Chapter 3

Blake

It felt like hours had passed before the bell for lunch finally went. I was so thankful as the class was dismissed; the snickering and sly comments were really starting to get to me. Ms. Sparks couldn’t help herself giving me disapproving looks from the front of the class, and then I had Jason’s infamous smirk to the side of me.

If that wasn’t enough, he was making me highly paranoid with all the sidelong glances he’d been throwing my way. It would’ve made my life so much easier if he just acted like I didn’t exist in his own little, screwed up world.

I scooped my books into my bag and grabbed Ash by the forearm, dragging her out of the classroom. I knew that she wanted to flirt with Jason- best friends can sense these things- and there was no way in hell I was going to let that happen.

My suspicions were confirmed when Ash immediately started complaining, but I didn’t let go of her until I reached my locker. I put all my bags in there and shut the door with more force that necessary. I wouldn’t need anything for next period; the principal had given us permission to miss class so we could practice our dance routine for the rally next week. I guess that was one of the perks of being captain of the dance team.

“Stay away from him, Ash,” I warned her.

She batted her eyelashes innocently. “Stay away from who?”

“You know who.” I rolled my eyes. “Jason.”

Ash didn’t answer me back and I suddenly lost my vision as everything became black.

“Guess who?” a guy’s familiar voice said. He was covering my eyes with his hands.

“Um, Santa?” I joked, a smile cracking across my face.

I heard his deep chuckle and was finally released. I spun around instantly and was faced with my beautiful boyfriend, Braydon. He tilted my head tilted upwards so that my eyes met with his gorgeous blue ones.

“Very funny, babe,” he said before pulling me in for a kiss.

Our lips met and things quickly got pretty hot and heavy. We hadn’t seen each other all morning, though, so we had a legitimate excuse for such a large amount of PDA. My hands found their way onto his chest and I couldn’t help but appreciate how toned it was, even underneath his football jersey. Braydon was definitely one of those guys: blonde, blue-eyed, tall, muscular, all American and captain of the football team. Basically, I was pretty damn lucky for him to be my boyfriend.

Our kiss was cut short- way too short- when Braydon pulled away from me.

Once I opened my eyes, I realized that he hadn’t pulled away as so much as been pulled away. Behind him stood my idiotic stepbrother, holding onto the back of Braydon’s jersey. And Braydon actually looked a little uncomfortable… that was new.

“What are you doing?” I hissed to Jason through gritted teeth.

He ignored my question completely. “Is this guy bothering you, Blake?”

“For god’s sake, no. Let him go!” I pulled Jason’s grip away from Braydon and put my hands on my hips. “What the hell do you want?” I huffed.

“Hey, hey, don’t get angry with me. I just get a little protective of you, that’s all,” Jason said, smirking at my obvious irritation.

“Who are you to get protective over my girlfriend?” Braydon spoke up suddenly, a possessive arm snaking around my waist and pulling me to his side. He may as well have tattooed ‘Braydon’s girl, hands off’ on my forehead.

It felt like there was one big testosterone party and I was the only person who wasn’t invited.

“Oh, you didn’t hear yet?” Jason asked, and his smirk was bigger than ever.

I gave my stepbrother a warning look. “Don’t you even dare—”

“No, Blake. I want to hear what he has to say,” Braydon interrupted me. I could tell he was getting more and more pissed off with every passing second. He had his face on- the one that he used in games to intimidate the other team. That was never a good sign.

“Well the whole class was talking about it just last period. I’m sure one of them will fill you in on what happened between us,” Jason said casually, but I knew that he was fully aware of how much he was getting to my boyfriend.

Braydon turned to me, blue eyes blazing. “What’s he talking about, Blake?”

“I-uh…” I stuttered. “Come on, I’ll explain later. He’s just being an ass.”

I grabbed Ash with one hand and Braydon with the other, somehow managing to drag them away before a full blown fight broke out. I’m not sure whether it would be me or Braydon to hit Jason first; we may have even had to fight each other for the privilege. Either way he would have deserved it.

I let both of them go when I thought we were a safe distance away, and Braydon immediately turned on me. “Who the hell was that fool?” he asked.

