An Unexpected Start: A Prequel to An Unexpected Hunger (3 page)

“You definitely didn’t look out of place.”

“Well, an amazing dress can work miracles for a girl.”

“I dunno…” T
ake a deep breath. It was just a conversation, you idiot. “You still look pretty amazing to me, even without the dress.”

I could tell the comment caught her off guard. She stared at me—didn’t say anything—just
studied me with her eyes. It was so quiet in that small ass room; I could barely hear the drunken chaos outside. I wanted to say something smooth, something to make her think I wasn’t who everyone thought I was—who everyone expected me to be.

Without any warning, someone busted through the laundry room door. Alexa jumped back away from me.

“Oh shit!” Ben, red-faced and glassy eyed, had his arm draped over the dark hair, blue-eyed chick from downstairs.

“
Ben, what the fuck, man,” I groaned.

He hiccupped. “Sorry, dude. I didn’t know you were getting busy in here.”

“Nobody here is getting busy,” Alexa said.

Ben
trudged out into the hallway, dragging whatever-her-name-was behind him. “Listen up, everybody,” he shouted over the railing that overlooked the first floor. “Do not, I repeat,
do not,
go in the laundry room. It is being occupied by the great Ricky Perry!” He said my name like a fucking sports announcer. The whole house erupted with hoots and howls.

“Oh my God,” Alexa mumbled. She stomped past me and made a run for it.

“Alexa, wait.” But she was out, sprinting for the stairs.

I shoved
Ben and seriously considered rearranging his face.

He raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry, dude. Didn’t mean to mess it up for you.”

Good thing I was more worried about catching up to Alexa. I released my grip on his shirt and pushed him aside. I jetted down the steps and shoved through the crowd to get outside.

“Alexa, wait!”

She ignored me and continued down the driveway.

“Lex!”

She slowed to a trot and then eventually stopped and hunched over. “Just leave me alone, Ricky, please.” Her voice had that same sound Mom’s did when she was about to cry. “Please.”

“Don’t worry about
Ben. He’s drunk.”

She stood up straight and swiped at her eyes. Fuck. She was crying, and it was because of me. Nice work, loser.

“Yeah, and now everyone at the party probably thinks you nailed me.”

“What?” I cried. “Nobody thinks—”

“Oh please,” more swiping under her eyes, “I was alone in a room with the
great, Ricky Perry
.” She mocked Ben’s drunken slur.

“Relax,
it’s not like we were doing anything. You know I would never—”

“I know,” she said. “You would never…but what do you think people will think? We were playing Scrabble?”

“Look, I’ll make sure to straighten this all out, okay?”

She held up
her hand. “Just do me a favor and don’t say anything. It will only make it worse. I should have known better.”

Damn, it was like getting hit in the gut with a bat. “Let me take you home.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll find my own way.”

A few girls passed by, stopping their conversation when they saw us.

“Madison,” Alexa called. “You mind giving me a ride home?”

“Sure,” she replied.

Alexa gave me a short wave and disappeared down the driveway.

I turned around
and walked back to the house, ready to forget what just happened with a few more beers.

My day
started off shitty, and I had a feeling it wasn’t going to get any better. Mom was up all night, getting sick, so I’d spent the night on her bedroom floor, holding the trashcan to her face. I’d overslept that morning, and my car wouldn’t start right away, which made me super fucking late to homeroom. I ran to my locker and realized I’d forgotten my first period book at home.

The bell rang, signaling homeroom was over, and the halls flooded with people.

“Yo,” Drew called. “What happened to you this morning?”

“Sorry, car wouldn’t start.” I slammed my locker shut and made my way to Music Theory. It wa
s my favorite class of the day. Mr. Thompson’s theory lessons only lasted about thirty minutes, and I usually spent the rest of class playing the drums.

“Don’t sweat it
. Got a ride from my sister.”

“How’s she doing, anyway?” I hadn’t talked to Alexa since the night of the dance a couple of weeks ago. She was doing a good job of staying away from me.

He let out a deep breath. “Not good. I don’t even know why she bothered coming here this morning.”

I nodded and spotted her across the hall at her locker. I wanted to go u
p to her and say something. I didn’t know what—but the urge to talk to her wasn’t leaving me alone. Brandon Kelly was hovering over her locker, but she was barely looking at him. Couldn’t this guy take a hint?

“I’ll catch
up with you later, dude.” Drew disappeared into a classroom.

I had to piss so bad during Music Theory and swiped a hall pass from Mr. Thompson. After I was done doing my business, I caught Alexa just leaving the main office.

This was my chance. There was no one else around, and she couldn’t ignore me like she did when she came over to the house.

“Hey,” I said.

She didn’t look up at first. “Hey, Ricky.” Her cheeks were all splotchy, and her eyes were puffy.

My heart rate shot up. I hated seeing her this way.

“What’s going on?”

“I’m leaving early.
I don’t want to be here. ”

She shuffled past me.

“Lex, wait.”

She stopped and turned around, flopping both hands by her sides.

