It’s disgusting and untrue.
And I hate him. I’ve only known him for six months, but I knew within the first six minutes I didn’t like him.
“Leave me alone.” I start to walk off to my bedroom, to safety, but he grabs my arm, stopping me.
“I’m the principal. You cannot just do whatever you want here. You’re not spending your time with Lawson Davis. Do you hear me?”
I turn to him, my jaw dropped. “What are you, spying on me?”
“I own that school. You think I didn’t know you were late to your first class today and you sauntered in with Lawson? Your locker proves that you already have a reputation.”
“You knew about that? And it was still on my locker at the end of the day?”
“Maybe you need to learn the lesson.”
“What lesson?” I glare at him.
“Not to act so damn slutty at my school.”
“I didn’t do anything!” I shout just as my mother walks in through the front door.
At forty-five, Margaret Da Silva, formally Margaret Sanders, doesn’t look at day over thirty-five, thanks to plastic surgery and lots and lots of money. “What is going on?” She keeps her tone hushed despite us being the only ones in the house.
“Your daughter is spending time with troublemakers, and I’m trying to warn her, babe.” Colin wraps an arm around my mom’s waist, and she melts into him.
Looking up at him like he’s a god among men. I know he’s a good-looking man. I’m not blind. He has the all-American, model/athlete look. He used to play football in high school and has told us both about his glory days, running the school even before he actually ran the school.
But to me, he’s ugly.
“Raelynn.” My mother looks at me in horror. “That is not okay.”
“Lawson is nice, Mom.”
“He’s a Davis. He’s a nobody. You know his parents are drunks, right? Always causing trouble in town.”
I glare at my stepfather before glancing back at my mother, who looks repulsed at the idea of a “nobody” being around her daughter. “No more, Raelynn. I told you we have to make this work. We aren’t here to make trouble for Colin.” She drags her hand over his jaw, and he looks like he’s about to eat her.
I could stay and try to argue, but there’s no point. There’s no point in telling my mom the things Colin has said to me. She either won’t believe it or won’t care. She already eyes me suspiciously around him like I’m going to try and steal him away from her.
It’s sick.
I want nothing to do with either of them, so I just head down the hall to my room, locking the door behind me. I liked today, despite the ugly start and ending, but hanging out with Lawson was fun.
He’s easy to talk to and so real. He didn’t have any problem with me vomiting up personal, embarrassing information, and he even supplied his own family history. It only made him more endearing to me.
I lie down on my bed, covering my head with my pillow when it becomes clear Colin and my mother have retired to their room and not to sleep. Why does their room have to share a wall with mine?
Only four more years.
* * *
I hand Rae the milkshake she ordered and take mine as we walk to our spot at Richard’s. But this time we’re joined by some of my friends, as well as Nash and Elias. It’s only been a month since the day I officially met Rae, but I made it pretty clear she wasn’t going anywhere.
Thankfully, most of my friends are decent people, and even Tammy is coming around. Tanner, who has a mouthful of food but doesn’t let it deter him from talking, looks over at Rae. “So, why don’t you have an accent?”
Rae looks slightly bashful as she tucks her hair behind her ear, still nervous around my friends. Tammy butts in before she can answer, “Yeah, I thought you were from Dallas.”
That had been the rumor, but Rae really doesn’t have a hint of an accent. “I moved here from Dallas, but I was eleven when my mom and I moved there from California. So, yeah . . . No accent.”
“Just like Nash and Law,” Tanner states.
Nash laughs and ruffles my hair because he can’t seem to keep from making me look like a kid. “Yup, we’re outsiders.”
“You are not,” Tammy defends us for no good reason.
“I kinda noticed you don’t seem to have accents,” Rae says, her big eyes looking in my direction.
“Yeah. We were born in Kansas. Mom was from there, and we lived there until I was eight,” I supply.
“Yeah, and then Dad followed the oilfield down here to nowhere,” Nash says with more grit in his voice than he had before. He always gets that way when it comes to our dad.
Rae must notice the tension. “Makes sense.” She takes a drink of her shake and then looks over at Tammy. “What about you? Texas?”
Tammy, who has a thick Texas drawl, narrows her eyes. “Yeah. You have a problem with it?”
Rae handles her like a champ. “Nope, unless it’s coming out of Colin’s mouth. Then yes. I have a big problem with the accent. His sounds stupid.”
Tammy actually laughs. Like a real full-on, surprised laugh. “Yeah, your stepdad is a real douche.”
“Yeah, he gave me detention last year a few times for nothing,” Tanner says, mouth full of food. “Disruptive in class,” he scoffs.
Rae laughs that light, happy laugh I’m beginning to love. “Right. I’m sure it was nothing.”
“Well, I’ve never done anything to him, and he’s always on me about something,” Tammy says, and I notice she wraps her arms around her waist as she does. “He creeps me out.”
We all seem to tense at that, but Rae moves closer to her. “How?”
Tammy steels her expression, but none of us missed the way she said that or her body language. “He’s just creepy.” She drops her gaze to her lap. “Always telling me I’m asking for trouble and stuff. He’s stupid.”
“I’m sorry,” Rae offers, even though she has nothing to be sorry about.
And Tammy tells her so, lifting her head back up to look at Rae. “Yeah well, at least I don’t share a roof with him. I’m sorry for you.”
Rae snorts, “Yeah, no kidding. I feel sorry for me too.”
The girls smile at each other, and it’s weird. I mean, last month Tammy scrawled the word “slut” on Rae’s locker, and now they seem pretty friendly. But I guess that’s just girls for you. “You know, if you ever need a break from him, you can always come over to my house. It’s nothing fancy like I’m sure you’re used to, but it’s not bad.”
Rae nods her head, and I catch Nash’s grin, who must think it’s just as weird as I do.
When everyone leaves, and it’s just Rae and me messing around with the pool table, I have to give her a hard time. “So, Tammy’s your best friend now?”
She rolls her eyes, sliding one of the pool balls into another, knocking it into the pocket. “Yeah, right.”
“That’s cheating.”
She grins at me, but she looks cute in her hoodie and jeans. It’s not cold out, but she likes to wear the hoodie she stole from me. “Whatever. I’m just glad she wasn’t staring daggers at me.”