I’d never be able to get that image out of my head. Never.
Steering the Chevy out of the back lot, I headed toward home. It wasn’t more than a few miles, but it was long enough I wasn’t interested in walking. I pulled into the lot at the apartments and parked at the end, grabbing my school bag from the seat beside me. I had minimal work to finish that night, nothing I couldn’t do in less than twenty minutes, but enough I could dodge Norman on my way to my room.
I fell into an easy loping pace as I headed toward my building, passing the first empty apartment in line.
And stopped.
Cocking my head, I took a deep breath and stepped backwards, looking more closely at the patio table that had been set up on the cement stoop outside the previously empty apartment. A bright pink sweatshirt with white and black zebra stripes sat in a soggy mess on the surface of the table.
I inhaled sharply.
Olivia. She lived there? Was that possible? I looked away, shaking my head as I closed the distance to my mom’s place.
For once, no one was home. I left my things in my room which was half the size of the closet I’d left behind at my dad’s house.
Grabbing a stale bagel sitting on the counter, I ducked back into my room and changed into fully black clothes. I don’t know why, but I had to be sure Olivia lived there.
For some reason, that made my skin itch with awareness. She was a few apartments down and not even on the same floor as me, but I was still very aware of her being there.
Or maybe that’s part of the problem. The fact that she was so vulnerable on the ground floor. Anyone could watch her. Anyone could break in. They weren’t safe on that level.
I stepped from the apartment and slowly descended the stairs.
In the front of the apartment buildings, they looked open and well-lit. In the back, though, the woods brushed against the siding while branches scratched from the wind. There was no room for grass or even benches as the forest had only been cleared enough to put in the buildings. Then the forest had grown back over the decades the decrepit old buildings had been there.
The nicotine-stained green and yellow kitchen décor in our apartment dated the buildings as older than my mother. Not that she was old, but she was in her late thirties and the apartment buildings had to be in their late sixties.
At the bottom of the steps, I turned away from the front and slipped into the barrier of the branches of cedar trees. Wending my way through the trees as they edged close to the building, I ducked past a few low hanging branches. Lights glowed from other apartments on the first and second floors.
A few people didn’t seem to care if they had their curtains closed as they faced the forest. Who would be out there to see anyway, right?
I reached the last apartment on the end and stuck close to the shadows of the trees. Fortunately for me, the sun had already worked its way down past the mountain between Shores and the ocean. Long shadows stretched across the forest floor and over dead plants covering those trying to emerge in the spring warmth.
I caught myself staring into an empty living room with sparse furnishings. A dining table with three chairs claimed the corner by the kitchen which was more like a kitchenette.
A blue couch with three cushions sat on one side of the living room while a small television sat on a bin opposite it.
A small card table had been set up as a makeshift coffee table and a pile of books in disarray suggested whoever had been there had left in a hurry.
Light from the kitchen spilled onto the carpeted floor, mingling with moving light from the TV.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe it was a common sweatshirt. And yet… no, I knew that wasn’t right. No one in East Shores could afford the kind of clothes Olivia wore, even knock-offs had the price tag of a month’s worth of rent.
I edged closer, determined to prove myself wrong or right, but either way I had to know if that was where Olivia lived.
Suddenly, there she was, walking into the living room with a bowl of popcorn and a glass of ice water. She set them both on the table away from her school books.
I inhaled sharply as she leaned back on the couch. She wore black leggings with cutouts up the sides up to her knees and a tight little gray t-shirt with hummingbirds on the sleeves.
She’d pulled her mass of thick curls back into a ponytail that hung down her back. She hadn’t applied more makeup or taken any off once she got home which made me wonder if maybe she was a natural beauty which only irritated me more. I didn’t want her to be luscious naturally, or at all. I would rather she had to work at it and be high-maintenance. That would make her less appealing.
She lifted her foot and crossed her ankle over her knee, grinning at something on the television. She was relaxed and comfortable and I could see that her resting bitch face she wore at school was just a mask. She didn’t look like a bitch at all as she relaxed in the safety of her own space.
That didn’t make me feel better as I considered what I was going to have to do to get her to leave the school and leave me alone.
I watched her long into the night, past when she fell asleep on the couch and when her mom got back and covered her with a blanket. Far longer than I should have.
Let’s be honest. Nothing with the girl had been normal since I’d met her. Why start now?
~~~
Olivia’s bitchy mask was back in place the next morning as she came into class, sunglasses thrust onto her head like a makeshift headband. Her hair had been slightly straightened to a wavy tangle about her shoulders and I longed to run my fingers through the silky tresses.
She had no idea of her appeal as she sank into a seat four desks in front of me, her jeans tight to her ass. A round butt like that would cost a solid twelve-grand in the plastic surgery arena, but there was nothing fake about Olivia. Her tiny waist and rounded hips were just on earth to intoxicate every guy she came across.
I’d read about something like that when I was in my fantasy genre reading period. Sirens. Olivia was a siren and she was also the one girl I absolutely could not be attracted to.
