Maybe I could try PI-ing myself. Maybe I could sneak around the house at night? No, that would probably only end up in me getting caught red-handed, and knowing my mom, she’d somehow know something was off with me if I tried to brush her off in the few hours right after school to do it.
Ollie was having some fundraiser event this weekend. Most of the house would be off-limits to the guests, and I was already told I’d have to stay upstairs in my room…but what if I didn’t stay in my room? What if I used that time to snoop while my mom acted the maid and kept offering the rich folks champagne or whatever the hell it was they’d be drinking?
Maybe I’d give it a try. Or maybe I should just give up and let it be.
How could I sit back and let it be, though, when something was clearly wrong with this situation? Something had happened with Celeste and his second wife, and that didn’t even mention his first family. Ollie was hiding something, and if that something would put my mom and I in danger, we had every right to know.
“I assume you do have the money, don’t you?” Vaughn’s voice cut into my thoughts, and I merely blinked at him, too startled to say anything.
Had my face given away my not-so-rich status?
“Of course I do,” I finally said after regaining myself. “I wipe my ass with money. Don’t you?”
Again, he chuckled, and again, I hated myself for liking the sound.
This one…this one might just get me into a whole lot of trouble if I let him.
Chapter Seven – Archer
Things were happening that I knew shouldn’t. It was only a matter of time until everything blew up in my face, but I couldn’t help it. It was like, the moment I saw her, I knew. I knew she was different. I knew I liked her, even though I shouldn’t.
I really, really shouldn’t, given the current state of my life, but that’s how things seemed to go. Life kept kicking me while I was down. Someday I hoped to get back on my feet again.
It was Friday, and she was coming over to my house after school. We had a test next week to study for. I’d given her my notes to copy, which she did earlier in the week, but I couldn’t help but let slip the fact that I’d be glad to help her study. Make notecards or whatever it was people did while studying.
And…Jaz had actually agreed. The academics were harder here than they were at her old school, and she wanted to do her best. She’d told me she needed help, and I…I had been too stunned at her acceptance to say much of anything.
It took a little finagling, because I’d already had plans this afternoon, but luckily I was able to push those plans to tomorrow. This afternoon would be solely about me helping Jaz and catching her up. Nothing else.
I couldn’t let it become anything else.
My brain was logical here; it knew nothing good would come from it, and yet, later that afternoon, when I saw her exiting the building, my body started to heat up in spite of the chill outside. I stood near my car, watching as she crossed the parking lot and headed straight to me. Her nose was a little pink from the cold, but she was just as gorgeous as I remembered her being earlier.
The kind of gorgeous you couldn’t fight. The kind of pretty you couldn’t deny. She was worlds above everyone else here, and the sad thing was she probably didn’t even know it.
Her face lit up when she saw me, a wide smile growing on her face. A smile like that could stop anyone in their tracks and make you rethink your whole life.
Damn it. I was smitten, somehow. I liked this girl a whole lot more than I should. Really, I should take a step back. This could only end badly for the both of us.
As we got in the car and put our seatbelts on, Jaz said, “I texted my mom and told her I was studying at the library. For some reason, I don’t think she’d like me going over a boy’s house.” She brought those dark eyes to me, and my stomach hardened.
And something twitched in my pants when I thought about having her in my room, but that was something best left forgotten.
“Your mom doesn’t want you alone with boys?” I gave her a smirk as I started the car and drove us off, away from Midpark High, away from the people who, I hoped, hadn’t really seen us together.
I mean, I could just be driving her home like a gentleman. It’s what I would say if anyone asked me about it on Monday.
It was a lie, but…sometimes you had to lie. Sometimes lying was for the best.
“My mom is…let’s just say protective of me when it comes to guys,” Jaz said, staring out of the window, a pensive look on her beautiful, tan face. “She doesn’t want me dating, and she definitely doesn’t want me alone with any attractive guys—” She abruptly stopped, her eyes widening as they darted to me, as if she realized what she just said.
Attractive. She’d called me attractive.
I drove with one hand, hiding my smile with the other.
Jaz’s voice lowered an octave when she muttered, “Please pretend I didn’t just say that. Not that I’m saying you’re not attractive—not that I’m saying you are attractive…oh, God, I’m just going to shut up now.” She slunk in the leather seat beside me, looking like she wanted to shrink into herself and cease to exist.
“So I take it you haven’t dated much,” I managed to say as I grinned like an idiot behind my hand. It shouldn’t make me feel so good, hearing her call me attractive, but it did. It so did, even though it was wrong.
“Here and there, a little, mostly behind my mom’s back,” Jaz said. Her backpack rested on her lap, and she ran her hands over it. It was worn, old, some of its fabric fraying at the seams. Not a typical backpack for Midpark, and I couldn’t help but wonder where she’d moved to, where she lived.
Guess I’d find out, once I drove her home—unless she planned on walking home, which I wouldn’t advise, since it got dark so early.
Did she wear torn clothes and have a ratty old backpack for style?
“But nothing steady, nothing long-term,” she finished. “Which is fine, because couples come and go in high school at the speed of light.” Jaz now traced circles on her backpack as she glanced to me. “What about you? I bet you date a lot.”
“Not as much as you’d expect,” I said, wishing I meant it. Wishing things were different. It wasn’t the first time I’d wished things were different, but it was the first time I wished things were different for a girl.
We continued to chat as I drove us to my house, a newly-built three-story home with painted brick and natural wooden accents. The house itself was small compared to some of the mansions in Midpark, but it was far from the smallest, too. We had no fence, no gate, so I was able to drive right up to the three-car garage. I had no siblings, so I was able to pull into the third spot, right next to my mom’s car.
It wasn’t like she was able to drive, so I didn’t know why we still kept it. Her keys were locked away, someplace she couldn’t find them.
Jaz and I got out, and I prayed that my mom was still having a good day. On her bad days, my dad called a nurse to take care of her during the day while we were gone. This morning she’d been okay…and since I was having company over, I prayed she’d still be okay.
I was the first to walk into the house, the first to look around, holding my breath as I felt Jaz come in behind me. With a hand on the strap around my shoulders, I called out, “Mom? Are you awake?”