Crush: A YA Romance Collection

by Lavinia Leigh

  Chapter 2

  As I walked home, I used my phone to look up the senator and my dad’s name, and to my horror and surprise, there were pictures of them together all over the Internet. Apparently the pictures had been released yesterday in preparation for the newspaper announcing their engagement, but they went back a few weeks. Needless to say, I was pissed. I hadn’t even been aware that my dad was dating, let alone in a serious relationship. All of these things fueled my anger as I slammed the newspaper onto my dad’s desk. There was a loud smack as the paper made contact with the desk’s hardwood surface. The sound brought his attention to me, which is something I should feel grateful for, because since my mother’s death five months ago he had given me as little attention as possible.

  “What the hell is this?” I asked, pointing at the title on the front page so that there was no confusion as to what I was referring.

  “That’s my new fiancée, Jade,” he answered curtly after glancing at the paper. My father hadn’t even bothered to tell me that he was seeing anyone; let alone proposing to her. How could he do this to Mom and me? He hadn’t wasted any time getting back on the market. It was as if he had forgotten mom had ever even existed.

  “How can you think this is okay?” I yelled bitterly, biting my lip to keep the tears from prickling in my eyes.

  My dad glanced up at me, raising his eyebrows. “I am your father and you will not speak to me in that tone.”

  “Well, my father wouldn’t be trying to replace my mother so soon after her death! We practically just buried her and now you’re engaged to another woman. You’re replacing mom!”

  “I am not replacing her!” Dad yelled, suddenly angered by my accusation. His eyes squinted and his nostrils flared showing just how serious he was.

  “That’s not what it looks like! Even the paper agrees with me,” I retorted as I pointed to a circled portion of the article. I had come prepared because when I fought with my father it was best to have proof to back up whatever I said. It just made it easier so he couldn’t worm his way out of trouble. Normally it was me trying to prove that I shouldn’t be in trouble for something that I had done. The article said it seemed so sudden after the loss of my mother that Mr. Phillips would even consider dating, let alone marrying someone else. If you asked me, it was all kind of fishy.

  “It’s only been five months!”

  Dad ran his hand through his thinning brown hair. “People mourn in different ways.”

  “This is not how you should be mourning. Especially not someone who you claimed to love for so long,” I spat, my voice thick with emotion. "Not someone that you spent nearly thirty years of your life with.”

  “Twenty-four years,” he corrected me.

  “Twenty-four years. That doesn’t make it any better.” I crossed my arms over my chest and huffed angrily.

  “What do you want me to do, Jade? Mourn over Diane for years and never be happy again? Do you think that’s what your mom would have wanted?”

  “No, but she would have wanted more than two months of your time after being married for over twenty years. I think she deserves at least that.”

  “It’s been five months, Jade,” he stated matter-of-factly.

  I pointed to a different part of the article, circled as a reference point, that said that my father and Senator Jacobs were seen together as early as two months after my mother’s burial, then again to the part that said Senator Jacobs had a daughter that was close to my age. “Not trying to replace our family, right dad?” I asked, letting my words drip sarcasm. I wished that my words were visible and could sit on his desk as a constant reminder of what he had done.

  “No," he answered forcefully, attempting to take the article from me.

  “Oh really, then why does she have a daughter the same age as me, dad? Sounds a lot like our family, or at least how it was.”

  “I don’t know what you’re getting at, Jade, but—”

  “I’m getting at the point that you’re trying to replace our family! You don’t even look at me anymore, what the hell did I do wrong?”

  “What have you done right?” my father yelled suddenly, losing his temper. He forced himself up from his seat and slammed his hands on the desk. His sudden outburst startled me a bit, but I quickly hid my surprised face with a scowl. “So far you’ve been arrested three times, have gotten in trouble for underage drinking, and I caught you in bed with some boy in my house! You haven’t done anything right in the past few years, and it’s gotten worse in the last five months!”