If I let down my guard, she’d trample me beneath her feet and I’d be suckered by my brother as well. I couldn’t be weak around her. I couldn’t give Braddox that kind of control or power. Isn’t that what had happened before? Hadn’t my brother proven himself to be a snake over and over again?
I couldn’t think about him right then. I had to set my plan into place.
While I wanted to beg Olivia for forgiveness before I even started the plan, I couldn’t stop what was absolutely necessary. I turned to one of the guys who thought we were friends and jerked my thumb over my shoulder in Olivia’s direction. “I banged that last night. Over and over.” I wiggled my eyebrows and gave my best dick-head grin.
Thomas was the school gossip and took any scrap of information and turned it into the drama of the year within minutes. His eyes grew wide and he raised his eyebrows. “Really?” He mouthed it at me as he lifted his phone from the desk.
He studied her and I wanted to punch him for thinking he could look at her. He couldn’t. The hell he could look at her. But I’d already set things in motion. It was too late to give into my jealousy.
An emotion I wasn’t even aware I’d harbored until Thomas had ogled her with his busybody eyes.
He leaned across the aisle between our desks and whispered, “How was she?”
I half-shrugged and answered, “Experienced. She knew every trick and let me tell you… her mouth…” That’s all I said. I would have gone further, but the thought of talking about the things Olivia had done fictitiously left me sick. What had I done? There was no going back, of course, but I couldn’t help the regret.
In no time, she’d be labeled a slut, a real slut, not just one that had a rumored reputation. She’d be the girl that all the guys would try to get with because she was my castoff. Or would be in a couple minutes.
Thomas shifted his gaze from Olivia to me, narrowing his eyes. “So… is sh
e yours?”
Was she mine? I gritted my teeth as I considered what he was asking. Was she mine… did I have a claim on her or was she fair game for anyone in the school to screw? That’s what he was asking. If I claimed her, everyone would know they would die if they looked at her wrong. If I claimed her… I’d start an open war with West Shores… and my brother.
If I claimed her, she wouldn’t be ostracized like I needed her to be, even though I wanted to claim her.
Bad.
I tightly shook my head and waved my hand. “Nah, man. She was just an extracurricular activity after homework. I wanted to taste a rich bitch.” I winked and leaned back in my seat. “Nothing different, if you ask me.”
The idiot wouldn’t take into account the fact that I’d never told him anything private before. Or the fact that I never talked to him outside of group projects. He wouldn’t care as he thought he was the most important person in the room because he’d been privy to something that happened just the night before.
He nodded, winking back at me as if we shared something classified.
My stomach hurt as I watched from the corner of my eye as Thomas’s fingers flew across his smart phone’s texting screen. There went the rumors and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Nothing I wanted to do. I needed her to be hated, unwanted, and bannable. She had to go.
The only way to make her leave was to make sure she knew she wasn’t wanted. No one could handle that kind of pressure over too long a time period.
She had no idea what I’d just done to her.
~~~
That night I sprawled in my own bed with my hands behind my head, staring up at the ceiling.
Mom and Norman were fighting with slurred speech and random things getting thrown across the living room. The neighbors had music thumping far too loudly for a weeknight but it was probably to counter the sounds coming from our place.
I couldn’t sleep and I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay around there anyway. Usually, Mom and Norman ended up getting stoned or drunk with things my dad’s child support bought and even mid-fighting they ended up screwing all over the place – and louder than they did fighting.
I waited until Norman yelled at Mom from their bedroom before I jumped from the bed and grabbed my coat and car keys. There was no reason to hang out there for the weekend. As soon as work shut down the next night, Crenshaw would close shop for the weekend. I could crash in the small room he had off the office until Monday when I had to go back to school.
Maybe on my way down to the car, I could stop and check to make sure Olivia was okay. It wasn’t creepy or anything. I didn’t have to knock on the door, I could just peek in the window and see that she was okay.
If she knew I watched her, she’d freak out and I couldn’t have that. I couldn’t have anything to do with her. Even watching her put me in danger of becoming too attached to her.
I walked down to her apartment and hung back in the shadows, watching her normal life from my position in the dark.
She sat on the couch again. Lights from the TV danced across the room, highlighting the soft angles of her face and enhancing the dark of her lashes on her cheeks. She had no idea of her appeal. I wanted to claim her as mine, but that right had already been decided by Braddox.
If she’d kissed him with half the desire she’d kissed me when she thought I was him, he’d already screwed her out of her mind. That was a piece of her I could dream about all I wanted, but I would never really have. That fact alone left me empty inside.
She was fine. Checking on her was all I was supposed to be doing there.
I wasn’t there because watching her sleep left me feeling peaceful for the first time in almost five years. She did things to my insides I couldn’t define. I could linger just a while longer. I had to see her. I had to watch her outside of school. She made me forget the hell that was my life.
Just a little after eight and after a few minutes, she stood and moved across the living room, stretching and yawning like she was tired. Olivia wiggled her fingers at her mom who sat on the other end of the couch with her legs up, eating ice cream from a small white bowl. Olivia’s mouth moved as she spoke, but I couldn’t hear her through the closed doors and windows. She yawned again before ducking out of sight.
