Girl Code by LD Davis Read Free Book Online

proceeded to wipe that grin right off his face. “I didn’t think you were capable of stringing so many intelligible words together into a complete sentence.”
    “Thanks a lot.”
    We fell silent as I bandaged his hand. I paid close attention to what I was doing, but I could feel Leo staring at me. His eyes were burning a hole in my skin. I felt his breath on the side of my face and my neck, and for every breath he released, his chest brushed against my arm. It felt as if there was an electric current blasting through the bathroom, swirling around us and through us. I had never felt anything like it in my life.
    As soon as I was finished, I left the first aid supplies on the vanity and hurried out of the tight space I was sharing with Leo. He hesitated and looked out at me in the small hallway for a moment before following me out.
    “So, what did he say?” I asked him when he stepped out. Once again, he was very close to me. I started to move away, but he gently grabbed a hold of my forearm. I started to object, but his fingers skimmed over a dark blue mark just above my elbow I hadn’t even noticed before.
    “Did he do that?” Leo asked, his voice quiet and tight. His fingers carefully pushed up the sleeve of my shirt and danced across the skin there. “And this one?”
    “No, I don’t think so,” I said softly as I watched his fingers move over my flesh. His touch was voltaic, full of energy and red-hot. My skin felt gloriously singed wherever his fingers touched it. I dared to look at his face. I wanted to know if he felt it, too. His eyes met mine and I knew instantly that he felt the same thing.
    I wondered if Leslie felt it when he touched her, and then I pulled away from Leo.
    “What did he say?” I asked again as I moved out of the little hallway and in to the open space.
    “I don’t even want to repeat most of it,” Leo said on a sigh. “But he was talking his shit and I was trying to remain calm, but when I looked down at the bed, I saw buttons that had to have come from your shirt. They were on the bed and on the floor and Rico kept talking about what a good lay you were and how good you sucked…”
    He stopped suddenly, and I saw a hint of the fury that I had seen on his face when he came out of the party. I was absolutely mortified by what he claimed Rico was saying. Of course, none of it was true, but I felt humiliated anyway, especially since Leo was the one relaying the story to me.
    “He said a lot of shit, like I said,” Leo said quickly as he averted his eyes. “But when I saw your buttons all over the damn place, I was done listening to him. It doesn’t matter what he said now, because he won’t be saying it again. I’m sure some rumors will fly, but it won’t be as bad as it could have been.”
    I was horrified that Leo, a boy of almost sixteen, had turned into a lethal animal and broken a boy of nearly nineteen, who was almost twice his size. I was stupefied that he had done so for me. I had not been kind to him since the first time I laid eyes on him, and I had been especially nasty after he started dating Leslie, but he did this thing for me and I could not figure out why.
    “Why did you do this for me?” I asked quietly.
    He shrugged and tried to feign indifference, but he couldn’t quite pull it off.
    “Despite everything, I think of you as my friend,” he said casually. “I would have done it for any girl I know.”
    Why did I feel disappointment at his answer? I should have been satisfied and relieved with it, but I wasn’t.
    “It was stupid,” I said. “But…thank you.”
    I let out a long breath and dropped onto the couch. I rested my elbows on my knees and put my head in my arms. I was exhausted and had a nasty headache forming. The night had been unbelievable. I had been terribly wrong about Rico and I felt fury and embarrassment for allowing myself to be so easily misled. The night could have ended so differently if I had not taken that opportunity to knock