Hate Struck: (Maddison High School Book 1)

by Nikki Ashton

  I pulled his mouth to mine and to gasps and jeers, I kissed him with everything I had. I ran my fingers through his hair and nipped at his lips and made sure he realised we definitely were not finished business.

  “Sarah,” he groaned against my mouth.

  I didn’t answer him but simply relished his hands on my waist, his tongue duelling with mine and his hard dick pressing against my stomach. My nipples hardened and wetness flooded my knickers as my drug of choice continued to give me everything back, and more. I was addicted to this boy even though I knew he could break me, the fact that he’d saved me in his own way, and he’d helped to repair my broken soul, meant I didn’t care.

  When we were breathless and unable to keep it PG any longer, I pulled away and gave him my biggest smile.

  “Does that answer your question?” I asked.

  “Get a fucking room,” Ellis shouted across the dining room.

  Adam nodded and gave me one last nip at my lip. “Yeah it does. Now are you coming to sit and have lunch with me or not?”

  I looked over my shoulder to Amber and Alannah who were in varying stages of pissed off.

  “No, I’m staying here.”

  “Sarah,” he growled.

  I patted his chest. “Go back to your friends and get over it, Adam.”

  When he smiled, I knew we were back to being carefree and the sensation of freedom washed through me. We were too young to be weighed down with the issues we had. We were seventeen years old and on the cusp of the rest of our lives; however long this lasted I would strive to enjoy it.

  With a sigh, Adam walked back to his table. I sat down at mine, feeling as though I could finally eat something.

  “Don’t get too comfy,” Amber said with disdain in her eyes. “Because I promise you, he will make you suffer one way or another.”

  I smiled but somewhere in the recesses of my being felt the shiver of impending pain.

  30

  Adam

  It was match day and we were going to be playing The Saints, of St Jude’s High School. Two places behind us in the Division 1 rankings for the North Western title, we weren’t taking anything for granted, especially as a new striker had joined them at the beginning of the last term. He was fast on the pitch with the ball and had scored in every match he’d played. He’d pretty much turned their performances around, shooting them three places up the division to fourth.

  Mr Jameson had made us learn some new set pieces and we’d had practice every day for the past week, he was so determined that they wouldn’t win. According to Ellis’ dad, Mr Jameson had bad blood with their coach, it was something to do with a dirty tackle from Mr Riley when they played at under 18 level; Mr Jameson at City and Mr Riley at United. The tackle was high and had resulted in Mr Jameson breaking his leg in two places which pretty much shit on his chance of a professional career.

  “You set for tonight?” Sarah asked, as we walked hand in hand from the car park.

  She and Alannah had made up, to a point. Alannah still hated me and warned Sarah about me every single day. Over the last week things had calmed down enough that she still gave Sarah a lift into school, but I always insisted on walking her to class.

  “Yeah, as we’ll ever be. I was up until late last night watching videos of their keeper on YouTube. I think I know what his weaknesses are.” I tapped my temple and grinned.

  “Of course, you do.”

  She rolled her eyes playfully and then reached into her jeans pocket when her phone buzzed with a text.

  We stopped and let a few kids pass us by as Sarah read the message and groaned.

  “What is it?” I asked and looked over her shoulder.

  “It’s my mum, I forgot I have a therapy appointment this afternoon. She’s picking me up at lunch to go to it.”

  My heart sank with disappointment. “You’re not going back to Kent for it are you? That means you’ll miss the match.”

  Sarah swung around to face me with a smile. “It’d be a bloody long way to go. Don’t worry, I’ll be there. Eleanor has an office in Liverpool, so she’s going to be here for a few days seeing some of her clients in this area, so I’ll be back in plenty of time.”

  I nodded and let out a breath. “Good, I really want you to see me play tonight.”

  “Well, I will, but even if I don’t make it, you have another match on Tuesday.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I replied, a little distracted.

