and stalked across the room to where West sat. "I need to speak to you."

He frowned. "About what?"

"Just come with me."

He rubbed a hand over his face. "If you want to discuss him too bad, there was nothing there and there never was going to be. He made his choice and I've moved on."

"You crushed him, West. He's really upset. He feels like you abandoned him."

Marlow was looking between them with a frown. "Uh, West ... did I miss something?"

"No, you didn't." He sighed. "I'm sorry, Lyssa, but I can't change things. Like I said, he made his choice and I wasn't a part of it. Let it go."

"I can't because I know him and he won't let it go and he'll do something stupid in response."

He snorted and stood. "Right, like get wasted at one of Josh's parties and hook up with the entire cheer squad to prove he's as straight as they come? I'm sorry about the way things turned out but it's in the past now. He'll get over it." He, stoop, spun away from her and left her standing there.

Marlow looked from her to West before he jumped to his feet and went after Weston.

She made a frustrated sound and grumbled her way back to the table where Josh waited.

"Nice, job, that went well."

She slumped into her seat. "Yeah, fabulous. I was hoping that he'd at least agree to talk to Zay. I don't know what idiotic thing Zay will do, but I know it will be bad when it happens."

"What makes you think he'll do something stupid?" Josh asked with a frown.

"Between Freshman and Sophomore year his parents forced him to go to some summer camp thing sponsored by their church. He hated it, but he refused to tell them because they were so happy about him going so he kept it all bottled up inside until they announced they'd signed him up again for the following summer."

"And?"

"He rebelled as any good teenager does."

He arched a brow at her. "Your point is what exactly?"

She propped her elbows on the table and put her face in her hands. "You've never seen Zay when he's super stressed about shit. He lets it fester until he can't handle it, he doesn't talk about things he holds it all in. When it finally explodes, he doesn't think shit through he picks the craziest, most unsafe thing to do and does it. That night after his parents told him he was going to that camp again he accepted Darrel Kootz's offer to join him and his crew."