Crush: A YA Romance Collection

by Lavinia Leigh

  “We could go skinny dipping again,” Damien suggested with his eyebrows raised suggestively as his eyes met mine.

  “Ew, no man that’s my sister,” Austin stated as he forced himself out of Brooke’s pink beanbag chair. “But she’s right, we need to do something other than sitting in this basement, and I want to join the club.”

  “Club? You make it sound like we’re in some after school activity.” I sneered as I stretched to wake myself up a little bit.

  “Well, let’s go do something stupid before the alcohol wears off and Austin goes back to being a party pooper!” Brooke yelled in excitement, giving Austin a pout so that he would agree. He hated being called a party pooper because it meant that he was losing points with me and he was upsetting Brooke.

  “I’m not a party pooper, I’m responsible. One of us has to be,” Austin defended as he proceeded to list times where it came in handy for him to be responsible, but I tuned him out as I turned my attention to Damien.

  He had been quiet for a while, but I had felt him looking at me the whole time. He didn’t even seem a little bit drunk from the way he was acting—in control and bothered by the drunkenness around him. The whole night he had taken turns hitting on Brooke and me, and it made me wonder if he was interested in us or if that’s just how he was. I had been shocked to learn how much we had in common and it actually made me want to get to know him more. If this marriage with our parents actually went through, I’d at least want him as a friend instead of an enemy.

  “Hey, you’re not even listening to me!” Austin whined as he snapped his fingers to break the staring contest that Damien and I were having.

  “What do you want?” I asked rudely. He had broken me out of thought and was now mere centimeters away from my face; it made me uncomfortable.

  “We’re going to steal a car. Let’s go,” Austin stated as he lifted me out of the chair and pulled me toward the stairs.

  I could hear Damien chuckling as he got up and followed after us, bringing Brooke along. Once we were on the ground floor, Austin and Brooke rushed to put on their shoes while Damien and I stood by the doorway to the basement.

  “Let’s go!” Austin yelled excitedly, only to get stopped by Damien finally speaking up.

  “Whoa man, you gotta start smaller than stealing a car. For one, you can’t start from the top on your first time. Two, you’re shit-faced right now and couldn’t drive right if your life depended on it. So I’m driving, that way we don’t all end up in a ditch somewhere,” Damien said, taking the keys swiftly from Austin’s hands. “And we will have you steal something from 7-Eleven.”

  Austin groaned, probably annoyed that Damien had taken charge and ruined his excitement, but there were no complaints from Brooke or I as we raced to the car to get the shotgun seat. The ride to the convenience store was quick, mostly because I think Damien was ready to see if Austin could pass for sober long enough to actually steal something or if the cops would be called for clear underage drinking.

  “I’m not doing this; it’s baby stealing, and a complete waste of my time. Wake me when it’s over or Austin’s been arrested,” Brooke uttered before sighing loudly to show her boredom. Then, with a stretch, she lied down in the back seat to take a catnap.

  With her resting I was forced to go inside with Damien and Austin in order to follow through on the plan. As we opened the door to reveal aisle after aisle of food and drink, we nodded to each other and went our separate ways. Austin followed me while Damien tracked off alone to make a small distraction. We sauntered through the aisles until I found one that was concealed from view from the only employee in the shop. I slid my hand onto a Kit-Kat bar and slowly slipped it into the pocket of a zip-up hoodie I had borrowed from Austin.

  “The key is to be slow as to not draw unnecessary attention to yourself. Now you try,” I gestured toward the food, giving Austin a starting place.

  “How do you know it will work?”

  “I had a friend teach me, she was a pretty good pickpocket from what I remember,” I said as I gestured for him to try now.

  Austin followed my example and started to collect snacks for the road. I glanced around to see Damien giving the signal that it was time to go; he was getting a Slurpee. I nodded to Austin, who continued to stuff random snacks into his pockets as I walked down another aisle to collect food. I swiftly put different snacks, chips, candy, and even trail mix into my over-sized hoodie as I made my way to Damien.

