by S. E. Rose
Reluctantly Perfect
Perfectly Imperfect Love Series Book 5
S.E. Rose
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 S. E. Rose
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
www.seroseauthor.com
Cover design © Arijana Karčić, Cover It! Designs
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
This book contains descriptions of adult relationships and derogatory language. If such things offend you, this book is not for you. The book is intended for mature readers.
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To every reader that is looking for their happy place. I hope you have found one in this series.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Stay Connected
About the Author
Also by S.E. Rose
Chapter One
Clark
Streaking the football field during a game. The impromptu road trip to Mardi Gras where we only stayed for twelve hours before we had to drive back to school. Sneaking into a concert on campus because we knew the security guard. Random midnight trips into Washington, D.C., just to walk around the monuments instead of studying. That time my pledge brothers and I had to serenade the girlfriend of the fraternity president and the video went viral. Sneaking vodka popsicles into class because we were bored. Memories flood my mind as I stand in my apartment bedroom. I’m about to unpack here for the very last time.
I toss my bag on my bed. I spent a lot of my summer at my parents’ house, but now I’m back at my apartment for my final semester of college.
I look down at my phone and grin when I see my sibling chat is blowing up with messages.
Kent: You sure you want to graduate a semester early?
Lanie: Kent raises a valid point.
Di: Don’t listen to them, do what you want.
Kylie: Stay in school!
Tabby: We’ll miss you at the pool party.
Brixton: Wait. There’s a pool party?
Garrett: Brix, there’s always a pool party.
Di: Fine, if you don’t want to go.
Garrett: I WANT TO GO!
Lanie: Uh, do we need to set up a pre-marital counseling session?
Kylie: OMG! Guys, I swear Vera just said Kylie.
Di: Wait? You’re watching Vera? Like right now?
Kylie: Uh, yeah.
Di: I want to watch her! And there’s no way she said Kylie. I’m her favorite aunt. And besides, she’s like what, three months old?
Kent: Two and a half
Tabby: Technically, she’s nine weeks and six days old.
Kent: Technically? Really?
Tabby: What? She’s young. She still goes by weeks.
Di: Let’s get back to the fact that I’m not watching my niece!
I grin and reply.
Me: Thanks for your Ted Talks, but I’m going to finish early. Later.
I already miss them. I’ll have to get home next weekend to visit. I don’t want to miss seeing my little chubby-faced niece and playing some video games with my nephew.
“C-Dog!” my roommate, Evan Samuels, says as he walks into my room.
“Dude, I didn’t think you were going to get here until tomorrow,” I reply as I lean in to give him a bro hug.
He shrugs as he pulls back. “Last minute switch-a-roo. Is Grif here yet?”
I shake my head. Our third roommate, Griffin King, is always notoriously late for everything. Yet, he has twice the charm of any one human, so somehow he manages to get away with it.
“He claimed to be driving down this afternoon,” I state as I start unpacking my stuff. We’d all stayed here over the summer. I had been back and forth at my parents’ house. Grif is from New Jersey and just went home for a long weekend to visit his family. Evan, or Sammicakes as I call him, lives in California. He’s back after spending three weeks there visiting with his family.
“I hear APT’s having a welcome back party tonight,” Evan says as he turns and heads into his bedroom. We have one of the coveted three-bedroom apartments that are right next to campus. Grif had to pull a shit ton of favors to get it for us, but we’ve lived here year-round for over a year now in order to keep our place.
“Yep, that’s the word on the street.”
“I can’t believe this is your last semester,” he says as he pokes his head back in my room.
“Believe it. I’m ready to blow this joint.”
Laughing, he walks toward the kitchen. “Hey, did Kathy send us food, or do we need to go to the grocery store?”
“Pie is in the fridge. There are three bags of groceries on the counter, and two pints of ice cream in the freezer,” I yell.
“Apple pie?” he asks.
“Dude,” I say because he knows that I know what he’s referring to.
He laughs. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to try and recreate any scenes from our favorite movie.”
I roll my eyes and put my earbuds in as I crank up some music and put my clothes away. A part of me could stay here forever, just being a student and living the good life. But a bigger part of me is ready to move on to the next thing in life, whatever that may be.
