AUGUST

School is shit. All my classes this year are bullshit. I honestly don't know what my counselor was fucking thinking when he put my schedule together. I'm taking classes that are soooooo boring and aren't even a fucking challenge!

I slumped in my seat while the teacher—I have yet to care enough to remember his name—was writing down math problems on the board and calling up students to solve them. My gaze beelined to the clock above the board. There was only five minutes left of this damn class. I reeeeeally wanted for those five minutes to speed up.

As I kept my eyes locked on the clock, my leg involuntarily bounced up and down while my thumb drummed on the desk. The buzzing from my left pocket broke my concentration with the clock and instead I glanced at the teacher's turned back. Safe from a scolding, I shoved my hand into the pocket of the tacky khaki pants I had to wear for a uniform, and pulled out my phone.

Glancing once more up at the teacher to make sure he was still rambling and writing, I swiped against the screen to unlock it. There was a text message that popped up and I frowned, scrunching my nose as I read it.

Wanna hang out after school today?

We could hang out at my house.

I pursed my mouth to the side, glancing at the name the text was from. I pulled in my lips before looking up at the teacher finishing up a problem and quickly typed back.

Maybe. I might have plans with Alex.

I stuck my phone back into my pocket just as the teacher turned around and was going to call on a student but that beautiful fucking bell rang and I shot out of my seat, and almost trampled this girl in my way. I barely heard her, "Hey, asshole!" as I made it out into the hall just in time before the rest of the herd.

"Yo, Whitmore!"

Turning at my surname, I raised my brows then grinned when Alex was nudging his way through the crowd towards me. He nodded, holding up a hand to high five me in greeting before we headed towards the cafeteria. Alex raised a brow, asking for us to stop by his locker before we went to eat because he needed to drop off his textbook so he didn't have to carry it for the rest of the day.

"You already got your textbook?" I asked him, glancing at the large science book he was cradling.

Alex grimaced, holding up the textbook in question. "Yeah. Damn teacher had them at the back of her class already where she checked them out to us. She's a total bitch, too. She made me sit next to Nancy Wienerman. Wienerman! That Weenie was all over me the entire period and I couldn't get her to lay off!"

I grinned, shrugging my shoulder as we stopped at his locker. "Well... maybe if you kept it in your pants long enough instead of dick hopping to every floozy that is in your way, you wouldn't have these clingy girls fawning all over you."

"Fuck you, man. That's not funny! And I don't dick hop anyone. That sounds stupid." Alex frowned into his locker, tossing the book carelessly into it then asked me about my classes so far.

I made a face, crossing my arms and leaned back against the locker next to his.

"Pieces of shit, is what they are," I grumbled, looking at a few of the girls walking by. Most of them had hiked their skirts a bit higher than was allowed which I wasn't complaining about. I raised a brow, tilting my head at the nice views as they passed.

Alex nodded, agreeing that he didn't have the ideal classes either, but that at least the first day was going by fast.

"Yeah... Sure." I shrugged.

Suddenly, my elbow was nudged a bit harder than I liked and frowned at Alex. He ignored me, nodding instead down the opposite way I was looking and grinned as he teased, "Here comes your eye candy."

My eyebrows furrowed before turning to where he was looking. The corner of my lip curled upward when I saw who he was talking about. This girl was cute, let me tell you. And this year's prime conquest.

I first saw her last year in the lunch line. I wondered how I hadn't noticed her before when all Alex and I did was scope out the freshman for new flings. I mean, it was kind of mind-boggling that I hadn't noticed her until the middle of the year. She had hid well. Kudos to her.

But ever since I laid eyes on her, I couldn't stop thinking about wanting to talk to her. And the few times that I have tried, she always managed to escape, and to be honest, that kind of pissed me off. But I figured this year would be different. I'd finally get more than just her fucking name.

My grin widened when the object-of-my-temporary-affection was walking past with her two friends. I glanced at Alex who gave me a knowing grin. I cleared my throat as I leaned back against the locker with my arms crossed.

"Afternoon, Lovelies," I greeted, smirk in place.

The three girls turned, and two of them quickly recognized me and one of them flushed (nothing new). The blushing girl waved her fingers and giggled, "Hi, Grayson! Long time no see."

I remembered her from last year. She was one of the ones I had picked out. She was alright, I guess, but she wasn't the one I was focused on.

I lifted a brow, tilting my head to catch the gaze of the more quiet girl at the end. "How was your summer, Shella?"

Shella, the cute freshman-now-turned-sophomore I was talking about, blinked a few times as she stared at me. She swallowed, glancing at her friends beside her before nodding back at me that it was good, that she spent most of it with her brother at the beach.

Ah, yes. How could I forget she was the sister of Cedar Prep's most popular senior?

The guy was always keeping an eye on her, making it hard to work my magic. Not saying the guy is an asshole or anything, but... okay, fine. He's a Grade-A asshole.

I had once gone to talk to him about asking his sister out and the guy's eyes bulged with a scowl before he threw me out of the locker room. Yes. He threw me out of the locker room. He even pointed at me as I was lying on the floor and warned me to stay away from his sister.