  “People mourn in different ways, Dad,” I said, throwing his words back in his face as I lifted the paper from his desk and walked out of the office.

  “Jade!” he yelled after me, but I didn’t look back. He didn’t feel the need to include me in his life, so I don’t see why it’s a big deal when I don’t include him in mine.

  “I’ll be gone tonight, and tomorrow. Hell maybe even Monday. I don’t think I’ll go to school that day. Have a nice weekend with your new fiancée, David!” I called back to him, knowing he hated when I used his first name since it was a sign of disrespect.

  Without a single regret, I went to grab my backpack before I stalked out the front door, causing an abrupt stop to my dad’s yelling as the door slammed behind me, sealing me off from him.

  “I guess it’s time to raise some hell,” I muttered to myself as I took off toward Brooke’s house.

  The walk didn’t take too long, and before I knew it, I stood out front of the Montgomery home. The doorbell chimed twice before I let myself into Amanda’s three story house. I was here so often that Amanda, Brooke’s older sister, had made a key for me and given me the code to the alarm system, despite the fact that they never had it turned on. I knew that someone was home because Brooke’s bike was still parked in the driveway, right behind Amanda’s tiny blue car, and next to Austin’s green Jeep Wrangler.

  Amanda owned the house that her parents used to live in, before they moved to live closer to Brooke’s only living grandparents. Instead of forcing Austin and Brooke to move with them, they allowed them to stay in the house with Amanda as long as they continued to get good grades.

  It had only been a year that Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery had been gone, but they visited often. They trusted Amanda to take care of the house; she’s twenty-nine and by far the most responsible out of the three Montgomery children. They made sure to send Amanda a food allowance for the household and some money to help pay the bills every month, as well as call to check in on them as often as possible.

  I kicked off my boots and placed them on the shoe mat by the door before hiking my bag up higher onto my shoulder and running up to Brooke’s room. The stairs creaked as I jogged up them, alerting everyone of my presence.

  “Jade?” Brooke’s voice called out.

  “Yeah,” I answered, confirming my presence as I walked into her room, tossing my bag at the foot of her bed and flopping down next to her.

  She squealed and groaned. “Stop moving!”

  “Sorry. I didn’t notice that you were painting your nails until after I had already committed to jumping onto the bed.”

  Brooke focused her blue eyes on me and glared. “But you never commit to anything.”

  “So then don’t you think it’s time that I should start?” I wagged an eyebrow and smiled as she rolled her eyes and went back to painting her toenails a glossy shade of red.

  “What brings you back over to my humble abode? Things didn’t go so well with your dad?” she questioned. Her thin arms leaned awkwardly over her bent legs as she spread polish across a clear coated nail. “Austin told me when you left.”

  “Aren’t I always here?” I replied, ignoring the last question she asked and her statement too. She knew me well enough to know that the conversation with my dad was probably something that I would want erased from my memory.

  “Well, yeah,” she mumbled slowly, focused on her paint job. She didn’t question me anymore and I was thankful for that. She’
s a good friend.

  I shrugged, “So then do I really need a reason for coming over?”

  Brooke flicked her eyes up to me for a brief second and then back down to her nails. It took her a moment to respond, but when she did, she said, “So this has nothing to do with your dad’s engagement?” I stared at her, mentally taking back what I had thought about her being a good friend for dropping the subject. Seeing my expression she replied, “It’s not a subject that you can just ignore.”

  “I guess,” I murmured. “That won’t stop me from trying though.”

  “You need to face your problems, Jade. This is big news. It made the front cover of the paper, and I saw a segment about it on the news. Those reporters really did their research.”

  I bit my lip softly, thinking about my argument with my dad as my emotions began to swirl around inside me. After a few minutes of silence, I spoke. “I don’t want to talk about it. I just want a distraction. Let’s go out and do something illegal. Something that we’ve never done before.”