“I’m really sorry, Braydon,” I said. “That was my moron of a stepbrother- you know, Jason. Just let me explain…”

Braydon shook his head. “I’ve got to go.”

I watched him walk down the hallway, leaving without a goodbye or even a wave. He just left, leaving me standing there like an idiot with Ash.

“I swear Jason was put on this earth to ruin my life,” I told her.

Ash just linked her arm through mine. “Let’s go get some lunch. Food fixes everything.”

Jason

I couldn’t help but chuckle as I watched Blake basically haul her angry lump of a boyfriend and her hot friend down the hallway. There was no need for everyone to get so riled up about me stepping in. I was Blake’s brother now, so it was kind of my job to intimidate any guy that got close to her- and that guy having his tongue down her throat was pretty damn close. Oh, and I loved annoying the hell out of her; she looked hot when she was angry. That was just an added bonus.

But now I had more pressing needs like finding a hot girl to satisfy my…needs.

I didn’t need to look far. Before I’d even taken one step a hot blue-eyed, blonde girl sidled up to me. She was one of those fake girls, caked in makeup and all things pink. Admittedly she didn’t have any of the sort of natural beauty that girls like Blake had, but I guess that she’d have to do for the time being.

“Hey, Jason,” she said seductively, trailing a hand down my arm.

Oh, so we’d met before? She did look oddly familiar, and I racked my brain to remember where I’d seen her before. I came up blank- shit.

“Hey… you,” I said.

She looked up at me from underneath her eyelashes. “I was just wondering whether you wanted to have a bit of fun before lunch ends.”

I gave her a lazy smile. “I'm definitely up for a bit of fun.”

She led me to the janitor’s closet a little too eagerly, shut the door, unzipped my pants and dropped to her knees.

Let’s just say that we had more than just a bit of fun.

School was finally over but I had one problem: I wanted to go home. That wouldn’t normally seem like a problem, but Blake was my ride. And Blake was nowhere to be found.

Great, the one time I needed her and she’d seemed to disappear off the face of the planet.

I saw Dave by his locker and since he’d been so helpful earlier I decided to ask him for a little help.

“Have you seen Blake?” I asked.

Dave barely looked intimidated by me this time, so much so that I decided to carry my own bag for a change. “I think she's still at dance practice,” he told me.

“Dance practice?” Since when did Blake dance?

“Yeah,” Dave said. “She’ll be up in the gym.”

“Oh, okay. Where's the gym?”

He motioned for me to follow him, so I trailed behind as we went up the stairs, took a right and walked a little. Just like the school, the gym was huge. It was one of those traditional ones with wooden floors, bleachers and all that other crap gyms usually have.

More interestingly it had ten amazingly hot girls in there, each and every one of them shaking their asses to Get Low by Ying Yang Twins. I couldn’t take my eyes off Blake. It was like they were glued there or something, and I couldn’t exactly blame myself. She was wearing a sports bra, for heaven’s sake. What was she trying to do? Kill me?

I didn’t know she could dance at all, never mind like that. It instantly made her about ten times sexier in my book, and my little friend must’ve agreed because I definitely felt it stirring.

When the song finished so did the ass shaking and I decided that it would probably be the best time to make my entrance- Dave in tow.

“Hey, girls,” I greeted, scattering a couple of winks here and there. I wasn’t up to my usual game, though. Blake was too damn distracting in those short shorts of hers. And that light sheen of sweat was making me think of other ways she could get all hot and out of breath if I had anything to do with it.

She rolled her eyes as soon as she spotted me. “Why are you here?”

“You’re my ride home, remember?” I reminded her.

“Okay, well we’re done here anyway. Just wait for me,” Blake told me before exchanging a couple of words with the other dancers.

I stood off to the side with Dave as Blake wrapped everything up and grabbed her stuff. “You ready?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Blake said, making her way to the door and the only thing we could do was follow her.

I turned to Dave. “Hey, want to come over tonight?” It was kind of a spur of the moment question, but he seemed like an alright guy.

He shrugged. “Sure.”