AllFreeNovel
Share Us
For the lab, we were making some sort of Rube Goldberg machine out of household objects. Something to demonstrate momentum or inertia or some other such nonsense I barely cared about because I was already mentally checked out of Coldwater and moving on to Harvard by now. Plus, this was clearly sweet Mrs. Parsons’s attempt at making physics “fun”, and I hadn’t been born with an earnest excitable gene.
It was simple enough, at least, though Jade avoided looking at me as she worked. We were practically working individually, just at the same lab station. Eventually, though, her clear frustration with me manifested itself in her knocking over the plastic cup that was crucial to our contraption more than once. On the third toppling of our creation, she let out a harshly whispered, “Damnit!”
Mrs. Parsons wasn’t the type to scold Jade, but she did wear a firm frown and acted like she wanted to come over and attempt some discipline. Jade Wells was being a bad girl, and the hornier parts of my brain loved it. I placated our teacher with a closed-lipped smile and turned back to my enraged lab partner.
“What’s the problem, new girl? It’s just a silly contraption.” My bored tone would piss her off further, I knew, but maybe that was why I tried extra hard to sound like I didn’t care even while I subtly asked after her wellbeing.
“Oh, myGod,” Jade half-growled, half-whispered. Her cheeks were flushed an adorable shade of deep, rosy pink that reminded me of her nipples, but the expression on her face was distraught enough to actually give my lust pause. She was trembling with rage when she spoke again after a long second of slow breathing through her nose.
“Actually, Xander,youare the problem. You’ve been nothing but an arrogant, self-important dick bag since we’ve met, and even though I’m clearly attracted to you, my hatred for you as a person has only increased a thousand times since you treated me like garbage after—well, you know. The locker room.” She was blushing a furious fuchsia now, but she kept up her quiet tirade, almost whispering so as to not be overheard by our classmates. I heard every syllable clear as day.
“I don’t care how fucking rich and handsome and smart you are. None of it matters if you treat the people around you like they don’t matter. It’s classless, and cruel, and fucking horrible. And maybe I’m used to that kind of uncaring treatment from guys I’ve dated, so that’s why I stupidly let myself get involved with you the way I did. I was swept up in the moment, and it felt good, and I’ve never been treated like I matter during sex, so why should things be any different now?”
Fuck, her voice was shaking now, too. She sounded like she was close to tears, and that vulnerable tidbit about her dating history struck a chord. Humanizing her, which I guess was her point—I’d never been a natural at seeing the people around me as real, full, complex individuals. I felt a painful twinge in my chest and idly rubbed my hand over the spot as if to soothe it. Jade wasn’t finished dealing her death blows, though.
“But I’ve learned my lesson now, and I’ll never touch any of you again. If you and your stupid friends just want to… touseme like some stupid toy, you’ve got the wrong girl. In fact, all threeof you stooges can consider me erased from your lives. I’m done with this.”
The exhausted defeat in her voice, the slump of her shoulders once she’d finished talking, really solidified how fucking awful I felt. She looked so small, so helpless. Hopeless, even. And I didn’t like how that dulled the sparkle in her green eyes. I was starting to really like those eyes, and the sparkling personality underneath them, too.
The only thing I could manage to say, without a drop of irony, was, “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Jade blinked and jerked backward in a motion that almost looked like she’d glitched. She stared at me, unblinking, silent.Keep going, Xander. You’ve got to say more.
“I was rude and terrible to you, and that’s how I’ve been since you’ve come to Coldwater. I can’t give you some excuse about having a bad day, or a bad week, or a bad year. I’m just better at the perfectionism, keeping-up-appearances thing than I am at being… human. But—and I hate to admit this, really—something about you is intriguing enough to make me want to try. I so rarely want to get to know anyone, Jade Wells, but I’d like to get to know you, if you’d give me the chance to make things up to you.”
Her silence stretched on long enough that I almost worried she really had glitched. Fully frozen, needing a hard restart—and I’d love to press her power button, wherever that was. In front of a whole class of physics students, even. I didn’t care.
Finally, Jade gave a slow, careful nod. It wasn’t a complete acceptance, absolving me of my bad behavior, but it felt like a truce. And a perfect opportunity to put up a white flag.
“Come to my place after school,” I blurted out. I wasn’t sure why I said it, wasn’t sure of much of anything except that I needed to touch her, be touched by her again. “I may not be good with human warmth and affection in the socially-acceptedsense, but I know how to make you feel good. You deserve to feel good after how I treated you.”
There was no innocence in her green irises, just an almost supernatural flame of desire that lit the same fuse inside me, too. She knew this was an invitation for sex—mind-blowing, explosive, go-all-afternoon sex, if she’d really let me make it up to her. I wanted to make Jade Wells come on my face, around my cock, every which way from Sunday. Dane was the imaginative, creative one of my friend group, but suddenly, a whole host of deliciously wicked ideas sprang to mind, and with it, I felt my dick spring to attention under our lab table. Jade inspired me in that way.
She didn’t say yes, or nod, or do much to acknowledge my invitation but bite her lower lip in a way I made a mental note to try myself later. But she didn’t say no, either. And that was all I needed to know that I’d be fucking Jade Wells into oblivion today. Whatever she wanted, I’d give her.
16
JADE
I’d blown past reckless and rounded the corner to fully batshit insane. Truly, that was the only explanation. Insanity would be a solid excuse for my sexual exploration with the school’s infamous Triad of Terror, and it was the absolute only thing that made sense now that Xander had invited me over to his house,clearly, to have sex. No way that could be a serious offer. No way I wasactually considering it, getting myself all hot and bothered on my way to the lunch room at the thought.
The craziest part of all of this was how far my revenge plot seemed to have strayed from my mind. Of course, Owen was still on my shit list, and I’d still relish the idea of his getting the comeuppance he deserved. I just knew that whatever I was doing with Dane Schwartz, Bryce Fisher, and Xander Townsend at this point had absolutely nothing to do with my silly plan. It had everything to do with pure, unadulterated lust. I’d never felt anything so strong before in my life.
Well, except the worry. Underneath the clouds of desire that filled my vision, I was terrified I’d get hurt again going down this path. No matter how much I told myself I hated Dane, Bryce,and Xander, part of me was starting to hate them less, and that meant I’d get my silly, naive heart broken again before too long.
The damn thing had terrible taste in guys.
As mine and Leah’s normal table came into view and I headed that way, my overpriced designer lunchbox swinging on my arm, the fog cleared enough for me to notice Dane leaving our table. My brow furrowed, and I thought about asking him what he was doing until he actually came close enough to me for us to speak. Before I could form a sentence, Dane made my blood run cold.
“Nice to see you,Hannah,” he practically sneered.
Oh,shit.Shit, shit, shit. Dane was gone in seconds, nowhere to be found, and then I was at the lunch table, and the look on Leah’s face told me exactly what had just happened. Somehow, Dane had found out my so-called secret identity. And now he’d broken the news to my only real friend at this school. Hell, after Owen ruined everything with my former friends, Leah was my only friendperiod.
“Hi,” I said with a wince as I came to sit across from her.Please still be my friend. Please still be my friend.
“Uh, hi,Jade. Or should I call youHannah?” She raised an eyebrow, and I considered complimenting her on the perfect arch of it since I knew she’d been on an eyebrow journey lately, but I knew she wouldn’t let me off the hook that easily. She didn’t even flinch when my expression turned sheepish, apologetic.
“It’s definitely Jade now, okay? It’s my middle name. I needed a fresh start when I moved schools.”