So... I made sure not to stay away. I was going to have his sister one way or another, just to shove it in his Goddamn face that he can't push me around and tell me what to do after I tried to be decent and ask his permission.

"Are you ladies heading to lunch?" I asked, keeping my eyes on Shella's.

Shella gulped, glancing at Alex beside me before one of her friends nodded excitedly, inviting us to sit with them to which Shella grabbed her friend's arm. "Sydney!" She gasped, eyes wide again.

Sydney frowned, looking at her. "What?"

Shella glanced our way then shook her head mumbling something about her brother. The other girl rolled her eyes, sighing heavily as she drolly stared at me. "I guess we'll be eating alone. You know... like we always do?" she said this last part to Shella who frowned at her.

Sydney narrowed her eyes then looked at us, holding up a finger before smiling. "One sec..." she said then dragged Shella off by the arm with her other friend. They were arguing back and forth in whispers, glancing our way now and again.

I looked at my best friend. Alex grinned, shutting his locker and was messing with the dial as he huffed, "All this time-wasting over a fucking girl..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I lowered a brow at him, crossing my arms more.

Alex shook his head, turning to the side to lean his shoulder against his locker. "Well, yeah, Gray. We were having such a fan-fucking-tastic school day already, and now it's even better with having to sit with these girls. And all because you're fucking whipped for one."

My lip curled. "I am not whipped, asshole. I already told you what my plan is."

Alex nodded, frowning with his eyes closed and waving his hand in the air. "Right, right. You just want to show her brother who's boss by nailing his sister."

He glanced at the girls, rolling his eyes as he scoffed back at me, "She's not that cute, dude. There are so many other girls that are actually hot and you just want to waste your time trying to bump uglies with the Deaf Girl."

My jaw slanted to the side. Alex could get on my nerves sometimes. I didn't get to say anything back though since the girls were coming back over and Sydney smiled that she'd love to have lunch with us.

The one I was setting my eyes on scoffed, turning her head to Sydney. "I just thought we agreed on not sitting with them?"

"So? I changed my mind," Sydney frowned at her through grit teeth.

Shella shook her head. "If you want to sit with them, then fine! But I'm not!"

Sydney quickly turned to us, perked up with a smile. "Well now that that's settled! I guess we can go eat!"

I looked at Alex who grinned, shrugging a shoulder with a less-than-enthusiastic, "Yippee..." as he motioned in the direction of the cafeteria.

Sydney was already skipping ahead without a goodbye to Shella glaring after her. The other girl swallowed hard, glancing back and forth between Sydney and Shella until the former shouted, "Diana! Let's go! Now!" Biting her lip, Diana softly apologized to Shella then scurried after Sydney.

Alex walked by me, him giving me a raised brow look as he passed and then faced the other two girls with open arms. "Who wants to buy my lunch?" he announced, and the Sydney laughed, wrapping her arm around his waist as he rested his arm on her shoulder. Diana's face flushed and she quickly went to the Sydney's opposite side while Alex was saying something to them.

I faced Shella still frowning after her friends then she glanced at me and her cheeks turned red. Her shoulders rose, looking away before murmuring that she had to go, walking in the direction of the cafeteria.

Nodding, I offered, "Hey, well, wait up! I'll walk with you."

I caught up to her and stuffed my hands into my pockets. Peering at her through the corner of my eyes, I raised a brow as she stared at her feet. My eyes flicked up to the contraption around the shell of her ear and then back to her profile.

"You sure you don't want to sit with us?" I asked her, hoping she'd change her mind.

Shella shook her head, frowning that she was sure. She made sure to keep eye contact with her sneakers the whole time we walked to the caf and stopped at the propped open doors.

When I inquired about where she was going to be sitting now that her friends ditched her because that is what they did, Shella shrugged a shoulder that she'd figure it out. "I'll probably go sit with my brother," she resolved.

Dammit. Again with her asshole brother.

I nodded, pursing my lips and shrugged. "Alright. Suit yourself. Later," I said with a mock salute before heading to the lunch line.

Just as I reached for a tray though, my arm was tugged on, pulling me out of the line. I frowned at the culprit and growled, "Dammit, Falene! I lost my spot!" watching the gap in the line close as the student who'd been behind me moved forward.

Turning back to her, I narrowed my eyes, growling that Falene better have a fucking good excuse as to why she pulled me out of line. She beamed at me, nodding that she did, pointing over at the table that Alex was already sitting at with the two sophomores.

"I brought In-N-Out! My dad just dropped it off for me and I got you your favorite! Come on!" She tugged my arm again, pulling me forward but then I yanked my arm away, frowning that I could walk myself.

Falene laughed, nodding as I followed her to the table and she waited until I sat down before seating herself beside me. Indeed, there were four bags from my favorite burger joint and I snatched one of them in my direction, shoving my hand into it to pull out some fries and a burger.

Falene smiled at me that she was so excited that we'd be hanging out after school today as I bit into my burger. I stopped mid-bite to glance at her then at Alex who rolled his eyes as he stuffed four fries into his mouth.

"Thought I told you that I might have plans with Alex, though?" I frowned at her, chewing the bite I finished taking.

Falene blinked, her happy face gone momentarily and replaced with a blank one. But then she grinned again, laughing and lightly shoved me. That shit was annoying.

"Oh, stop, Grayson! You know you have fun at my house when you come over! Besides, Alex told me yesterday that he has a dentist appointment after school today, right Alex?"

I snapped my head in his direction and immediately Alex's brows rose as he froze from putting more fries into his mouth. His gaze shifted from Falene to me before shoving the fries to clamp his mouth shut.

I slowly shook my head, narrowing my eyes at him. Bastard.

It's not that I didn't like Falene. I mean, she was my other best friend, but ever since that one time we slept together, our friendship kind of took a turn. We had a little too much booze that night when her parents and sister were out, and when she joked around about us fooling around—with no attachments—I was open to the idea.

Falene was pretty, not as hot as her sister, but she was well on her way up there. So when I agreed that we could try it once, we took our make-out session from the living room to the decked out "hangout" basement where we put the sofa to good use for however long we were down there.

That was the one and only time we slept together since my attention was drawn to other girls. I mean, it was fun with Falene— really it was—but the more I thought about just fooling around with only her, meant that it was like we were... together. Hell no.

I calmly looked at Falene sipping her drink as she tilted her head with her blue eyes on me. She pulled the straw from her mouth a second to say, "So?" before sipping again. Her brows rose as she awaited my answer.

Rolling my eyes, I sighed, "Fine. I'll chill with you after school."

Falene smiled, sipping away again as she nodded and went on about a few documentaries that we could watch that I'd like. I wasn't listening really. My eyes were scanning the cafeteria for Shella. I looked behind me over at the lunch line to see if maybe she was still in line or something but nope.

Facing forward, I caught gazes with Alex whose brow rose as he was chewing slowly. I knew he knew who I was looking for and he shook his head before looking down to dip his fries into ketchup.

When I went back to looking around the cafeteria, I happened to spot Zade's table at the other end. The group of rowdy boys had a few girls there but did a quick scan to realize his sister wasn't there like she said she'd probably be. Much to my disappointment, I was thinking about just giving up for the day. Tomorrow was a new day, after all.

But even Shella's brother, I noticed, was taking a few minutes every so often to look away from his friends and scan the cafeteria like he was looking for her too. At one point, he happened to look over to where I was sitting and saw the two sophomores sitting at our table; Sydney trying to engage Alex long enough in a conversation that wasn't happening since my best friend was forcing a nod as he stuffed his face.

Zade's brows furrowed before he looked at the guy beside him and said something. Then he got up. Fuck.

I frowned, muttering for the sophomore to shut up already as I took a sip of my drink. Falene smiled, asking me what was wrong, but I shook my head that it was nothing until Senior Asshole halted at the end of our table with one of his friends behind him.

Just to pretend like I didn't care that he was there, I stared straight ahead, sipping my drink slowly before tilting my head slightly up at him with half-mast eyes. "Can we help you?"

The senior wasn't very fond of me. I could obviously tell since last year. So he was glaring at me with his arms crossed and I glanced at his biceps that appeared larger than the year before. Yikes.

My brows shot upward, glancing at Alex who was probably cursing me to hell because my latest, hopeful, conquest's brother was before us.

"Where's my sister?" Zade demanded.

Scrunching my nose, I shrugged. "How the fuck should I know?"

Zade uncrossed his arms, resting his hands on the table and leaned forward. "Probably because her two friends are sitting at this table with you, Putz."

I raised a brow, glancing to the two girls beside me who looked guilty up at Zade. They swallowed hard the more the senior glared at them and me.

Still trying to keep my cool, I shifted to place my elbow on the edge of the table. My hand gestured to the two girls, shrugging as I said, "Well... you see them there, don't you? Why don't you ask them where your sister is? I do recall I'm doing my part of staying away from her, however... " Grinning, I craned my neck forward, scrunching my nose. "I can't guarantee she'll stay away from me."

I quickly backed away in panic when Zade lunged forward but wasn't able to grab hold of me since his friend's quick reflexes yanked him back.

"Cool it, Zade! He's just trying to get a rise out of you!" Zade's friend pulled the furious senior back towards their table and I got brave enough to stand up, not caring that I was announcing it loudly to the cafeteria.

I grinned so hard, chuckling over at the furious senior, "It's a brand new year, Ruiz! Can't guarantee what's gonna happen except for finally getting what I want!"

Much to my satisfaction, Zade struggled against his friend tugging him back to the table with his group of friends all giving death stares in my direction. Zade's loyal subjects.

I narrowed my eyes, grin falling as I huffed a breath through my nose. Then I sat heavily, glancing at the two sophomores and waved for them to go away. They quickly got up, lifting their trays off the table and scurried off. My two best friends were quiet, and I was glad. I didn't need them telling me shit. I was still pissed off that Zade came over here.

Now it was a definite fucking yes that I was going to have Shella Ruiz before this year was over. Because I always get what I want.