by Lane Hart
“What. The. Fuck?” Hannah asks, mouth still gaping as she stares at me.
“No clue,” I reply with a shrug.
“Somebody is watching your back, and if I had to guess, it’s a very popular boy, one who wields power over those two guys,” Hannah says.
“Yeah, okay, maybe so,” I admit. Then, lowering my voice to a whisper since everyone is now staring at me and her, I ask, “Why would he do that, even after I told him not to? He’s being nice, which is not his way. That must mean he wants something in return from me, right?”
“Ah, yeah,” Hannah agrees. “That’s the only reason boys do anything even remotely decent. So? Who is he?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“You don’t have to tell me your secret, but you should at least consider rewarding him for his chivalry, don’t you think?”
“Hell no!” I exclaim. “If anything, I’ll chew him out for butting in when I told him I could handle it.”
What was Aric thinking?
And why is all this…happiness starting to bubble up from deep inside of me for him coming to my rescue once again? I shouldn’t get used to Aric being around, trying to help me. Is he doing nice things as a way to convince me to forget about the blackmail I have on him? Or worse, is he just trying to get into my panties so that he can tell everyone about it?
If there’s one thing I know for certain, it’s that you can’t trust anyone but yourself to not screw you over.
Everyone who was supposed to care about me walked away and screwed me over. My mother. My father. Why would some rich asshole turn out to be any different?
Aric
“If Maddie didn’t sleep with those guys, do you think that means she’s still a virgin?” Blake asks after Mr. Bailey escorts Clay and Andy out of the cafeteria.
“How the hell would I know?” I snap at him, trying to watch Maddie to see her reaction without looking like I’m watching her.
“Jesus, I was just asking your opinion,” Blake mutters. “I didn’t expect you to actually know if she’s had her cherry popped or not. But if she hasn’t, do you think that will make it easier or harder to get with her?”
“You’re never gonna get with her man,” Royal thankfully tells him with a chuckle before I can say it.
“What? Why not?” Blake asks.
“Because girls like her like to play hard to get. And believe me, you don’t want to get them,” Royal says. “Chicks like that will poke holes in condoms to try and get knocked up with one of our kids.”
“He’s right,” I tell my best friend. “You should move on and stay away from her. It’s not worth it.”
“Fuck you both,” Blake grumbles before he stands up and walks out of the cafeteria.
When the door slams shut behind him, Royal asks me, “Who do you think made Clay and Andy humiliate themselves?”
“No clue. Probably Maddie. She must have threatened to castrate them or something.”
“Yeah, sure,” he says like he doesn’t believe that for a second before he gets up and leaves too.
“Why did you do that?” Maddie whispers when she catches up with me after school when I’m on my way to the field house locker room.
“Do what?” I ask innocently without slowing down.
“You know what!” she shouts.
Finally, I stop and turn to face her. Her normally ivory cheeks are rosy with rage, and it’s sexy as hell. “I’m a dumb jock with a short memory. You’ll have to be more specific.”
“You said something to Clay and Andy, didn’t you? You’re the reason they stood up on the table and embarrassed themselves and me in front of the entire school.”
“How exactly did that embarrass you?” I ask.
“Because now everyone is going to think I’m a virgin!”
“Well, you are,” I point out.
“I don’t want them to know that!” she says as she throws her hands up in the air.
“So, you would rather them think you’re a slut rather than a virgin?”
“Virgins are seen as…weak and innocent,” she starts. “At least as a slut I was tough and didn’t take anyone’s shit!”
“I doubt if you’ll ever be the type to take anyone’s shit. That doesn’t have anything to do with your sexual status.”
“Just…mind your own business,” she grits out, refusing to meet my eyes.
“You asked me about them, Maddie! I thought you wanted them to stop lying about you!”
“I did.”
“Then what’s the problem? Why are you bitching me out when they were the ones being dicks?”
“I-I don’t know.”
“Let me know when you figure it out. After you pull your head out of your own ass, I’ll be waiting for your gratitude because you know I wouldn’t have threatened them for just anyone.”
“That’s what I don’t understand! Why did you do it? What do you want? You think this small kindness is going to magically wipe away all the blackmail I have on you?” she asks, eyes narrowed at me suspiciously.
“No, I don’t,” I say because the truth is that I don’t want this – whatever this is between us – to be over. So, she can keep holding the pictures and video over my head forever for all I care. She’s not going to show anyone. I know that now. I think she just enjoys having leverage on me which makes her think that she’s my equal now or something, like she’s no longer beneath me. But I never thought of her as being anything but out of my league because she’s smart and brave and doesn’t give a shit what anyone thinks about her. She’s everything that I’m not and I wish I could be.
I can’t tell her any of that without her laughing in my face and thinking I’m full of shit.
“Look, Maddie,” I begin. “I don’t want anything from you except to maybe lighten that heavy load that you’re constantly carrying on your shoulders, okay?”