  Brooke twisted her pink lips into a forced frown. “What haven’t we done before?”

  I smirked, shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never danced naked in front of a Taco Bell.”

  Brooke swiveled her head around to glare at me. “We agreed to never speak of that.”

  “You agreed, and I laughed. Don’t worry Brooky, your secret is safe with me.”

  Brooke kept her eyes fixed on me. “Shut up.”

  I held my hands up in a surrendering gesture. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch. I won’t tell anyone about how you were so high that you convinced me to walk with you to Taco Bell, and then when you found out that it was closed, you walked through the drive thru and banged on the window begging them to give you a steak quesadilla. Oh, and I definitely won’t tell anyone about how you paid for that quesadilla by dancing in your underwear.”

  Brooke scowled. “I hate you.”

  “You love me.”

  “I don’t know why.”

  “I’m a lovable person,” I countered.

  Brooke rolled her eyes and scoffed at my words. Not even dignifying me with a response.

  I leaned forward toward Brooke, adding, “I’m most often compared to teddy bears and kittens.”

  Brooke finished painting her nails and leaned back on her bed, dangling her wet toes over the edge in order to let them dry. “Yeah, right. You’re like a bad dog in heat; a horny bitch that doesn’t follow the rules.” Then, going off on a tangent, she chirped, “Wow, this red looks good. My toes look like sexy firemen.” To add to her words, she wiggled her toes as she capped the nail polish and set it on her bedside table.

  I crossed my arms, attempting to look insulted, but it was hard not to reply to her “sexy firemen toes” statement. Somehow, I managed. “Hey, I follow the rules.”

  “When?” she questioned, raising a shapely eyebrow at me in disbelief.

  “I always follow the cooking rules on the back of the frozen pizza box.”

  Brooke tossed her head back and laughed, obviously not expecting that answer. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

  “Following the rules is for losers. Come on, let’s go get high and dance naked in front of McDonald’s. Maybe they’ll give us a large fry and some chicken nuggets.”

  Brooke slapped my thigh. “Shut up, Jade.”

  I feigned innocence. “What? I was just suggesting an activity that neither of us has done before!”

  Brooke rolled her eyes. “Sure you were.”

  “I was!”

  “How about we do something that doesn’t involve us stripping on the streets for free food?”

  I pouted. “But I like free food.”

  “Well then we could go steal food from 7-Eleven.”

  A groan escaped my lips, “Been there, done that. I was thinking something a little more exciting.”

  “Like what?”

  “I have an idea, but it involves us getting naked.”

  Brooke shook her head and sighed, “What is it?” Her eyes were narrowed at me. What a prude.

  “A surprise. I promise you that it’s not embarrassing, but it is something that neither of us has done before.”

  “Are you trying to deflower me, you little perv?” she joked, raising her hand to her chest to feign shock.

  I rolled my eyes at her words, “You wish. I bet you’d love to explore this candy shop,” I joked, motioning my hands toward my body.

  Next to me, Brooke smiled, flipping her blonde hair back over her shoulder as she went back to staring at her toe nails. “I guess that’s fine then.”

  My smile slowly transformed into a teasing smirk as I said, “Afterwards, can we stop by that Taco Bell and dance for a couple of burritos? Ya know, since we might get hungry and we’ll already be naked anyway.” A pillow smacked me in the face causing me to grunt from the unexpected impact. “I’ll take that as a no.”

  Chapter 3

  Dark clouds drifted across the night sky, carried by a light breeze that had recently come through. At this time of day the summer heat was more bearable because the sun had long retreated behind the full moon that now hung above our heads. The humid air clung to my skin as I stepped out of my underwear and pulled my bra over my head. Brown hair spilled into my eyes and I smiled as I brushed it off my face. The first thing that caught my eye was Brooke as she slipped out of her undergarments and piled her silky blonde hair up into a bun on top of her head. There was pale light provided by lamps perched along the inside of the wrought iron fence. The fence we had climbed over to get inside.

