Chapter 1
“Chelsi, time for school!” Mom yelled from the bottom of the stairs. “You don’t want to be late on your first day.”
I didn’t care if I was late or not. I didn’t feel like dealing with friends, asking what happened between Aaron and me. He and I broke up a few days before school was to start. I sat down at my vanity, wiping the tears off my cheeks. I caught a glimpse of the dark, puffy circles under my eyes from crying the past two days. Senior year was supposed to be the greatest year of my high school career, not the worst. I hurried up and finished getting ready for school. I threw my hair up in a messy bun and managed to keep from crying long enough to put my makeup on. Now, I just had to keep from smearing it.
“Morning,” I mumbled, walking into the kitchen and placing my book bag in a chair.
“Morning.” Mom said, pouring me a glass of orange juice. “Chelsi, try and have a good first day today.”
“No guarantees. But I will try.” I took the glass of juice and sat down in my chair at the table. Mom knew I needed some cheering up and made my favorite breakfast of muffins and fruit. I sat there, trying to enjoy my breakfast, dreading what lay ahead for me.
“Morning, everyone!” My sister said rather loudly, walking into the kitchen. “Oh! Muffins.” She grabbed a muffin.
Her cheerfulness was not welcomed at the moment. So then, I began tossing around the idea of dropping her off five blocks from the school so I wouldn’t have to listen to her babble all the way there. A giggle escaped my lips, and I glanced over my shoulder to see if either of them had heard me. Unfortunately, my lie-making skills were lacking, and being grounded wasn’t high on my list of priorities.
“Sam, are you ready to leave in a few minutes? I want to make sure I get there before asshole does.” I said, watching her tear off tiny pieces of her muffin.
“Chelsi! Language.” Mom said.
“Sorry. I want to make sure I get there before shithead. Is that better?” I turned in my seat, raising an eyebrow.
Mom stood there, tilting her head at me with her disapproving “Mom look.” You know, the one where they are disappointed in you but won’t come out and say it. I had a feeling she agreed with me but wouldn’t admit it.
“Yeah, I’m ready. Let me put my stuff in the sink,” she said, getting up from the table.
I pulled into the school parking lot, scanning for Aaron’s car, which happened to be nowhere around. I no more got the car parked, and Sam was out of the car, heading over to her friends.
“Hey, Chelsi. Sorry, I didn’t text you back last night. Dad wanted to have “family time” and told us to stay off our phones for it. You know how he is about quality time.” Blakely said, getting out of her car. Blakely Tate has been one of my best friends since grade school. Her father was a cardiovascular surgeon who didn’t get much time with her and her siblings. So, when he managed to get a day off, he didn’t like any of them on their phones.
“It’s okay. I was dwelling in self-pity last night. So, maybe it was a good thing you couldn’t text or call me. Have you heard if Avery is back from the Bahamas?” I asked, getting out of my car. “I tried texting her last night too, but as usual, got no reply.”
Avery Watson was our other best friend. Unfortunately, she had a tendency to be self-absorbed and not return our texts the majority of the time, then got mad when she didn’t know what we were talking about at the moment. We’d have to remind her often that she would know what we were talking about if she’d texted us back.
“I heard from her this morning. She told me she’s sorry she didn’t get your text till late last night.” Blakely said, walking around to the front of her car.
I shook my head in disbelief. I wasn’t even going to try and rationalize that whole statement. I didn’t have the mental strength to figure out why Avery didn’t text me herself. I grabbed my book bag from the back seat and locked my car. Blakely knew not to bring up Aaron, which was one of the many reasons I loved our friendship.
“You look great, by the way. I love your hair. I wish I could get my hair up in a bun. All I’d have would be a frizzy, curly mess.” She grabbed one of her springy curls and brought it around to the front of her face. She stared at the perfect curl for a second, then let the piece of hair drop. “I’m just going to say this one thing and nothing else. You did a great job hiding the dark circles under your eyes,” she said, smiling over at me.
“Thanks,” I said, forcing a smile in return.
We were a few feet from the door when an engine’s loud, piercing roar echoed throughout the parking lot. Next to my car was this shiny, black sports car with tinted windows. I knew Blakely wanted to see who was in the car, but I just wanted to get in before Aaron and his friends pulled into the parking lot.
Blakely and I walked to English, dodging Aaron and his friends scattered throughout the halls. I knew I was going to have to face him eventually, but today was not that day. We got to class before anyone else, so we had a few minutes to talk without worrying about people eavesdropping in on our conversation.
“Hey, want to go get some coffee today after school? I heard there is a new place that is amazing. One of the other cheerleaders told me about it. It’s called Lilli’s. I guess they have the best iced cherry mocha latte around.” Blakely said, getting her book out of her book bag.
“Oh, that does sound good. Yeah. I will text Mom and tell her she needs to pick up Sam after school. I need to get out and have some fun with my friends,” I said, grabbing my phone out of my bag. “Should we invite Avery?” I asked, not taking my eyes off my phone.
“I was thinking about that myself. You know if we don’t invite her, we’ll never hear the end of it. I will let her know next hour in class.”
We sat there and continued to talk, then hurried up and changed the subject when the other kids started to walk in for class. We started talking about Lilli’s and if we would be brave and try the cherry mocha latte. Finally, the last bell rang, and the teacher walked in, welcomed us to the class, then introduced himself. He started writing things on the board when the door creaked open, and what I assumed was a new student walked in. He was tall and muscular with a fading tan, and his hair was bald to fade style with a little longer on top.
“Oh my god, talk about hot,” Blakely leaned over, whispering. “If the back of him is that fine, then you know the front is just as fine.”
“Shhh.” I peeked over at her.
I didn’t want to risk the chance of him hearing her talk about him. Her whispers were louder than some people talk. I couldn’t get her to understand that either. And would end up embarrassing both of us or getting us in trouble.
The teacher turned around and said he could take the seat a few rows over from me. Sure enough, Blakely was right about him being hot. It didn’t matter if he was hot, though. I wasn’t ready to date again, and to be honest, I was going to try the single life for a while.
“Easton Alexander, welcome to English 105,” Mr. Scott said, turning back to the whiteboard.
Blakely pointed down to her phone, then motioned to mine. I eased my phone off my desk, lowering it between me and the desk, glancing up at Mr. Scott to make sure he was still facing the board.
Hot guy staring at you.
I wanted to look over there but didn’t want to make it evident that we were talking about him. I dropped my phone down in my lap right as Mr. Scott turned back around to address the class about what was written on the board. I leaned forward, resting the side of my chin on my fist, peeking out the corner of my eye over at the hot new guy. I couldn’t see his face that well, but I could tell he was staring over in our direction. I had a hard time staying focused on the rest of the class.
I got up and started gathering my things while telling Blakely I would see her at lunch. Blakely turned and began to weave through the desks toward the door. I glanced over to where he had been sitting to find his chair empty and him nowhere in the room. I closed my eyes in hopes of getting him out of my head. I opened my eyes and headed to my next class, hoping it would keep my mind distracted.