Instead of easing her anger up after my honesty, she looks even more pissed off, if that’s possible. I even catch what I’m pretty sure was a glistening in her eyes before she looks away from me and toward the street. “So, you did it out of pity,” she says when she starts walking toward the sidewalk. “I don’t want or need your sympathy, you-you arrogant prick!” she yells loud enough for everyone within a block radius to hear.
I stand there and watch her walk away until she crosses the street and drops down onto the bus bench, still looking furious.
My phone dings a second later with a message from her: Don’t come over after practice today. I’ll mow the damn yard myself.
Great. Now she’s canceling our blackmail plans. I should be happy that I’m off the hook, but I’m not.
I just really fucking wish I knew how the hell to stop being the guy Maddie hates, yet I’m all out of ideas. I think she liked me better when I was an asshole to her. At least I didn’t hurt her feelings then.
Angry Maddie may pretend like she has a thick, tough skin that’s hard to penetrate, but underneath that exterior there’s a softer side of her that’s so fragile I don’t think it would take much to break her into a million pieces.
I’m starting to realize that getting through that tough skin is impossible, so why the hell am I even trying?
That Friday night we had our first home game and I played like a fucking legend, making every pass, scoring four touchdowns through the air and one on the ground by running it in myself.
My parents and coach were thrilled that I had such a great game in front of the scouts from Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas.
Royal threw the biggest, craziest party afterwards and everyone was telling me how amazing I was, that I’ll be playing at a kick ass university next year and then going pro for sure.
Girls threw themselves at me, wanting me to fuck them. I even got a few offers for threesomes that I declined. The guys all worshiped me and looked at me like I could walk on water.
And the only thing I could think about all night, all fucking weekend, was the one girl who hates me.
Maddie doesn�
�t give a shit that I’m a hell of a quarterback who could one day make millions when I go pro. I could accomplish the impossible in football, and yet there’s not a damn thing I can do to change her mind about me.
Chapter 19
Maddie
I haven’t spoken to Aric in days, not since he had to go and be…nice again.
That one stupid move on his part shifted things. Where before I had an edge on him with the blackmail, now he’s once again looking down on me for the pathetic, poor girl I am without the usual snobby arrogance, but with pity, of all things!
And I fucking hate it.
I preferred when he thought I was trailer trash unworthy of walking the halls of his pretentious academy.
Before, he didn’t know just how badly I struggled to make ends meet, to pay for groceries and rent and to keep the lights on…
Oh shit!
“What’s today?” I ask Matt, who is playing Minecraft at the kitchen counter beside me while I finish my homework.
“September tenth. Why?”
“Shit, shit, shit,” I mutter as I jog to my room to grab my phone off the charger to confirm. Today is the freaking tenth day of the month, the absolute latest date when our rent is due. Technically, we’re supposed to give it to Adam by the first, but we have a ten-day grace period before he threatens to evict us.
Okay, yes, it sucks that it snuck up on me, especially after having to pay so much for the late power bill, but maybe I can ask Aric to pay me a few days early this week. Typically, he leaves an envelope with his blackmail money in my locker on Fridays and it’s just Tuesday.
I hesitate for a few seconds before I start typing out a text message to him. We haven’t talked since I chewed him out for having my back and I never thanked him. Instead, I got angry and stormed off. He hasn’t messaged me, not that I expected he would, probably enjoying getting a few days off from being at my beck and call. But now it’s time to suck up my pride and just pretend like the shit with Clay and Andy never happened.
I finally send the text I drafted, asking Aric if he could please come over after practice.
Can’t tonight. Dinner with my folks for my grandma’s birthday. We’ve had reservations for weeks and my Mom would kill me if I miss it.
“Shit!” I say aloud again after I read his response.
A follow up text from him asks, Why? What do you need me to do?
I start to respond with several different answers, asking if I could meet him there to get the money, or if he could just swing by here for five seconds. I type and delete, type and delete before I finally just sigh in resignation and say, It can wait.
Tossing my phone down on my bed, I close my eyes and then mentally and physically shake myself in preparation. I can totally handle this on my own, like usual. It definitely won’t be the first time. In just the past year, I’ve been unable to come up with the full rent amount at least three other times. I’ve hated it each time, but we need a place to live and I could never find a cheaper place than here.
I breathe in deep through my nose, and then out through my mouth, promising myself that it’ll be over within five or ten minutes; and then, once again, I can pretend like it never happened.
Looking at myself in the mirror, I redo my ponytail, twice, just to delay the inevitable. Then I apply a little Chapstick, slip on a pair of flip flops, and force my feet to move.
I make a pitstop at Matt and Mandy’s room. It’s a little bigger than mine since we had to fit two twin beds and a dresser inside of it. One half of the wall is hand-drawn Minecraft pictures by Matt and the other is Mandy’s Disney princess pictures out of a coloring book.
“Hey, you. Did you get your reading and homework done?” I ask Mandy when I see her sitting cross-legged, coloring on her bed.
“Yes, ma’am,” she answers without looking up from her artwork.
“Good girl,” I tell her before I leave her alone and head into the kitchen.
“I, ah, need to go pay the rent,” I tell Matt. “Will you and Mandy behave while I’m gone? It shouldn’t take too long.” Hopefully.
