[Excerpt] Keeping Up Appearances

Chapter One

I dragged my eyes back to Jason and Nancy and found them looking at me like the school hallway was the last place they'd ever have expected to see me, like we didn't meet at Jason's locker every morning and had been meeting at Jason's locker every morning since the second week of Year Eight.

Concern flooded Jason's deep sapphire eyes, but it was Nancy's reaction that really hit home. The expression on her face said more to me than words ever could; the conniving weasel knew how I felt about him. She'd known all these years how I felt about him. It had never been lost on me that a guy with two female best friends could cause some issues as we grew up. That was the whole reason Nancy and I had always been honest about him. We had a pact that we'd always tell each other if we started or stopped crushing on him – or in my case, fell totally, completely and irrevocably in love with him and wouldn't stop even when I was stone cold dead.

Nancy had crushed on him plenty over the years, and we'd always laughed about it. Each time, I'd reassure her that he wasn't mine and if she really liked him and he liked her, I'd step back – and, I'd meant it... At least, I'd wanted to mean it. But, she'd then always assured me that Jason wasn't her type (particularly when her type was secretly the king of the Bows and all around dropkick – hot, yes, but arsehole extraordinaire) and that she wouldn't get in my way.

And, then! Then, she'd spent all of the day before texting me back and forth about me talking to him about how I felt! So with all this in mind, to say seeing them and their unexpected PDA was a bit of a surprise was a bit of an understatement.

I just... I just couldn't comprehend such...betrayal.

I'd been blindsided. I felt like I'd been kicked in the gut and it hurt worse than those period cramps where it feels like Alien is trying to rip its way out of your uterus.

I blinked and realised my eyes were tearing up.

So, yay! Betrayal with a healthy sprinkling of humiliation threatening as well.

Just what I needed on a Monday morning after three cups of coffee.

Jason took a step forwards, but I turned and pushed my way through the throng of kids. I could only hope I'd find somewhere quiet before my eyes decided to join in on the betrayal and embarrass me in front of a whole school full of merciless teenagers. Thankfully, most of those merciless teenagers were making for their first lessons so the hallways were emptying aggravatingly slowly.

I had no idea where I thought I was going or what I planned to do once I got there. But, where I found myself was not what I'd been expecting – even considering I wasn't thinking straight. I pushed open a door, turned a corner, and my hands ran smack into a naked chest along with my face. I pulled my face off the naked chest and looked around, realising I'd somehow found myself in the boys' locker room. Thank God it seemed like this half-naked body was the only other body in there.

"Of all the girls I expected to see in here, you were not on the list," a very recognisable voice said and I looked up to find the dark brown hair and pale cognac-coloured eyes belonging to the king of the Bows himself. But, the cocky smirk turned to a frown as he searched my face. "What's wrong?"

I blinked and a tear actually had the audacity to run down my face. I sniffed, looked up at the ceiling and tried surreptitiously to wipe under my eye. "Nothing's wrong. Why would anything be wrong?"

The smirk was back. "You're certainly not the first girl brought to tears by my body."

My tears were suddenly, magically drying up and I was starting to forget why they'd welled in the first place as I glared at him. "I imagine I'm not the first one scarred by the experience either," I replied flippantly.