EDITED VERSION. TO BE PUBLISHED MID-2013
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Chapter Two
Blake
The boys were staring at me when I changed into my sports clothes. I had gym sixth period thank god for that! All the girls were groaning as this huge coach that reminded me very much of Edna, the Head of Cafeteria at Melville Detention Center. I didn’t even catch her name—with short, curly blonde hair, a button nose and cheeks too big for her face yelled at us to ‘HURRY IT UP, CUPCAKES’.
I ignored what she called me and fought the urge not to punch the brown haired cheerleader who kept staring at me with a face full of disgust. I mean seriously? How rude could you be? Didn’t your damned parents teach you it was rude to stare?
I felt more comfortable when I made my way out of the girl’s change rooms and out of that A&F dress. I liked it, it was pretty but it wasn’t my style; nothing that allowed guys to peer up my dress was my style and the idiots had done that exactly.
What was worst was that the shorts I was wearing—a gift from my aunt was also A&F. It was fitted like leggings and just above the mid-thigh sections of my legs. They were practically booty shorts!
We were going to play Dodge-ball, I had to hold the eye rolling for later. Just my lucky. First day and I’m already going to batter a few heads in.
“Hey cupcake.” An arrogant voice called.
I turned and plastered on the sweetest smile. I hated my sweetest smile. But if I had to play Noah’s game for him to piss the hell off then I will.
“Noah.” I called back.
He’d been stalking me all day. And it was only my first day. What sick joke was he trying to pull? A bet with his friends? At third period I finally realized who Noah was. Hollywood’s Golden Boy according to a magazine I took from the cheerleaders. I decided to ask him when he’d spoken to me again about the truth of it and he gave me the stupidest smirk.
“You don’t know any of my movies?” he asked. flirtatiously.
“I obviously have taste.” I said. This seemed to shut him up.
Whatever the case was, Noah Hunt seemed like the biggest, sexiest player I’d landed my eyes on. I couldn’t deny I found him lust-worthy but he was off limits and so was I. I could always look though.
The crappy thing about Noah was, according to the gossip I heard in the girls bathroom, was he’d called dibs on me. Unfortunately, I knew how all that worked. How guys could easily stake their claims on girls by saying the words. I scoffed internally. Let’s see them try to put their hands on me.
Though boys were off limits to me, I could look and flirt. Stupid Noah kept fending him off with the glares and the whole ‘bro. code thing’! What I didn’t understand was how and why they’d listen to him when it was only his first day! Stupid freaking actor status!
Just cause he was a tight-ass, rich hick—did he think he could stake claims on me?
I think not. No one—I repeat—no one, stakes claims on Blake Deveraux.
He smiles at me with such sincerity that if I had a beating heart—I would run up, throw my arms around his neck and kiss him hardly. But this isn’t the case.
“Miss me since lunch?” I asked, batting my eyes at him. I’m aware of the glares being sent from the other side of the court—damned cheerleaders. They were so close to being Blake-Chow.
“Of course, sweetheart.” He teases. He hasn’t stopped with the nicknames. Ever since our Biology class he followed me around like a lost puppy. Seriously! To class, to the cafeteria. I would have ripped my hair off out of sheer annoyance. But it pissed off the cheerleaders and that would be about as much fun as I could have.
And I just love to piss of those peroxide headed, rich-daddy bitches. They already tried to get me. When I went to the bathroom, they tried to lock me in. Stupid bitches didn’t consider that there was a window to climb on. Sure, I sort of ripped my dress a little—but the smirk that came out of the head-cheerleader’s face when Noah came to sit by me at lunch was so priceless! She thought she’d had him but as soon as he saw me—BAM! He comes rushing forward.
My god thinking about it makes me want to laugh all over again!
I didn’t see why he was so damned interested in me. Maybe he had a fetish for bad girls? Well I could surely be as bad as he wanted to.
If he kept calling me those damned names I could even go to the lengths of castrating him.
“Whatever, pretty-boy. I’ve got to go. Girl’s go to separate sports, right?”
He shrugged. “We could always skip. I mean—don’t you just hate gym? All girls do so there’s no need for you to stay. We could…you know…hang out?”
“You’re asking me out?” I asked with mock disbelief. I would have laughed if he didn’t look so shy but somehow—Noah Hunt’s shyness added more sexy to him.
“Well…yeah.” he admitted.
Down Boy!
