Текст книги "Crash"

Автор книги: Nicole Williams

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Текущая страница: 5 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

Jude’s relief at the turn in questioning was visible on every plane of his face. Grinning over at me, he said, “Hell, no.”

“You don’t want one,” I stated, remembering our very first conversation.

“That used to be my MO,” he began, looking so long at my lips I felt them start to quiver, “but now I’m not so sure.”

“Okay, so you didn’t call me, not because you have a girlfriend,” I said, checking off probable explanation number one, moving on to number two. “So you decided you’re not all that into me?” I swallowed, bracing myself for whatever answer came out of his mouth.

“Luce, for such an intelligent species, you women can be really dumb sometimes.” He laughed, lifting his index finger to my chin and turning it to him. “I didn’t call because I told you, there’s nothing good that will come out of you being with me. I might not mean it to happen, but things have a way of going all to shit around me.”

“Because you’re a cancer,” I said, repeating his words, but not believing them.

“Exactly.”

I blew out a sigh of pure frustration. “Who told you that?”

  Another far off look. “Someone who used to be important.”

It seemed like all these answers should be ticking off the questions in my mind; instead they were only adding more. “Here’s the thing, Jude, everyone already thinks I’m a slut because of you, so how much worse can it get if we keep hanging out?”

“Much worse,” he muttered before his head snapped back towards me. That look of unbridled anger was back in his eyes. “Wait. You’re telling me they’re calling you a slut?”

“Um,” I stalled, familiar with Jude’s short fuse temper. “Apparently.”

Jude punched the closest locker so hard the metal caved beneath his fist. “Judgmental bastards,” he hissed, jumping up. “I’ll catch up with you soon, Luce.” He looked back at me. “I need to do something.”

“Jude,” I warned. “It’s not worth it.” Because it really wasn’t. I’d never let what others thought of me dictate what I was and I certainly wasn’t going to start now.

“Like hell it isn’t,” he answered, already striding down the hall.

A couple of guys greeted him in passing. His reply was another fist slammed into a locker.

I had fifth period PE and was next to ecstatic when Coach Ramstein told us we didn’t need to suit up because there was some sort of first day of school assembly going on.

My elevated mood took a nose dive as soon as I stepped onto the shiny gym floors. I knew everyone wasn’t staring at me, but it felt like that. Row after packed row, I was met with knowing eyes and smiles. A few were brazen enough to whisper the “s” word just loud enough so I could hear it.

Dammit, now I was getting pissed. I didn’t want to make enemies of everyone here at Southpointe, but I wasn’t ruling it out if they didn’t start shutting their traps. It didn’t seem fair a title had been forced on me without even partaking in the fun to earn such a name.

I walked to the end of the gym and sat in the bottom row of the last section of bleachers. I had the entire bench to myself.

Straightening my back, I looked up, making a point to meet every single stare pointed my way.

“Attention, please!” a tired voice spoke through a microphone. Judging from the decade old suit and shadows under his eyes, he must have been the principal. The roar in the gym didn’t lower a decibel. “Attention, please!” he repeated in an even more tired voice. This poor guy was going to have a rough year if he was already this exhausted on the first day.

I appeared to be the only student paying attention, so that’s why, when someone suddenly appeared behind the principal and snatched the microphone out of his hand, I had time to mutter a select curse word under my breath before everyone else realized what was going on.

“Shut up, you sons of bitches!” Jude’s voice vibrated the room and everyone did just as requested.

The principal attempted to retrieve the microphone, but Jude lifted it over his head, which towered a good three feet above the poor, red-faced, principal. Jude shook his head once and peaked a brow. Whatever silent words the principal picked up from that look was enough for him to back away.

Lowering the microphone, Jude looked over at me, again knowing exactly where I was in this crowd of a couple thousand. His gaze lingered on me for another second before he turned his attention elsewhere.

“I put up with you bunch of bastards because I don’t give a damn what you all think of me,” he began, walking around the podium. “But I won’t for one second put up with you trying to ruin the reputation of an innocent girl.”

I wanted to look around the room, to experience the wide-eyed faces and jaws-to-the-bleachers mouths, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Jude. He was defending my honor and, whether he was going about the right or wrong way of doing so, it was the damn sexiest, most romantic thing I’d ever had happen to me.

“Lucy Larson is a friend. A friend whose back I have, and I think everyone knows if she were some random girl I screwed, I wouldn’t be up here now.” He paused, waiting or threatening anyone to stand up and say otherwise.

