Chapter One
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Welcome, angels!
As usual for my stories:
A couple of things:
♡ I don’t always mention contraception or STI’s, please assume the characters are being safe and not playing pregnancy roulette.
♡ I use British English. Please don’t correct my spelling with American English.
♡ That being said, if you notice any grammar mistakes, it would be great if you could point them out. Occasionally, I use conversational language that may be grammatically incorrect. For example ‘You good?’ instead of ‘Are you good’ etc. Feel free to ignore those.
♡ I write mature romances. The words ‘clit’ and ‘cock’ will make an appearance. If that’s not your thing, please leave without complaint.
♡ You can follow me on Instagram, naughtyxchristian.
Thank you and enjoy! L x
Kinsley’s POV.
“Are you still good for coming round to mine tomorrow? I want to get in a good two hours of revision before that test on Wednesday,” Jocelyn asks as we walk to our final class of the day.
“Yeah, I asked Mum and she said I can stay for dinner,” I reply.
“Awesome. I feel prepared for it but I wanna be sure, you know? How do you feel about it?”
I shrug and rest my thumbs in the straps of my backpack. “Pretty okay. I think you’re right about revising the night before though. It can’t hurt, right?”
“Studies have shown that it is best to do light revision. I think we should find our weak spots tonight and focus on testing each other on them tomorrow. We don’t want to overdo it and tire out our brains before the test.”
“Good idea,” I reply absentmindedly.
In all honesty, my mind isn’t on the test. Although I want to do well, it is a test from the teacher and doesn’t go towards our final grade.
“Ugh, you’re always so calm about these things, Kingsley. I wish I had your affinity for numbers. They just talk to you.”
“I wish I could draw like you can,” I tell her.
“Yes but drawing isn’t going to make me any money. Maths is going get you a six-figure salary.”
I snort at her statement. “You know that’s not what I’m after.”
“I know,” Jocelyn says dramatically. “You’re after adventure and romance, you want to travel and eat and see wonderful things with wonderful people.”
I nod in agreement. She’s heard me say this enough times before. “That’s exactly what I want.”
“But you could be getting PHD’s and earning so much money,” my best friend protests.
“And being bored out of my mind crunching numbers and pushing papers,” I correct her.
Jocelyn shrugs. “Only for about thirty years. You could retire early.”
“And be fifty when I start travelling? No, thanks.”
We get to the maths classroom and take our usual seats at the back. We take our pencil cases and notebooks. Like always, we’ve arrived early to the lesson.
“I’m just saying, your brain is a gift, don’t throw it away for feeding elephants in Thailand, getting dreads and miniature edgy tattoos.”
“I won’t be a gap-year cliché, I promise.”
“Good. And you’re not going on a gap year, right? I thought your parents said no?”
“I’ll be eighteen by then, what can they say?”
Jocelyn’s eyes widen at my response. “Wait, you’re seriously considering it? What about university? Applications are in less than a month!”
“I’d put it off for a year, it’s no big deal.”
Jocelyn stares at me like I’ve just suggested I take a year off to smoke crack and sleep around. Gap years pretty much equate to that in her sensible mind.
“No big deal? But you’d be a year older than everyone at uni! And we wouldn’t get to go to Cambridge together.”
I give her a sympathetic look. “I don’t know that I’m definitely going to go to Cambridge yet, Joss. It’s always been your dream, not mine.”
She pouts at me but luckily Mr Matthews walks in and starts the lesson, ending our conversation.
I love Jocelyn. In many ways, we are very similar. We share a love for science, maths, philosophy, Harry Potter, and anime. Unlike other people are age, we’re not interested in getting wasted and hooking up at parties.
We work hard and study harder. We can see the big picture, the end goal, top-end universities that lead to well-paid jobs that fund indulgent lifestyles. By indulgent, we would probably spend the money on trips to Harry Potter world and we both have a mutual dream to visit Japan one day.
But there are lots of ways that we are different, too. Jocelyn is more sensible than me and, at times, a little uptight. There have been occasions where I have wanted to go to parties, but I’ve turned down the invite because I was too nervous to go without Jocelyn and she refused to go.
I love her but I do want to let my hair down sometimes. There are things that I’ve done in my past that she doesn’t know about because she’d be mortified. It’s safe to say that the old Kinsley would not have been Jocelyn’s friend. When I moved to this school last year, I decided to reinvent myself as a model student and that is the only side of me that Joss knows.
