Sian really likes this kid; I don’t know her that well, but I like her too. She’s nice and quiet and nothing at all like most of the others around here.
It didn’t escape my notice that Sian had chosen the least popular girls in the school to befriend. It said a lot about her character.
I didn’t even think about what I was doing, or that I was about to do it in a room full of people. I turned her face to mine and kissed her, long and hard to the cheers and applause from half the room.
TAMMY
All this new stuff is going way too fast. Well not too fast in a bad way, just…there was no warning.
One minute Belle and I were plotting escape routes for when the new jock showed up, and the next, we were sitting at the head table.
Even more than a seat with the cheerleaders, a seat at Jace’s table was coveted. It was a blessing and a curse.
I got to be close to Shane and…I got to be close to Shane. The only time I was relaxed around him is when I was tutoring him, then I felt like we were at least on even footing.
But sitting here next to him with everyone else around, I felt exposed. “You okay Tam, you’re not eating.”
Tam, who would’ve thought being referred to as a Scottish hat could be so sexy?
“I’m fine just a lot on my mind that’s all. I did something really stupid today; well not stupid exactly, I don’t regret dong it, but I know they’re gonna come after me now.”
“Who’s gonna come after you and why?” he asked the question as his gaze went straight to Mandy’s table.
I was too chicken to look but I could imagine the look on their faces. The fat nobody was sitting where they wish they could be.
“It’s not important, forget I said anything.” I tried to pretend an interest in my salad so that he would take the hint and drop it.
He studied me without saying a word, but I could tell he didn’t believe me for a second. I wish he wouldn’t look at me like that, like all his focus was on me.
There was no way this would ever happen. I wasn’t one of them, something the twit brigade as Belle called them, had never let me forget.
I was the poor daughter of one of the faculty who was here on sufferance.
I wasn’t Hollywood pretty, not even close, and I had no real interest in the things that made this town run.
All of these things worked against me I know, and it’s never really bothered me before, because I’ve never really wanted anything they had. Not since I was thirteen at least. Until now! I’m ever the over achiever.
I saw him exchange a look with Jace and wondered what that was about, but of course wasn’t brave enough to bring it up.
“The other day, in the lot; those girls were trying to hurt you weren’t they?”
Please don’t look and sound like you care, or I’ll make a fool of myself. I pleaded with my eyes, or at least I think I did, but he didn’t let up.
It was the slamming of a tray across the room that jerked me out of my stupor when I got caught up in his eyes. He has this way of looking at me like I’m the only one in the world.
Liz had slammed her tray down hard before flouncing out of the room; my life is going to be hell for the next few days at least.
My eyes stayed glued to the doorway where she’d just gone and I almost jumped out of my skin when I felt his hand cover mine.
Chapter 4
SIAN
I can’t believe it’s sleepover time already. We’d postponed the first one because Cassandra had something come up, but now we were back on.
I’d made it through my first couple weeks as Jace’s girlfriend and hadn’t messed up. Though it felt sometimes like I was on an obstacle course, with so many different twists and turns.
He was turning into something else, someone else. The guy I first met was still there, but there was this whole other element to him that had been hidden underneath.
The good news is, now I’m not comparing myself to the other popular girls in the school, no, I’ve graduated to comparing Jace to his teammates.
It’s something I hadn’t noticed before, too blinded by his looks and distracted by the way he makes my heart go off the charts.
But in the last three weeks, well, since the jersey incident to be exact, I’ve noticed a distinct difference between him and everyone else around us.
It’s not that the others are lacking, it’s just that he seemed to have been blessed with more; more of what makes a man a man.
I’m a smart girl, I know that if he can be this way now while we are still in freaking high school, that things will only get worse, or better, depending on how you look at it.
I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about my new discovery. On the one hand it makes my girly bits twitchy and on the other, it scares the crap out of me. This was no boy I was dealing with, I’ll tell you that.
He’s nothing at all like the Hollywood prince I expected him to be, more like a tough guy off one of the sets.
True to his word, he’d taken me shopping and chosen all my new clothes. When I say chose, I don’t mean I held up a cute little dress and asked his opinion. I mean, we walked into the store and the ladies all came to attention and sirred him to death.
He sat on a thick leather couch and pulled me down beside him, and with my hand held in his, which I noticed the sales girls noticing with envy; he gave some kind of signal for them to begin.
They were models, actual models, coming from a back room somewhere, wearing different outfits for our perusal. Well I should say, his perusal, because in the end, I had no say.
I complained beneath my breath at some of his choices, well most of them truth be known. Not because he had poor taste, or because I didn’t like them, but because some of them cost more than I usually spend on a whole shopping spree, and I spend a lot of dad’s money.
“Jace, I don’t need all this stuff I…”
“Shh, baby, you’re being rude, now look at this next outfit.” He tapped my hand as I turned to look at the latest offer.
