I walk outside my house, unsure how I’m getting to school. I never heard from Ella about who would be driving me. I know, deep down, it won’t be Jace. Still, a part of me is holding out hope.
I notice movement out of the corner of my eye and turn to find Grady running toward me as he hollers my name. Wrapping me in a bear hug, he says, “Holy shit, you’re back. I didn’t know. I had all this extra stuff I had to do yesterday, but today I’m all yours. Tell me all about New York, about yourself. You have really grown up, Mila.”
My cheeks heat at his words.
Grady pulls away from me and looks at what I’m wearing. Once again, I’m in jean shorts and a tank, which is showing off some nice cleavage. His eyes pause on my neckline before raking down to my bare legs. It’s gonna be a hot day.
“You’re my driver?” I point to a white sedan on the street, assuming it’s his car.
“I drew the short straw. Sorry, Mimi, you get me today.”
My ears catch on the old nickname. He’s the only one to ever call me that. I hated it when I was younger, but now I can’t wipe the grin from my face.
“So, I got football training after school, like always, but I finish at six. If you have something after school, or you wanna wait around and watch me pump weights and run drills”—he wiggles his brows at me—“you’re more than welcome to stay.”
I tap my finger on my chin, as if I’m really contemplating it. “I don’t know…that’s not very enticing, a bunch of sweaty guys and their big muscles sounds boring,” I jest with a wink. “Do any of these practices end up with you tackling Jace and putting him on his ass? Because if so, I’m so in.”
Grady lets out a huge laugh. “I’ll see what I can do, Mimi.”
The ride to school isn’t long enough to catch up, but it’s still great. I’m mostly grateful Grady isn’t pissed at me. We don’t talk about Jace, just about football, his parents and their romantic weekends, and how sad his love life is.
Which is hard to believe. He’s attractive, and I’m sure he’s exaggerating that his love life is sad while, in reality, his sex life is on fire. Because there’s no way girls don’t throw themselves at him.
There’s a guy waiting for him when we pull up. His bag is slung over his back, and he’s wearing cute black-rimmed glasses. He’s not a football player, but he’s obviously friends with Grady.
“Makai, meet my neighbor and old friend Mila. She just moved back from New York.”
Makai, who is cute in a nerdy way, gives me a small smile and wave. They walk in with me, talking about some Xbox game they both have; I haven’t a clue what they’re saying but they obviously enjoy gaming with each other. They leave me to go to their lockers.
I’m floating as I walk to my locker and find it on the first try. I almost cheer, happy I studied the map this morning over breakfast. I’d just grabbed my books and closed my locker door when I feel the air change around me.
“You’re fucking a King?”
I spin to see Jace, Hunter, and Roman behind me in the hall. Their seething expressions causes me to press my back against the locker. I’ve never seen them like this before.
What the hell are they talking about, fucking a King?
“Asher James, wide receiver for Lakeview Prep Kings.” The way Hunter spits out Kings makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. His eyes flash with anger.
“You should have gone to Lakeview. You can’t be here and fuck with a King,” Jace warns me, and that’s when I notice we have an audience.
Is he for real? Why would he even think…oh, fuck. “You’re spying on me.” It’s more a statement than a question.
Jace crosses his arms over his wide chest, and a few students make sounds like they’re scared. What, like Jace is gonna hit me? He might be angry, but he would never hurt me. Not physically, at least.
“It’s hard to miss you and Asher cuddling up in your driveway.” He cocks his head as if to challenge me to tell him he’s seeing shit that isn’t true.
I burst out laughing. It’s not gonna make a difference what I say. He’s made up his mind that I’m sleeping with Asher. They all have.
Jace clenches his teeth, and I swear I can see the steam coming out of his ears from the way his face is a deep shade of red. He’s mad.
And me? I turn and walk away.
This doesn’t warrant an explanation. If Jace and the others want to think that, let them. I’m not going to correct them today, or any day. He thinks he saw something and jumped to the conclusion I’m fucking Asher.
“Hey,” Hunter calls out.