The lesson is easy. After all, it is maths, it’s my thing. It’s the end of the school day and Jocelyn and I put our books away in our lockers. I swing my backpack over my shoulders, and we walk down the corridor.
We’re both pushed forwards as five guys bump into us in their eagerness to get outside. I catch myself and steady Jocelyn. My glasses have slid down my nose, so I have to right them again.
“Whoa, sorry!”
“Oops, coming through!”
They shout their fake apologies as they don’t even look back and run out of the door. Two of them are nearer the back and actually stop to see if we’re okay. One of them is Aaron Fielding, a popular guy who is captain of the football team.
I don’t know much about him. He was voted class clown for year 11 prom and will most likely win the title at this year’s leaver’s prom, too. He’s just over six foot, blonde, and devilishly handsome. He is dating Olivia Lesley and has been for two years.
The other guy is one that sends my heart beating a little faster. Judson Collins. Captain of the rugby team and all-round heartbreaker. If I described Aaron is handsome, I need a whole other word for Jud. He’s gorgeous.
He’s even taller than his friend at six and half feet. He’s made of pure muscle and stacked like a brick wall. His shoulders along could block out the sun. He has chocolate-brown hair that he keeps in a short fade on the sides and a permanent tan because he is from Australia.
He moved to England at the end of last year and everything fell into place for him. He became popular within an hour of being here simply from his tan and accent, both of which are rare in our little cloudy town. Add to it the fact that he’s an athletic God and actually has a brain, heterosexual women don’t stand a chance near him.
I think the only person unaffected by him is Jocelyn, but she’s a self-identified asexual so it makes sense that his looks have no effect on her.
Me on the other hand? Total casualty like the rest of the school.
His pale grey eyes meet mine and it’s like the world stops, like it’s only us two in the bustling corridor. One end of his mouth turns up in a half-smile that has my knees weak.
“Sorry about that, are you okay?” He asks us, but his eyes remain on me.
I’m too busy revelling in the sound of his husky voice to answer. He’s eighteen but he looks and sounds like he’s a man in his twenties. He’s no teenager.
“We’re fine,” Jocelyn snaps. “You should look where you’re going next time.”
Aaron tugs on Jud’s arm. He looks over at Jocelyn and nods before looking back at me.
“You sure you’re alright?”
I manage to find my voice. “Yeah, all good,” I reply shyly and push my glasses back up my nose.
He smiles at me. A breath-taking smile that shows perfectly white, perfectly straight teeth. “Good,” he says and winks at me. “See ya.”
Oh my days, is there anything that isn’t perfect about him?
I’m unable to make my feet move. Jocelyn has to link her arm with mine and pull me forwards.
“Ugh, they’re such dicks,” she complains.
“Is there anything about Jud Collins that isn’t perfect?” I ask her, voicing my thoughts aloud.
She scoffs at me. “You cannot be serious, Kinsley. I could write an essay on the shortcomings of Judson Collins. That boy is an arrogant arsehole.”
“You really think so? He checked to see if we were alright,” I protest as we walk over to the bicycle sheds.
“After him and his hooligan friends almost tackled us to the ground! They’re animals. It comes from a high testosterone level and a low IQ, I’m telling you. They’re not much more than grunting cavemen.”
“I guess. There might be more to them than that, we just don’t know them.”
Jocelyn fishes her padlock key out of her bag and gives me an exasperated look.
“That’s your ovaries talking, Kinsley. You need to be ace like me, makes life so much easier.”
“I bet it does,” I agree with her.
She unlocks her bike chain and pockets the lock. I watch her get onto her bike and she rides slowly next to me as we walk to the busy school gates. When we get there, we say goodbye and go in opposite directions. She has a ten-minute bike-ride home, I have a thirteen-minute walk.
I can drive and I have a cute Micra that I share with my mum to save money. She gets it in the day because she has to drive to the hospital where she works as a nurse, and I get it in the evenings and on her days off.
I don’t mind the walk home. I like to use the time to clear my head after school. It’s my last year and there is so much pressure to do well for universities.
A black jeep wrangler drives past with all of the windows down. Aaron, Luke, and AJ are leaning out of the windows, shouting, and hooting loudly. It’s a struggle to hear them over the blasting music from the radio.
There’s only one person at our school who owns a jeep wrangler. Without a doubt, it is Jud Collins behind the wheel.
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