My mouth fell open and I blinked at him when I saw the kickass winter white pant suit that I knew was a limited edition D&G because I’d seen it in one of mom’s invitation only runway show magazines.
“Sometimes mom and dad like to throw parties, no special reason. Mom would just get up one day and decide that she wants to have a house or a backyard full of people and she’d call everyone we know and invite them over.
Thankfully she doesn’t do it too often these days since dad brought it to her attention that, as his wife, no one is prepared to turn down an invitation from her, and so people have been disrupting their lives to accommodate her for years.
With that said, the woman is a menace and though she tries to control herself, we still have a situation every so often. Me being the dutiful son that I am, I’m usually roped in to attending. Now I have you I won’t be so bored next time.”
“I’m sure somewhere in your brain all that you just said makes sense to you, as well as you buying me a five thousand dollar suit.” I think I’m going to start hyperventilating any second.
“It does, you see, you won’t wear a BBQ outfit to a cocktail party and vice versa. You can’t wear a beach party ensemble to a sit down dinner. Do you get where I’m going with this?”
“I thought we were just here to get some stuff for me to wear to school since you have a beef with my jeans.”
“We’re killing two birds with one stone. Now shh.” He turned my face back around and accepted the glass of sparkling water for me. I think I’d just had my first Hollywood girlfriend experience.
He totally ignored my protest that we had only just started dating. His cryptic answer was that time didn’t matter when you were sure, whatever that meant.
“You seem so good at this, have you done this before?” I pretended to have an itch on the back of my neck so I could avoid looking into his eyes, because I knew he’d know what I was really asking if he saw my face.
“Sian, baby, you’
ve gotta get over this shit. I’m gonna give you this one because you’re new, but no more okay. I dated before we met, you didn’t.
I understand your need to know, but I won’t feed it because that’s not my style. I’m with you baby, in ways that I’ve never been with anyone else. You’re just gonna have to trust me on that before you fuck this up.
To answer your unasked question, no I’ve never done this with Mandy before. Not her or anyone else for that matter.
I’ve ordered people gifts before yes, but I’ve never brought a woman here or anywhere else to shop. You can thank my mom for the fact that this seems so effortless to me.
Something you should know about my parents, they tend to teach by showing. So if my dad or mom wants me to learn something, or if there’s something they think would be good for me to know in life, they’ll throw me into it.
Now let’s finish up here, I want to violate that mouth of yours before I have to take you home.”
That was another thing I noticed about him, he didn’t mind holding hands or even putting his hand on my ass, not to mention the occasional lip lock. It’s like he couldn’t keep his hands off of me. Hmm! so not Hollywood!
***
We’d ended up at his house afterwards and he’d dragged me off to his room, after saying a quick hello and goodbye to his mom who just laughed at us.
“I’ve been dying to get my hands on your ass all day.” He palmed my ass cheeks under his too big jersey that I was still wearing by the way.
My heart was about to beat a path out of my chest. It’s the first time I’d ever gone this far with a boy before and his bed was right there and oh shit.
His hand snuck under my bra and the warmth of his flesh against mine gave me goose pimples. “Relax Sian, I only want your mouth for now.”
We spent two hours up in his room with him teaching me how to kiss while he fondled my breasts. By the time we were halfway through I was ready to climb him but he held me off.
I’d had to settle for what he called dry humping which has got to be the most frustrating thing in creation.
I was surprised that in the end he was the one with the cool head.
“We both know you’re going to be the one to take it, so what difference does it make when?” I was trying to get into his pants when I uttered those words.
The boy had great control though. He clasped my head between his hands and looked into my eyes like he was seeing into my soul.
“Soon baby I promise, but not like this.” With that he’d taken me home with my million and one bags.
It wasn’t as easy explaining my complete new wardrobe to mom since I don’t lie to her and had to tell her the truth. She seemed a whole lot flustered and who can blame her?
But after he had a word with her, of which I still have no idea what was said, she seemed okay with it.
He’s been to the house almost every other night for dinner and homework, and seems to have fit right in.
Even dad has been heard to sing his praise, and Maggie is halfway in love with him.
It’s easy to fall for him when I see how gentle he is with her feelings. That and of course the things he does to me personally.
Just one look from him and I’m ready to do all manner of things that a month ago wasn’t even part of my plan.
His intensity is by turns frightening and alluring. One minute I want to jump him and the next I want to run and hide.
Mom did say he strikes her as very intense for a seventeen year old, though she didn’t say it as a negative.
I’ve also been coming out of that shell that I’d built myself thanks to him.
Jared had told me about Belle’s concerns that the twits were planning something, and that could have something to do with Jace’s sudden overprotective streak.
Though I appreciated what he was doing, it had jarred me out of whatever fugue I’d been under since moving here.