  I didn’t know what it was, but I felt as though she had to be there tonight, like she might well be my lucky charm. Which was kind of stupid as she’d never watched me before. In the week we’d been together we’d seen each other every day at school and most nights after school. Although, seeing as we had nowhere to go, it had all been pretty PG after our fuck fest of a weekend. I wasn’t feeling the desire to let my mum know about Sarah just yet; I didn’t feel as though she deserved to know anything about the good in my life, seeing as she’d not really cared about me for some time. I hadn’t wanted to take Sarah to the old club house in the BMX park where I usually met girls, or even have sex with her in my car, because she deserved better than that. That meant we’d had to limit ourselves to some hot and heavy kissing and over the clothes groping in her bedroom, with the door left ajar, because her Mum had insisted upon it; apart from the one quickie while her mum was having a bath.

  Sarah had decided to be upfront about our relationship to Mrs Danes because that was their deal, no more secrets, and to be honest she took it better than I’d expected. She’d invited me over for dinner, told me not to hurt her daughter and that any time I was over Sarah’s bedroom door had to be left open. At least she hadn’t made us sit in the living room and watch TV with her.

  As Sarah put her phone back in her pocket, I spotted Kirk walking toward us.

  “Fuck,” I muttered. “He better not say anything he regrets.”

  Sarah looked over her shoulder and tugged on my hand. “Be nice, he’s your friend.”

  We hadn’t really spoken since the day he’d given Sarah the banana custard. I’d been suspended for the rest of that week and this last week we’d done what we could to avoid each other. Ellis and Tyler had tried to get us to shake hands and forget it, but he still sported a bruise around his eye, a scab on his lip and I could have lost the girl who was starting to mean everything to me. He was a prick as far as I was concerned, and it would take some serious grovelling for me to forget what he’d done.

  I knew I was a hypocritical shit because I’d done some fucking nasty things to girls at Maddison High School; but I’d never have gone that far. Kirk had no idea that she actually had the EpiPen on her, or that any of us would know how to administer it. He’d risked too much for me to forgive and forget so easily.

  “Hey,” Kirk said as he levelled with us. “Can we talk?”

  He looked between me and Sarah, his eyes were hesitant as his hand rubbed at the back of his neck. We’d been friends for nine years yet at that moment our bond was gone and there was an invisible wall keeping us apart. The things that had happened over the last few weeks had made me reassess my life in lots of ways, not least of all my relationship with Ellis, Tyler and Kirk and my assessment hadn’t been good. They acted like entitled pricks, and I was the head entitled prick who’d instigated most of the shit they’d pulled. It was no wonder they were starting to pull crap off their own backs; I’d made them believe it was okay to a be a cunt because of who we were. That certainly wasn’t anything I was proud of and knew it was time I put things right. As far as Kirk was concerned, a wall had been built between us after what he’d done to Sarah, and I wasn’t sure I ready to breach it.

  “Of course,” Sarah said brightly, bouncing on her toes and flashing me a smile.

  I threw her a glare and not for the first time wondered how the fuck she could even consider forgiving him; she’d been on my back all week to talk to the fucker.

  “I just want to say sorry, to you, Sarah. What I did was stupid and dangerous, and I
shouldn’t have done it.”

  Sarah turned her lips in between her teeth and nodded, but when Kirk turned to me, I crossed my arms over my chest and stared him down.

  “I get why you did what you did,” he said as he kicked at the path. “I’d have punched me too. Things could have ended a lot differently if you hadn’t acted so quick.”

  “You think?” I asked leaning my top half closer to him. “It was a dick move.”

  Kirk took a breath and I had an idea he was going to say something that I wasn’t going to like, because when I narrowed my eyes, he closed it again.

  “Well thank you for apologizing, Kirk,” Sarah said and nudged me.

  “Yeah, appreciated,” I ground out.

  Kirk licked his lips and stuffed his hands into his jean pockets. “So, you two really are a thing then?”