  “Are you ready yet, honey?” I asked sweetly just as he stopped the machine and lifted his eyebrows suggestively.

  “For you, anytime,” he stated, placing his arm around my shoulders as we walked to the counter to pay for the Slurpee. We had to pay for something so that it wouldn’t be too obvious, although it couldn’t be more obvious than two drunk teens and our designated driver.

  I had noticed that Damien put two straws into his Slurpee as if we were going to share it like we were on a date. I smiled to myself at the thought, and then quickly wiped it away. I had to focus long enough to get Austin out of the store without having him get arrested the first time he’d ever done something wrong or we’d never convince him to do it again.

  As Damien handed the cashier the money for the drink, I heard the bell ring over the door signaling that Austin had left and Damien and I soon followed. We walked together to the car to see Brooke in the front seat banging her head to whatever music she was playing. Austin and Damien got in the back seat, while I got in the front and turned down the music.

  “That was fantastic! I’ve never felt so alive! Can we do something else? Something bigger?” Austin suggested, leaning forward between the two seats and glancing at Brooke since she was in the driver’s seat.

  “I got an idea,” Brooke stated with a smirk as she started the car.

  As soon as she went to put the car into drive, Damien spoke up, saying, “Wait.” He opened the back door of the car, stepped out, and went and opened the driver’s door. “I’ll drive,” he said to Brooke, who pouted instantly. “Give me directions to wherever you were planning on going.” That caused her to smile as she hopped out and came to trade seats with me so that she had the passenger seat.

  Once we were all set, Damien put the car in drive and sped off down the street, following Brooke’s directions. The car jerked as he raced through the streets, taking back roads, and even hopping a curb from cutting a turn too short. Despite the speeding, he did manage to follow most of the rules of the road, which I’m sure Brooke wouldn’t have been able to do.

  In minutes we were screeching to a sudden stop outside of a three story house with no visible lights on. “Where are we?” I asked curiously as I looked over my clothes to make sure none of the Slurpee had spilled on me during the Fast and Furious driving reenactment.

  “You remember Jake?” Brooke asked, even though she knew I did since I saw him every day I went to school—when I went.

  “Of course. The guy you lost your virginity to.” I clarified for Damien and Austin.

  “Yeah, well I’ve been waiting two years to get back at him for cheating on me, and I think now is the time,” she said with a wicked smile as she got out of the car and made her way to the house. When she glanced back at us, there was a wide, toothy grin on her face that showed just how excited she was to get payback. “Come on, guys. There’s nothing better than revenge,” she called back to us.

  Damien raised his eyebrow at me, to which I just shrugged my shoulders. “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” I said and hopped out of the car behind her. Damien and Austin followed suit and climbed out of the Jeep, joining Brooke and me on the sidewalk in front of the house.

  “Let’s go in,” Austin said excitedly, his eyes bright. I could tell that the liquor was helping to mask his usually responsible conscience.

  "Calm down,” Damien muttered under his breath, receiving a sideways glare from Austin.

  “He’s right,” Brooke pointed out. “You need to calm down or you’re going to g
et us all busted, and we haven’t even gone in yet.”

  “Who’s going in?” I questioned, flicking my eyes around the group. It was obvious that Brooke and Austin were. Brooke fueled by revenge, and Austin by adrenaline. So that just left Damien and me.

  “You go in, I’ll be lookout.” Damien shrugged his shoulders before speaking again. “It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t really want to partake in some freshman revenge scheme anyway.” His dark hair fell into his eyes, forcing him to squint a bit as he looked at me.

  Everyone stood around for a moment, before Brooke rubbed her hands together and said, “Let’s do this bitch.”

  Damien shook his head, smiling at her words. “Jade, stay by the window on the bottom floor and listen for my signal. I’ll do a bird call or something. If that happens then everyone come out the back of the house and wrap around to meet back at the car.”

