Chapter One
Santiago
Wood splintered into my fingers as I reached deeper beneath the floorboards but I didn't care. I had to get the box and retrieve the pictures to prove what they had done to me.
“Looking for this?”
I shot up and turned to face Baron, one of the seniors that were involved in almost drowning me last night. He held the brown wooden box in his left hand. Dammit.
“I had a feeling you would come.”
He grabs a fistful of my shirt and slams the box into my face. My jaw cracks and fresh pain attacks my cheek. Then Baron lets go of me and I fall to the floor clutching my cheek that was beginning to bruise. I would need surgery for sure.
“If I see you trying to steal this again. I’ll break your legs next time.”
“You know what you and your fellow teammates are doing is wrong.”
How was I supposed to know that joining the football team would mean I would get tied up and drugged? I should have known that when they found Tommy at the bottom of the river with rope burns and scars right after he joined the team that they might've had something to do with it.
Who else had they done this to and gotten away with it? Probably thousand and thousands of students at Park-mount High.
Baron gives me a wicked grin. “But now we’re your teammates and its tradition.”
Yvonne
I recoil at my reflection as the morning light casts its glow across the mirror. It was already the next day and I still felt like I was stuck in yesterday.
Nothing has changed, but everything is different. Of course, it is. I was one of them now.
After last night, I shouldn't be surprised that I can no longer recognize myself.
“Yvonne you’re going to be late to school!” My mom shouts from downstairs.
I apply mascara and lip gloss then pull on a blue crop top and a white skirt before heading downstairs. This was all still foreign to me. My curly hair cascading down my back, the heels, the clothes.
Yet I am happier than I have ever been.
When I arrive at school I spotted Sarah instantly. A tumble of brown curls fell as she removed her ponytail and applied a new layer of lip gloss. Then she turns to look my way and calls me over.
My stomach twists in excitement and I quickly notice how students around are watching me. After dreaming about it for years I was finally apart of Sarah Martinez's group.
I was finally popular.
Pryce
“I don’t care what people will think. I believe in us and that’s all that matters.” She says, laughing at my response as her fingers find mine.
I should push her away. Tell her that this feeling won't last but I can’t.
I’ve never felt this way for anyone ever since Yvonne. The realization was as jarring as the moment my friends and I had jumped off Stony Point.
Her lips curled into a smile and her hand caressed my cheeks. She stands on her tiptoes and places a small kiss on my lips. Instantly my senses are electrified but I freeze. This is wrong, we shouldn’t be doing this.
“Aria we can’t,” I say in a hoarse whisper.
She slides her hand into my hair slowly. “I’m sorry, I just thought-” I press my lips against hers hard and forget about the part of me that doesn’t agree with this.
Forgetting about everything that justifies what we're doing is wrong.
I pull away from her and stand back, trembling. "What are doing? Aria you know we can't be together."
"We have something Pryce and are you really going to throw that away? Shouldn't we be allowed to at least figure out what this is?"
"This is insane Aria and you know it."
Aria licks her lips, her green eyes searching mine. “Please.”
She traces her fingers across my thigh while she twirls her fingers in my hair. I grab her face and lightly brush my lips against hers then I kiss her softly on her jawline, her neck, then I bite her lower lip and watch her eyes roll back as she sighs.
Shit. I think I’m in love with my sister.
