Katie Herd

“I start to walk out of the room, but I hear him start to panic and his breathing gets labored. He reaches out to me.
“Don’t go. Please.”
I sit next to him on the bed, wondering if he’s afraid of being abandoned. He slings his arm around my thigh and rests his forehead against my knee. “I have to protect you,” he says softly.
“From who?”
“El Diablo.”
“El Diablo? Who’s that?” I ask.
“It’s complicated.”
What does that mean? “Try to rest,” I tell him.
“I can’t. My entire body hurts.”
“I know.” I gently rub the arm that’s slung around me until his breathing slows.
“I wish I could help you,” I whisper.
“You are,” he murmurs against my knee. “Just don’t leave me, okay? Everyone leaves me.”
― Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction

“Tell me somethin’ you do that would shock me.”
She sits back on the couch. “Shock you?”
“Yeah. Shock me to the core.”
She sits up on her knees and leans toward me. “I’ve thought about you, Carlos,” she whispers in my ear.
“At night, in bed. I think about kissing you, our tongues sliding against each other’s, while your hands are buried in my hair. When I think about feeling those ripples in
your naked chest I touch my—”
“Here’s more popcorn!” Westford says, barging into the room with two big bowls filled to the
rim with freshly popped popcorn. “Kiara, what are you doing?”
― Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction

“I was born with a reading list I will never finish.”
― Maud Casey

“Want to make out?”
“With who?” she asks, not bothering to look up.
“Me.”
She lifts her head from her book just long enough to give me a once-over. “No, thanks,” she says, then goes back to her homework.
She’s fuckin’ with me. She’s got to be fuckin’ with me, right?
“Because of that pendejo Tuck?”
“No. Because I don’t want Madison’s leftovers.”
Wait. Un. Momento. I’ve been called a lot of things before, but . . .
“You callin’ me leftovers?”
“Yeah. Besides, Tuck is a great kisser. I wouldn’t want you to feel bad when there’s no way you can compete.”
That guy hardly owns a pair of lips. “Wanna bet?”
― Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction