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  As he stood, he tapped his phone and held it up to his ear. Joanna’s hand reached out and grabbed his arm, but he yanked it away and started walking towards the door. With a look of sadness in her eyes, she got up and ran after him.

  “Congratulations, Dad,” I said, trying to act like nothing weird had happened.

  “I’m sure you’re surprised. You know Joanna and I have been together for years now. I thought it would be nice if you and Shane were our witnesses, but Joanna didn't want to wait.” He looked towards the entrance and frowned. “Between you and me, I think she knew he’d get upset about it.” His eyes settled back on me, and he smiled. “I’m sorry about how Shane acted. I’ve only met him a few times, and Joanna says he’s a good kid deep down, but he gets into a lot of trouble.”

  “What kind of trouble?” I asked, wanting to hear more about Shane.

  “I don’t know the details. I’m sure it’s just your typical bad boy thing. He’s got the look and the attitude down. I see boys like that all the time in my school.”

  Boys that look like Shane? I must be in the wrong school. If Noelle knew, she’d want to transfer to my dad’s school ASAP.

  Joanna returned to the table alone with a fake smile plastered on her face. As she maneuvered into her chair, she waved off my father when he pulled the seat out for her.

  “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “Shane’s friend picked him up, but he’ll be joining us on Sunday.”

  “Sunday?” I asked.

  “Sorry, I forgot to mention it to you earlier,” Dad said. “We’re putting an offer in on a house. We were hoping you and Shane would come and tell us what you think of it. Can you make it?”

  I nodded my response, but the only thing I could think about was seeing Shane again in a couple of days.

  Chapter Three

  Rosalie

  I spent most of Sunday morning trying on different outfits and discovering I hated my clothes. I needed something perfect for when I saw Shane. I didn’t care how ridiculous it was, all I could think about was spending some time with Shane Ventana outside of school.

  After trying on everything in my closet twice, I finally settled on a pair of jeans that made my ass look good and a blue sweater. I thought about the other girls at school who looked so put together no matter what they wore. I was sometimes jealous of them, and thinking about how Shane had dated most of them, now was one of those times. I was nothing like them.

  As I ran a comb through my hair one last time, my phone rang. It was Noelle. I stared at her name on the display for a moment, debating whether I should answer or not, before tapping to take the call.

  “Hey, Noelle,” I said.

  “Hey, I haven’t heard from you all weekend. Do you want to come over?”

  Dammit! This was why I shouldn’t have answered.

  “I can’t, my dad should be here any minute. He and Joanna are going to buy a house and they want us to see it.”

  “Us?” she asked.

  Crap! I cannot keep a secret!

  “Umm yeah, us. Joanna kind of has a son.”

  “How does someone kind of have a son?”

  “She and this guy my dad knew were all but married for years. He has a son from before and my dad said she feels bad for him. He had a tough life with his dad. You know Joanna is a social worker, she likes helping people.”

  I left it at that. I wasn’t ready to tell her everything.

  “No way! You had juicy gossip like this and you didn’t share?”

  “Well, it’s really not a big deal.”

  “Okay, Rosalie. Except I know you and when you say that, that means that it is. So spill.”

  “Fine, jeez, you can be such a bitch sometimes,” I joked. “My dad and Joanna got married and now they’re buying a house together. That’s it.”

  “Hmm, you’re leaving something out,” she said. “Tell me about Joanna’s sort-of son. Your dad and Joanna have been together for a while now, so he’s not a baby. Is he hot? Is that why you’ve been quiet?”

  Fuck! How do I get out of this? I can’t lie to her.

  As my mind whirled, my dad’s silver Toyota pulled up in front of the house. While I couldn’t lie to Noelle, I could easily delay telling her the truth.

  “I’ll call you later,” I said. “Dad just got here.”

  “Don’t hang up,” she said. “You gotta tell me!”

  I ended the call and slipped the phone into my pocket as I ran down the stairs. Glancing towards the living room, I was glad to not find anyone there. My mother knew I was going out with Dad and that was all that mattered to me. I didn’t want to deal with Jim.

  As I opened the car door, I realized only two people were in the car, my dad and Joanna. My heart sank a little as I slid into the back seat.

  “That sweater looks very pretty on you,” Joanna said as I buckled my seatbelt.

  “Thanks. So where’s the house?”

  “It’s just up here,” Dad said as he turned the corner.

  “Seriously?”

  “It’s a nice neighborhood, and I was hoping if I lived closer we could see each other more,” he said.

  He pulled up in front of a white split-level house. A woman with short blonde hair in a suit was standing in the house, on the other side of the clear storm door. She opened the door, then smiled and waved as we walked up the driveway.

  “I don’t want to get in your way so I’ll be in my car,” she said. “Please take your time looking around. I know this is a big decision.”

  As we walked through the house, my dad explained all the things he planned to do. I half-listened to something about replacing the tiles in the bathroom and the cabinets in the kitchen, but I couldn’t focus on anything he said. All I wanted to know was where Shane was.

  “Come on,” Joanna said. “I’ll show you the bedrooms.”

  I followed her up the steps and she stopped at the first door on the left.

  “This is your room,” Dad said. “It even has its own bathroom.”

  “My room?”

  “In case you want to move in or just spend the night,” he said. “You know I’ve always kept a room for you.”

  I stepped into the light-filled room with wood floors and looked back at them. I didn’t know what to say or even if I should say something. Living with my father was never something that crossed my mind.

  “Thanks, but--”

  “So the princess gets a room? What about me?” Shane’s deep voice echoed in the empty house. My heart leapt as he appeared in the doorway.

  “I didn’t think you were coming,” Joanna said. “There’s a room for you too. If you want it.”

  Joanna’s heels clicked loudly on the wood floor as she walked down the hall to the next bedroom. Shane didn’t follow her. He stood in the hall, his hands deep in his pockets.

  His eyes narrowed as he looked towards Joanna standing outside the doorway of the next room.

  “Be honest,” he said. “You’re happier when I’m not around.”

  Shane turned and even though I couldn’t see him, I heard the thud of his boots disappearing down the stairs. A few seconds later, the storm door slammed, making me jump.

  As Dad and I stepped into the hall, Joanna wiped a tear away then disappeared into a bedroom across the hall. My dad followed her. Without thinking about it, I went down the steps after Shane.

  Shane was pacing the driveway while he smoked. He didn’t look up as I walked towards him. I wasn’t sure he knew I was there or if he just wanted to be alone so he was ignoring me, but something about him drew me in.

  “Are you alright?” I asked.

  “Did she send you out here? No, wait, let me guess, she didn’t.”

  “Listen, I don’t understand why you’re being like this. I’ve seen you at school and--”

  “And what? I shouldn’t act like this? You think you know all about me because you’ve seen me at school? You don’t know shit about me. You don’t even remember me, do you?”

&nb
sp; Remember you? You’re all I can think about.

  I didn’t have the nerve to say what I was thinking. I just stood there, confused with how he was talking to me. I took a deep breath to calm myself before I said something stupid while he took another drag of his cigarette.

  “You have no fucking clue what I’m talking about, do you?” he asked, his voice a growl.

  “Of course I remember you. You just said hi to me the other day. You started school with us last year.”

  He scoffed as he tossed the cigarette to the ground and crushed it with his boot.

  “I’m not surprised. Joanna’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to a mother and she barely remembers me. I’m sure she wasn't thrilled when Dad and I moved back to town.”

  Shane tilted his head as he stepped closer to me. His green eyes flicked behind me towards the house.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said. “Try not to be so obvious when you’re spying on me.”

  My eyes widened and my cheeks began to burn as he walked away. All this time I thought I had been smart, I thought I was invisible to him and that he never saw me. Now I wondered how long it had been since he first caught me.

  As he got into his car, I wanted to say something. I had to defend myself and make up some excuse to prove him wrong, but my feet were cemented to the driveway.

  Chapter Four

  Rosalie

  Noelle backed her green Chevy coupe out of the driveway as I pulled my make-up out of my bag. It didn’t matter how early I got up in the morning, I could never seem to be on time for when Noelle picked me up for school.

  “I should be angry at you for not calling me back yesterday,” Noelle said.

  “You could never be angry with me, you love me, remember?” I grinned at her as I brushed some color on my cheeks. “Is my blush even?”

  “No, a little too much on the left. Seriously, Rosalie, I’ve been dying to know what happened. If my cousins didn’t come over yesterday, I would’ve kept bugging you until you gave in.”

  “I know, I know,” I said. “I’m sorry. I think I was just a little weirded out by what happened. So you know I went out to dinner with my dad and Joanna on Friday. Well, Joanna and her ex’s son met us there and, well, it’s Shane.”

  “Get out! No freaking way. Shane, like our Shane, like the guy you stalk Shane?”

  “The one and only.”

  “Fuck. Wait, you said they got married? So that means Shane is your brother? Holy shit!”

  “No, he’s not my brother. He’s not even my stepbrother. Don’t be gross. He’s nothing to me, but we might be living in the same house. Now you get why I was so weirded out. Even if I had a sliver of a chance of dating him, there’s no way my dad would allow that now. Of all the dumb luck, right?”

  “So that means I can date him, right? I mean, you can’t, so there’s nothing that says I can’t now. You know, like friend code or something.”

  “You bitch,” I said, laughing. “No, the friend code still applies even if he’s off limits. I still like him so you can’t date him.”

  “Whatever, you’re gross.” She laughed as she pulled into the school parking lot and drove slowly as she looked for Shane’s wreck of a car. It was something we got into the habit of doing every morning. “I think you like him even more now that he’s forbidden to you.”

  Forbidden. Like I need Shane to be forbidden for me to think he’s hot.

  Noelle and I went our own ways to drop our things off in our lockers. As I shoved my backpack away, Seth DeMarco opened his locker next to mine.

  Seth and I had been in the same homeroom for years because our last names started the same. Some of the kids used to make fun of him because he was overweight and wore thick glasses, but I always thought he was a nice guy and someone I considered a friend.

  “Hey, Rosalie,” Seth said. “Can you do me a favor?”

  Seth looked at the floor, then down the hall towards the doorway. I turned around to see if he was looking at anyone, but no one else was around.

  “Sure, what is it?” I asked.

  “It’s nothing really. I’m not going to be in homeroom and I can’t get back to my locker later so I was wondering if you could do me a favor. Can you hold onto my eyeglass case for me?”

  Seth reached up to the top shelf of his locker and pulled out a large, hard eyeglass case. As he held it in his hands, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a coffin in a Star Trek movie I watched with my dad on television years ago.

  “Yeah, no problem,” I said. “Do you want to meet somewhere so I can get it back to you?”

  “Don’t worry about it, I’ll find you when I need it.” Seth pushed his gold wire-rimmed glasses up his nose, then looked back down the hall towards the doorway to the cafeteria. “Thanks for doing this for me. Oh, and one more thing,” he said as he walked away, “don’t open it.”

  I held the eyeglass case as he hurried away. I looked at it again, curious why I shouldn’t open it. It felt a little heavy for an empty case, but I convinced myself that was all in my head. I shoved it onto the top shelf in my locker, hoping I would forget about it in no time. The warning bell rang, and I slammed my locker door shut and rushed to get to homeroom before the final bell.

  Two periods had passed and I couldn’t stop thinking about Seth’s eyeglass case in my locker. Why shouldn’t I open it? If he hadn’t said to not open it, I wouldn’t have given it any thought. I would have left it alone.

  I had study hall third period and went back to my locker to drop off my books. The eyeglass case was sitting there, staring at me, mocking me, begging for me to open it. I couldn’t take it anymore. Maybe Seth was just testing me, but I had to open it.

  I waited until the bell rang and then made sure I was the only one in the hall. As I pulled the case down, it felt even heavier than before. There has to be something in here, but what? Another pair of glasses?

  The black case creaked as I slowly opened it. The stench of tobacco hit my nostrils, making me scrunch my face. In a baggie was enough tobacco to fill the entire case. I thought about my grandfather who smoked a pipe, but it didn’t make any sense. Why would Seth have tobacco?

  I closed the case, slid it to the back of the top shelf, and closed my locker. Leaning against it, I saw Shane walk past the cafeteria doorway and before I could talk some sense into myself, I went after him hoping he could help.

  “Shane! Wait up,” I called out.

  He turned towards me, his face a mixture of disgust and confusion.

  “Is this how it’s going to be? Now that we’ve been thrown together like this, you think I’m going to talk to you? Or maybe you want to join the Shane club. I bet you still have your ‘V’ card. You know that’s the price of admission.” He eyed me up and down before he started talking again. “You’re not my usual type, so I’ll think of you as community service.”

  “I...uhh...” I couldn’t get any words out. I didn’t expect him to act like such an ass. Why did he hate me? “Never mind,” I said.

  As I spun on my heel to get away from him, I heard him mutter something before reaching out to grab my arm.

  “What do you want?” he demanded.

  As he glared at me, I wanted nothing more than to forget I ever had a crush on him. But even with the mixed feelings going on in my head, my body was responding to him touching my arm. Something had to be wrong with me to be attracted to this jerk.

  “I said never mind. You obviously don’t want to help me and I don’t even know if I need help. I was confused and I saw you and thought maybe you could help me. I didn't realize you were such a fucking asshole,” I said.

  “Why are you talking so much?”

  “I don’t know why. You’re being an ass and I’m confused. Whenever I get nervous, I start babbling and I can’t stop. I don’t know what it is, but I can’t help it.”

  Shane’s hands reached for my face and pulled me close. His lips pressed against mine and all my nervousness melted away. As his tongue moved
hungrily into my mouth, his fingers wrapped around my hair, keeping me close.

  He pulled away with a jerk and his intense green eyes bored into me.

  His kiss left me breathless and dizzy. His lips moved, but I couldn’t hear the words, all I could do was wish his mouth was back against mine. Forcing my brain to take over made me realize how much of an effect Shane had on my body. And as I looked at the glint in his eyes, I knew he knew it too.

  Keep it together, Rosalie. Don’t act like such a loser, it was just a kiss.

  “What was that for?” I croaked.

  “I had to shut you up somehow. Figured maybe if your panties were wet you wouldn’t be so nervous.”

  “You’re such an ass. I liked you better when I didn’t know you.”

  “Whatever. You came after me, remember? What do you want?”

  “A friend of mine gave me something to hold and told me to not open it,” I said.

  “So you opened it.”

  “Of course I did, wouldn’t you?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Go on, I don’t have all day. Who was this friend?”

  “You probably don’t know him. He’s in my homeroom and his locker is right next to mine. He gave me his eyeglass case and said he’d get it from me later.”

  “Jeez, Rosalie, I didn’t ask for the long version, just gimme a name.”

  “Seth DeMarco.”

  “Seth?” He paused before a disgusted look crossed his face. “Fat fuck with glasses?”

  “Yeah, he’s overweight, but--“

  “What, are you into him? Are you dating that needledick?”

  “No, we’re barely friends, but he gave me—”

  “Where is it?”

  “In my locker. I don’t think it’s a big deal. It’s just his eyeglass case,” I said as Shane started to turn away.

  “Shh,” he said as he locked his eyes on mine. “You talk too much.”