Untouched (Bay Falls High, #1)(45)

“Unless you’re going to get naked and get in the pool,” Kip said as he grabbed his stuff off the table.

“You first,” I said.

I instantly regretted the comment.

Kip put his hands to his pants, ready to drop them.

“Hey, love,” Barr said. “I see you’re having a drink or two. Stay safe. Hate for something to happen to you.”

I opened my mouth ready to tell Barr to go fuck himself.

That’s when I felt something push at my shoulder.

I turned my head and smelled Pres’s cologne as I stumbled, knowing I had no choice but to jump into the pool.

I hit the water fully clothed and jumped up, fighting my wet hair out of my face.

“Don’t drink and drive, sugar,” Pres said. “I like you alive… and wet.”

“Want me to join you for a swim, girl?” Kip offered.

I just stared at them.

Barr took one last drag of his smoke and flicked it into the pool. “Let’s go. She’ll be there tomorrow. She has no choice.”

They walked back into the house and left the way they came.

I stood there in the pool with Barr’s mushy, gross cigarette just floating around.

“Holy shit,” Iris finally said.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Gi said.

She was cuddled up tight in her towel, chewing on the edge of it.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“They don’t do that kind of thing, Ti,” Iris said. “They don’t just show up like that. Or talk like that.”

“Or act like that,” Gi said.

“What does that mean?”

Iris shook her head. “You better be at the ditch tomorrow when they say.”

“She’s right,” Gi said. “I don’t know if they like you or if they really just want to mess with you.”

“And my guess is there’s no in between,” I said.

“Nope,” Iris said.

I turned my head and looked at Barr’s cigarette in the pool.

What the fuck do these guys want from me?





fourteen





Gi and Iris left after breakfast.

They didn’t talk about the Rulz other than the silent agreement that I would show up to the ditch first as requested. Then they would show up for the fights. Iris sent a few texts and confirmed there were fights planned. So it wasn’t some kind of set up for me.

As they left, Iris gave me a classic bitch grin and whispered to look for the post sex glow on Claire’s face to really know what she had been doing last night. Of course, this was after enduring countless stupid jokes about real estate being compared to Pres’s father’s body.

Which was maybe funny for them… and for me… but only a little. Because that meant Pres’s mother was home while her husband was sleeping with another woman. And that woman was the woman who took me in to help me and my mother.

That made me even more connected to Pres and the Rulz, which I did not want.

There was nothing I could give them. Nothing they could gain from me.

So in a sense I was some kind of toy.

But I had an idea or two.

I just needed to find a weakness so I could fight back. I thought by dropping hints about Barr and I kissing that would do it. But I guess Barr told Pres and Kip about it. And they didn’t seem to mind. Unless they wanted a kiss of their own. Which… if that got them off my back…

My face flooded with red hot heat as I stood in the kitchen thinking about it.

The poor dirty girl with the junkie mother coming to this rich town and going to the rich school and tongue fucking the three hottest, baddest, and richest boys in that school and town.

What a fucking story, huh?

I wasn’t sure if that would make me a legend or just another whore in all their eyes.

Not that I cared what they all thought of me.

This wasn’t my home.

This was just a place to be for the time being.

I didn’t see Claire.

I didn’t see her favorite car either.

It could have been in the garage.

And even if it was… maybe Pres’s father drove.

Maybe they were together in some luxury hotel suite, sitting on a hidden balcony, sipping coffee, smiling at all the temptation and all they’ve done wrong.

Which seemed so fucking fitting.

Was there anyone near me that was who they said they were? Anyone who didn’t treat the lines of right and wrong like they were invisible?

Even the comments made at the pool with Iris… I wondered if Pres, Barr, or Kip had… you know… with her. Or Gi.

They weren’t virgins.

That was for damn sure.

I was at the point of actually considering giving it my all in class just to distract my mind.

Now that was scary.

Lucky for me Beth was waiting at my locker.

“Sorry about last night,” I said to her. “I never got back to you.”

“Heard you had visitors.”

“What? How?”

She tilted her head. “Really?”

“Right. Nothing is safe around here.”

“Not with them,” she said. “Sometimes they like it to be known.”