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Chapter 1
Candy
"You have to lose the 'v' card this semester," ordered my best friend, Larissa.
It was fine for her; she'd been in love with Jeff Williams since eighth grade. They had got engaged a couple of months ago, and she had their whole future life mapped out. Exactly when they would get married, how many kids they would have, where they would live after college. It helped that both of them, like me, are from the Upper East Side in New York City with parents who had so much wealth we didn't discuss it. Most around here flaunted it instead, ‘Oh look what Daddy got me when he returned from Singapore’, then they would show off their latest vintage Rolex. Everything had to be the latest trend. Every step one-upmanship. In truth, deep inside I found it all dull but if I didn't go along with it, then I'd be the laughing stock of Lincoln High and no one ever wanted to make themselves that. So instead I immersed myself in the latest fashions, talked about boys and right now, planned for my eighteenth birthday party, which was to be the party of the year according to my mom. My father was in politics, and my mom ran her own Interior Design company. I didn't see them much, usually only when they needed to show me off to their company. That was fine with me. When my best friend had gone, I liked my own company. I loved anything involving words and using my brain: reading, watching the news, etc. Right now, my brain was screaming for me to make Larissa go home.
"I'm not rushing to lose my virginity. I want to be in love. It's important to me," I replied, as I rubbed my brow.
"Oh, you can always pretend on your wedding night. Just say your battery operated boyfriend broke your hymen." Larissa waved off my response.
"No." I had become so pissed by this point that I snapped the pencil I was holding in half. Larissa either failed to notice or ignored me. Either way, she didn’t give up.
"Julian Murphy likes you. He's hot."
Julian was the star player of the varsity baseball team. He was the guy all the girls wanted; even loved-up Larissa found him ‘to die for’. He did nothing for me. He was good looking, sure. All tall and lean with a fit body and a perfect smile. But he lived for sports, and I loathed them. Plus, he liked to collect girls v-cards like trophies, so there was that. I was not going to be a notch on a bedpost.
No, I dreamed of my perfect guy. He would be hugely intelligent. Tall. Dark-haired. Maybe of slim build, rather than pumped up muscles. Gentle and kind. He'd look at me like I was his everything. Larissa said I read too many fairy tales when I was growing up. Huh, our lives were like fairy tales: balls, designer gowns and shoes, staff to do our bidding. Maybe what I wanted was an anti-fairy tale, where I was the Princess who went after the Prince, not the other way around.
"Earth calling Candy."
"Huh?"
"You went off in a daydream again there, Candy. Now, your eighteenth. What's going to be the theme?"
"Sleeping Beauty," I announced.
"What? That movie's been out for months now. Sleeping Beauty is over. You need something different, girl."
"I want to do Sleeping Beauty. For presents I want books. I'm going to build a huge library like the one the Beast had. Mom said for my birthday I could have the guest room next to mine. She's going to have an adjoining door put in, so it will be perfect."
Larissa's brow creased, "Your mom is okay with you having a library room?"
I sighed. "Not exactly, it's supposed to be an even larger walk-in-closet. One with luxury seating where she can get designers to visit me in person, rather than using her room."
"Good luck with that then, honey. Anyhow, I'm with your mom on this one. Books? Forget books, collect shoes!"
Larissa looked at her Givenchy watch, her blonde carefully streaked and blowed out long tresses fell forward as she bent her head. "Oh crap, I should have called a driver by now. I'd arranged to meet Jeff at six." She grabbed her Coach purse and Valentino jacket and kissed me on both cheeks before running to the door.
"Laters, baby," she giggled. Fifty Shades had recently released on DVD, and she kept telling me she and Jeff were using it as inspiration. Far too much information.
With that, my bedroom door closed and I was left alone in peace.
My room was my haven. A large space with light wooden floors with underfloor heating, my bed sat atop a large Madeline Weinrib rug. Vast curtains hung from three high windows and as well as my current walk in closet; I had two purple velvet armchairs and a chaise longue. These were beside a wall of bookcases, filled to the brim with novels and non-fiction. I had a thirst for knowledge and an overwhelming urge to break free from my gilded cage to explore the world out there. Just Manhattan itself held untold secrets. I'd never visited places like Carlo’s Bake Shop. My mom would say, ‘what's the need when our staff could make you your own pignoli cookies’.
I was relieved to be back in school tomorrow. My last semester, I needed to study hard. My dream was to write novels, but my teachers held the belief I would work for my mom's company after graduation. I could if I wanted; I was on course to pass art. It would seem I'd gained this talent genetically, but my head and heart yearned to write novels like the one's I read voraciously. The only time I'd mentioned this to my mom she had rolled her eyes. It hadn't even been worthy of a comment. I wanted to train as an English teacher so that I could hopefully instill the same love for prose as I had, in other student's lives and then write in my spare time. My mom would accuse me of trying to make her a laughing stock, which was why I hadn't told her my plans. I was doing extra classes to earn credits for college, and I needed some additional tutoring to ensure my grades were the best they could be. I was looking forward to the morning when I could get out of the townhouse and get back to my studies, and see if there were any teachers or students offering mentoring or tutoring this final semester.
I grabbed a romance book from my night stand and picked up where I'd left off. For all my romantic dreams, and hearts, flowers and fairy tale ideas, I liked a bedtime read that gave me an idea of what I might expect once I did find a man to take me to bed. I loved to read in detail about tongues trailing down warm flesh, lips nibbling, fingers delving into warm, wet places. On the rare occasions, I masturbated, and I always felt ashamed afterwards, like I was doing something bad. Another prison I was captured in, this time in my mind. I continu
ed to read on, my mind making me the heroine in the book while doing my best to avoid noticing the dampness from my core which was soaking into my panties.
***
The day was underway at Lincoln High, and it seemed as if we'd had no break at all. I slipped back into my routine like it was a comfy pair of slippers. My first class after lunch was English. I knew we had a new teacher as our previous one, Mrs. Donovan, had left to have a baby and wasn't coming back. It was annoying to change teachers at this stage in our education. I wanted to study as much English as I could and worried that if I didn't like the new teacher, it might affect my grades. Larissa started gossiping to me about something or other she'd heard on campus so I heard the door open but I didn't see who came through it.
I guess I should have known by the fact that the entire female population of the class went silent, that a hot male had walked through the door before I turned around.
But when I did, holy hell!
A gray jacket, gray pants, and a crisp, white shirt encased the body of a god. He was lean but athletic. As he moved to place his laptop case on the desk at the front of the classroom, his jacket gaped open showing the shirt stretched against his chest. You could make out his pecs, and I knew just from that brief look that he worked out, whether it was the gym he visited or regular sports he played. His light brown hair was short but sculpted with paste at the top of his head. I didn’t fail to notice that he was built like the heroes of my romance novels. I felt my body warm up by a billion degrees and I swept my bangs out of my face to try and cool myself down a little.
