by L. L Hunter
It was then she realized why. “Shit, sorry, Darcie. I forgot. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. My shrink said time would heal, and I should continue doing the things that make me happy. But I have to take it one day at a time.”
She nodded and switched the CD over. Ariana Grande’s voice now filled the speakers.
“You don’t have to change the song because of me, Stace.”
“It’s fine.”
We rode the rest of the way to school in silence.
When we pulled into the spacious parking lot at our new school, Summervale High, we noticed most of the other town’s kids had had the same idea as us.
And I soon discovered why everyone rushed to be one of the first in the school parking lot.
All the kids congregated in their little groups of friends, their cliques. I knew the bad thing about being the new kid at school was that most of the friendship groups were already established, and you stood out like a sore thumb.
At least I had Stacey.
But as we made our way across the lot, another familiar face, a gorgeous face, turned and smiled in my direction.
My stomach flipped as our eyes met.
“Come on, Darce.” Before I realized what was going on, we were heading toward one of the groups. The one that included him.
Dane O’Connell.
He turned and acknowledged me now, but that night, one week ago, after we kissed on the beach when the body was discovered, he had seemingly forgotten all about me. He didn’t even bother to ask if I needed a lift home. I tried to push off the slight jealously I had over that blonde girl throwing her arms around him and crying into his shirt. I wasn’t jealous.
No. Not at all.
We had just kissed. That’s all. He wasn’t mine.
“Hey, guys!” Stacey exclaimed, throwing her arms around one of the guys standing near Dane.
“Hey, Stacey’s here. How are you, babe?” asked Dylan, the guy who was smoking a bong at the Circle. He didn’t have a bong now, but he was smoking. And he passed the joint over to Stacey. She took it gladly and inhaled happily. The smell was unmistakable.
I didn’t know Stacey smoked.
But there were a lot of things I didn’t know about the girl I used to know.
Eight years was a long time.
I sort of lingered on the outskirts of the group. I wasn’t one to initiate conversations. I was the quiet girl. The introvert. The bookworm. I was also called the loner and the weirdo. So I waited for someone to acknowledge my existence, and someone did.
Dane moved closer, moving away from the acrid smoke from the marijuana joints passed around the group.
“Hey,” he said in a low husky voice. My tummy dipped.
God, he was beautiful this morning.
I hadn’t been able to get him out of my head since the night on the beach.
“Hey,” I replied, looking straight ahead. I stole a peek at him. I didn’t want to smile at him or keep his gaze for too long because, well, he wasn’t mine.
“So, um…” He shifted his weight and toed the loose gravel with his sneaker. “How are you after… you know…”
“The party? The dead body? Fine. I’m no stranger to dead bodies.” I shrugged.
He nodded. “I meant the fact that I accidentally knocked you out, the head injury, but that too.”
“Oh, that. I’m fine. No thanks to you.” I smiled at him then.
And my heart fluttered as she smiled back.
“That’s good to know. so… do you know what classes you have yet?”
“Not yet. I have to go pick up my class schedule.”
He nodded. “Cool. Well, I hope we’re in at least one class together.”
I smiled. “Yeah.”
The bell rang then before we could continue our awkward conversation.
Thank God.
Saved by the bell.
I picked up my class schedule before getting my locker combination. Thankfully, Stacey had been sure to get me a locker near hers. God love her.
But it was an old locker and an even older school, so it was rusty and stuck. I tried a few times to spin the dial on the lock after entering my combination, but there was no luck.
“You have to earn its trust,” said a familiar male voice. I turned and found Dane standing so close to me that his lips were about three inches from mine. He was taller than me, so as he leaned down, he covered me in his shadow. I stopped breathing and leaned against the lockers.
“What… um… do you mean?” I asked as I quickly turning around so he couldn’t see the way he affected me. Why was he torturing me?
He wasn’t mine to be tortured by.
And that’s what made it all the more torturous.
The fact that we had kissed on the sand by the light of the bonfire, and then he was in the arms of another girl after he had kissed me…
And now he was acting like that hadn’t even happened.
Was I overthinking this? Probably.
And then, as if he couldn’t possibly torture me anymore, he stood so close his hips grazed my backside as he reached around me and leaned a hand against my locker door. His mouth was so close to my neck that I could smell him.
He smelled the same as he did a week ago on the beach, minus the cheap beer.
It was the smell of freshly washed clothes and expensive cologne.
I wish he wouldn’t stand so close, but at the same time, I wished he would stand closer.
He then gave my locker door a quick shove with his large masculine hand, and it popped open.
I missed it because I was so focused on him and his proximity to me that the metal door hit me in the forehead.
Dane laughed. “Oh, man. Sorry. God, you’re in the wars, aren’t you? It’s like you’re an accident waiting to happen.”
I rubbed my head and looked up at him, cheeks red.
“Um, yeah. That’s me. I’m notoriously clumsy. But thank you for, you know, getting it open.”