I’ll be honest, gauging the look on Jude’s face, I feared whoever might have stood up to object would be leaving today’s assembly in a body bag.

“If I so much as hear a quiet thought about her being a slut,” Jude’s fist clenched, as he seemed to make eye contact with every Southpointe High student, “you better hope you don’t like your legs because I’m going to break both of them.”

Now, to match everyone else’s, my mouth fell open.

“If anyone needs any further clarification on the matter, you can take it up with me in the parking lot.” He let that not so subtle warning hang in the air another minute before holding the microphone out for the principal.

The principal motioned to another administrator to take over before looking expectantly at Jude. Chuckling, Jude followed the principal off the auditorium stairs.

“It wouldn’t be a first day of school if I didn’t see you in my office before the end of fifth period, Mr. Ryder,” the principal sighed.

“Yeah, but this was a worthy cause, Principal Rudolph,” Jude answered, winking over at me before exiting the still silent gym.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Mom’s car was here. That was the first thing I noticed as I pulled up to the cabin after school. She was never home this early; it was like some mortal sin for her to leave the office before five.

So, of course, she’d choose the worst day I’d had in years to break this rule. I would have put the Mazda in reverse if she hadn’t been watching me from the kitchen window. She was waiting for me.

Just when you think there’s nowhere to go but up.

Unbuckling, I grabbed my backpack and set out to meet the inevitable. Opening the screen door, I inhaled and stepped inside.

Mom was sitting at the table, two glasses of tea steaming in front of her. The biggest smile my mom was capable of forming slid into position. “How was your first day?”

Epically awful. Worst first day of school in the history of the world. Humiliating. “Pretty good,” I answered, reaching for the cup of tea she extended.

“Anything special happen?” she asked, sounding interested.

I was nominated the school slut by the end of first period. “Not really,” I said with a shrug.

“Did you make any friends?” She took a sip of tea, still looking at me with that ghost of a smile.

I made a lot of enemies. “A few.” Lying shouldn’t come this easy.

“Did you see any familiar faces?”

My parents were pretty much the anti-fan of Jude. If they knew, they’d seriously consider pulling me out of Southpointe and bussing me to another school district or selling their internal organs on the black market to send me back to private school just to ensure I didn’t have to pass him in a hallway. While every other part of Southpointe blew, one very big part didn’t. Sure, I didn’t have, nor would I likely have any friends there, the curriculum was coursework I’d started in elementary school, and it was so old every hall, room, and wall smelt like an old gym bag.

But Jude was there. And somehow, nothing else mattered but that.

“Nope.” My voice broke, instantly alerting my mom. Okay, so lying wasn’t this easy. “I mean, it’s a big school. I’m sure they’ll be a few people I recognize eventually.”

“Hmm,” she murmured into her tea. She was up to something. I didn’t know what, but when any parent was “up to something,” it was never something good. “I could have sworn I saw a Southpointe bus stop at Last Chance Boys’ Home on my way to work.”

I wasn’t going to let her ruin my only bit of sunshine in that hell. “Is this the part where you’re waiting for me to reassure you that I really don’t mind—in fact it’s probably for the best—that I was pulled out of a private school my senior year because we’re broke, and I was tossed into some mega school that has metal detectors at every entrance?” I said, slamming my tea on the table. “Because maybe we can skip the BS and, for once, be honest with each other.”

She set her tea down, reaching for her temples. This was the first time mom had lowered her walls in ages; I didn’t know how to handle it.

“Have you heard back from Juilliard yet?” she asked, sounding weary.

I sighed, wishing I’d never applied in the first place. My self-confidence really didn’t need any more rejection. “Nope,” I said, trying to make it sound like I didn’t care, but darn it, I did.

I’d wanted to attend Juilliard before I could spell it. I was a dancer, it had defined my life since I could slip into my own tutu. I couldn’t imagine a better life than dancing across a stage in front of an audience until old age or weary legs stopped me, and Juilliard would give me that opportunity.

“It’s still early, Lucy,” she reassured, seeing right through my blasé act.

I lifted a shoulder. “We’ll see.” I’d applied to a few other state schools as a safety net, but they were just that. Only set to catch me if I failed at my goal.

Having had enough heart to heart for one day, I turned towards the stairs.

“Lucy?” I paused on the first stair, looking back. Mom was gazing at where my chopped hair curled over my shoulders. “How are you?”