Was she claiming to be going to bed? It was far too early for that kind of thing unless you lived in an old folks’ home.
Her mother waved her off and looked back at the television, a glazed expression taking over her awareness.
I shrank further into the shadows as a window opened beside the living room. Olivia’s long legs slid from the opening in a tight little skirt I could lift up a few inches and have full access to my dreams. She shimmied all the way out and landed on heels that only made her legs look that much longer. She was going to be the death of me. Her halter top showed off curves that should have been illegal and she’d left her hair down in all its curly wonder. Soft makeup completed the look.
She peeked through the curtain at her mother, waiting until her mom got up to put the ice cream bowl in the kitchen. As her mom’s back was turned, Olivia darted across the view of the slider, swinging her arms to move faster and to give herself more balance on the heels. A small clutch with a chain strap flipped around her hand while she held onto it as she ran toward the road.
What in the hell was she doing? There were no parties in east Shores that night where she’d fit in with that outfit. Unless she’d somehow found out about the rumor I’d started and she was out to make good on what I’d claimed and bang as many guys as possible.
Anger fueled my own steps as I made my way to the car and I climbed in, starting the engine. I’d follow her as long as I needed to.
When I got to the road, I got there in time to watch Olivia climb into a small blue BMW convertible.
They peeled out, heading toward west Shores. That was territory I wasn’t allowed in. Hadn’t Braddox made that abundantly clear? I was never welcomed back.
If I followed Olivia back across town, there would absolutely be hell to pay.
Did I chance it?
I revved the 350 engine and gripped the steering wheel with both hands. My grin spoke for itself.
Hell, yeah, I’d chance it. I was always up for a good fight.
Chapter 6
Olivia
“Liv, you whore! I haven’t seen you in forever!” Stephanie threw her arm around my shoulder for a fast squeeze and then peeled out. She drove the best, the newest, and never cared what happened to it. The amount of car wrecks she’d been in and walked away from made me never want to drive in Shores again.
Not that I’d drive again any time soon. One of the first things sold was my Fiat. Mom used that to pay for the bills for the last month we’d lived in the house.
I forced a smile and brushed my hair off my shoulders. The point of dressing up and going to the party was to let go of the stress wrapped up in my new life at East Shores. I could go back to West Shores and pretend, at least for a little bit, that everything was the same. I wouldn’t have to see anyone from ESA. I could get away with just being me for a few hours.
“Oh, hell, girl. What did you do to Braddox? He’s been busy screwing his way through the juniors and seniors. He is not a happy man.” Steph glanced in the rearview mirror and winked at herself.
I loved Stephanie, but even I had to admit she put the V in vain.
I huffed and rolled my eyes. “He’s out screwing everyone, huh? Interesting.” He couldn’t get it from me, so why not get it from everyone else? That would teach me, wouldn’t it? I laughed a little inside even as part of me cringed. I missed him and instead of missing me… he was replacing me. Guess I wasn’t who I thought I was.
My interest in finding Braddox that night and giving him exactly what he’d been bugging me for since we started dating dimmed. I didn’t want to be just a number in a long line of girls. Especially when I was just trying to prove to myself that breaking up with him had been a horrible choice on my p
art.
“Yeah, well, that’s not all that’s interesting. We have a new girl. She moved in about three weeks after you left and she’s trying to snag Braddox.” She pursed her lips at me and I realized how much of a good friend Steph actually was. She thought of Braddox as hands off to everyone else because he had been mine for so long – or long enough.
It didn’t matter that I thought I wasn’t interested in Braddox anymore. The way I’d felt kissing Jaxon when I thought he was Braddox suggested I had stronger feelings for Brax than I’d originally assumed.
“You look great, Steph. I’ve missed you.” I smiled at her, knowing she would relish the change in topic from anything and onto her. She reached up and smoothed her hair. “Thanks! I can’t help looking this good, I guess.”
Her dress sparkled in the light from the dashboard.
I smiled as I settled into the seat and enjoyed the ride to the other side of town. The side I was supposed to live on, the side I missed.
“This jackass has been on our butts the entire ride.” Stephanie adjusted the rearview mirror and rolled her eyes. She popped her gum and lowered her window. An enthusiastic bird earned her a honk from the car behind us and we laughed.
She turned to the right and suddenly there we were at Donovan Davis’s house nestled between two hills hiding the view of the ocean from the road. I’d been there before and wasn’t surprised to see the long driveway already lined with cars on either side. Donnie’s parties started after school and went into the wee hours of the following Monday. Three nights never seemed like long enough when you were caught up in debauchery and craziness.
Stephanie didn’t slow until we pulled under the porta cache. She reached over and patted my hand. “Stay out of the basement. I heard they’re doing orgies this time.” She rolled her eyes again and opened the door, leaving me in shocked silence.
We’d never actually talked about what happened in the basements of these parties. The rich kids of West Shore got bored and fast. Rumors of cocaine, heroin, and high-end drugs usually accompanied the mention of the basements, but never had anyone so bluntly referenced the goings-on.
Forsaken: A bully romance (An Academy Twin Rivalry Series Book 1) Page 5
