Untouched (Bay Falls High, #1)(35)

My throat closed and opened.

Choking up? Are you fucking kidding me, Ti?

It was only because I had nowhere to go.

“Speeding back home, love?” Barr asked with smoke on his breath. “You barely touched the flames here and you’re done?”

“Going back to that shithole where your mother tried to kill herself,” Pres said. “How’s that good for anyone?”

“Why does it matter to you?” I asked.

“We don’t think you should leave, girl,” Kip said.

Pres was still touching my right hand.

Kip reached into the SUV and his soft fingertips grazed my left arm, making me shiver.

I sucked in a breath and fought every terrible urge and desire going through me.

Heat splurged throughout my entire body.

And then I felt Barr’s breath near my neck. “It would be a really bad idea if you left BFH.”

“Why?” I whispered.

“You’re in too deep,” Barr said.

“You just said I barely touched the flames,” I said.

“That’s right,” Pres said. “Things are just heating up here, sugar. You should stay.”

“You need to stay, girl,” Kip said.

“And if I don’t?” I asked.

Pres lifted my right hand. I thought he was going to spit on my hand like he did once before. Instead, he just ran a finger over my middle knuckle and let go. He opened the door and climbed out of the SUV.

“I’ll see you around, Tinsley,” he said.

The sound of my name coming out of his mouth…

“You shouldn’t let some douchebag like Denny get you all wet, love,” Barr whispered into my ear. “That’s what we’re for.”

He was the next to leave the SUV.

That left Kip running his fingertips up and down my arm.

Soothing yet deadly.

I turned my head and stared into his blue eyes.

And all he did was smile.

In a sad way that was enough for me.

I was destroyed.

Melting head to toe, watching them as they each got into their vehicles and drove away, following Kip back into Bay Falls.

When I turned my head I could smell Barr’s smoke lingering on my shoulder. I lifted my right hand to my face and smelled Pres’s cologne. The skin on my left arm was still prickly from Kip touching me.

I shook my head.

There was no way in hell I was staying.

I started the SUV and started to drive when suddenly the gas light glowed and beeped at me. I was zero miles until…

“Shit,” I said and quickly pulled over.

I was out of gas?

That was impossible.

When I left Claire’s…

I opened the driver’s door and looked back.

The little door was open.

I covered my mouth.

Those assholes took the gas out of the SUV.

I turned and reached for my phone to call for a ride… but there was no phone.

Either Pres or Barr swiped it.

So I was stuck alone on the side of the road without any gas. Without a phone. Without even knowing where I really was. If I wanted to walk back into Bay Falls I could have done that. It would take a while to do so though.

I looked at the screen on the dashboard and knew there had to be a way to get help from there. Some kind of roadside service that could bring me gas.

But as I reached for the screen, I stopped myself.

I lowered my hand down and just sat there in the dark.

Stuck between the life I had and the life I was running from.

The poor, dirty girl with a junkie of a mother.

Or the fake rich girl with a screwdriver to carve out anyone’s car that got in my way… getting the attention of the three baddest guys in school.

“What the hell are you going to do, Ti?” I asked the reflection in the rearview mirror.

At that moment it felt like there wasn’t much I could do.

So I just sat there.

And waited.

And thought about the life of the dirty, poor girl and the rich, fake girl…





I ended up falling asleep.

Because the driver’s seat of the SUV Claire let me drive was more comfortable than my bed at my old apartment. And being there on the side of the road on a dark street on a quiet night it almost seemed inevitable to doze off.

The only reason I woke up was because I started to smell dream.

That’s when you dream about something so vividly you can actually smell it.

It was a weird dream of Pres, Barr, and Kip all standing at the beach, right where the last of the water touched the sand. The three of them were shirtless. Their bodies built from stone yet all different in their own ways. Kip being more tone and lean thanks to surfing. Barr tall and thick with muscles, a cigarette hanging from his lips. And then there was Pres. His shoulders so wide and rounded, every inch of his body so well defined…

That’s when the smell started to hit me.

The smell of the ocean from Kip. The smell of smoke from Barr. The smell of cologne from Pres.

It made my head toss and turn against the seat.

I let out a sighing groan knowing how fucking wrong this was. But at least I was keeping it contained to a dream. The three of them were bad. So bad. So very super horribly bad. But in my dream… they could still be bad but in a different way.