AllFreeNovel
Share Us
1
“I’m getting married.”
I stared at my mum, my jaw dropping. “What the fuck?” I whispered. Since when had she been in a relationship?
Her mouth thinned, her way of letting me know she didn’t approve of my language, but I was beyond caring. She was gettingmarried? To whom?
“Yes. I’m marrying David.”
“David Granger? Yourboss?” My voice was rising as I clenched and unclenched my fists. “Isn’t he married?”
“Not anymore.” She smiled then, and I’d never seen her look so happy. “I know this must come as a shock, but he’s a wonderful man, and I know you’ll grow to love him. We’ll be moving into his house next week.”
My gaze whipped around our flat. It was small, yeah…we were in London, after all, even if it was a shit part of the city. But it was home, and it had been since my parents had split when I was fifteen. My dad, Matthew Clarke, had since remarried, and he lived up in Aberdeen with his wife. Suffice it to say we didn’t speak often. A monthly allowance was deposited into my account, and we exchanged the occasional text about the football scores—the one thing we had in common was that we both supported Arsenal—but that was more or less the extent of our interaction.
But that was irrelevant right now. What was relevant was the fact that out of completely fucking nowhere, my mum had gone and dropped this bombshell, leaving me reeling. I didn’t want to leave my home. Technically, I could move out now since I was already eighteen, but realistically, that wasn’t going to happen. I was a school student for another two months, and then there were the London prices to consider. No one was going to want to hire me when I was barely scraping through my A levels, and I already had a part-time volunteer job at a charity lined up for the summer, which would be taking up a chunk of my time.
“I’d like you to pack up all your things this weekend. David was kind enough to volunteer his son’s help to get everything unpacked at the other end. Did you know he has a son just a little older than you? Huxley, his name is. Bit of a wild card, by David’s accounts.”
“No. I didn’t know he had a son,” I said sourly. I barely knew anything about the man other than the fact that he was the manager of a small architectural firm in London, supposedly married, and my mum was his personal assistant. She’d mentioned him on occasion, but I knew nothing whatsoever about him other than that, let alone that they were dating.
“You’ll like Huxley,” she said and then picked up her phone, placing it to her ear. I guessed the conversation was over.
* * *
Spoiler alert: I didn’t like him. But as much as I had an instant dislike for him, heloathedme on sight.
I’d just finished dumping the final box of my shit into my new bedroom—the smallest of the four in the Granger household, but still bigger than my bedroom in our flat—when the door flew open with a crash, rebounding against the wall. I didn’t even have a chance to take a breath before I was being shoved back against the wall, an arm across my throat as a body roughly the same height as mine but a little more wiry held me immobile.
“Don’t make the mistake of thinking you belong here,” a voice snarled in my ear. I blinked, recalibrating, and then my attacker’s face came into focus. Bleached blond hair, smudged eyeliner and dark brows, a stubbled jaw, pierced ears and septum…
Huxley.
“You really are a walking, talking stereotype,” I laughed softly, which made him bare his teeth.
“Explain.” His sapphire-blue eyes connected with mine, rage sparking in them.
“The emo bad boy. Let me guess, you sit in your room and play your guitar while you cry about how unfair your privileged life is. Oh, yeah, and you’ve got a stash of weed hidden from your dad in your bedside drawer.”
He gaped at me but quickly recovered. “Fuck you, loser. You don’t belong here, and as soon as school finishes, you’d better get the fuck out of my house, otherwise I’ll make you regret every single one of your life choices.”
I swallowed against the tattooed arm that was pressing into my throat. Time to teach this wanker a lesson. Shoving off the wall, I sent us both crashing across the bedroom. Unfortunately, in the short time I’d been pinned, I’d managed to forget all about the piles of boxes currently scattered across the floor. Catching his foot on one, he fell backwards, taking me down with him, both of us smacking our heads on yet another box on the way down.
Our noses cracked together, and then we were scrambling away from each other and onto our feet, both of us breathing heavily. I bared my teeth at him. “Let’s get one thing straight, emo boy. My mum is going to marry your dad. I like it just about as much as you do, but they’re adults, and it’s not our decision to make. Therefore, that means I have just as much right to be here as you do. You can start by getting the fuck out of my room.”
With those words, I pushed him backwards with all my strength, sending him staggering back into the doorway. One more push, and I slammed the door in his face, giving him the middle finger as I did so. When I was finally alone, I examined my nose in the mirror. It didn’t appear to be broken, but I decided to head down to the kitchen for some ice, just in case.
In the large, spotless kitchen, I found my mum pouring a glass of wine, humming to herself as something simmered on one of the shiny stainless-steel hobs on the huge range cooker. She glanced up as I entered the room, the smile falling from her face as she took me in.
“Cole! What’s the matter?”
“Uh…” Stalling, I went to the freezer, rummaging around inside until I found a bag of frozen peas. That should help with any possible swelling. When I was seated at the kitchen island with the peas pressed to my nose, gradually freezing my skin, I replied as carefully as I could. “Would there be any reason why David’s son would hate me on sight? Other than the fact that he’s a dic—uh, other than his personality?”
She sighed. “Cole…there’s something you should know. David and I…he was still married when we began our relationship. That is to say, as far as Huxley was concerned, the marriage was still real and valid.”
What? “Mum! Why would you sleep with a married man?”
“I know. Believe me, that’s the part of this I regret the most. It’s not that easy. We tried so hard to stay away from one another, but eventually, our…attraction to one another became too great to ignore.”