“You’re welcome, Darcie.” His voice was low and sultry again, and he gave me one of those famous Dane O’Connell dimpled smiles—the one that all girls probably swooned over.
And now I was one of those girls, even though I didn’t want to be.
If he kept coming around and standing so close to me, it was inevitable.
“So… do you have your schedule yet?” he asked.
“Yeah, I do.”
I turned around and busied myself with filling my locker with my books. I took the books I needed out for the first few lessons and slipped the schedule inside my notebook.
Dane saw it and reached for it, pulling it free.
Oh God, what was he doing to me? I watched his eyes scan the words on the page.
“Oh, yay, you have English second period with me. Good. I’ll see you there.”
He folded my schedule and carefully slipped it back in my book before winking and walking off.
I had to physically clamp my jaw together to stop my mouth from falling to the floor.
What was he up to?
Chapter Four
The Bookworm
After first-period American History, which was rather boring, I had English with Dane. It was the first lesson, I suppose. But I was excited to be learning more about the Native Americans.
In English, we were to study Jane Austen’s works, which I was pleased about because I loved Pride and Prejudice.
I sat in the middle of the room because I didn’t want to seem like a nerd or a teacher’s pet by sitting up front. Even though I loved English, it was my favorite subject, but I also didn’t want to be one of the back seat rebels. All the cool kids sat at the back of the room, furthest from the teacher so they could muck up.
But I wasn’t a cool kid. Not yet anyway.
So, the middle of the room seemed like the best choice.
I was early, according to all the other kids. But I didn’t mind. I wanted to get a head start on my course reading list. I opened my copy of A
usten's complete works and began to read Pride and Prejudice when the energy in the room changed.
I didn’t have to look up to know who had just walked into the room.
“Hey, D- man! Saved you a spot, dude,” said Ashton Striker, the lead singer, and guitarist in the school rock band.
Of course, they were friends. It seemed logical that someone like Dane O’Connell was friends with one of the most famous people in town.
Dane began to walk down the far aisle, the row of desks where I was seated, closest to the window, and then stopped beside my desk.
“Hey,” he said, tapping my desk with his fingers. I looked up then and saw his hand only inches from mine, where it rested on the desk. My left held the book open. I didn’t know whether to move it closer or away. I settled with staying frozen where I was.
“Hi,” I replied meekly.
“Welcome to Mrs. Petticoat’s English class. You’re going to love it.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
I looked back down at my book to show him I was busy. But it was damned hard to tear myself away from his handsome face.
He got the message at last. “Well, I’ll see you after class? Enjoy Pride and Prejudice.”
He gave me a wink and then made his way toward the back of the room to join his friends.
I sighed quietly and sank a bit deeper in my chair.
What was he doing to me?
I enjoyed English immensely, just like Dane said I would. The next class was Math, after a study break. I didn’t feel like seeing anyone, especially Dane or Stacey, so I headed to the library to continue reading. I made my way to one of the reading corners on the newly renovated library's upper level and sank into a soft green love seat near the window. Outside I could see the elm trees swaying in the breeze in the courtyard, and beyond that, mangroves lined the beach.
I munched on my apple as quietly as I could while continuing with my re-read of Pride and Prejudice. I had read this book so often that I knew it almost by heart, but I still loved reading it like the first time.
I didn’t sense him at first until he was right in front of me. By then, it was too late. There was no more hiding from him.
“Hey, I thought I might find you in here. You aren’t hiding, are you?”
I closed my book around my well-loved kitten bookmark that was frayed and falling apart, but I refused to replace it and looked up at him with a sheepish smile.
“Is it that obvious?”
He sat beside me on the two-person love seat. I didn’t move over, but the lounge seemed large when I had sat on it, but now it seemed too small with him sitting there. His jean-clad leg bumped mine. I was wearing a long flowing skirt today with my favorite sneakers. It had a slit up the side, so my knee was poking through. It wasn’t until Dane reached for my bare knee that I realized with horror that I hadn’t shaved very well this morning.
But I couldn’t pull my leg away from his touch. That would be too obvious. I’d hurt him. So I stayed in the position I was.
“What are you doing here, Dane?” I asked.
“I wanted to see you. I couldn’t very well talk to you in class.”
“Why? Because I’m a nerd, and you’re one of the popular guys?”
“It’s not like that, you know. It’s not. Besides, I love a girl who reads. Bookworms are sexy.”
My heart skipped a beat. “But what about that girl at the beach?”
“Who do you mean?”
“That blonde girl in the short shorts and bikini. She was all over you.”
I cringed. I sounded jealous now.
Dane winced and shook his head. “I don’t know her. She’s one of the hangers-on, I think, one of Ashton’s groupies.”
“Ashton has groupies?” But of course he did. He was a rock god in this town. He was sex on a stick. But so was Dane.
Dane laughed and threw out his hand to say, of course. What’s the big deal?