  The light caught Brooke’s eyes as she turned to face me. “Take a picture it’ll last longer,” she joked. Suddenly I wished that I had brought my phone so that we could photograph this and put it into a best friend photo album or something. We’d really get a kick out of that when we’re older and saggier than the skin on my grandfather’s face.

  I placed my hand on my hip. “Aren’t you clever?” I responded, sarcasm dripping from my words. Then after a second’s thought, I called out, “Last one in is a rotten egg!”

  Brooke smirked at me before she started running full speed toward the deep end of the pool.

  Her hair bobbed on the top of her head as she sprinted until she jumped and cannonballed into the deep. The splash wasn’t huge, but the way the water illuminated as it rippled was beautiful. Brooke’s naked figure propelled to the bottom of the pool before she made her way back to the top where she treaded water and wiped droplets from her eyes. She shivered. “It’s fucking freezing!”

  A smirk twisted at my lips. “I figured it would be. That’s why I wanted you to get in first. You know, to test the water and all that good stuff?”

  Brooke splashed water in my direction, but considering how far I was from her, nothing touched me. “So do you plan on just standing there or are you getting in?”

  “I’m getting in,” I answered as I walked to the edge of the pool and dipped a foot in to test the temperature. Brooke hadn’t been lying. The water was like stepping barefoot into freshly fallen snow. Withdrawing my foot, I decided to jump in—it’s easier to get it over with quickly than to shuffle in inch-by-inch. I felt Brooke’s eyes on me as I ran to the deep end where she had moved to hold on to the edge of the pool, and dove in smoothly.

  The cool water wrapped around my body as I swam like a mermaid, the way that my mother had first taught me how to swim when I was younger. I remembered how my dad would stand in the shallow end with me as we watched, mesmerized, as mom cut gracefully through the water, golden hair flowing behind her. Everything about her was beautiful. Her hair would shimmer like liquid gold in the sun, and her chocolate brown eyes were always so loving and sincere. If it had been up to me I would have chosen to look more like my mom instead of taking all of the looks from my father. I had his jade green eyes, dull brown hair, and even his stubborn personality. Apparently the only thing I got from my mother was her smile, slender
nose, and naturally thin physique.

  As I rose to the surface to take in a breath of air, the sound of lightly splashing water pulled me out of my reverie. Not far from me, Brooke floated peacefully on the surface, her eyes closed as she breathed in and out slowly. “This was a great idea, Jade.”

  I sighed in response, taking a deep breath and leaning back in the water to float on my back as well. The pool we had broken into was the outdoor neighborhood pool a few blocks from my house. It closed at eight o'clock every night, but I had been here after hours before to smoke with some friends, so I figured that Brooke and I could get in easily. It was nearly two o’clock in the morning; way past curfew, but I didn’t care. I was rarely home before midnight, and if dad really wanted me home he would just call the police again to come bring me back, because calling my cell phone never seemed to cross his mind.

  I waved my arms and legs, making water angels that rippled the water away from me in every direction. Brooke squealed happily as she pulled herself up over the edge of the pool and dove back in. When she surfaced, she flipped her hair back behind her and sighed loudly.

  “I’ve never been this wet and naked at the same time before,” she joked.

  “That’s because all the boys you date are skinny pot heads who don’t last longer than five minutes.” A small tidal wave of water hit my face, causing me to dip under the water and lose my floating position. “Hey! You know it’s true. You always used to complain about that.”

  Brooke shrugged. “At least I can get a guy, Miss never-had-a-relationship.”

  I bit my lip and shrugged off her remark. I didn’t have the heart to tell Brooke that I’d basically had a relationship with her brother for the last few months, and luckily for me, even if I did have the courage to tell her I wouldn’t have been able to. Just as I was about to give her a response, the gate to the pool screeched open. I turned around to see a security guard making his way around the pool.