All Chapters of Boys Like Him: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

I woke to warmth on my face and the soft thump of bass coming from somewhere outside the bedroom. For a long, sweet second, I didn't know where I was. Then the smell of cinnamon body mist and hair products hit me, and my brain whispered, Mariah's place.I blinked my eyes open.Her ceiling was the same dusty peach color it had always been, a little cracked and uneven, but the sunlight slipping through her curtains made everything glow like we were in the opening scene of a feel-good movie. My body felt lighter than usual, my chest wasn't tight, my shoulders didn't ache from clenching in my sleep, and the room carried that leftover energy from last night's laughter.A soft thrum of Afrobeats drifted down the hallway. Mariah's doing, obviously.I dragged myself up, hair a mess, sleep tugging at my bones. The moment I stepped out of the room, I saw her dancing barefoot in front of the mirror with a toothbrush in her mouth, oversized T-shirt slipping off one shoulder, curls piled messily on

I followed the numbers painted onto the bleachers alongside Mariah, slowing the closer we got closer to the center row. I could feel it before I fully registered the way heads turned just a beat too quickly, and voices dipped, then surged again in hushed bursts that weren't meant to be quiet enough.Reserved.The little laminated sign taped to the bench might as well have been a spotlight.Mariah hopped up first like she owned the place, dropping her bag beside her with a loud, unapologetic thud. She patted the seat next to her. I slid in, smoothing my dress automatically, my pulse suddenly loud in my ears."That's her right?""No way.""Isn't she..?""The meme girl."My face burned.I stared straight ahead, wishing I could shrink into the wood beneath me. Somewhere behind us, someone snickered. A phone camera was pointed at me two rows to the side, then lowered when Mariah snapped her head around and fixed them with a look that could peel paint."Try it," she cooed sweetly. "I dare

I barely made it three steps before he was in front of me.The noise around us blurred into a dull throb. "You came," he mumbled.I tilted my head, suddenly aware of how warm my skin felt, and how the cropped fabric hugged my ribs in a way I wasn't used to. "You sound surprised."His mouth twitched. "I was... cautiously hopeful."That earned a breathy laugh from me before I could stop it. "You look..." He stopped himself, exhaled through his nose. "I'm glad you're here."Something about the restraint in that simple sentence did more to me than any smooth line could have.Behind me, Mariah whooped loudly, already dancing with Nate near the makeshift bar, and I felt the vibration of the bass under my soles. Lloyd shifted slightly, angling his body so I wasn't directly in the path of people brushing past. "I owe you a drink," he said, nodding toward my empty hands. "Or food. Or... space, if that's what you want."I raised an eyebrow. "You're very polite for someone who just dominated

The moon hung like a thin, wicked blade overhead, its pale light slicing through the canopy and painting silver streaks across our skin as Lloyd dragged me deeper into the trees. The party's distant throb faded behind us, swallowed by the hush of the forest until the only sounds were our ragged breathing and the crunch of leaves underfoot. "Lloyd," I whispered, the word scraping out like a plea as he finally spun me around.The house was nothing more than a faint glow now, irrelevant. Moonlight carved harsh shadows across his face, stripping away the polished charm he'd worn all night. What stared back at me was pure, animal want eyes black with lust, jaw tight, lips parted as if he'd already tasted me.He didn't speak. His hand shot into my hair, fingers twisting tight at the roots, yanking my head back with just enough force to make me gasp. Then his mouth crashed onto mine, brutal, devouring, his tongue thrusting past my lips like he was claiming territory. I moaned into him, loud

The morning came soft and slow, sunlight filtering through the blinds in lazy golden stripes that warmed my cheek before my eyes even opened. For a moment, I floated in that hazy space between sleep and wakefulness, my body heavy with the kind of deep rest that comes after a night of pure release. The sheets tangled around my legs felt like a cocoon, and the faint ache between my thighs pulsed gently with every small shift.Blissfully sore.I stretched slowly, savoring the pull in my muscles, where his mouth had left marks that were probably blooming faint purple now. Nate and Mariah had dropped me off around two, their teasing echoing in the car the whole way, Mariah demanding details I dodged with flushed laughs, Nate just grinning like he knew everything anyway.I'd floated up the stairs in a daze, unlocked the door, and collapsed into bed without even changing. The high hadn't faded, it had carried me straight into dreams where his touch replayed in endless, heated loops.Now, fu