Untouched (Bay Falls High, #1)(65)

How fucking bitchy both Ruby and Amelia had been to me.

It was jealousy, which I understood, but it wasn’t what they thought.

Then again…

Giant house. Huge bedroom. Private bathroom. Someone cooking meals. Electricity. Central air. Pool. Ocean. Hot boys. Parties…

I had sort of become so much like what I hated.

When I parked the SUV I shut it off and got out.

I heard their SUV behind mine and I didn’t even look back.

Instead, I walked toward the old building.

The word fuck was written sloppily in red spray paint across the building and front window of the pizza place. Nonna’s… no more.

The sidewalks were cracked with weeds sticking out from the cracks.

The building itself was built from uneven white concrete. If you ran your hand against it while walking it felt like broken glass cutting at your skin.

If you got into a fight outside here, you could easily throw someone against the building and hurt them.

This was my life.

And in a way it still was.

Because everything at BFH was fake.

Fucking fake.

Just a clock ticking away until Claire told me to get out.

“Giving us the tour, love?”

I turned and saw the three of them standing there.

Barr lit up a cigarette.

Kip looked around. “Reminds me of a scary movie. Killer going to come get us?”

“Probably,” I said. “You’re out of your element here.”

“Yeah, right, sugar,” Pres said.

“Oh?”

“We buy and develop shitholes like this all the time,” Pres said. “Or we just knock it down and flip the land. This isn’t new to me.”

“Good to know,” I said. “So you’re the asshole that ruins neighborhoods like this?”

“Looks already ruined to me, girl,” Kip said. “Did you see the house back there with a dick and balls spray painted on it?”

I didn’t respond.

Pres stepped toward me.

I stepped back. I put my hand out. “Don’t.”

“Don’t tell me what to do, sugar,” Pres said.

I was only able to back up a couple more steps before my back hit the jagged wall.

And Pres didn’t stop until he was a few inches from me.

The smell of his cologne came over me, protecting me from the smell of the town. A mix of rotten eggs, gasoline, smoke, and old trash. And on the days it got really hot and sticky, the smell of the river would creep into town.

But Pres’s cologne…

I shut my eyes and took a deep breath.

“That’s better,” he whispered.

He gently touched my chin the way he always did, making me look up at him.

I opened my eyes and his evil eyes ripped through me.

“You don’t belong here,” he whispered. “Why come back?”

“This is still home, Pres,” I said.

“The fuck it is, girl,” Kip said.

He was on my right, leaning against the building, arms crossed, showing off his strong forearms. And his sexy surfer blonde hair. And those killer blue eyes.

“Why’d you come here?” Kip asked.

“Just wanted to see my old friends. Everything at BFH… it’s a lot…”

“Only if you let it be a lot, love,” Barr said.

He was on my left, finishing his cigarette. He stabbed it against the building and let it fall to the ground.

They had me boxed in.

“They were jealous of you,” Barr said. “Rightfully so.”

“They hate you for who you are now,” Kip said.

“Who am I now?” I asked. “I don’t know who I am.”

“Yes you do,” Pres said. “You’re one of us now, sugar.”

“And you’re ours,” Barr added.

My body was lit on fire.

I didn’t know what those comments meant.

“And we share,” Kip added, leaving my knees wobbly.

“I don’t belong in BFH,” I said. “You all know that. I’m just an outsider.”

“And now you’re inside," Pres said.

“Or maybe we can be inside,” Barr added with a laugh.

“I like where this is going,” Kip said.

Pres shot his hands out and pushed at Barr and Kip. “Not here. Not the time or place.”

“For what?” I asked. “That’s what you want? To fool around with some poor, dirty girl? Just to change things up?”

Pres leaned toward me. He brushed his cheek to mine. “Sugar, go easy on yourself. If I wanted to be inside you by now I would have.”

Kip and Barr got even closer to me.

I had no room. No space to breathe. And I just kept turning my head left to right, staring at all of them.

My lips ached to be kissed. But I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to kiss.

Or maybe them all? All at once?

My cheeks burned.

OMG, Ti, who are you? Ruby and Amelia were right to hate on you…

I blinked fast and felt two inches tall when the Rulz became blurry through my tears.

And as fast as I started to tear up, Kip and Barr were there, swiping their fingers to my cheeks, wiping away the tears.