Megan
I should have chosen to live alone for my final semester. But fucking Stella talked me into living another semester in the Sigma Omega Rho house. I wasn’t going to but then last semester we had gotten a new house mom, Rita Clarence, and she changed my mind. Not because she was persuasive or even friendly, but because she was a total stickler for rules. And that meant that the sorority house was quiet. And quiet equals concentration, which adds up to me getting straight As. So, here I am, living a double life as a sorority girl.
I flop onto my bed and stare up at the glow-in-the-dark stars that I had stuck on the ceiling last semester. I’m half-surprised Rita didn’t rip them down. Shrugging, I sit back up and look around at my meager accomm
odations.
“Hey! You’re back!” Stella squeals as she walks into my room and pulls me into a hug.
“Hi,” I say.
She rolls her eyes as she steps back and looks at my bags. “Did you just get here?”
I nod. “Yep.”
“Lots of parties this weekend! You should come out. You never have fun. You don’t want to miss the last moments of being able to enjoy life without a full-time job, do you?”
“I’m good, thanks,” I reply as I turn and start unloading my bags.
Stella sits on my bed. I’ll give it to her that she does not give up easily. “One party. Promise me that you’ll go to one party this semester and I will leave you alone.”
Weighing my options, I study her for a minute. I don’t have to agree to anything, but I also know that Stella will not give up until I say yes, and I’d rather unpack in peace and quiet. “Fine. One party.”
She fist-pumps in the air. “Yes! I’ll let you unpack.”
She skips, yes literally, out of my room. Sighing, I start to put my clothes away in the dresser. Maybe I should go to that one party this weekend. Classes don’t start until Monday, and after that, I’ll be too busy to even think about it.
I debate whether to go as I finish putting away my things. Glancing at my watch, I decide to head over to the bookstore to pick up a few things before they close. I need to get myself situated because everything is riding on what happens this semester.
Chapter Two
Clark
I sink into a patio chair that is probably older than me. I’m surprised that I don’t end up on the ground. Beer in hand, I peruse the partygoers. Alpha Psi Theta or APT is notorious for its parties. It’s one of the main reasons I pledged with them, much to my siblings’ dismay. Having four older siblings and two parents plus three living grandparents is total overkill in the life coach department. They all think they know what’s best for me and none of them are afraid to voice their opinions. But I also love them all, and at times, I will admit begrudgingly that I do like their advice.
“Gentlemen, let the party begin,” Grif says as he walks out of the broken sliding door onto the patio with a beer in each hand. I roll my eyes.
“Dude, I thought you were going to be here like three hours ago.”
Grif surveys the remaining chairs and settles on a wooden bench. “I got held up. Mom needed me to trim the bushes.”
Several of the guys laugh and make comments about bushes under their breaths. Grif glares at them. Grif is a momma’s boy. And I’ve met his mom. If you so much as gave her side-eye, she would slap you into next week.
“How’s Momma?” I ask him, drawing his attention away to keep the peace.
“She’s good. Same old,” Grif says as he checks out the group of girls that just walked outside. Grif is a ladies’ man. The girls love him, and he loves them. But he has yet to find “the one.” And this is why he’s my wingman.
I glance up to the door and I’m more than a little shocked when a familiar set of eyes greets me. Megan Lennox. The girl next door who turned into my enemy.
“Fuck,” I mutter. I’m surprised to see her here. Even though she pledged Sigma Omega Rho, I’ve never once seen her at a party. She quickly turns away and disappears back inside the house.
“What?” Grif asks as he looks around. I know when he spots her leaving because his eyes widen. “Is that…Megan?”
I nod and rub my temple. “Yep.”
Grif looks around. “I didn’t see pigs flying on my way here, but…I think we’re in for a bacon storm.”
Evan walks out and nearly trips down the two stairs as his eyes are also on Megan. “Is that…” He trails off as he looks at us. “Well, shit.”
Evan and Grif are well aware of my past relationship with Megan, well, friendship, sort of, it’s complicated. A memory pops into my head as I chug my beer. A memory of the day things changed between us.
“I think I’m going to leave,” Megan says nervously as she glances over at the group forming a circle on the floor. Some kid had suggested we play spin the bottle just like he saw in the movies. I know for a fact that Megan has never once kissed anyone, ever. Hell, I only kissed Jessie Bland on a dare at Jimmy’s birthday party three months ago. She punched me in the face, so that didn’t go well.
