15

Piper

Check Your Attitude

Whatever. Adam could be mad for the drive. Good for him. While he did that, I wanted to get a head start on my presentation. The more I practiced it, the better it would be. My stage fright would never permanently leave me, but if I could get all my motions down, it wouldn't matter if I was scared of the stage. My presentation would be top-notch regardless. Untwisting the cord of my headphones, I mouthed the lines under my breath.

"You like that dipshit?" Adam muttered, barely audible with everyone else's conversations.

What is his problem with Xavier?

"Well, he's a mechanical engineering major," I said, slipping the end of the cord through a loop. "He's super nice, he gets great grades, he knows what he wants, and he wants June. And their whole…" I matched his voice too, careful to keep it quiet, even when the van driver cranked up the music. "He's waiting for June on the sidelines. It's sweet. What's not to like?"

Adam didn't move from his place. He just gazed at me with those intense eyes of his. "Piper, you don't know anything."

I wasn't sure why that made my pulse skip so much. Maybe it was the casual way he said it, like he was stating a fact, not an opinion. Maybe it was the condescending words. The idea that—oh—the Marrs Manwhore was so worldly, he'd been around the block, he knew better than little Piper Fontaine.

Either way, it brought my heart to my throat, and it was hard to look away from him to focus on my headphones. I slipped my headphones over my head, resting them on my neck. "You're just jealous."

"Of Xavier?" Adam raised his eyebrows. "Why would I be jealous of him? "

That was a good question. For a moment I frowned, studying Adam. There was a little crease in the lines around his eyes. If I didn't know any better…

"You are jealous," I realized. "What? Is it the car?"

"Like I'd be jealous of him." Adam shook his head, irritated. "You don't know what you're talking about, Piper. He had a calculator app on his phone."

"Doesn't everybody have that?"

"Not the regular one." Adam rubbed the bridge of his nose. "The other one. He was showing his favorite places to hit and where he's keeping his car in Oklahoma and I saw it. It's one of those shadow apps. When you party as much as I do, you see it all the time. You need a passcode to unlock it, but it almost looks like a regular calculator, so no one suspects anything." He drew in a breath, half a laugh, half a hard sound at the back of his throat. "I've gotten great at detecting shit like that. He's hiding something."

Out of everything I heard out of Adam's mouth, that was one of the most ridiculous things. It didn't hit first or second place but it was still far up there. Adam took one look at Xavier's phone and figured…what? There was some deep, dark secret? The judgment he passed on someone he didn't even know astounded me.

A smile crossed my face. It wasn't funny, but it was a little funny. I tried to hide the smile and wasn't successful.

"I'm serious," Adam said, his voice flat.

"Sure." I shrugged, trying not to smile again. "Okay, let's say you stay on your side of the van. I'll stick to mine. How's that?" I held up my piece of paper. "I'm practicing for my workshop but if you want to make some more conspiracy theories, I'm sure there are other people in the van who'd love to join you."

"Good luck with the class," he taunted. "Hope that stutter works out."

I snapped up so fast, I almost crunched my paper in my hands. With as much effort as possible, I had to stop myself from balling it up and ripping it to shreds, just to throw at him. There was nothing that could be done about the blush though. That was permanent on my cheeks.

He figured out I couldn't deal with crowds. It felt like the devil had pieced together that I was ticklish.

"I don't care what you say," I snarled.

"Fine by me."

"Because this workshop is going to be amazing, " I insisted. "Check your attitude."

Adam leaned in just a little closer. With each second, he cut the distance between us. "Check yours."

I couldn't believe him. I couldn't believe this egotistical jerk who thought the whole world revolved around him just because of his abs and his dumb spot on the football team and his stupid shoe partnerships. One day, he'd get a rude awakening. One day, he'd find out that not everything could be solved with the fact he was the magnificent Adam Russell. And when that day came—

"If you two don't shut the hell up," Zariah yelled from the passenger seat, "I am going to make Dan pull over the van, I'll take the wheel, and we won't go above fifteen miles an hour the entire ride. By the time we get there, guess what? The conference will be over . We won't get back to MU until Christmas! "

I'd been so wrapped up in fighting Adam, I didn't notice every single person in the van, stretching back to watch our fight.

Oh my god .

I hunkered down in my seat, unfolding my paper again. And there was Adam's knee, half an inch from mine. It didn't matter. I wouldn't say anything. We'd made a scene already.

"You know what would make this better?" Adam muttered from the corner of his mouth.

"I don't want to know."

He dug in his pocket for a moment and flashed me the gas station ring, the one he'd fake proposed with. I couldn't believe it. He brought it along for the conference?

I stared daggers at him. "You are the most annoying man I have ever met—"

" Piper, " Zariah reminded me from the passenger seat. "Girl, please ."

Adam grinned. "Yeah, Piper."

Oh my god . I plucked the ring from his hand and chucked it behind my shoulder. If he wanted to play games, he could do it searching among the bags.

His grin just widened. "Don't worry. I've got six more."

I sucked in a breath between clenched teeth and released it.