“Anyway, you don’t have to worry about her. She just did that. I don’t even know how she knows who I am.”
Was he serious? Couldn’t he see it? The effect he had on others around him? He was like the sun and everyone else, the planets. I repeated the very words Stacey had said to me.
“Everyone knows who you are.”
He looked embarrassed. He pulled his hand back and looked down at them in his lap.
“I don’t know why. I’m nothing special.”
“You are, Dane.” I didn’t know myself. I reached for him then, and he reached for me. He pulled me into his lap and kissed me hard on the mouth. It was needy and wanting. My God, I wanted him. I couldn’t remember the last time I had wanted someone as badly as I wanted Dane.
Chapter Five
The Rumor
That night, I was having dinner with my father. It was a rare occasion because he often stayed late at the office. He sipped his red wine, and I, my water.
“So, Darce, how was your first day at school?”
“It was good,” I said, smiling. I remembered the way Dane stood close to me at my locker. I blushed and hid my face with my long dark hair before concentrating on my dinner.
My dad was super perceptive, though. He could read me like an open book. He had been paying more attention since my mom died.
“Oh, you’re blushing. Does that mean there’s a guy involved?”
“What? No! No guy,” I lied, filling my mouth with the pasta I had cooked when I got home after three and dad just before seven. I cooked every night now. My meals still weren’t as good as Mom’s, though. She was the best cook of us all.
“Darce, I know you. It’s okay. It would help if you made friends, even dated. But remember, these people are different than the ones back in Acacia Creek.”
“I know, Dad.”
“You have to be careful. You can’t have anyone getting too close and finding out about your past, our past.”
“I know.”
“Just promise me you’ll be careful what you say and who you hang out with. It’s a small town, and rumors spread like diseases here.”
“I know.”
After dinner, I cleared the table while my dad went to sit in front of the TV in his area of the house downstairs. We each had our own areas to give each other space, and I loved it like that. Sometimes, my father could be difficult.
I couldn’t tell Dane about my past. He couldn’t find out what I had done or the truth about my father. And that was why I was reluctant to be close to him, for several reasons.
But Dane O’Connell was like an addictive drug—impossible to stay away from.
I found out the hard way the very next day.
I was sitting in English class like the day before, reading my book when Dane walked in with Ashton and two girls I didn’t know. Probably more groupies. I put my head down for a minute before I felt his presence beside me.
“D! Man, what are you doin’?” asked Ashton, who had just dumped his books and guitar case on a desk at the back of the room. He stared at Dane, who was standing next to my desk, flummoxed.
“I’m going to be sitting with Darcie today, okay?”
“But why?” blurted one of the blonde groupies. “You know she used to be a Creeker?”
I flinched. There it was—the use of my old town name that was like dog poo on the proverbial shoe around here. Creeker was short for Acacia Creek—the wrong side of the tracks. The town of have-nots.
That was when the whispers started.
They weren’t really whispers because they were loud enough that I could hear them clearly.
“Why is Dane sitting with her?”
“What’s going on there?”
“I heard they hooked up at the Circle that night.”
“Did they sleep together in the dunes?”
“Eww, having sex in the sand is so gross. You get sand everywhere.”
And then,
“I heard she killed someone and spent time in prison.”
I ignored them all, and so
did Dane. He took the empty seat beside me.
“Rumors do not make a person. Besides, I like Darcie. She’s cool once you get to know her,” defended Dane. I smiled inwardly at his defense of me. But he didn’t have to do that.
“What are you doing?” I hissed.
“What? I can sit where I want. This seat isn’t taken, is it?”
“No, it’s not that.” I picked up my book and held it closer to my face, trying to concentrate.
“What is it, then?”
I shook my head. Why did he always have to be so close? Why couldn’t he leave me alone?
“Nothing.”
“Tell me.”
“Why? As they said, I’m a Creeker. I’m bad news for someone like you.”
“I don’t care about all that. Your past is your past for a reason. You’re none of those things they said you are.”
I glared at him, shutting my book. “How do you know?”
He let out a breath. It seemed he was figuring out if he should say what was on his mind.
“My mom said she met your dad at a bar in town.”
That was news to me. my eyes widened. “What?”
“You didn’t know?”
I shook my head. “No. My dad is secretive, especially about his personal life. Especially since my mom died. It’s like he doesn’t want me to think he’s cheating on my mom. But I don’t care. He told me to be happy, make friends… date. And so should he.”
He nodded, taking it all in. “Anyway, she said he was a lovely man. Very charming and intelligent, but seemed secretive, like you said. He said he was here for a fresh start.”
I took in his words too.
“So, they’re not like dating, are they?” The horrifying thought settled in my stomach, heavy like a stone. I hoped they weren’t. That would probably mean I couldn’t see Dane.
“I don’t know, maybe. But I told her that she couldn’t. Not him.”
I looked at him, surprised. “Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I like you, Darcie. If they dated, then it might not be good for us to be together.”