  We all nodded, then headed off toward the house with Brooke in the lead. To our astonishment, she led us right up to the front door. Bending over, she lifted the porch mat and untaped the key that was stuck to the top of it. “Thank God Jake’s an idiot. His parents had to leave a spare key here since he always forgot his key inside,” she explained as she turned the key in the lock and pushed the door open. She waved her thin arm out in a sweeping motion, gesturing us to go inside as if she was the owner of the home inviting in guests. “After the eighth time forgetting your key you’d think you’d start to make sure you had it before you left the house,” she mumbled, rolling her eyes. “Coming over to a guy’s house to have sex while his parents are gone can get complicated when he’s always locked out.”

  “In that case I hope he forgot his key a lot,” Austin stated, his head turning back and forth to scan the living room of the house.

  Brooke stepped back outside and taped the key back under the mat, before going back inside and closing and locking the door. “Austin you look upstairs with me since Jade has this floor.”

  “What about the basement?” I questioned.

  Brooke shook her head. “Nothing down there worth taking. That’s like his mom’s storage room. I’m going to Jake’s room and Austin can go through his parent’s stuff. His mom always hated me anyway.”

  The pair disappeared up the stairs as I made my way into the kitchen. The room was dark but I was still able to see due to the large windows allowing the street lights to filter in. Since I personally didn’t have a revenge vendetta against Jake, my mind immediately went somewhere else. My eyes landed on the refrigerator as my stomach rumbled slightly at all of the things that it could be filled with. My curiosity got the best of me as I strolled over to it and yanked it open smoothly to reveal its contents. The light from inside flooded the room and each item seemed to give off a heavenly glow. Widening my eyes, I reached my hands inside, pulling out a six pack of Coronas.

  “Jackpot,” I said in a sing song voice, raising the beers in the air like they were Simba and I was Rafiki in The Lion King.

  I placed the beers down at my feet, claiming them as my own, before I stuck my hands back into the refrigerator and rummaged through some tuba-wares full of leftovers. In the back of the refrigerator, behind a bowl of what seemed to be leftover lasagna, there was a small pizza box. As I pulled the box out and set it on the counter, Damien’s words from earlier flashed into my mind, I hate Italian food unless it’s pizza. Lifting the top, my smile grew as I saw that it was a personal pan pepperoni pizza. Only one pizza slice was missing, leaving three slices for Damien. Satisfied, I closed the pizza box and kicked the refrigerator door shut with my foot, hearing glasses clink as it slammed. I grabbed my six pack and Damien’s pizza and made my way back into the living room.

  “Guys, I’m done,” I called up.

  Brooke’s voice floated down the stairs behind me. “We’ll be out in a sec.”

  That’s when the sound of a bird call pierced my ears. It was Damien hooting from outside the house. Hurriedly I peered out the window to see Damien waving his arms at the house for a moment before he slipped out of my line of sight.

  “Someone’s coming!” I yelled up to them.

  Making sure I had a good grip on the beers and pizza, I headed toward the back of the house, hoping that I would find the back door easily considering I had never been in the house before. Luckily there was a sliding door that led out back from the dining room, right off the kitchen. I tucked the pizza box under my arm and flipped the latch on the door, sliding it open easily. I ran out the back door not even bothering to close it since Brooke and Austin would be trailing behind me.

  I ran around the back of the house, heading toward the only opening in the chain-link fence and ducked down behind a hedge as I found my way to where we had parked the car. Thankfully the door had been left unlocked and I was able to place my loot in the backseat. Once my items were stashed in the car, I ventured off to find Damien. As I made my way back over to the front of the house, making sure to be as discreet as possible, I found Damien crouched behind a car parked right next to the driveway in front of Jake’s house.

  I could see why Damien had sounded the lookout alarm. A car had turned onto the street, and since he didn’t know what cars belonged to this house, he had figured it was better to be safe than sorry. We watched as the car slowed down a few houses from us to let someone out and then continued down the street. The little blue Honda Civic drove right past us and went all the way to the end of the road before making a left and disappearing from sight.

