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I turned my head just enough to see Collin leaning on the lockers beside me, his arms crossed over his chest and his hair falling into his brown eyes. He was the only football player not wearing a letterman’s jacket today. Instead, he sported a black leather jacket over a gray t-shirt and jeans. It was an effortlessly cool look. One that he had apparently perfected.
“How can I?” I asked. “Have you seen the newest RockValleyBiz post?”
“Yep. It was a good shot, if you ask me. Got my good side.”
I rolled my eyes and turned to face him. So much for some sympathy. I guess that didn’t come standard with the high school jock model. “Maybe you’re used to this kind of thing, but I was happy living my life in basic obscurity until this moment.”
He shrugged, his dark eyes taking in the pictures of guitars and random lyrics I’d taped inside my locker. “It’ll all blow over soon. No one believes that kind of stuff. I mean, do you think they’d believe me if I told them you’d never even kissed a guy?”
Panic hit me like a shotgun blast and I felt the blood drain from my face. “Please tell me you didn’t tell anyone that.”
He held up his hands in surrender. “Hey, I didn’t say a thing. It was purely hypothetical.”
Likely story. There was no reason for a guy like him not to blab. A humiliating secret like that would entertain an entire locker room full of guys and then leak into the hallways of the high school faster than the scent of the stink bomb someone set off in biology last year.
I shot him a suspicious look, but he just grinned at me, his eyebrow arching.
“You know, you don’t exactly help your case,” he said. “You should see your face. It’s the color of the cafeteria lady’s sloppy joe. My favorite.”
I blushed even harder, wishing that I’d inherited my father’s skin tone. Lexi was the blessed one. She tanned in an instant. I was desperately pale.
“This is all Savannah’s fault,” I muttered, turning back to my locker. Maybe if I ignored Collin’s presence, he would fade away like a bad dream. “She probably sent that photo in herself.”
“What is it with that chick?” Collin asked, leaning his head back on the locker. “She really hates you. Maybe even more than she hates me.”
I pressed my lips into a thin line. It was interesting to know that Savannah hated more than one human being in this world. At least I wasn’t alone. If my cousin hated him, maybe Collin wasn’t so bad after all. There might have been a shred of decency left in him.
While Savannah and I had never exactly been best friends, there had been a time when we’d gotten along. Played Barbies together. Even had Hannah Montana parties. But that all changed after the summer we spent with Grandma Ivy. Grandma died a month after eighth grade started and Savannah started acting like she was too good for me.
“No one really knows the inner workings of her twisted mind,” I said coolly, panning my gaze toward him. His eyes were glued to my face, causing butterflies to instantly start fluttering around my stomach. “So, I’m not even going to try and guess.”
There was no point in discussing this any further and I needed to put as much space between Collin and me as possible. Maybe, by the end of the day, all of this trauma would finally be over. That was, if I could count on Collin to keep his mouth shut.
Turning toward my class, I tried to walk away, but he quickly cut me off. He towered just high enough above me that I had to raise my chin to catch the teasing glint in his eyes.
“I hear you like to sing. Is that true?”
My frustration melted away into confusion. Had he been asking around about me?
“Maybe...why?”
He ran his tongue over his lips and shrugged. “No reason.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. What was happening? In what universe was All-State quarterback Collin Preston interrogating me on if I liked to sing? I felt like I’d woken up in an episode of Glee.
He leaned toward me, that irritating lopsided grin plastered on his face. In a moment of pure panic, I thought he was going to try and kiss me right there in the hall. A redo of my complete humiliation at the beach party. But instead, he came just close enough to whisper in my ear, his warm breath tickling my neck and making me shiver.
“You’d better get to class, Audrey. Wouldn’t want to be late on the first day.”
He moved past me in the opposite direction. The tangy scent of his cologne followed behind him, a deceptively attractive smell. My breath left my lungs in a whoosh and I had to press a hand to my racing heart.
“And don’t worry,” he called, “your precious secret is safe with me.”
His deep laughter echoed down the hall toward me, making me bristle with anger. All my previous thoughts about his decency spiraled down the drain like a glitter bath bomb. There was no doubt Collin Preston knew how to mess with me. It was only a matter of time until he used my secret to his advantage.
And I would have to deal with the mess.
Chapter Four