After five years, she had to work harder than a cup of over-brewed tea and a few marginally concerned questions to earn the honest answer to that one. “Good,” I said, meeting her eyes.

“Really?”

Of course not really. I’d lost my entire family in the span of a day and had never gotten them back. And that was just the first link in the chain. “Really.” I moved up the stairs faster, but not quite fast enough.

“You know, Lucy, if you ever needed someone to talk to,” Mom’s voice trailed up the stairs, “I know I’d likely be dead last on that list, but I am here if you need me.”

I couldn’t have been more shocked if I’d looked down to find my legs had transformed into a mermaid tail.

“Uh,” I sputtered, searching for the right words. “Thanks, mom.” There, that worked.

Before any other transaction of the otherworldly could take place, I sprinted up the rest of the stairs and slid under my covers until I was dreaming about a boy with beautiful eyes and an ugly past.

Walking through the metal detectors on the second day seemed less outlandish, and the student’s stares that fell on me turned to smiles; a few even waved. By the end of first period, I was wondering if this was the same student body. Everyone greeted me in the halls, five people offered to let me borrow a pen in Trig when I asked, and one of Taylor’s apostles complimented me on my outfit choice.

It was such a one-eighty from yesterday that either the entire student body had been lobotomized or Jude was a powerful player at Southpointe. A very powerful player.

I had my answer at the end of third period when I caught a glimpse of Jude walking down the hall a ways in front of me. The hall was packed, shoulder to shoulder, but wherever he walked, the crowd parted, like water breaking against an island.

I was so hypnotized watching him part the seas, I didn’t notice when a certain someone I’d been trying to avoid all morning nudged up against me.

“Hey, beautiful,” Sawyer said, tossing me a wink.

Oh, man. Did guys still get laid with this tired old line? If so, I’d bitch slap every last girl that fell for this one until I knocked some sense into them.

“Sawyer?” I said, glancing over. His high beam smile peaked higher. “Retire that line, will ya? It sucks.”

His face fell for the shortest window before it was back in all its Sawyer glory. “That was some assembly yesterday. Bound to go down in Southpointe history for sure,” he said, keeping pace with me as I sped up. I knew guys like Sawyer—they’d been a dime a dozen at my old school—and what didn’t work for me was that they were more boys than men, more talk than action. I was a man of action kind of girl.

“Yep, the trombone solo really kicked ass,” I said, playing dumb because I didn’t care and it was more fun.

Sawyer paused. I could see him scratching his internal head. “So you and Ryder, huh?”

Sawyer had bigger balls than I’d given him credit for. He was the first one to suggest Jude and I were an item in my presence. Gutsy given yesterday’s death threats. “We’re friends,” I said, trying to put some air between us so his shoulder wasn’t stroking mine every step.

“Friends?” he said. “Looked like more than that. It looked like something.”

I bit my lip before saying the first thing that came to mind. Just because I had a tendency towards anger didn’t mean I had to let my temper rule my life, although now was one of those moments I wished I’d let it off its leash.

“It’s nothing,” I said, ducking between a few students to get to my locker.

Sawyer glided up beside me. “Good,” he said, leaning into the next locker over. “That will make things easier when I take you to Homecoming.”

I don’t know how many revolutions I spun the combo on my locker, but it was more than ten and less than a hundred. The only thing worse than not having a date for homecoming would be having Sawyer as a date. He was the kind of guy that rented a hotel room before picking out a corsage and equated a lobster dinner with an all night sexathon.

“Let’s say I pick you up at eight?”

I didn’t know what day homecoming was, but I did know I didn’t want to go with him. I knew what I wanted to say to him in not so lady like language, but I didn’t know how to put my denial nicely. Couth had never been a strong suit of mine.

Giving up on my combo, I inhaled. “Sawyer,” I began, turning to face him. His face was so damn confident I was tempted to go with my “tell him off” version.

“Luce already has a date for homecoming.”

Jude sauntered up to us and squared himself in front of Sawyer. “Go find yourself another girl, Diamond. This one’s off the market and is smart enough to see through your shit even if she weren’t.”

Sawyer’s one hundred watt smile was long gone. Pushing himself off the locker, he stood toe to toe with Jude. “I thought you were just friends.”

“Well, you were wrong.”

“I figured as much,” Sawyer said, not turning and running as most people did when they found themselves up against Jude. “You’re not the kind of guy that keeps girls as friends. Pardon me for mistaking Lucy as available. I didn’t realize you two had a friends with benefits thing going on.”

