Untouched (Bay Falls High, #1)(11)

“What the fuck are you even doing here anyway?” the second girl asked.

I didn’t respond.

I should have had some kind of comeback but I didn’t.

“Our halls,” the first girl said. “Our rules. Our building. Step out of line and you go down.”

“Worse than Beth when she remembers how her Daddy doesn’t love her anymore so she takes the first dick she can to forget about it,” the second girl said.

My eyes went wide.

Beth just stood there like me.

The two girls finally walked away.

I ripped my hand away from Beth’s.

I looked at her.

“Blair and Vicky,” she said. “There’s levels, Ti. Dumb bitch. Regular bitch. Evil bitch. And rotten bitch.”

“Which are they?” I asked.

“Above rotten bitch,” Beth said, looking uneasy. “A level that doesn’t even have a name.”

I touched my cheek. “Great.”

Beth closed in on me. “You’re going to need a friend or two to understand this place, Ti. Whatever you want to be while you’re here, be it. But you can’t do it alone. Especially with the rulz…”

“Fuck the rules,” I said. “I don’t follow rules.”

“No, Ti, not those kind of rules,” Beth said. “I’m talking rulz with a z.”

“What is that?”

“Everything wrong with this fucking place,” Beth said. A bell rang. “I’ll see you later, Ti.”

“Bye,” I whispered.

Beth hurried away.

I stood there, shaking my head.

What the hell did ‘rulz’ stand for?





five





The day was almost over.

That’s what I kept telling myself over and over.

I couldn’t get a real feel on Beth but I agreed to hang out with her after school. I figured there were two sides to everyone. The side you showed inside Bay Falls High and the side you showed outside of it. And that went for any town or school.

That didn’t mean me and Beth were going to end up as best friends sharing our darkest secrets with each other. And if that did happen I was pretty sure I’d win that contest. Even if Beth’s father did take off on her, big fucking deal. My father was never part of my life and my mother was probably right now puking her guts out because she couldn’t get her next fix.

Go, Ti, you’re killing it, girl…

I felt like burying my head into my locker and screaming.

I was late for every class, most of which was on purpose. It was nice to take a break, a breather in between classes and just explore the halls on my own. Nobody cared either because I was just the new girl. It also didn’t help that I had a class with Blair and Vicky. And Blair stared at me the entire time. And when class was over, Vicky handed me a piece of paper with her lips kissed to it and the word whore written in the middle of her lips.

Like they knew anything about me.

I flicked the piece of paper into my locker and thought about just leaving.

Ditch the last couple of classes and call it a day.

I took a deep breath and my eyes went wide.

I smelled something.

Not perfume. Not cologne.

Smoke.

Not fire smoke either.

Cigarette smoke.

I shut my locker and gasped.

There was a guy standing at the next locker. His back against it. Foot up against the bottom locker. Head back. A cigarette touching his lips. I watched as he closed his lips and took a drag.

He was clean cut with a chiseled from stone jaw. Messy dark hair that was somehow still put together perfectly. Everything about him screamed in my mind to run like hell. To definitely ditch school right now.

Right fucking now, Ti.

Wearing a dark gray v-neck t-shirt with arms that were filled with muscles that poured out of the shirt for days, he just stood there and smoked as though I was invisible.

Typical.

He took another drag and made an O with his lips and made circles of smoke that danced into the air before slowly turning into nothing.

That’s when he slowly turned his head to look at me.

His eyes were a honey gold color. The kind that broke promises and hearts without words. But maybe, as sweet as his eyes looked his face told a different story. Even with lips that looked a little delicious and tempting.

I stood my ground, waiting for someone else to smell the smoke and see what would happen then.

Just exactly who was this guy to get away with smoking inside the school?

I waited for the smoke detectors to pick up on it too.

I imagined the sprinklers going off…

My eyes tried to stay on his face but took a quick detour to the v-line on his shirt. He was built for that kind of shirt. And the bottom of the shirt was purposely pulled up over his belt. Black leather with a silver buckle. His jeans were faded at the top. Those bitchy prissy jeans that you bought for hundreds of dollars to look messed up.

He didn’t say a word to me though.

He brought the cigarette to his mouth again and took another drag.

Putting his head back, he parted his lips and let the smoke slowly lift from his mouth. His throat… mygod… it was fucking hot in the worst way possible.

When he lowered his gaze to me again, he extended his right hand and offered me the cigarette.