Prologue
Nash
“Peyton’s knocked up.”
I froze in place, afraid that if I made the slightest move, the guys loitering on the other side of the wall of gym lockers would hear and know that someone else was nearby, overhearing this conversation. I’d already been in the locker room, stuffing my gym shorts and other related crap into my backpack for the final time before graduation, when Ryan and his buds had strolled in, probably for the same reason. They hadn’t seen me because my locker was in a corner far from the door, and since I had no desire to interact with them, I’d resigned myself to staying put until they left.
I’d almost survived four years of jerks like Ryan and his buds, and I didn’t want to break that streak on the day before graduation.
This didn’t mean that I wanted to listen to them jabber. But while normally, I didn’t give a rat’s ass about what Ryan Harvey and his pals had to say to each other, I cared very much about the current subject of their talk.
Peyton Rivers was the smartest, most beautiful girl in our class. I’d had a crush on her from the moment I’d gotten an eyeful of her dark-haired, green-eyed beauty on the first day of high school. I’d tumbled the rest of the way in love with her when we’d had a class together in the second semester of our freshman year. That was when I’d found out that she was as kind and funny as she was gorgeous.
It had been at the beginning of our sophomore year that we’d become friends after Mrs. McConnell, our Honors English teacher, assigned us seats next to each other, which had the added benefit of making us project partners whenever there was a group assignment. Everything I’d suspected about Peyton turned out to be true—and then some. We shared so many of the same interests and opinions that spending time with her was fun. We’d started hanging out even when we didn’t have assignments, just talking about books, music, movies and life.
Also, it was torture, because in addition to being my one true love and fated soulmate, Peyton was also the long-time girlfriend of Ryan Harvey, a Neanderthal in every sense of the word. Ryan was a jock, but not a very good one. He was always on the verge of failing a class or two, and I was pretty sure he had a permanent chair in detention. I couldn’t figure out exactly what Peyton saw in him; I only knew that they had been together since middle school. So basically, I’d been screwed by a universe that had assigned Peyton and Ryan to one school and me to another. Sometimes, I drove myself crazy imagining all the what-ifs: what if Peyton had lived closer to me, and we’d known each other since kindergarten? Would she be mine now? Would Ryan just be a joke to both of us?
It didn’t matter, though. I had to face reality, and mine was that Peyton’s loyalty lay with Ryan. She seemed blind to his many faults, including all of the times when he was unfaithful to her. I found it infuriating, but Peyton never wavered. Not that she confided in me about her feelings—I never brought it up, and she only mentioned Ryan in passing when we were together. Still, I was pretty tuned into her feelings, and I hadn’t seen any signs of heartbreak.
Although . . . the last few weeks, she’d been a little weird. A little off. Sometimes when we were talking, her words would trail away, and she’d stare into space, that adorable little wrinkle between her eyes. I had hoped that it meant that since we were about to graduate, she was thinking about ending things with Ryan, but I had a feeling I wasn’t that lucky.
But now, hearing Ryan’s words, it all began to make sense.
“Duuuuude.” Ryan’s best pal Andy groaned. “That sucks, man. What’re you gonna do?”
“Me? Not a damn thing,” Ryan drawled. “I mean, it’s not my problem, right? She’s the one who was fucking stupid enough to get preggers. Who can say if it’s even mine?”
My mouth dropped open, and my hands curled into fists.What the actual fuck?Peyton never would have cheated on Ryan.
It seemed that even his idiot friends felt the injustice of that question. “Aw, no, Peyton’s a cool chick. She wasn’t sleeping around.” Mike snorted. “If she had been, we would’ve heard about it and taken care of the situation.”
“Maybe. But who can say?” Ryan must’ve slammed his locker shut, making the whole partition shake. “I guess so, but sometimes—” He broke off. “You know, she spends a lot of time with that brainiac Sampson. They, like, study and shit. They hang out, even after school. And I’ve seen how he looks at her.”
My heartbeat sped up.Did Ryan really suspect how I felt about his girlfriend? Could Peyton know?
“Fuck, Ry, she doesn’t have the hots for him.” The derisive laughter made my blood boil. “I mean, look at him and look at you. Peyton wouldn’t even give that nerd a second thought when she’s your girl.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Ryan was quiet a minute. “But it doesn’t matter. He can have her—her and her brat, too. I’m not letting something like this ruin my life.”
“You’re still leaving?” Mike asked. “You’re gonna go up to North Carolina?”
“Got that job waiting for me there. My dad worked it all out. Him and my mom already bought a house outside Charlotte. They wanted me to have a fresh start, and after that mess with the liquor store in Daytona . . .”
“Yeah.” Andy sounded a little uncomfortable. “Getting out of the state is probably not a bad idea.”
“That’s what my dad says. I mean, I don’t know why everyone’s making such a big deal—it was just a prank. All the kids go in there to score booze. It’s not my fault the old man had a heart attack when I told him I was packing a gun.”
My eyes widened. I’d heard rumors that someone in our class had been involved in a nasty situation up in Daytona Beach when the owner of a liquor store had died of cardiac arrest during an attempted robbery. The fact that it was Ryan shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. And it sickened me as well.
“Yeah. Well.” Mike coughed. “Couldn’t you take Peyton with you when you move?”
“Shit, man, no way.” Ryan laughed, but it was a cruel sound. “Starting fresh means all the way. I don’t need some woman crying to me all the time when I want to be out living my life. I’m not getting tied down—not now. I’m too young to be stuck with one chick, and I sure as hell don’t feel like getting sucked into some deal with a screaming baby, too. I need to play the field. Score all the pussy I want.”
“What did Peyton say when you told?” Andy asked. “Did she, like, freak out?”
“I dunno.” Ryan sounded bored. “I said she needed to figure out this shit on her own. I told her it wasn’t my problem, and no way she can prove that it is. She ran off somewhere.” I heard the sound of metal on metal and assumed Ryan was taking the padlock off his locker. “We done here? Y’all got your shit? I wanna grab some beer and hit the beach.”
Heavy footsteps followed, but I didn’t move. My mind was spinning, trying to make sense of everything I had just heard. But one thought was screaming out to me.
