“You’ll never guess what I just heard!” she exclaimed, sliding to a stop in her bejeweled flipflops.
Pulling my geometry book from my locker, I closed the door and turned to face her. “What did you hear?”
Her cheeks flushed pink beneath all the layers of makeup she’d troweled onto her face that morning. “So, according to Becky P. and Cathy M., there’s a new guy who started here today. Apparently he’s like, filthy stinking rich and totally hot.
My head tipped to the side, my brows knitted in confusion. “O-kay. And?”
She looked at me like I was the biggest idiot in school. “What do you mean ‘and’? There’s a new, hot rich kid going here. That’s it! Ooh, and he’s a senior.” She waggled her brows. “Apparently, he was going to some super expensive, exclusive private school where celebrities and politicians and stuff send their kids, and got kicked out for fighting.”
She sounded way too excited about that, stressing that point like it was a good thing when it really wasn’t. “Aren’t you still with Cody Yates?” I asked. “Not so sure your boyfriend would like hearing you talk about another guy like this.”
She let out a scoff and waved me off. “Forget Cody. He got boring anyway. I’m in the mood for something new.” Pulling a compact from her purse, she flipped it open and pursed her lips, slathering on another layer of lip gloss. Once done, she blew a kiss into the mirror before snapping it closed and returning it to her bag. “I’m totally gonna hook up with this dude. Mark my words, by this time next week, I’ll be riding him like a bronco.”
“Jeez, Rina,” I huffed, my top lip curling up. “Do you always have to talk like that?”
“And do you have to be such a freakin’ prude all the time?” She rolled her eyes. “God, I can’t wait for you to finally stamp your V card. Maybe then you won’t be such a downer.”
My expression drooped into a pained frown as I muttered, “Whatever.” I spun on my heel and started down the hall, a sting washing through me at her harsh words.
“Oh, come on. Don’t be like that,” she chided, skipping after me and hooking her arm over my shoulders. “I was just playing around. Don’t be so sensitive.”
“Well, don’t act like such a bitch and I won’t be sensitive,” I defended.
Her arm got tighter, pulling my head down so she could ruffle my hair. “Aw, I’m sorry. Don’t be mad at me, Shaney. You’re my bestest friend. Forgive me. Pretty please?” Her bottom lip puckered out in a dramatic pout, and I couldn’t hold in the laugh that was tickling my throat.
This was the Rina I’d been missing for the past year and a half. A lot of what she said nowadays rubbed me the wrong way, to the point that I’d been putting some distance between us recently. But when I caught glimpses of the girl I used to know, it was hard to let go completely.
“As long as it doesn’t happen again,” I told her, giving her a playful shove and lifting my hand to pat my hair back into place. “You keep being a jerk and an apology won’t be enough.”
She drew an invisible X over her heart. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”
I smiled, that sting now gone as we continued down the hall toward the cafeteria. The moment we stepped through the doors, all hell broke loose.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” was being chanted over and over. There was a massive clump of bodies near the center of the room with other students standing on tables and chairs to get a better look at the action.
“Ooh, a fight! Come on, let’s get closer.”
I had absolutely no desire to see two idiots beat the crap out of each other, but before I could object, Rina had me by the wrist and was yanking me into the fray.
“Get him, Ronny! Kick his ass!” one kid yelled right in my ear.
We made it to the middle where the fight was taking place just in time to see the other guy roll Ronny to his back and drive his fist into his face.
As a senior, a jock, and a bully, Ronny Culpepper was the biggest asshole on campus. He thought he was a badass whose shit didn’t stink, and honestly, he could use a few good knocks upside the head, especially from this kid who looked bigger in both height and size, but that didn’t mean I didn’t find fighting at school to be an eye-roll-inducing cliché.
Some of the teachers came rushing over, shoving the crowd apart and busting up the fight. Coach Beck pushed his way into the pandemonium, grabbing the kid who was pummeling Ronny’s face into ground hamburger meat by the collar and yanking him up. The moment I got my first look at his face, my back snapped straight, my eyes went wide, and my jaw dropped.
It was him, the cocky jerk from this past weekend. Jensen.
“Holy shit,” Rina hissed in my ear. “That’s totally him. That’s the new guy.” I could hear her, but I couldn’t peel my gaze from the boy who’d pissed me off and made me feel a bunch of other things I didn’t understand just days ago. “Oh my God, I’m totally gonna bang him. He’s so freaking hot.”
She wasn’t wrong about that, he was gorgeous, but there was something in his expression, something that caused a shiver, both pleasant and disturbing, to slither up my spine. I couldn’t deny he was fine; that would have been a bald-faced lie. But the almost manic smile on his face was totally out of place, considering the circumstances, and there was something swirling around in his glassy gray eyes that made my stomach knot up. It was almost as if he’d gotten some sort of twisted high from beating another kid to a bloody pulp.
He got off on the fight the way Rina got off on male attention. That was an unsettling discovery. But what was even more bothersome was the way my heart started pounding against my ribs like it was trying to escape my chest the moment his gaze landed on mine.
Watching the change in his demeanor was somewhat mesmerizing. His eyes shone with surprise for a second before that smile went from crazed to arrogant in the blink of an eye.
“That’s it,” Coach Beck declared as he gave Jensen a jostle. “Principal’s office, the both of you. Move it.”
Another teacher had Ronny by the arm and was leading him through the crowd while Coach shuffled Jensen in my direction.
“Hey, sunshine,” he said, that cocky smile still firmly in place. “Told you I’d be seein’ you soon,” he called over his shoulder as he was led away.
It wasn’t until the crowd all around started to thin out, the excitement of the fight now all but forgotten, that the spell I’d been under broke and I was able to pull myself from the daze Jensen had left me in.
“Uh . . . what was that?” Rina yelped.
“It wasn’t anything,” I answered, turning around and heading for the lunch line, the growl in my stomach reminding me I’d been starving before walking into the chaos of the cafeteria. “Just two dumbasses fighting.”
“Not the fight,” she bit out, following after me and grabbing a plastic tray. She continued prodding, not bothering to lower her voice as we slowly crept our way through the busy line. “He smiled at you and called you sunshine. Do you like, know him?” she asked, her tone holding more than a hint of accusation.
“No,” I answered flatly before giving the lunch lady a smile and taking the small bowl of banana pudding she held out for me.