“I’m really sorry. I still feel really bad about what happened at the—”

She shut her eyes for a few seconds. “I don’t want to think about that ever aga
in. I felt humiliated and just want to forget about it.” I walked a littler closer, but she just kept walking in the opposite direction. “I lost my dad, now his restaurant, and thanks to you, people probably think I’m just another notch on your belt.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but she turned around and hustled down the hall.

I spent the rest of the day in a foul ass mood. I couldn’t wait to hit the weight room after class. Of course, the first fucking face I saw belonged to Brandon Kelly.

He was eyeing me the minute I walked into the room.

Not today, man.

I popped in my ear buds and grabbed a couple of weights. I needed to burn off some of this pent up frustration that was messing with my head.

I started the first rep of curls. The music blared in my ears and muted out whatever was going on around me. I counted in my head, trying to get Alexa’s pissed off face out of my mind.

Ten minutes later, and the battery on my phone died, which meant no more music.

Great. Another wonderful addition to my fucked up day. I finished my set, leaving the buds in my ears. It was too bad for Brandon Kelly that I could hear every word out of his big mouth.

He liked talking shit during the games. Nobody took him seriously. Mostly, we all just laughed.

But this was no fucking baseball game, and he was talking shit about me.

I set the weights down, still listening to
Brandon run his mouth. My hands were sweaty, and I wiped them against my shorts. I shook out my hands—my fingers were feeling twitchy. I huddled over a row of dumbbells and took a few deep breaths. I lost all focus when I heard Alexa’s name.

I ripped the ear buds out of my ear
s and charged at Brandon, knowing there was no talking myself out of what I was about to do.

* * * *

I sat in Mr. Shaw’s office with a swollen hand and a ripped shirt. Sit down and stay put—the exact directions out of his mouth before he went down to the nurse’s office to check on Brandon.

Fucking pussy.
I’d barely touched him. Only took one good swing before he ran down the hall. The other guy in the weight room—some JV player—had been too terrified to move. I didn’t make it very far before the security guard had wrangled me up and brought me here.

Mr. Shaw stomped into the room and slammed the door shut. He didn’t bother to sit down.

“That’s it, Ricky.” He made the same move with his hands as the umpire did when you were safe over the plate.

But I wasn’t safe. I was seriously fucked.

I knew it was coming. I knew it before my fist met Brandon’s face. Talk all the shit you want about me. Bring Alexa into it, and you’ll wish you never opened your mouth. I’d make sure of it.

“That was your last strike. You leave me no other choice but to expel you from school. As of today, you are no longer a student at Holy Cross.”

I slouched back in the chair and stretched my fingers, trying to seem as unaffected as possible as he picked up the phone to call my mom.

I never thought I’d say it—but I missed those Catholic school girl uniforms. I’d turned eighteen a week after I’d been kicked out of Holy Cross. Technically, I could have given up on school altogether. But no one loved a high school dropout. Plus, if getting kicked out of school didn’t do mom in, then the thought of me never graduating would have done it. So, I had enrolled in public school to finish the rest of my senior year. I’d have to go to summer school, but I’d get my diploma when it was over. And that’s all I cared about.

I sat in the school parking lot, waiting for Mia to come out. I’d promised her
I’d pick her up on her last day.

My eyes scanned all the faces flooding the parking lot. A few girls waved but no one came up to the car.

Mia came trotting toward the car, looking happy as hell to be out for the summer.

“Finally
,” she said, plopping in the seat. “Practically three months of freedom.” She slipped off her shoes.

“What the hell are you doing?” I said, cringing.

“Taking off these stuffy knee socks.” She stripped them off one at a time.

“You’ll smell the car up
.”

She scrunched
her face. “My feet do not smell.” She dangled a sock in front of my face.

“Real mature,
” I said, pulling back.

She rolled the window all the way down, even though I had the air conditioner on full blast. “Lexy!” she shouted.

I searched the lot for her face.

Mia stuck her hand out the window and waved. Through the crowd, Alexa slowly approached the car
without getting too close. I hadn’t seen her since I’d gotten myself expelled.

“Why couldn’t Lex bring you home?” I asked, a little annoyed. I wasn’t even sure she knew why I
’d gotten kicked out. Surprisingly, Brandon hadn’t run his mouth. Mia had told me the rumor was I’d kicked Brandon’s ass for hooking up with Devin Miller. I didn’t know how the hell that story happened, and I didn’t care.

“She’s got graduation stuff to do before the ceremony tomorrow. Plus, she’s got to start packing.” She turned her attention back out the window. “I’ll see you tomorrow n
ight,” Mia yelled. Alexa nodded and waved before walking off to her car.

“Pack for what?” I started to drive back home.

“California, duh.”

“I thought she wasn’t moving
until the end of the summer.”

Mia shrugged like this news wasn’t a big deal. “She got accepted into this summer internship thing
, so she changed her mind.”

“What?” I yelped. I hit the steering wheel, which caused the car to veer a little off the road.

“Damn, Ricky. Get a grip. What’s the big deal, anyway?”

