Danger! Bad Boy(45)

Ian stood on my left as someone shouted in my right ear, “You’re going back to them aren’t you?”

I turned my head to the side and came face to face with Caleb. Our lips were less than an inch apart. I shouted back at him, “How do you know?”

He leaned into me again. “Cause I know you, Gianna. I can see it on your face.”

Whatever. I gave him a dirty look. “What do you want, Caleb?”

He shrugged. “Just killing time until our date.”

“I’m hanging out with Ian tonight,” I told him smugly. Let’s see how much he wanted that date now.

He glowered past me at Ian. “Do we have to?”

My answer was an evil grin.

Scowling, he stalked off, obviously not happy.

My grin became genuine.

I watched as Caleb disappeared into the crowd then turned my attention back to the performance. When it ended, I snatched Ian’s hand to take him to be introduced to my friends. Ian was either oblivious to Caleb’s earlier presence or he just chose not to acknowledge him. Tonight should be interesting.

As I walked up to Cece first, she squealed and pulled me into a hug. Her thin arms practically squeezed me to death. “Gianna, where the heck have you been?”

God, I was so ashamed. I was a big fat coward and a terrible friend. “Just going through things, but I’m better now.”

My sweet friend looked sympathetic. “Yeah, I know. Dante told me about your and Caleb’s breakup. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I told her, not wanting to get into it right now.

“Hey, you should come to our house tonight! Jared and I are having everyone over after this.” Cece was bouncing up and down at the idea of me returning to the fold. It was like being friends with Tigger. She finally noticed Ian. “Who’s he?”

I smiled, eager to introduce them. Cece’s bubbly personality would probably grate on Ian’s nerves. “This is my friend, Ian. Ian, this is Cece.”

Ian gave her a polite nod and she waved at him like a dork, saying, “Yo!”

Cece bounced again. “He can come too.”

“I have to go back to work, but I’ll definitely be there later tonight,” I promised her, feeling much better now that I planned to reconnect with my closest friends.

“Work?” Cece’s forehead wrinkled in confusion.

I pointed at the obvious logo on my chest. “I work here. Dancing.”

Her eyes shot wide. “Oh!”

Noting the other dancers taking their places, I reached out to squeeze her hand. “See you later?”

She smiled happily. “Yeah.”

The DJ already had a new song playing. Returning to my platform, I lost myself in the music once again. This time, much less stressed.





CHAPTER THIRTEEN




“If I could choose between loving you and breathing

I would use my last breath to say I love you.”

-Anonymous



CALEB



I was so going to end up in a fight tonight. I just knew it. The question was, whose ass would I be kicking? I looked at Jared where he was leaning in a doorway across the room, glaring at me. My eyes darted over to Ian, where he was working his meager charm on Cece, trying to get in good with the best friend. As long as they didn’t try to jump me together, I’d be fine with taking them on one at a time, and taking my time with each one of them.

Jared must have felt so smug right about now. Since I’d supposedly proved him right and broken Gianna’s heart. What about my heart? Pretending I was unaffected by the breakup had been hard on me. But no, I was the player and they didn’t have feelings, they didn’t love.

And Ian was a whole other mess. He was currently playing the part of the sensitive guy friend. He just wanted what was best for Gianna, wanted to be her friend, blah, blah, blah. Yeah right. Did he pursue her just to irritate me? Okay, so maybe that was a little vain of me, since Gianna was one of the most desirable girls either of us had ever met. Definitely the best girl we’d ever competed over. Plus she was cool as hell, especially when she was happy.

Look at him over there, sucking Cece into his web, like a sneaky spider.

I did nothing to hide my smile when Dante came over and put his arm around Cece, practically snarling at Ian. My boy, Dante, knew all about my never-ending rivalry with Ian. Sometimes I’d steal the girl Ian was messing around with and sometimes he’d steal the girl I was messing around with. The girl had never been important before, just a means for us to screw each other over.

Gianna was important.

She wasn’t one of those meaningless skanks or bimbos we’d fought over in the past. I intended to make that clear to Ian tonight. He messed around with her and he’d be hurting. I didn’t care if I had to fight dirty.