  “False alarm.” He let out a heavy sigh, standing up to full height and placing his hand on my wrist to lead me back toward the house. “Are they out though? We really should leave soon.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I told them we had to go. I didn’t wait for a response, but before you bird-called I had just told them I was finished and they said they were almost done too.”

  Damien shook his head. “Let’s hope they’re on the way.”

  Suddenly lights flooded the street again. This car was going so fast I didn’t even have time to react. The car screeched to a stop in front of the driveway, and as soon as the passenger door opened, Damien yanked my arm, pulling my body to his. His muscular arms wrapped around my thin figure, holding my body to his as his mouth connected with mine in mere seconds. I was so shocked at the sudden turn of events that my mouth was frozen as Damien’s warm lips molded with mine. It was as if my brain had been turned to silly putty; all I could think about was how velvety smooth his lips were.

  Breaking the kiss for a second, Damien whispered against my lips, “Kiss me.” The guttural words were so forceful and controlling that I instantly felt the desire to be closer to him.

  I pushed my body against his, tangling my arms around his neck to hold his lips to mine. Our kiss was powered by lust and desire, his tongue traced over my bottom lip asking for entrance, which I granted immediately. As our tongues tangled together in sweet agony, the taste of cherry from the Slurpee filled my mouth again. I bit his lip playfully before kissing him again. The way our lips molded together and our tongues danced against each other’s was only fueling my need further. I wanted more as I disconnected our lips and tilted my head back, allowing Damien’s kisses to travel from my lips and down my jaw line until they reached my neck.

  He traced his tongue along the hollow of my collarbone and flicked it against the nape of my neck. Planting little kisses on the side of my throat and sucking at the skin there. A small moan escaped my mouth at the feel of it, when suddenly a voice spoke.

  “I’m not interrupting am I?” Austin questioned from behind us.

  Damien placed a final kiss on my neck before letting me go.

  I backed away from him slowly, glancing toward Austin. My eyes had fogged over at the lust that had been building up behind them.

  Damien smirked, shaking his head and crossing his arms. “Of course not,” he answered.

  Standing next to Austin, Brooke gave me a saucy wink. “Oolala. What was that for?”

  I shrugged my
shoulders, glancing toward Damien for an explanation.

  “A car stopped in front of the driveway. We’d look suspicious if we were just standing here. So I kissed her to make it seem like we were a horny teenage couple.” He shrugged his shoulders. “No biggie.”

  “Yeah, no biggie,” I responded, my eyes flickering from Damien’s smirk, to Austin’s disbelieving expression, and finally to Brooke who just shrugged off the answer and waved the car keys at us.

  “We closed the back door just as someone walked into the house. I think the car stopped to drop someone off. Probably Jake. Now let’s go.”

  “Where to now?” Damien asked.

  “Back to our house to show off our findings. Where else?” With that, Brooke turned and headed to the car, the rest of us in tow.

  Chapter 8

  The car jolted to a sudden stop in front of Brooke and Austin’s house. Everyone piled out, thrilled to be away from Damien’s driving, and into the house. Once we were all downstairs Austin let out a loud, excited whoop as he took a seat on the couch, waiting to show us his loot. In an attempt to hide my findings from the others, I had stuffed the small pizza box and six pack under my shirt, holding it in place with my hands for good measure. I was sure they knew that I had beer under my shirt, because even though it was one of Austin’s sweatshirts I clearly didn’t have a pot belly all of a sudden.

  Brooke sat crisscross applesauce on the floor with her back pressed against the couch. “So, who wants to start?”

  Austin sat on the floor next to his sister, dropping all of the snacks we had stolen from 7-Eleven into the middle of the floor. He used his hands to push his hair back off of his face. “Want to go first?” he asked me as I plopped down onto the empty pink beanbag next to where Damien was sitting.

  “Eh, why not?” I answered, raising my shirt and feeling the heat of everyone’s eyes as they watched me pull out the beer pack and the small pizza box. I placed the beer in the center of us. “I guess I can share this with you guys.” Then I handed the pizza box over to Damien. Our eyes met as I said, “But this is yours since you couldn’t come in, and you like pizza.”