I ignored her question.
Too complicated to answer.

A few minutes passed before she said, “Why don’t you just tell her?”

“Tell her what?”

Mia scoffed and shook her h
ead. “Don’t play stupid with me. I
know
you’ve been secretly drooling over her since you were, like, nine.” She popped a piece of gum in her mouth. “You’re totally lame at hiding it.”

What the hell?
Now
she decided to open her mouth? Great fucking timing as usual.

I just stared at the road. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She rolled her eyes and continued to pop her gum. “Whatever. Just don’t come crying to me when it’s too late.”

* * * *

I
had pretended to be annoyed when Mia asked me for a ride over Alexa’s house. She bitched and moaned about having to spend the entire summer without her best friend the whole ride there. I tried to tune her out. I had my own problems to work out in my head.

I parked the car next to the curb in front of Lex’s house. My stomach flopped as I got out.

“You okay?” Mia asked me.

“Fine,” I mumbled. Shit
. What was I doing here? What was I planning on saying? This was the stupidest idea I had all year. And I’ve had some pretty stupid ones.

I thought about bailing and getting back in the car. Drew appeared in the opened front door, and it was too late.

“Just in time,” he said. “My pain in the ass mom just left.” He walked deeper into the house, and Mia and I followed him upstairs. “Lex! Mia’s here.”

Alexa appeared in her bedroom doorway. The smile on her face dropped the moment she saw me.

This was off to a good start.

“Hey, Lex.” I wasn’t going to wait for her to say the first hello.

She looked at Mia. “I need your help.” She reached for Mia’s arm and yanked her in the room.

I peered in, trying to catch a glimpse of what they were doing. They were huddled over a few opened suitcases, lying on the carpet. Alexa was mumbling something. I strained my ears, but couldn’t make out a single word. She bent over to pick something up. Damn. I did an internal groan. She glanced into the hallway and caught me staring.

Shit. Act like you weren’t just looking at her ass.

“Hey,” Drew said from behind me
. “Want to play some Xbox?”

“Sure.” I took one last look in the room before following Drew to the basement.

“My sister’s lucky as shit,” Drew said, handing me a control.

“Why is that?”

“Two more days and she’s out of here. Home free.”

I lounged back in the couch and took to playing the game. “She doesn’t seem too happy she’s leaving.”

“Are you kidding me?” Drew yelled at the television, swearing the game was cheating. “She can’t shut up about it.”

About an hour
later, Mia and Alexa found their way downstairs. They took over the couch and complained about how violent the game was.

“I can’t believe you’re leaving,” Mia whined.

“Y
ou’ll have to come and visit me,” Alexa replied.

“That would be awesome
,” Mia said.

“I cannot wait to get out of here.”
Alexa sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

M
y heartbeat rocked through my chest. This conversation wasn’t doing it for me.

“Do you two mind?” I said.

“What?” Mia asked.

“Can you
have this mindless conversation somewhere else?”

“Ugh,” Mia replied. “You can be a real jerk sometime
s.”

They both grumbled, getting up from the couch, and disappeared upstairs.

After a while, I had enough of Xbox and trudged upstairs with Drew. Mia and Lex were outside, sitting on the porch in the middle of another conversation I couldn’t make out.

I sidestepped around them and stood on the sidewalk, getting a cigarette out of my pocket.

“I’m getting a bottle of water,” Alexa abruptly said, standing up.

“I’ll take one, too,” Mia said.

“Make that three,” Drew replied, leaning back in his seat on the porch.

She didn’t wait for me to add to the number—didn’t even look in my direction—and walked back in the house. I plucked the unlit cigarette out of my mouth and shoved the pack back in my pocket before following her inside.

I cleared my throat and waited for her to say something.

“What is it
, Ricky?” Alexa said from behind the refrigerator door.

“You didn’t
wait for me to ask for water, so I thought I’d just come get one for myself.”

“Here.” She threw me a cold bottle, and I barely caught it.

Damn, she had a good throwing arm.

She tried to walk past me with three other bottles in her hand, but I wouldn’t let her pass. Finally, she let out a huge sigh and gave up.

“You’re going to leave like this?” I asked.

“Like how?
” she said with her eyebrows narrowed.

“You think moving ac
ross the country is going to make everything better?”

“Maybe, maybe not. But I’m sure not sticking around this place. There’s nothing here for me.”

There it was again.
That look that put me in my place. How did she fucking do it?

I wanted to hate her.
To forget about her. I couldn’t tell if it was on purpose or not, which was infuriating as fuck, but she knew how to gut me.

I grabbed the bottles
from her hands and thought about chucking them across the room.

“Well, I hope running away works out for you.” I turned my back and walked out of the front door.

I dumped the bottles on the porch and continued on to my car, my heart drumming in my ears. I ignored Mia and Drew calling my name. I ignored it all. Everything except the searing ache that burned through me. I didn’t know what my plan had been, or what exactly I’d come there to prove, but I knew I just blew my last fucking opportunity to do it.

And who knew when I’d get my chance again.