AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The Greek community on campus hosts the auction. All of the girls helping out with the event are sisters in a sorority. She continues her spiel, announcing the first player, Finn Mercer, the star running back on the football team. Paddles raise. Hands fly into the air with aggressive bids for the hotshot player.
My heart thumps in my chest when my eyes fall to Julian once more. Why is he still staring at me? It’s driving me insane. We haven’t spent this much time near each other since our breakup sophomore year, and I was perfectly content with keeping it that way.
Until today.
Damn Sadie for wanting to come. Who would want a date with a dumb jock for their birthday? Cole Harker is, no doubt, even more of a pig than Julian. Why Sadie would want to touch him, let alone go on a date with him, blows my mind.
He should be paying to date her, not the other way around. Even if I wasn’t flat broke and making it through Strick U by the skin of my teeth, I would never pay for a man’s attention. But Sadie is used to a man who pays for hers. Her father sets such a poor example that money buys happiness that she doesn’t even see that the guys who are truly interested in her have been right under her nose all along. And she doesn’t have to spend money to get them to spend time with her. Instead, she’s friend-zoned several of the cute guys she met in class.
Girls scream when the final bid is announced for Tristan Hale, the quarterback for the football team. Some of the women in the crowd even resort to hair pulling and fist fighting with each other. What a shit show. Not long after that fiasco, campus security steps in to break up an argument between two girls engaged in a bidding
war over one of the soccer players.
I laugh at the ridiculousness of the entire event. I honestly don’t understand the appeal. Although, I love that one hundred percent of the proceeds go to charity. But the bidding on men part gives me an icky feeling that sends a shiver down my arms.
Several more players are introduced, leaving only a handful of hot men left on the stage. The women in the crowd are starting to lose their shit, all rational sense going out the window. Not until Julian Rivers is announced, and the auditorium erupts into a fit of cheers and whistles, do I begin to pay attention again.
My ex is all smiles, his cocky smirk in place. The adorable dimple in his left cheek creases his tanned skin. When the overhead lights hit his emerald irises just right, it looks like his eyes are twinkling. One look at him quickens my pulse, my heart beating so fast I can barely catch my breath. And when he looks at me, as if I’m the only person in the room, I swear my knees almost buckle beneath me.
The bidding starts.
So many paddles are raised in the air I have trouble keeping track of them. A sea of numbers surrounds me. Why do so many people want to date him? If only they knew what was hidden behind those vicious smirks. He’s perfect on the outside and a cold-hearted jerk on the inside. He dumped me like yesterday’s trash without even looking back. I don’t care if he tried to apologize. What he said in the past cannot be undone.
“Going once, going twice,” the announcer says.
My sweaty palms cause me to lose my grip on the paddle in my hand. And when I accidentally drop it on the floor, Sadie grabs it. She raises it in the air, holding it up as the final bid is counted. What the hell did she do?
“Sold to number seven twenty-three,” the announcer says.
I look up at the paddle in Sadie’s hand, and my jaw hits the floor.
“No, no, no,” I groan. “I didn’t bid on him.”
Sadie gives the paddle back to me as the announcer points a finger in my direction.
“This is not happening. I’m not paying for a date with Julian. I barely have enough money for food.”
Sadie grins so wide I want to punch her in the face. My best friend sucks right now. “Good thing I’m buying him for you.”
“You evil queen,” I hiss. “You did this on purpose.”
Her grin is still in place.
A loud thump hits the floor in front of me, and when I look up, Julian has jumped off the stage, standing over me with his hands on his narrow hips. He doesn’t speak to me, only extends his hand in offering. I recoil at the sight of it.
“Nope,” I say to Sadie. “I’m not going on a date with him. You’re not paying for it. Over my dead body.”
Julian wiggles his fingers in front of me, trying to coax me into taking his hand. “So be it then,” he says in response to my comment about over my dead body, the corner of his mouth turned up into crooked grin that sucks the air from my lungs.
Damn him.
Chapter Two
Briana
Still staring at Julian’s long fingers in front of my face, I’m frozen in shock. I won the auction. The one I wanted to avoid for this exact reason. Somehow, my bad luck always catches up with me. I swear the universe hates me. It’s as if I send out nothing but negative vibes that have caused a never-ending string of disasters, starting with my parent’s deaths when I was nine years old.
I was in the car when my dad crashed. How I managed to survive with only a few scratches still boggles my mind. Even the emergency room doctor didn’t understand how I defied the odds. Still, I’m cursed. The adage Murphy’s Law says anything that can go wrong will go wrong. That pretty much sums up my life in a nutshell. While being forced to go on a date with Julian isn’t the worst thing in the world, it’s also not the best. Luck has never been on my side, and fate is a cruel mistress that has caught up to me.