Without warning, Jude shoved Sawyer so hard he fell back into the herd of students making their way to class.

“Jude.” I threw down my bag and grabbed his arm, trying to pull him back, which would have worked if I could bench press a semi truck.

“Luce,” he breathed, glancing back at where my fingers circled his arm. “Let me go. I’m good.”

Only because I would have been useless had he wanted to turn Sawyer’s face into a punching bag, I did as he asked.

Striding after Sawyer who was struggling to right himself, Jude stood over him, his veins bulging in his forehead. “Listen to me, you pompous little jerk off, and listen damn good. You ever,” he spat, “EVER! so much as disrespect Luce in that way again, that will be the second to last breath you take because, so help me God, I will be so hot on your heels, you won’t know what’s coming for you until the devil’s checking your name off on that roll call sheet.” Everyone had stopped to stare at the three of us, but the only thing I was focused on was Jude. His anger was so intense, it was shaking every last part of him, but he managed to contain it. To keep it from doing what it did best. Hurt things.

“Now let me clear this up for you since you’re the dumbest piece of shit I’ve yet to encounter. Luce and I are friends. And I’m taking her to homecoming. And you will not insinuate, verbalize, or even think anything about her that is less than honorable. You got me?” Jude’s face was red, an inch above Sawyer’s, and the veins were bulging to the point of bursting. Sawyer was being a dick, yes, but you would have thought he’d just committed first degree murder from Jude’s reaction. I had to admit, as much as I trusted Jude, it scared me.

Shoving up off the ground, Sawyer met Jude’s glare. “I got you.”

“There’s a little bitch,” Jude said, patting Sawyer’s cheek. “Now get the hell out of here. Isn’t it about ass-slapping time in the locker room for you and your boyfriends?”

The two glowered at one another for another second before Sawyer looked back at me, where I was still glued to my locker. “Catch up with you later, Lucy.”

“Not if I catch you first,” Jude muttered after him, watching Sawyer until he disappeared around a corner.

The lookie-loos were dispersing, although a few hung around, hoping for some post game action.

“Scram,” Jude ordered, waving his hands at the stragglers. I hadn’t seen Olympians move that fast.

“So you’re taking me to homecoming?” I said, managing to get my locker open in world record slowest time.

“That’s right,” he said, spinning on his heels. His eyes were gleaming and his face was every plane of confident. It was damn sexy, but he couldn’t know I thought that.

“Don’t you think you need to ask me first?” I focused on exchanging third period’s books for fourth’s, although the corners of my eyes were burning from watching him.

He strolled up to me, getting so close I felt the heat pulsing from him. “Luce, will you go to homecoming with me?” His voice was soft, low. And that made me feel things I didn’t need to if I was going to make it to fourth period unflustered.

“I thought you wanted to keep up this whole friendship facade.” I wasn’t playing hard to get, I was making sure he really knew what he wanted. This was a guy that kept a note from his mom in his back pocket to remind him what happened when you let yourself love someone.

“I don’t give a damn about facades. I give a damn about people showing you some respect,” he said, heat burning in his words. “Come on, go with me.”

“I thought you didn’t do the whole flowers, date, girlfriend thing.” Zipping my backpack up, I slammed my locker and turned to face him.

“I didn’t,” he said, giving me that grin that could only mean he saw through me. “But I think you might have changed my mind on all that.”

My heart stopped and was doing a hand spring the next beat. “Is that a compliment?”

His gaze shifted to the ceiling. “You can take it however you want if you go with me.”

“Jude.” I rolled my eyes.

He knew he was wearing me down and at this stage, I was another cockeyed smile away from caving. He took this knowledge to his advantage.

Pressing himself against me, his hand found my hip. Backing me up against the wall of lockers, his other hand wandered up my arm until it molded around my neck. I went from being a young, marginally innocent girl who liked to dance to a woman with a one track mind. My whole body ached and, when his lips just brushed over mine, it felt like the ache was about to explode.

“Go with me,” he whispered, sucking at my lower lip.

He could have been asking me for my spleen and I would have agreed just as fast. “Okay.” I nodded, sounding as shaky as I felt.

Leaning back, his face was victorious. “So that’s a yes?”

“Jude,” I said in between trying to catch my breath, “that was a hell yes.”

Brushing a quick kiss into my cheek, he headed out into the hall. “It will be one hell of a night, Luce. I’m glad I’ll get to spend it with you.”

Homecoming with Jude Ryder.

There was so much wrong with that, it had to be right.