“Look, pretty-boy. I don’t date, I don’t do lunch, dinner, supper, tea, whatever else you folks do around here. You seem like a genuinely nice guy and I’d hate for you to be the one to play my game.” I told him honestly. Okay…so I lied. I wasn’t going to play any games but shit! He was consistent and I needed to make him think the worst of me. If he hadn’t already
He didn’t seem like the type of guy to look for an easy lay.
His sexiness was making me feel…vulnerable. I mean, wow boy! Talk about Abercrombie and Fitch material! But still…something about Noah Hunt made me want to feel…mushy.
And I hated mushy. I’m not like other girls obviously. Where other girls would be in denial about their feelings I’d say it like it was and when I started to feel…mushy, I’d pack up and get the hell out. This obviously wasn’t the case for now—I had to stay and be good and try and get to university.
I was playing nice with all these morons. They better back the hell off and let me get my way or else they’d all be Blake-Chow.
He looked at me with pure confusion and again I could feel my non-existent heart beating fast. He leaned forward and kissed my cheek. Why the hell didn’t I push him away? He smiled at me sadly and weirdly enough, I felt like the worst kind of person for being a liar.
But liars didn’t hurt. They were fake, unreal. And therefore nothing could reach and hurt them.
Shutting my eyes, I decided to just go off with the girls and play Dodge-ball.
I’d take my frustration out on those other girls.
Noah
Damn she was sexy! Those shorts were so tight on her that I would have wanted her then and there. But I actually wanted to get to know Blake—she was cute and unlike all the other girls who kept on coming at me, pressing their jugglers at my face.
And I sure as hell knew she wasn’t playing games.
She sat furthest away from me at lunch and tried to avoid me at all costs. Somehow, I couldn’t help but act cocky and flirtatious around her.
It pissed Miranda, the head cheerleader, off. In the locker rooms I heard how Miranda and her girls followed Blake into the Ladies Room to lock her in. I nearly laughed at the stupidity of it. Blake wasn’t stupid. Now I knew why Blake had the hugest grin on her face when she sat down and Miranda had suddenly become clingy.
She attracted attention unwillingly. Whether or not it was her status as a delinquent or the fact that she was hot as hell, I didn’t care. The boys knew I called dibs on her and I knew I wanted more. I had the status, something that was already pissing me off and she could make me normal.
I liked normal.
But I felt a little like an asshole on their behalf. Throughout Lunch they simply stared and stared at her. Didn’t their parents teach them proper manners or something? All they did was stare and they weren’t phased by how rude it was!
Fast-forward to sixth period and I asked her to skip. Like an idiot. “We could always skip. I mean—don’t you just hate gym? All girls do so there’s no need for you to stay. We could…you know…hang out?”
Shit. I actually sound deranged as I repeated myself in my head. Why couldn’t I just ask her out like a guy to a girl and not sound like I just wanted to take her out and get in her pants?
Blake paused before smiling. “You’re asking me out?” she said, obviously with mock disbelief. Somehow, her mocking me only made me want her more. She seemed to study my face for quite some time.
“Well…y-yeah.” Why the hell did I stutter? Noah Hunt! Stuttering. How attractive.
I continued to stare at her, waiting for her when I realized she was just looking at me. Maybe she was trying to work out if I was the good guy or the bad guy. That’s what girls did right? Damn…girls were so damn hard to understand! You’d think waiting around for sixteen years would help you learn a thing or two about girls. But no. There was still more learning up ahead.
She was hot, seemed datable and the type of girl that could settle—despite her status as a freaking delinquent. Who’s to say that those weren’t lies? She could have done something as small as jaywalking to get in that place.
“Look, pretty-boy. I don’t date, I don’t do lunch, dinner, supper, tea, whatever else you folks do around here. You seem like a genuinely nice guy and I’d hate for you to be the one to play my game.” She sounded so honest. So sincere. Her eyes were telling me a whole other story.
She wanted me. She so wanted me. But something stopped her—whatever it was. Even if her words sort of stung me a little—I would give anything to rewind, see her back in her white dress like this morning—a vision in the making. Blake Deveraux.
The sincerity in her words told it all though: Blake Deveraux had feelings.
She talked about a ‘game’. I thought and thought for a while. It wouldn’t matter right? Neither of us would get hurt? Blake was strong. I was strong plus—this wouldn’t end up being some sort of train wreck…right?
It wouldn’t. I promise myself—and her, that.
I would have grinned but I wanted to hold my ground. Game on, princess. Game on.
I kissed her in the cheek and gave her my sexy ‘Trust-me-I’ll-see-you-again’ look. I would play this game—I would break Blake’s front and I would win her heart and see how it played out.
Game on, Blake Deveraux. Game on.