“Don’t leave. They’ll make fun of you if you do,” I whisper to her. I can see her eyes glaze over with tears. Fucking great, just what I need, my best friend having a girlie freak-out in front of all our friends. Jimmy’s already telling people she’s a prude because she wouldn’t be his girlfriend. I can’t blame her, I don’t think any girl would want to deal with Jimmy, he’s a pain in the ass. Most of us are only here because our moms made us come.
Sue Carson grabs Megan’s hand and they sit down in the circle. I sit down across from them. Megan stares at me. I know she wants me to do something, anything, but I can’t. I know what will happen if I do. She needs to suck it up and just play along. She’s so uptight sometimes.
Sue spins first and it lands on Ken Paynter. She gives him a quick peck on the lips and sits back down.
Everyone stares at Megan. Shakily, she spins the bottle. I watch as it passes everyone once, twice, and begins to slow down until I’m staring at the top of it. Megan’s face goes from pale to green.
I give her a subtle shake of my head. If she runs away now, they’ll make fun of me too. And then there’s the part of me that wants to kiss, that’s wanted to kiss her since sixth grade when she finally wore a bikini at the community pool and I discovered that my best friend had boobs, like real boobs.
“I bet she’s gonna chicken out,” Jimmy says.
I can see her eyes dart to the basement steps. Before I know what I’m doing, I’ve crawled over to her, grabbed her face in my hands, and kissed her. And not some light peck on the lips. I kiss her like in the movies. I hear gasps from the other kids as I pull back and look into Megan’s shocked eyes.
“Damn, Moore!” Jimmy says.
Megan’s face turns red as she gets up and darts up the stairs with Sue two strides behind her.
I sigh as I’m drawn back to the party when someone drops a bottle of liquor and it shatters on the concrete.
“I’m gonna grab another,” I say as I take my red plastic cup inside. But I’m lying. I’m looking for Megan. We stopped hanging out in eighth grade. We stopped talking altogether after we graduated high school. Now, we just glance at each other from afar. I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that my wet dreams still center around that woman and that every time I stroke my cock, I’m envisioning it buried deep inside her. I’d also be lying if I didn’t admit I sort of want to strangle her for her bitchy behavior over the last seven years.
I don’t know if the beer is giving me the courage to deal with my issues, or if I’m just tired of us not being friends. Either way, I’m determined to end this stupid rivalry between us. No more running against each other for student government offices. No more trying to best each other’s grades in our classes. No more fighting one another for the valedictorian spot. This ends here.
Megan
I’m hoping that I can disappear into the corner of this room. Why, oh, why did Clark Moore have to be here? I have to pat myself on the back because for three years, I’ve done an amazing job of hiding from him. I mean, it’s not exactly hard since this is a huge university, but we do have the same major. Thank God that I know Clark doesn’t wake up before noon. I usually schedule all my major classes for the morning so that I can avoid him like the plague. And my plan has worked, until now.
I knew Clark belonged to APT, but I was ninety-nine percent sure he would be at his parents’ house for one more weekend. That family is tight and always has been. It’s something I was always jealous of when we were kids. It’s the biggest reason why I had agreed to come tonight. And yet, there he is. Fucking Clark. He didn’t even have to try. He was one of those people. Everyone loved him. He was always the life of the party. He d
idn’t have to make an effort to fit in or make friends, people flocked to him like a moth to a flame. And school. Yeah, he didn’t have to work hard at that either. He was a fucking genius. That’s one of the many things that drives me crazy about him. He barely has to think, and he gets straight As. Meanwhile, I have to work my ass off twenty-four seven and do extra credit to maintain my perfect GPA.
But deep down, I know why I really hate him. The kiss. The stupid kiss in eighth grade that changed everything. The kiss that’s left me thinking about how much I want more kisses like that one. He had made me like him with that kiss, really, really like him, and he knew that would ruin everything. We used to talk about it. How our friends would start dating and then never speak again after they broke up. He also knew that I didn’t have time to date. I had to get perfect grades, be the head of at least three activities, and president of the student body. I had goals and he tried to get in my way. That’s when I knew he wasn’t my true friend. He just wanted in my pants, just like fucking Jimmy did. Well, fuck Jimmy and fuck Clark. I didn’t need a man. I have time for that later. Right now, I had my eyes on an internship with NASA. My dream internship. And if I played my cards right, it’d lead to my dream job.
“Hey, where’d you go? I was going to introduce you to some of the brothers,” Stella says as she hands me a beer. I pretend to sip it because who the fuck knows what might be in it. Stella ought to know better.