  I pulled Sarah to my side, every instinct I had wanted to protect her from one of my closest friends, although I wasn’t so sure about the basis of our friendship anymore. As I looked at him it occurred to me that he had been useful to me but there wasn’t much other reason why I’d kept him around. Ellis and I were really close, but Tyler and Kirk kind of got dragged into our plan to rule the school. Every leader had to have his fucking minions and I’d made them mine and now someone I cared about had been hurt. I couldn’t help but feel guilty that I’d somehow been responsible. Like the dick I was though, it was much easier to blame Kirk; after all I hadn’t given Sarah the pudding, he had.

  “Yeah, we are,” I replied. “I realised a lot of things while I sat in that Tesco Express with a crazy fucker holding a gun, and one of them was how I feel about Sarah.”

  She shifted at my side and without looking at her, I knew from the direction of Kirk’s gaze that she was looking up at me. I had no fucking clue what I’d done to deserve her forgiveness, but she cared about me and for some reason thought I’d earned a chance to be allowed to change. The way Kirk’s mouth thinned, I had the feeling he wasn’t so sure about anything between Sarah and me.

  Sarah cleared her throat. “So, I promised Alannah that I’d go over some English lit notes with her, I’m going to run and find her.” She kissed my cheek forcing my eyes to hers. “I’ll see you when I get back from my appointment, okay?”

  I didn’t want her to go, I wanted to spend the last few minutes before the bell went kissing her and holding her close, stamp my foot and demand she stay, but I wasn’t going to act like a fucking tantrum throwing toddler, especially not in front of Kirk.

  “Okay, see you when you get back. I won’t be in science Mr Jameson has called a last-minute practice.”

  I leaned down and not giving a shit that Kirk was watching, took her mouth in mine and kissed her long and hard.

  When I finally pulled away, he had turned and was looking around anywhere apart from at us.

  “See you,” I whispered and gave her hand a last squeeze before she ran off toward the main building.

  “We okay then?” Kirk asked when I turned back to him.

  I noticed that his tone was a little harder than it had been when Sarah had been there, but I gave him a single nod and with a little doubt held my hand to him.

  “Yeah, we’re good.”

  He gave it a shake, his hand firm around mine. “I better go, I need to shit before the bell goes.”

  “Yeah, I’ll cover for you,” I said, managing a small smile, but when Kirk walked away, I still felt the difference in our friendship.

  The morning had gone pretty slowly, even our practice session dragged. I knew my set pieces and I knew how important the game was to Mr Jameson. Also, on the surface, things seemed back to normal between me and the lads. Kirk laughed and joked along with us, but I had to admit to struggling not to look at him in a different light.

  “You really okay with him?” Ellis asked, as always seeing right through me.

  I kept my eyes on Kirk who was talking to Mr Jameson and shrugged. “Not sure. I want to be but there’s something that’s stopping me.”

  “Don’t fucking punch me when I say this.” Ellis leaned in closer. “But you’ve been friends for a long time, you’ve known Sarah six weeks tops and for a month of that time you fucking hated her.”

  I rubbed the bridge of my nose and considered Ellis’ words. “Not sure I did to be honest, man. I think I had a thing for her from the get-go, but just didn’t want to admit it.”

  He leaned forward and his gaze followed mine. “He’s a dick, we all know that, and I know you’re not as tight with him and Tyler as you are with me, but don’t push him out over some girl you’re likely to get bored of in a few weeks.”

  I inhaled a deep breath through my nose and tried not to turn around and punch him as he’d predicted; I’d already alienated one friend and I certainly didn’t want to do that with Ellis too. I figured it was best not to speak and to let him come to his own conclusions on what my silence meant.

  “Looks like someone is here to see you.” Ellis pointed toward the door of the sports hall and when I followed where he gestured, my heart jumped at the sight of Sarah.

  I glanced up at the clock and realised she must have been about to leave for her therapy session.

  “I’ll be back,” I whispered to Ellis. “Cover for me if Mr Jay asks.”

