The Genetic Code

Chapter 3

"If you're going to have a cat fight, you should at least call me first." He releases Kera's hand harshly. "I want to get a front row view."

"Get lost, Crawford. If you want to see a fight up close, I'll have an encore for you back home."

"Well then, Crawford," Sterling puts his hands on my shoulders and pushes me aside to face Kera straight on. "Why don't you do it now?"

Kera has to strain her neck to look up at him since he's so tall, which obviously displeases her since she'd rather have the liberty of looking down on her victims, both figuratively and physically. Still, she juts out her chin stubbornly and folds her arms across her chest, glaring up at Sterling angrily.

He bends down slightly and offers his cheek.

"What are you waiting for?" he asks. "I need a good zinger to wake me up after that deathly boring last lesson. Don't hold back." Kera's eye twitches as she fumes, clearly wanting to accept his request but not willing to give in to his obvious provocation at the same time. "Just... try to avoid using nails. My face is too good-looking to get mauled."

Finally, after an internal struggle exemplified by her repeated clenching and unclenching of fists, continuous huffs and twitching mouth, Kera scoffs loudly and storms off.

"Sis? Where are you going? Sissie!" Sterling yells at Kera stomping away with a long string of profanities under her breath.

I stare at his back with a clenched jaw. He has really broad shoulders, making his blazer hang off his shoulders like those male models' down the runway. If those abs of his are any indication I bet his back muscles are—

Dang it, Juliette, quit being such a teenage girl. No matter how much my hormones rage I need to keep my perverted tendencies at bay and keep my head on straight.

Once Kera is out of sight, Sterling whips around and looks at me. His grey eyes have flecks of green skimming over them, gleaming in the sunlight, as they bear into mine, without any words exchanged. My breath lodges in my throat as he closes the distance between us, placing a hand on my shoulder, eyes scanning over my face and body. Well, I don't know if I can keep my head on straight when he's this close, looking at me like that.

"What are you doing?" I breathe out.

"Are you okay?"

His soft question takes me by surprise. That snide, nonchalant tone he had used before is now suffused with such concern and tenderness that I wouldn't believe it belonged to the same person if I hadn't seen and heard it for myself. Those light eyes of his are so intense that I find myself beginning to drown in their depths, and the warmth of his touch.

No. Snap out of it, Juliette. You can't. You can't let yourself fall for him.

I jerk my body out of his hold, and break our gaze, staring past his shoulder.

"I'm fine," I say curtly, "I didn't need your help. I had everything under control."

"You call that having everything under control? How could you just stand there like a stationary target and let her hit you?"

Is he the one that's angry right now? I look back up to his face, noticing the muscles in his jaw straining and his darkened eyes.

"I don't need you playing knight for me, Sterling! I don't need or want you to swoop in and save me all the time! I want to be able to handle situations on my own."

"If your definition of 'handling' situations is letting yourself get hurt then I'd rather just save you and have you be pissed at me."

"Well this time, you... you didn't save me. In fact, now that Kera's even more aggravated, you may have just made things worse. Y-You don't even know what the situation between me and Kera is a-and—"