Excerpt: Losing Control

“Why are you being nice to me?” she asked. “After the way you ran away from me this morning, I thought you wanted nothing to do with me.”

“I changed my mind. And I am sorry about that. You just surprised me,” he admitted and she raised an eyebrow at him.

“Surprised you how?”

“You look like someone a person I know used to know. She passed away and it was a tragic situation. It just surprised me that you would look like her.”

“Everyone looks like someone, don’t they?”

He considered this for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now since we’re going to be friends anyway.”

“Who said anything about friends? I’m still deciding if I like you. Right now we’re nothing more than lab partners and table buddies in Biology.”

He grinned at her, his golden eyes sparkling as though he knew things she didn’t. “You can’t tell me you don’t like me. It seemed like you couldn’t keep your eyes off me in class.”

Ashley rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I was trying to figure you out. You ran away this morning and now you want to be friends. You do just want to be friends, right?”

His grin widened. “I wouldn’t object if you wanted to be more than that.”

“Argh!” she growled and he laughed. “Between you and this mysterious Gabriel I have yet to meet, I’m starting to think the boys in this town are mental.”

His laughter died and his features hardened at the mention of the other boy. Ashley’s eyes widened in surprise as a low growl rumbled in his throat. Had she really insulted him?

“Don’t ever mention his name in conjunction with mine,” Tristan growled.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I don’t even know the guy; it’s just that everyone keeps telling me about him and how I’m really going to like him. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Tristan stopped walking and closed his eyes, running a hand through his thick hair as he tried to get his anger under control. He squeezed his eyes shut and balled his hands into fists, a fine tremble running through his body. Ashley could only stare at him; she’d never seen anyone this mad before and had no idea what to do to help – or if she could help.

“Hey, man, what’s going on?” another boy asked as he came up to Tristan and clapped a hand on his shoulder. Tristan turned towards him and apparently opened his eyes because the second boy’s eyes widened. Ashley was sure she didn’t want to see whatever the other boy was seeing. She shuddered at the thought as the second boy turned towards her.

“What did you do to him?” he demanded, his dark eyes narrowed as he regarded her. Tristan blindly reached for the boy’s shoulder.

“Don’t blame her; she didn’t know. That’s Ashley Holbrook,” Tristan told him, his voice barely better than a growl. Ashley swallowed hard. The boy’s expression changed at the mention of her name and her fright turned to curiosity as the boy regarded her in a new light.

“Oh,” was all he said before turning back to Tristan. “Let’s get you out of here. Do I need to get Brady?”

Tristan shook his head. “No. Let’s just go.”

Neither boy looked back as they walked away from Ashley. She wanted to yell an apology but didn’t know how it would be taken. She watched them walk out the nearest door and was about to take a step in that direction when she heard someone call her name. She froze, her eyes still trained on the door Tristan and his friend had just disappeared through.