“He’s not supposed to be here,” I mumble under my breath, shooting daggers his way.
Someone lied to my dad, that’s for sure.
Hunter brings his eyes to mine after ribbing his friend. Something in my voice must have let on that I’m familiar with him. Or it could have been the blunt way I scalded him with my sneering words. Either way, I notice the moment he starts analyzing me, trying to figure it out.
They’re so much alike, I almost forgot.
I can feel his eyes trail across my fuller face, chest, stomach, and thighs, like burning embers on the end of a campfire log. His gaze eats me up entirely before traveling upward and settling on my eyes once more. For a split second, intense lust burns in his gaze, causing his ice-blue eye to brighten.
“Do I know you?” Due to the gritting hesitance in his voice, I’d say he’s already well on his way to putting it together, he just wants me to confirm it. I may have changed, but not that freaking much.
Well, fuck that. I’m not going to make anything easy for him. Not like he’s done that for me any since our sophomore year.
Someone moves beside him, capturing my attention. I regret the moment I allow my gaze to flick to his right. Ash fills my mouth from the simmering anger burning in my gut. Heat flashes overwhelm me, even as goosebumps pebble along my arms.
It’s Cassandra Radcliff, and she’s about two seconds from jumping into Hunter’s lap. How typical. Dumb jock fucking the coked-out whore of a cheerleader. They’re every stereotype made a reality.
She sneers my way, clearly not remembering me, either. “Get a good look, bitch?”
I can’t help it. A huff of a laugh falls from me as I meet Hunter’s eyes again. Gone are the lust and fire, and in their place is icy hatred.
It seems the slow jock finally figured it out.
“Think really hard, Hunter Prince. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be able to push aside that inflated ego of yours long enough to figure it out.”
Without a second thought, I turn around and stalk toward the hallway. Orientation will just have to suck it because I refuse to be in the same room as that prick. He’s not even supposed to be in Golden Oaks. A very, very reputable source told my dad he was on his way to California to attend UCLA.
How can wires get crossed so destructively? If he’s attending GOU, then shit just got a lot deeper than before.
Hunter Prince gave me everything, then took it all away at the drop of a hat. All because of that whore slinking into his arms. And he didn’t even have the balls to apologize. Instead, whatever happened to make him throw me away like trash, he now holds it against me. Just remembering that night causes my chest to tighten in pain.
Christmas Eve, Sophomore Year …
My eyes widen on the stick. Pure disbelief rambles through my entire body. We were always so careful, so protected. How could something like this happen? Hunter is going to kill me, I think to myself, placing a protective hand over my stomach. Tears slide down my cheeks and drip off my chin as I watch the two lines getting darker by the second, blatantly staring me in the face.
Two blue lines.
“I’m pregnant,” I gasp, choking up.
There’s no doubt about it now. Sure, I pushed aside the tenderness in my breasts and roaring nausea—that’s what happens anyway when I have my period. But when my period never showed, and my symptoms kept getting worse and worse, I knew something was up.
Bang, bang, bang.
Someone beating on the door makes me jump and throw the test across the bathroom. It slams into the shower wall, where the water is still running. Had to make it inconsequential that I’ve been in here for the past fifteen minutes, and the shower idea came to me like an epiphany.
“Lo, time for dinner!” Duncan calls out from the other side.
At two years older than me, he was a senior in Golden Oaks High. Popular. Handsome. Nerd. He was every girl’s wet dream and every guy’s nightmare, except for the Golden Crew, which he’s a part of. He, along with Leo Sutton, and the three Prince siblings—Owen, Emerson, and Hunter.
Hunter, my boyfriend, was due to become the next leader when Owen graduated this year. I bite my lips in worry.
If Duncan finds out about this before Hunter, all hell will break loose. What am I going to do?
Another bang on the door startles me. “Are you coming or not?”
“I’ll be down in a minute!” I call out nervously.
When I don’t get a response, I release the breath I was holding and race over to the test on the floor, picking it up. I dust it off like it’s the most precious thing in the world. In a way, it is. This is proof there’s a tiny person growing inside me. And with that realization flooding my system, I find the fear creeping up on me, churning my stomach.
Sickness roars through me. Barely making it to the toilet, I fall onto my knees and release the contents of my stomach into the bowl. My nose burns from the acid, and perspiration gathers along my body, sticking my clothes to my skin.
After I’m finished, I flush the toilet and sit on my butt with my back to the wall. Pulling my legs into myself, I wrap my arms around them and put my face in my knees and weep.
I’m only fifteen. Getting pregnant right now is not what I—we—had planned. Hunter and I were supposed to go to UCLA together when we graduated high school. We were supposed to get business degrees, and I would start my PR business while he takes over a third of his dad’s company.
Our future was set in stone, and now, everything is falling apart.
We were so careful, though. I was taking my birth control, and he was wearing condoms. We were never unprotected. So, how can this be? We took so many precautions to prevent this.
I cry softly into my knees for some time, until another knock on my door alerts me.
“Harloe?” My mom’s voice filters through the door, making me cry harder.
“Mom,” I sniffle and sob so hard that a few moments later, I see the knob moving and her pale face illuminated by the bathroom light as she peeks into the room.
True, unadulterated fear crosses her face, and she’s racing toward me before I have a chance to say anything. She falls to her knees and gathers me into her arms, rocking me back and forth like I’ll do soon for the baby in my stomach.
“What’s wrong, baby girl?” she coos, softly rubbing the hair back away from my sweaty forehead.
I say nothing, merely hold out the stick for her to see. I can tell the moment she gets a good look because her entire body stops moving, and she goes as still as a statue. Her arms tighten around me on reflex.
But then, something far worse happens. My mom’s body starts to shake. Softly at first, but then it becomes more pronounced the longer she holds me.
She’s crying.
“Mom, I’m so sorry!” I howl in pain, sobbing even harder as I clutch at her arms out of fear she’ll let go.
“Wha…Wh…How did this happen, honey?” she inquires, pulling away from me to stare into my miserable eyes.
My bottom lip trembles. “I don’t know. We were always so safe.”
She continues to stare at me for several minutes, eyes searching mine so deeply I fight not to flinch. My mom has always been able to see to the very core inside me, regardless of if I could lie with the best of them. No matter. She could always tell when I was lying.