I was never going to be anything other than what I am after a few weeks here. Who was going to like me, already did, and who wasn’t won’t. There was no more fitting in left to be done.
In one week I’d landed the most eligible, not to mention hottest guy in the whole school if not the town.
Had formed friendships with three amazing girls whom I actually liked, and wasn’t being shunned by the student body as a whole. I’d say that was an excellent start.
It was good to be able to relax and breathe, to just be. Tonight was going to be fun and just one more step in the new direction my life had taken.
Jace and I had spent the last two Saturday nights on his couch making out. He said he didn’t trust himself alone with me in his room, and since he didn’t want to rush me we had to make do with the couch.
It was getting harder though, to go home after one of our hot and heavy make-out sessions.
My phone rang just as I was organizing the snacks for my little party. “Hi baby, listen, about this thing you have going on tonight.
You girls don’t plan on doing any of that stupid high school prank stuff do you? I don’t want you going out driving around in the middle of the night, you understand?”
He didn’t even let me get so much as a ‘hello’ out before he started handing out orders; another little thing I noticed he was good at.
“I don’t think we were planning on doing that, but Jace, I think if I wanted to do something like that I would, whether you liked it or not.”
Okay that’s part of the intensity thing I was talking about. He tells me what to do when to do it and how to do it.
It’s not even like he’s smothering me, no, he’s too slick for that, everything he does is done in a way that makes it seem like it’s always for my own good.
I know that sounds kind of weird, when I told Jess about it she said he sounded like an abuser, but the reality is, that nothing could be farther from the truth.
We’re still learning about each other Jace and I. Still getting to understand the quirks, that makes us who we are.
I think Jace is just one of those people who has to be in control at all times. At first I wasn’t sure how to handle him, I was still in my settling in stage.
But yesterday I’d come to the conclusion that I needed to stop being an ass and be who I am, who I’ve always been; and who I’ve always been would never let her boyfriend boss her around. No matter how hot he is.
“Sian, I don’t think you heard me, so I’ll repeat it again. Do not leave your house tonight baby, unless you want to bear the consequences okay.
I know what goes on at some of these things and that shit can be dangerous. You can have just as much fun staying inside and playing games or whatever it is people do at sleepovers.
No joyriding, no hanging out of car windows going eighty miles an hour.”
I didn’t bother to argue with him because I’d come to realize in the last day and a half that it didn’t work. I could talk until I was blue in the face, he’d still do as he pleased in the end.
I’ve also noticed that he and his teammates seem to be always around in the last two days, more so than they had been lately. Even at practice yesterday, some of the guys were hanging out in the stands.
When I’d asked Scottie the water boy why it seemed like he was following me around, he’d denied it and then continued to shadow me down the hall.
I also noticed that whenever Mandy or one of her crew was around, one of the guys just showed up out of nowhere. Very weird!
I went in search of my brother after hanging up the phone, because he was the only one who could’ve told Jace about my plan to sneak out of the house at midnight.
Apparently there was a tradition in this town of driving down to the water at night, taking the bend in the road at a high rate of speed while the passengers hung out the windows and sunroof.
Rumor had it that the ghost of an old Hollywood legend walked down the middle of the street if the moon was just right, and tonight, was a full moon.
Belle and I had been giggling about i
t on the phone for the past two nights, which meant my brother the snitch has been listening in at my door. How else could he know what I was up to?
“Jared, why does Jace think that the girls and I are going to sneak out of the house tonight?”
“I wouldn’t know, why don’t you ask him?” He continued typing in keys on his computer.
“I know it was you.”
“Oh really, me that did what?”
“You’ve been listening in at my door and you ratted me out. Is this because I got mom to ban you from having company while my friends are here?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about; besides, mom and dad would not approve and I know you’d never do anything to disappoint them.
Did you know that Belle is terrified of that stupid ghost? Why would you want to take her out there?”
“She is not…wait she is? But why didn’t she tell me? That doesn’t make any sense, we’ve been talking about it for the past couple of nights…”
“She doesn’t want you to think that she’s weak.”
“And you know this how?”
“Doesn’t matter, just, don’t make her go out there.”
“Jared have you and Belle been talking?” Oh this was going to be good. Crap the bell rang before he could answer and the smirk on his face told me he wasn’t planning to anyway. That’s okay I’ll just ask her when she gets here later.
It was Cassandra at the door. Once again I was struck with that feeling of protection. Like I wanted to hug her close and keep her safe.
“I hope it’s okay, you said I could come over a little early so you can show me some moves.” She looked back over her shoulder where a car was leaving.
“Of course it’s okay.” I pulled her into the house with me and up the stairs to my room.
Chapter 5
Eden High Series One: The Eden High Series Boxed Set, Books 1-6 Page 12
