A Hater's Gamble (BxB)

THIRTY-THREE

"I want you and your beautiful soul."

  M I L E S

"Honestly, I'm not sure why she made such a colossal deal about the raspberries. Fucking raspberries," Liam said, and scoffed with a shake of his head.

I elbowed him and snarled. "Are you entirely without tact all the time? If you didn't want to come, you should've just stayed. I could've taken my car, you know."

Maddie's car, more like.

We stood in the middle of the cereal isle, where color seemed to be the most vibrant. Cereal boxes of reds, blues, browns, and oranges littered the shelves, making this conversation painfully ironic.

Liam formed a tight, forced smile. "You don't think about anyone but yourself, do you, Miles?"

I crossed my arms and repressed the need to shake him.

How dare he even insinuate—

Liam continued, "I didn't come to have a grocery store adventure with my tutor. I came because if I had to stare at Hector's pug face any longer, I'd probably stab out my eyes with the silverware."

I couldn't hold in my laughter. Liam's eyes glinted with humor while watching my smile grow wider.

"Come on," I insisted. "He may not be the most...handsome, but he doesn't have a pug face."

Liam moved to grab a cereal box from the highest shelf. The motion looked like it required only the slightest bit of effort from him, or none at all. The top shelf.

"Yes, Miles, he does. And you think he does too because you laughed," he pointed out, locking eyes with me.

"You still eat Lucky Charms?," I asked, shoving away the topic of Hector. In his hands, Liam held a green cereal box with a tiny leprechaun displayed in the front.

"Yeah, maybe in my grave. Coach would murder me," he said, eyes puzzled as he looked at the nutrition facts on the side of the box. "They're for Lilia. She goes crazy for them."

Lilia. The littlest Coleman that resembled Liam so much. I remembered when she held on tight to my leg, fearful of the tense environment around her brother, Jake, and Jensen in the smoothie shop.

"How is she?," I asked, walking ahead of him, aiming to find the raspberries.

"She's fine; bratty, but fine," he explained. "Her favorite word is no."

"Ah, so she's just like her brother, only prettier," I noted, turning a corner to enter another isle.

Suddenly, Liam pulled me by my arm and examined my face intensely, eyes flickering with electricity.

"Not as pretty as you," he said and winked.

As the rush of heat filled my cheeks, I shoved Liam from me. He only smirked. "Look at you, flustered and cranky," Liam said, pushing me further into anger.

"We'll see whose flustered and cranky when I fucking plan your funeral," I muttered, storming toward the fresh produce section.