“Yeah, whatever,” my little brother says. “It’s not like you’re going far.”
“That’s right. I’ll be back before you know it.”
“Okay, bye,” he says absently.
I stand there silently for a few more seconds, wishing my brother would say something else. Anything to just delay the inevitable a little longer.
But he doesn’t, so I walk out the door and make my way to the trailer next to ours, lifting my knuckles to knock.
Adam answers right away, shirtless with his tattoos on full display, grinning like a kid on Christmas. He knows exactly what it means when I show up on his doorstep late in the afternoon on the tenth. His grandma owns the trailer park but lets him live here in this one for free on the condition that he collects rent and fixes anything that breaks. Not that he’s much of a handyman.
“Maddie,” he says as if surprised to see me when we both know there’s a list on the table next to the door and no check mark beside my name for this month. “I was wondering when you were going to show.”
“All I have is a hundred today. I can get you the rest on Friday,” I promise him, as I offer him the wad of cash.
“You know the rules,” he says when he takes it and counts it. “All the rent is due on the tenth. No extensions or exceptions.” Slipping the cash into the front of his torn jeans, he winks at me and goes on to add, “But I’m always happy to let you earn the rest of the money you owe me.”
Swallowing around the knot in my throat, I nod my agreement and squeeze past him into the trailer, ready to get this over with. Adam is unzipping his jeans before he even shuts the door.
Aric
My mom is going to rip me a new one for telling her I would be a few minutes late to grandma’s dinner, but there was something about Maddie’s texts this afternoon that seemed…desperate. The first giveaway? She said please. The second? I saw how many times the dots appeared and disappeared before she sent the last message, like she couldn’t figure out what to say, and she always fires off the first thing on her mind.
Hopefully whatever she needs tonight won’t take long and I can still make it to the restaurant by eight.
I bang my knuckles against the tin door of her trailer, and a moment later it opens, except it’s not Maddie standing on the other side - it’s her little brother Matt.
“Hey, is Maddie home?” I ask him.
“No, but she should be back soon –” he starts to say, just as a door opens on the trailer over on the left next to theirs. My head turns automatically in that direction and out comes Maddie in her cutoffs and plain white baggy tee while a shirtless, tattooed dickhead stands in the doorway, smoking what I can smell from her steps is a blunt. He watches her leave with his eyes glued to her ass. His dark, hooded gaze finally looks up and spots me waiting on her doorstep at the same time as Maddie’s shiny ones.
“Aric?” Her steps falter at the same time she hastily reaches up to swipe her fingers and thumb over her swollen red lips. It’s a look and gesture I’ve seen Sophie and Collette do many times…right after they’ve just sucked my cock and swallowed.
“What are you doing here?” she has the nerve to ask me. “Matt, go to your room!” Maddie orders her brother, who ignores her and continues to stand in the doorway, watching us silently.
“You asked me to come over after practice, remember?” I remind her while I continue eyeing the next-door neighbor. “Who’s that?” I ask, jutting my chin out in his direction when she shoulders past me and I follow her into the trailer where it’s only slightly less hot than the outdoors.
“No one. And you didn’t have to come. I thought you were having dinner with your parents or grandma,” she says, still completely avoiding eye contact with me. I look to her little brother for some sort of explanation, but he just goes and hops back up on the stool at the counter, completely immersed in his computer game. Minecraft maybe based on al
l the Lego-like shaped characters running around.
“You said please, so here I am. Now what the fu– what do you need me to do?” I ask, catching myself before I drop the F-bomb with the kid in the room.
“I told you it could wait until tomorrow!” Maddie says with her back still to me. “God, you’re such a pain in my ass! Leave, and don’t come back unless I ask you to!” she screams at me before disappearing down the hall and slamming a door, leaving me standing there confused as fuck. A second later I hear the water in the shower turn on, but even that can’t drown out the harsh sound of her heaves. It’s an awful noise hearing her make herself sick, one that I could’ve gone my entire life without witnessing.
Going over to rest my elbows on the counter, I say to Matt, “What’s up with your sister, little man?”
“No clue,” he says as he keeps his eyes on his game. “Unless it’s about the rent. She throws up some months when it’s due. I think she gets really stressed out about paying it.”
“The rent’s due today?” I ask.
“Yep. The tenth.”
Oh fuck.
I’m starting to feel a little queasy myself as the pieces begin to come together – Maddie asked me nicely to come over tonight because I’m guessing she was going to ask me to pay up a few days early on my blackmail money that I usually leave in her locker. When I said I couldn’t, she was too fucking proud to just ask me for the cash.
“That, ah, dude with the tats next door, is he the rent guy, by any chance?”
“Yep,” Matt replies.
I’m so floored that I can’t even think straight or see past the red haze that’s clouding my vision.
Did Maddie really blow that dude because she couldn’t make rent?
I’m such a jackass for giving her so much shit about being poor. I had no fucking clue she was just trying to take care of herself and her brother and sister, no matter the cost.