Raising my hand in the air, I flip the three of them off and walk to my first class, ignoring everyone around me.
Ugh…lunch.
It’s too bad Grady and I don’t have the same lunch period. I would’ve happily sat with him. Instead, I’m once again staring at my three former best friends and the very disgruntled girlfriend of one.
God, Britney really seems to have it out for me. I’ve done nothing but show up here. I haven’t attempted to take her man away and have no intentions of doing so either. But if she’s gonna go all classic mean girl, I’ll have to make sure she doesn’t mess with me.
I sit down with people I’ve seen in some of my classes. Today they don’t move away, so that’s a good start.
“Hey, I’m Mila.” I decide to play the new kid and attempt to make a few new friends—hopefully non-asshole ones.
“I’m Sadie. We have World History together.”
I smile over at the girl opposite me, who has a genuine smile on her face. She has purple hair too. Looks wicked. “It’s nice to meet you, Sadie,” I say around a mouthful of fries.
“This is Cadence.” She gestures to the red-haired girl beside her.
The color isn’t natural, but it’s gorgeous. I’ve never attempted to dye my hair. It’s such a light blonde, I’m worried I’ll hate the color and won’t be able to get my natural hair back. A hairdresser told me once that I would need to be one hundred percent confident if I tried color it, as my hair will si=uck that colour it and I wont be able to go back.
“Is it true that you—”
I put my hand up quickly to stop the rest of Cadence’s question. “If it’s about sleeping with anyone, it’s not true.”
She nods and then looks over to the football table. “Sorry, I just always wanted to know what Hunter looks like naked.”
I almost spit my food across the table. Both girls raise their brows at me as they started laughing.
“Sorry, Cadence doesn’t have a filter sometimes,” Sadie says around her giggles.
Shaking my head, I laugh with them. “Nope, I get it. He is hot…a hot asshole. But I get it. I have seen him naked, though.”
Cadence and Sadie swing their heads back to me and move in closer, wanting to know more.
“Seriously? Was he, like, big?”
I laugh again. “He was eight, and I screamed. His mom came running in like someone had been murdered.”
I like sleepovers with Hunter, because his mom has a big bathtub. Every time I stay over, she fills it with bubbles, and it’s the best. Then, she brushes my hair, but I don’t need that today. I’m big enough to brush it myself.
I put my warm pjs on and grab my hairbrush out of the bag Daddy packed for me. I haven’t seen Hunter. He’s probably getting ready in the other bathroom. So, I go back to the one with the big bath.
Hunter is standing naked in the middle of the room.
I can see his penis and his balls. I scream at the top of my lungs because I don’t know what to do. He screams too and hides himself behind his hands. But it’s too late. I saw it all. My hands fly to my eyes, and I try to unsee it. But I can’t.
Boys’ parts are so weird. I know they have different parts to girls, but it’s so freaky how they hang there. I haven’t even seen Jace’s parts, and we sleep over a lot.
“What’s happened, what’s going on…oh, god.”
I open my eyes, and Hunter’s mom freezes in the doorway when she sees us. She gasps and grabs us both by our arms and takes us back to Hunter’s room. She then looks at Hunter and shakes her head. “Mila, love, let’s wait outside for Hunter to change.”
My dad and Hunter’s mom, Angela talk for a while the next day, and afterward, Dad talks to me about sex. He tells me that boys have a penis and girls have a vagina, and together they make a baby. I have soooo many questions on how, and why.
I have to promise Dad I’ll keep what I know a secret. I’m not allowed to tell anyone, because it isn’t my job to do so. Only their parents tell them when it’s right and they’re old enough. That’s a secret I have no issues keeping.
“That’s so weird that you knew them before…like, before they were popular,” Cadence says.
I hadn’t thought of it that way. It’s not weird to me. But, looking back, maybe it was weird that I was the only girl in the group back then. I never had other girl friends to go out with or ask to stay over. It was only the guys.
Over the rest of lunch, we talk about New York, clothes, and the new season of Stranger Things.
The bell rings, and we all get up.
“Same time tomorrow?” Sadie asks.
“Sounds great to me.”
