The Heartbreaker's Home

Chapter 1 - Trailer

Tall, a head of dark hair, and my breathe caught when he turned what I knew were a pair of deadly beautiful green eyes. The subject of dreams of every girl in Redwood Creek, you could throw a rock in any direction and hit 3 of them who would sigh upon sight of him.

Star quarterback of our high school, reknowned playboy and never kept a girlfriend for more then 3 months.

My ex-boyfriend, Declan Timothy Reed.

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Marketing 101 wasn't a core subject I had to take on campus, but as part of my course, we had to take two electives per semester, and I thought that Marketing seemed like a simple subject to take. I wasn't too far off. It consisted of a whole lot of studying advertisements and commercials, and the occasional project of designing a marketing campaign for a fictatious company our lecturer, Professor Hastings cooked up for the project.

All in all, it was a good class, an easy class to digest especially after a heavy lunch on a Monday. It was also a class Ayah and I didn't really pay much attention.

Now, I have yet to recover over the fact that Declan was back here in Redwood Creek. Our breakup was not one the highest moments of my life, but considering it happened barely a few months into the relationship, I wasn't exactly too torn up about it either.

"You know him?" Ayah had asked when his eyes met mine that morning, when I had froze in the hallway. I... I didn't know what I expected, actually. While our breakup was not exactly on the best terms, it wasn't horrible either. We had been dating for almost 2 months when Declan had suddenly announced he couldn't do it any longer and had left.

"In a way, yes." I replied her, debating in my mind, before finally deciding to tell her what happened. Megan was the only other one who knew the sordid details. "We were high school seniors, and Declan was the star quarterback, the one Coach would point all the college scouts to watch. I... I wasn't anyone particular important, but somehow Declan and I shared the same homeroom."

"You mean you haven't noticed him before?" Ayah wheedled with a green, that cheeky twinkle in her hazel eyes. Coupled with her pixie haircut and her preppy style, Ayah was practically a walking fashion icon, if she wasn't so toxic to anyone she doesn't trust.

I bit my lip, and gave a sheepish grin. "Well..."

Ayah pounced on it. "Ahah! So you have been ogling the high school quarterback! So cliche, Kelsey." she teased with a laugh, hurriedly shushing when the gray-haired Professor Hastings glared at us.

Pretending to be taking down notes, I nudged her. "Who wouldn't. He was practically the walking, unattainable icon of my high school here."

"So? What happened?" she asked, obviously eager to find out. By now, we had completely lost track of where Professor Hastings was, thank goodness for recordings of classes uploaded at a later time.

"I thought he just wanted to make me one of his conquests-"

"And of course you didn't let him, did you?" Ayah replied with a grin. I laughed. I didn't like the spotlight, but I wasn't a doormat either. My most vivid memory of Declan before we become an item was flipping him off in the middle of the cafeteria in Hoffman Highschool because he dared assume that he was welcome at the same table as Megan and herself, together with Megan's then boyfriend. Declan Timothy Reed had never looked as livid as he did that day.

"This sounds like such a classic 'bad boy meets a challenge' high school love story." my friend giggled, careful to hide so their sharp-eyed, white haired professor could not notice it behind his wire-rimmed glasses.

I snickered, playing with my ballpoint pen. "Sort of. He made it a point to get to me. I figure I posed some sort of new, fresh challenge to him and I wanted no part of it."