Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 119230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
“I take it that you made it through Bio without incident?” Ilaria asks as I reach the edge of the big table.
She grins up at me, and I can’t help but grin right back. “Only just!”
Her friends watch me with furrowed brows, but Ilaria is quick to do the introductions. “This is Chanel and Arizona,” she tells me, pointing out the golden model as Chanel and the fragile petite girl as Arizona before turning to them. “This is Brielle. She just started today and has already become Tanner’s new project.”
“Oh shit,” Chanel laughs, her brows flying up as she shuffles over and makes space for me. “You’re going to need all the friends you can get.”
Ilaria smiles as I take the space beside her, clearly pleased that her friends are being so welcoming, and honestly, so am I. Chanel was right, I’m going to need as many friends as I can possibly find. “Tell me about it,” I say. “That guy is intense.”
“Chanel knows all about how intense Tanner Morgan can be,” Arizona laughs. “She had the misfortune of having his interest last year, and trust me when I tell you, it didn’t end well.”
My brows shoot up and I gape at Chanel beside me. “No way, really?” I ask, way too intrigued by the topic. “What did he do?”
Chanel scoffs and takes a bite out of an apple. “What didn’t he do?” she says, a heaviness falling over her shoulders. “I used to be the head cheerleader and most popular girl in school until he came along. He has a kink for ruining people’s lives.”
“Really?” I breathe, nerves swelling in my chest. “He has that much influence over this school?”
Ilaria nods. “What did I tell you?” she says with a smug, knowing grin. “You’re in a world of trouble.”
Well, crap. This is almost worse than waxing off half my meat curtain. My heart races. Colby threatened to make me the outcast of Hope Falls, and now there’s a chance that Tanner could do the very same thing, after crushing me first.
“How did you even get on his radar?” Arizona asks. “It’s only your first day. Either you work fast or something else is going on here.”
Both Arizona and Chanel furrow their brows as Ilaria cringes, recalling the many events that have brought me to this very moment. I turn to Chanel, my brow arching. “You don’t still have a thing for the guy, do you?”
She gapes at me as though I just grew an alien lifeform out of my ass and shakes her head. “Hell no.”
“Good, because I don’t think any of what I’m about to say is going to be very nice, but it all started at that party on the weekend, right after my boyfriend cheated on me.” Both Chanel and Arizona gasp and I glance at Ilaria, wondering how much of this she’s comfortable with me sharing, but just that glance alone has the girls putting the pieces together.
“NOOOOOO,” Chanel laughs, slamming her hand onto the table and meeting Ilaria’s gaze. “The Hope Falls dude you hooked up with was her boyfriend?”
Ilaria rolls her eyes, looking more than ashamed of herself. “Yup,” she says, popping the ‘p’ sound. “I had no idea he was with her, so I want that on record. I’m not a boyfriend-stealing whore … at least, not knowingly.”
Arizona smirks. “Noted.”
“Go on,” Chanel tells me, her gaze slowly narrowing with curiosity. “I don’t see how any of this has anything to do with Tanner.”
“Right, so I’d just sprung my boyfriend going to town on your girl here and naturally, I was a little upset, so I stormed out and accidentally ran into him. I was trying to get out of the house and turned a corner just as he stepped around it, and I knocked the beer right out of his hands. He must have just gotten it or something because the guy was drenched.”
Chanel laughs. “That was you? I heard something going on with Tanner but couldn’t see past all the bodies.”
“Yeah, unfortunately. Anyway, I was a little upset, understandably, and Tanner was all glaring and angry and then his friend came over acting like I was some kind of fresh meat who he could persuade onto her knees, who—”
“That would have been Riley,” Arizona cuts in. “The guy who looks like Thor’s younger, flirtier brother?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s Tanner’s best friend. You don’t need to worry about him. All he’ll try to do is get between your legs, but now that Tanner’s got you in his sights, Riley will back off … at least, he should. He’ll still flirt. I don’t think he’s capable of not chatting up a girl.”
“Great, just what I need,” I laugh. “Anyway, he was being all I wonder if she bites, so I let him know that I wasn’t about to suck his dick, but that if he needed to stick it somewhere, Tanner’s throat seemed like a good place, which apparently made things worse, so then I called him out on his bullshit, which again … worse.”