Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 79183 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79183 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
We make it to her locker without anyone saying anything, and then Hailey walks up and gives her a little shove, enough that I feel it and want to fight. “You new, yeah?”
Belle looks over her shoulder. “What gave it away?”
I snort at her sarcasm.
Hailey rolls her eyes. “Look, you can’t just come strolling in here—“
“—Gonna stop you right there.” I intervene. “She’s with me, so if you have an issue with her, then you can talk to me about it. If not, run back to small dick Xander, then come back when he can actually make you orgasm, which will most likely be mmmmm…” I pretend to think about it. “Never, am I right?”
“You’re such a—“
“—back off, Barbie!” Belle shoves Hailey so hard that her books fall to the ground. “He’s mine, not yours, mine, so walk back to your castle and appreciate the fact that I haven’t kicked your soft ass!”
“My ass isn’t soft!”
Belle snorts. “Could have fooled me.”
Hailey lunges.
I pull Belle away laughing.
And then I see my friends on the sidelines getting basically everything on their cameras, smirks firmly in place.
“Gentleman.” I wave.
They all give me a thumbs up as if to say, totally cool you didn’t respond; we get it, we really get it.
The bell rings just when I’m ready to approach my friends, so I grab Belle and make a run for our first class.
The rest of the day passes by in a blur. Word spreads that a new hot girl is living in my house along with me; somehow I’m fucking my foster sister and a whole lot of other shit I don’t want to get into.
Memes are made.
Tweets.
And yet, even though I’m livid that people can be so cruel, I’m smiling the entire ride back to the house.
People are strange… I mean, yeah it happened, but who just randomly makes that sort of shit up?
Belle moans. “That was torture.”
“Correction,” I say. “It was torture before you were there; now it’s almost like a reward seeing you by my side.”
“Huh?”
“I used to stare at the birds,” I admit.
She sits up. “Wait, what?”
“Outside.”
“Duh, because they live outside. What do you mean, though?”
I pull into my driveway and put the car in park. “I used to be jealous that they were outside, and I wasn’t.”
She frowns, her cute eyebrows causing a crease to form. “And now? Now, what are you jealous of?”
“The air,” I whisper. “It’s touching you.” I lean in. “I’m not.”
“I can’t decide if that’s cheesy or just really romantic.”
“And I can’t decide…” I tuck her hair behind her ear. “If I’m a lunatic for wanting to fuck you again or just really, really in love at first sight.”
“You think that’s possible?” she asks. “Love at first sight?”
“Do you?” I counter.
Her eyes dart from right to left and then land on my mouth. “I think that if it was, it would be proven already, don’t you think? From this morning?”
“Oh, that was stalking at first sight, but I can see how you’d be confused.”
She punches me in the shoulder. “I was tired and looking for a bathroom.”
“Like what you find, though?” I tease.
Her smile goes wide. “I did. I do.”
“Then the theory is proven, right?”
“Right.” She throws her head back in a laugh. “How can you be both such an asshole and such a gentleman? I don’t get it.”
“The world’s a confusing place, princess.” I reach for my door and open it. “Just as long as I’m both to you—I’m okay with the weirdness.”
“Both,” she repeats, getting out of the car and following me into the house like it’s normal that we live together and like it’s not tense as hell once we’re in the kitchen making snacks.
“So.” She finally breaks the ice. “When do your parents get home.”
I almost laugh before I point to the fridge. “They always leave a note.”
She reads it out loud. “Don’t wait up. Out for dinner tonight, order pizza.”
They don’t leave a twenty; they leave a hundred dollar bill as if we’re going to feed the town or at least more than two people.
Belle grabs it and waves it in front of my face. “Pizza, huh?”
I lift her onto the kitchen counter and kiss her mouth. “Can I have you first? Rewards.” I press a tender kiss to her lips. “Remember?”
She laughs. “Just how bored were you in school that you bird watched, and now you’re kissing me?”
When she says it like that, I sound like a complete loser, but she’s just… imperfect and doesn’t know my past.
Most don’t.
It’s like a fresh start.
One I needed.
One that will help me forget. Which is selfish as hell, but she has a light that was lost to me when I was a freshman, so it just feels like, finally, things are going right.
The family will always look perfect despite the fractures in the foundation; she doesn’t have to know the dirty details.