  Ellis nodded and kept his eyes on Sarah. I wasn’t sure what he thought about her, or our relationship, I just knew he’d supported me. He hadn’t even bitched when I’d blown him off to be with her over the last week, which had been a lot; she’d even gone to my first therapy session with me. He was a good friend and I made a vow to spend a little more time with him soon; if only I could stop my obsession with my new girlfriend.

  Taking advantage of Mr Jameson being occupied with Kirk, I skirted around the edge of the sports hall to where Sarah was waiting.

  “You about to go?” I asked, ushering her into the corridor.

  “Yeah, my mum’s stuck in traffic, so I have a few minutes before she gets here.” Sarah looked up at me and smiled. “I just wanted to wish you good luck.”

  “I thought you said you’d be back.”

  Disappointment hit me just as it had earlier when she’d told me about her session. I pouted like a sulky kid.

  “I will be, but I may not get a chance to see you before it starts.”

  A sense of relief flooded me and took her hand in mine. “Well, that’s good. Come on I’ll walk you out to the car park and wait for your mum with you.”

  “No way, you have practice. Go back in and I’ll see you later. I’ll be here I swear.” She reached up on tiptoes and kissed my cheek. “Go.”

  “Nuh uh. I need more than that.” I leaned down and pushed with my tongue to open up her mouth, seeking something far more fulfilling.

  As I grabbed her arse, Sarah groaned and pushed herself against my hard dick and gripped my hair, pulling it roughly.

  “Fuck,” I muttered, knowing what that meant. “Sarah, you have to go otherwise I’m going to have to take you into the changing room.”

  Her body tensed and she pulled away from me, dropping her hands to her sides. When she glanced toward the door, I wanted to punch myself in the nuts. It was where she’d seen me getting a blow job from Mackenna.

  “Sarah,” I groaned. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think.”

  She shifted her expression into a weak smile and shook her head. “It’s fine. It’s me, I just…”

  I noticed her hand go up the sleeve of her jumper and pulled her to me, kissing her again, stopping her mid-sentence and stopping her from rubbing the scar that reminded her of the hell she’d been through.

  “No, don’t be sorry,” I whispered when I let her mouth free. “I’m the one who should be sorry.”

  She shook her head. “No, it was before we were together, and I need to get over it.”

  I brushed the hair from her eyes and held her face. “Things are so different now. We both have a lot to get used to. I’m probably still going to be a dick from time to time, but we will ge
t there, Sarah, I swear.”

  Finally, she gave me a bright smile. “I know. I’d better go and let you get back to practice.”

  “You want me to wait with you?”

  “No, she said she was about fifteen minutes away, so you should get back, but I’ll see you later.”

  I hesitated and almost agreed with her, but with a quick glance at the sports hall, shook my head.

  “I’m at least walking you out to the car park.”

  “I do know where it is.” Sarah giggled and slapped playfully at my chest.

  “Yeah I know, but I might want a taste of those fucking gorgeous lips of yours before you go.”

  Sighing softly Sarah held out her hand and I gladly took it in mine and led her down the corridor.

  “You fancy doing something after the match?” I asked letting go of her hand and draping my arm over her shoulder instead.

  She looked up at me with narrowed, considering eyes. “Isn’t a party or TJ’s the usual thing for you boys after a match?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t fancy it tonight. I prefer to spend it with you.”

  I pushed open the double doors into the sixth form corridor and stood to one side as some little kid, evidently in year seven if the size of his blazer was anything to go by, came rushing past us, with a hurried ‘sorry’.

  “Shit where’s the fire?” I glanced over my shoulder to see him running at full pelt.

  Sarah laughed and patted my chest. “You really are changing. A few weeks ago, you’d have had that little kid pinned up against the wall and warning him ‘do you know who I am’.”

  I burst out laughing at the gruff tone she put on. “Was that supposed to be me?”

  She grinned and nodded and looked so cute I couldn’t help but lean down and kiss her.

  “You’re such a hilarious little fucker aren’t you?”

  “Yep.” Sarah puffed out her chest with pride and shined her nails on her soft, pale grey jumper that dropped off one shoulder.