The Bad Guy Is Cheated On Me

t's so real you can't tel

kind I've

eductiv

of things I told my

ately I can't stop, and ever

s office after school it's

r's imperious tone has an apologetic edge, like he'd r

ike pissing off Edd

is whisky on the rocks. The guy could vie

talk the hell out this "look how rich we are" office. Instea

r class. Mr. Albright is a member of the lacross

to you?" E

my knuckles grip t

s, I've gotten a read

and we moved in the same parties the times I both

this w

hris, I'll tell him I

r my jaw. They're stil

thi

ighly unorthodox to admit new students mid-year, particularly for seniors. We can't let this kind

nd him if y

ursday's a PA day, but you're suspende

which means I'll need some extra studying time so

kills me. Everyone else in my family d

s hour, and Eddie doesn't say a word u

o fuck around. You

the one to remi

n. Every time he picks up his guitar, or lays down a phrase, or p

gonna be independent, distance myself

up for good, life dealt me a straight flush: the biggest rock songwriter and performer

ss or a mentor. He's th

't have. He mad

dark thoughts

p your hands." Eddie prods at my palm, and pain spikes up my arm. "N

' face when I slammed my knu

shift over my bike and reach for

happening anywhere near my kid." I could laugh at the irony.

no

e, like Eddie try to make it fair. They'

s who want to make

Admirable, beauti

's Bentley is parked when I pull

e house and thro

ne spot, and I stop, thinking of

d lying on the path. The petals are intact, the

he pain before setting the rose carefully on the flags

n, and it takes me a second to notice the

air billows behind her like a cloud, her dark-blue bathing suit as me r

ut a text to the sophomore I m

Come over

the bed. In the bathroom, I strip off my clothes and step into

ing his face tonight, but he has no Id

ng the rich kid's fascination, but it made ever

op when people don't k

now how to

re w

Not when I'm so close to

nto session gigs in Los Angeles, New York. I'll have enough to pro

someone wh

t. I'm never going to make the

nd everyone around them. When the prospect of six figures turns to seven turns

old, and I step

, I don't accept kindness easil

me by bringing me he

yment on

n I jerk open the bath

it a second before the sharp i

athing suit is painted on her slow curves. Her wet hair is the color

uddle she's leaving beneath

ely betwee

d my hips, taking long

below my waist. "I needed a

big."

e practically shouts, reddening. I

she's staring. I can't resist a

to mine as I swallow

t while I dig out a pair of

r, the flush lingering on her face. "I didn't thin

-for

o music on her headphones on a bench outside school in Philly. Her eyes

know what it was like where she was be

otes for. I learned she was compassionate, the kind of person whose heart aches for animals in shelter c

he was Eddie Car

only thing about her

." Emily wraps a towel around h

converted to a mobile studio, in

Dad thinks you

too long before I look away. I tug on th

wn, and he'd just take her face in his hands and ask her who'd pissed her off so he cou

shoulder, ending at her breasts. She let out a little growl, and against my better

because my biggest pet peeves are celebrity couple names, people who can't

, but she huffs out a br

k when she was a naive fourte

ery thought, her pink lips are full in every variation of smiling and frowning, and the slight shoulders that curv

tay there. The g

try assignment?" Emily

the end that makes you do a second take. Like when a girl walks by in a long sk

ering for your craft is legit, but I'

g but not getting anywhere. Miss N

admission

hy

in my head a

d on her. Her gaze lingers on my chest because it's a

. "Not because Carla wouldn't sabotage you, bu

n. Most girls who see me play get dreamy-eye

not with

task and not her flushed face.

yphus if his boulder were instead a th

gician. A therapist. An artist. You have the privilege of an audience's attention. They trust you to make them

free, but my fin

he world like her. She's not afraid of its beauty and its darkness. She sees more, feels more, th

hings are

less I can get over thi

lay it across her shoulder, the e

ood they can'

breath before she pins me in place with those amber eyes, the softness of her lips

-shirt because I've just realized there are

rotten bananas in rehearsal." she says

ree

h

n't k

e so b

'm suspended until the weekend. Saturday thr

he little indentation between her breasts too close to whe

ke my

steps, and I'm too surprised to stop

reddened knuckles before sighing. "So, when Chris hurts m

my neck and our gazes lock.

s to do

been waiting for

this is about me not answering your messages after

be intimidated. "Is that when y

sting. "Still don't

bout what happened when you came here and

to ask, but she's

hakes her head, the expression on her face shifting from anger to longing in a way that has my abs tightening

res the next morning like we used to. I c

e I'm starting to see

't. "There was a UT lanyard on the hook

incredulity because of all the thoughts th

, but I don't budge. "But I overhead

u

he goes on, her voice oddly hollow.

because it takes up residence in

she blocked me the next day with her

riendship was over,

t I wanted

e offered me this opportunity was to

t to take

more something than eve

rt she wears on he sleeve

speration in my words. Anything she as

lungs, my ears. "I want

wo

rs a layer o

ehow I'm the one feeli

ed, and my stomach drops

tug on my hair hard enough m

ha

t the door, and

very curse word I've heard and some I

why even before Tricia hangs her

across the patio, the hair that was in my finge

a leak?" Tricia frowns at the

to be a fuc

ce I tugged my favorite T-shirt over her red bathing suit and felt her curl

p dreaming