Chapter 10

Stevie McGabe

The first day of senior year! I am up at the crack of dawn and join my dad on his habitual early morning run. By the time we are back, my mom and Grayson are in the kitchen making breakfast.

Well, Mom is making breakfast and Gray is sitting at the counter with his head resting on his arms and his eyes closed.

“Good morning, little brother!” I ruffle his brown hair as I walk past him to grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator. He grunts, not bothering to lift his head.

“Excited for the first day of freshman year?” He grunts again and I laugh.

“How was your run, hun?” My mom smirks at her dumb rhyme before squealing as my dad wraps his sweaty arms around her and presses little kisses up her neck to her mouth.

“I’ve worked up something of an appetite,” he mumbles against her skin, moving his hips closer to hers, and she giggles.

Gray lifts his head, meeting my eyes, and grimaces. That was my mom’s I’m getting turned on by my husband giggle. We’d learned early on that if we heard that giggle coming from their bedroom, you didn’t go in under any circumstances.

“I’ll finish up breakfast if you want to go get showered, Dad?”

“Thanks, sweetheart,” my parents slip out of the room whispering to each other, and I step up to the skillet to finish the pancakes.

“Eww! I can’t believe you just allowed our parents to sneak off and get nasty in the shower together!” Gray shudders.

“I think it’s sweet they are still so into each other! Do you know how many kids have parents who don’t get on with each other?” I wish I could find someone I felt that strongly about, have that insatiable need to be around all day every day.

I was eighteen and yet to find a guy who I felt strongly enough to even share my first kiss with. My mind floats to the breathtakingly sexy image of Darryl climbing out of his shower last night, and I feel my cheeks heat up. Shaking my head to get rid of it, I focus all my attention back on finishing breakfast up.

“Hey, Stevie, you got a message.” Grayson pushes my phone down the counter to me, and I swipe the screen open.

Rhea

s’up dude just to let you know I won’t be in school today only just landed

Stevie

man, that sucks! Can’t believe you’re leaving me all alone on the first day back! I’ll call you later

My best friend, Rhea, had been back to visit her family in Italy and Greece over the summer and was supposed to have come back last week, but her little brother, Angelo, had gotten sick so the flight had been pushed back.

“Sorry, Gray, but looks like it’s just you and me on the bus today. Rhea and Angelo have only just got home.”

“Lucky,” he grumbles, shoveling his syrup-covered pancakes into his mouth.

An hour later, we are standing at the bus stop when Vinnie wanders over, looking petrified, his fingers practically white as they grip the straps of his backpack.

“Hey, Vinnie. Where’s Darryl? He’s going to miss the bus.” I peer over his shoulder to see if his grumpy-ass big brother is coming just as the bus pulls up. Vinnie shrugs.

“He was still sleeping when I left.” His voice is so soft, I have to lean forward a little to catch the words.

Vinnie has always been a shy, quiet kid, and I only usually see him when our families are hanging out. Surrounded by a bus-full of teenagers of varying ages, he looked like he was in hell.

I wondered how he was going to get on at middle school. Maybe I should introduce him and Angelo; they would be in the same grade.

Grayson swings an arm over his shoulders and leads him to a seat, filling Vinnie’s silence with easy chatter.

I can’t help the proud smile from popping onto my face as I slide in behind them. My little brother was such a sweetheart.

I meet my fellow cheerleaders on the front steps, all of us wearing our full uniform as is tradition on the first day of school.

Truthfully, I always feel incredibly self-conscious wearing my cheer uniform outside of games or competitions, but as head cheerleader this year, I had to go along with it.

I freeze when I walk into English lit and see Darryl sprawled in his chair, his long denim-clad legs stretched out in front of him as he messed with his phone, a frown marring his face.

“Mm-mm-mmm! Sign me up for a taste of that!” Inwardly I wretch, but I plaster a benign smile on my face as I look at Aneesah. “I do love fresh meat at the beginning of a new year.”

Aneesah was my second and had been gunning for my position in the team since freshman year.

We were friends in the loosest possible use of the word, but the idea of her getting her French polished talons into Darryl made my blood run hot and cold in ways I didn’t understand. “Leave the poor guy alone! He doesn’t look like your type anyway.”

“I don’t know,” she replies, swiveling in her seat to look at him again, biting her lip in a way I’m sure she thinks makes her attractive. “I quite like the brooding bad boy look.”

The next day, I watch as Darryl bolts from the classroom as soon as the bell sounds. Following him out into the corridor, I see him jog down the front steps and disappear into his mom’s car. Maybe he was going to her oncologist appointment with her?

I see him later, during lunch, hanging out with Jonny Smith – or Smit as he’s known as for some dumb reason - and his friends.

I was glad he’d made some friends— from what I’d picked up eavesdropping, he didn’t really have many back in San Diego.

Slipping my bottle of water into my bag with a small smile to the lunch lady, I make my way out towards the library where I usually hid away to eat lunch.

I’m halfway through my sandwich when I hear the bang of the heavy doors which signifies my best friend’s arrival.

Two seconds later, she drops into the chair opposite mine with a huff. “Are you wearing your slippers?!” I ask with a giggle.

“Eh…” Rhea looks at her feet which she has propped up on the low table between us. “I guess I forgot to take them off before I left. Oh well! So, what’s up with the asshole’s new friend?”

Rhea has an inordinate amount of animosity towards Smit, but she won’t divulge the reasons behind it, even to me.

We’d been best friends since freshman year, and she beat the crap out of some mean sophomore girls that had decided my hair color was an open invitation for insults.

She was an odd mix of lazy but driven— her grades put mine to shame, even when she skipped so many classes anybody else would have been put on academic probation.

“That’s Darryl.”

Her eyes widen comedically as she chokes on her mouthful of soda.

“The Darryl?!” she asks, coughing and pounding on her chest.

“Yup,” I nod. “The one and only.”

“He’s hot, you never said he was so freaking hot,” Rhea raises a dark eyebrow at me, challenging me to respond, but I just roll my eyes back at her.

***

One whole month, and Darryl was still spending every class we had together sending me death stares. Nobody except Rhea knows about our past thankfully, but I have to bite my tongue almost constantly as the main topic of the girls’ room was the hot and broody new student.

Him slipping out every Tuesday after first period had not gone unnoticed, and there were laughable rumors floating around school as to where he was going.

Rhea leans back in her chair, digging her hand into the box of cheap cereal she was currently eating dry as her lunch and breakfast.

“So, today’s rumor is that he is working as a call-boy, and the rich lady has to get him at eleven as that’s when her husband takes his side piece, so she knows he won’t randomly turn up at home.”

I can’t help but snort with laughter. “Who even comes up with these things?!” Rhea shakes her head with a laugh.

“No idea, but whoever it is, is a fucking genius. Oh, by the way, did you see the bench outside school?”

“Smit’s dad’s bench?” I shake my head no. Smit’s dad was a lawyer, and there were several benches around town sporting his face which kept getting defaced, much to his chagrin.

“What’s happened to it this time?”

“They’ve made him look like Starchild from Kiss,” she snorts. “It’s fucking awesome.” I laugh along with her, but my mind is still firmly on the puzzle that was Darryl, and his Tuesday morning disappearing act.