Fallen Crest Alternative Version (3 page)

Cassandra took the reins with Peter at her side. Miranda was initially tolerated because of Logan’s attachment to her, but when he dumped her, she had become a shadow of herself. Logan dumped her by going to a party without her. He saw she was there and slept with a cheerleader from his school.

The next night, he slept with another cheerleader.

Sunday night was a dance girl from the Academy.

There was no doubt about it. Logan and Miranda were done. That meant that Miranda was done. She’d been made into a fool. The planned out execution had been ruthless, but it was effective. The Academy Elite no longer cared about me. Their new focus was on Miranda. Everyone was wondering if she was considered Academy Elite anymore?

Becky whispered when the movie started, “I heard that Miranda’s trying to get Peter back, but he’s not having it.”

I paused the movie and sat up. “What’d Cassandra do?”

She lifted both shoulders. “No clue. Adam won’t tell me, but I heard there was a fight between them. I think it was at a Public party. Mason and Logan didn’t tell you?”

I rolled my eyes. “If they don’t give a shit, they won’t pay attention. Trust me; they don’t give a shit about that sort of thing.”

Becky hid a grin behind her hands. “I heard that Miranda’s mad because Mason’s still dating you and she’s not dating Logan anymore.”

I snorted. “One of these days, she’ll figure out the truth.”

“What’s that?”

I grew still and masked the disgust in my voice. I kept a blank slate over my face too. “Nothing. She and Logan were never serious.”

“Yeah.” Becky nodded, knowing so much. “I could see that. Logan doesn’t want to settle down. Everyone can see that.”

I sighed quietly to myself. Since both Kades had girlfriends at the same time, their reputation had changed through town. They were now viewed as dateable and girls started to wonder if they could catch one of the Kades. I knew I’d had enough of my fill watching girls throw themselves at Mason when we’d go out. It didn’t stop at parties, but when we’d go out to eat or get ice cream or grab a movie or…I shook my head when we had his car cleaned. There’d been two girls who left underwear in his backseat and their phone numbers pinned with them.

Most had stayed away before because Mason wanted it that way. He picked, they didn’t, but they no longer cared about that. They continued to not care the longer we were together.

“Sam?”

“Mmm?” I was ripped from my thoughts and saw Becky peering at me with an odd expression on her face.

“You want to start the movie?”

“Oh, yeah. Sure.” I quickly pressed play and curled underneath my blanket when the opening credits rolled across the screen. It wasn’t long before I felt my eyelids starting to close. They were so heavy. The blanket was so warm. The theatre was dark and…

When I started to wake up, I was aware of two voices over my head.

“…like this since we started the movie.”

A deeper voice commented, “I’ll take care of her. You can go.”

“I want to stay.”

The male voice snapped, “Fucking go.”

My eyes were so heavy, but I opened them to squint up. “Mason?”

He bent down and slid his arms under me. I felt myself being lifted in the air and he cradled me against his chest. “Hey, babe. Go to sleep.”

“Sam? Can I stay?”

I groaned and burrowed closer to him. I didn’t want to deal with anyone. My whole body was heavy and warm and my eyelids started to droop again. Something nagged me at the back of my mind. I was supposed to do something—and then I felt a kiss on my forehead. Mason whispered, “Go to sleep.”

And I did.

CHAPTER THREE

The alarm woke me up and I was surprised to find Mason next to me. One of his arms was underneath me while one of my legs had been thrown over his. It was warm under the comforter he’d pulled over us. I started to snuggle closer to him when the alarm went off again.

“Fucking hell,” he grumbled and rolled over.

“What time is it?” My voice was heavy with sleep.

“Fucking early. I have practice at six.” But his arms tightened around me and he rolled to his back. I was pulled on top of him and I stretched like a cat. I was tempted to purr, and when his hand started to rub on my bottom, I was really tempted to purr. He chuckled and bent close to place a kiss underneath my jaw. “What the hell are you doing hanging out with that girl again?”

His hand swept back and forth, but I rested my head on his chest. “I like her. Be nice.”

I could feel him roll his eyes. “Whatever. She’s crazy.”

As his hand skimmed down my leg and back up, he turned me over again and pressed a leg between mine as he hovered over me. I opened my eyes and found his on my breasts. They lingered there, and when his hand touched one of my nipples, I curled a hand around his neck and pulled him down. Then I whispered against his neck, “Why am I naked?”

He grinned and nipped my lips. “Because that’s how I like to sleep with you.”

“Really?” I gave him a hard look when he pulled back. It’d been an old argument with us now. I liked pajamas and he liked nothing. I won most of the time, but this hadn’t been one of those times. I hadn’t really had a chance.

“You were asking me to take your clothes off too.” He edged back but still held himself above me with his arms on both sides of me.

I snorted in disbelief.

“You were. You were moaning and trying to grab me. You kept asking me to take off your clothes. I was uncomfortable at first, but then I figured if that’s what you wanted…” His eyes were lit with amusement as he waited for my reaction.

He wanted me to argue, but instead I wrapped my legs around his and lifted myself up. I felt him between my legs and started to rub back and forth. It wasn’t long before he hardened and moaned into my ear. He curled a hand under my back and lifted me higher on the bed. As we scooted up, we pressed down on the bed and he moved against me. His lips feathered kisses along my shoulder, up my chin, and down my cheeks. He lingered above my lips before I arched against him and pressed my mouth to his. Lust swirled around and a primal need pumped through me. I was blind for him and gasped as his lips left my lips to travel down. They lingered over my breasts and my hips jumped off the bed as his tongue circled a nipple.

Then his alarm went off again. Its insistent beep, beep, beep slowly penetrated the haze that had descended over us. He pulled away to turn it off, and I immediately reached for him and drew him back. Mason pressed a hard kiss to me and swept me underneath again to slide inside.

I gasped as he filled me. Then he started to move.

My eyes closed, and I surrendered everything to him.

“Fuck,” he cursed when we had finished. “I’m late for practice.”

My voice was still thick as I laughed. When he started to roll out of the bed, my fingers trailed across his back. “And Logan will know why.”

He snorted as he fumbled towards the bathroom. I heard more curses before the shower was turned on and grinned when I pushed myself up on the bed. It wasn’t long before he came back in with a towel over his head and another being rubbed over his chest.

“I hate this room. I don’t know where anything is.”  The bed sunk under his weight when he sat and started to dress.

I groaned. “I have school.”

“You could always come to my school?” The corner of his mouth curved up.

“Oh, right. Because Kate and the others are going to be so welcoming.” A hard laugh ripped from me. “Those girls hate me.”

“You’re tough. You can take ‘em.” He grinned again as he pulled a shirt over his head.

I groaned. The four girls who ran Fallen Crest Public were tough too, but Mason knew that. It was why he put up with them, or that’s what he said one time. However, the longer we dated, the more they hated me. I’d rather take the Academy Elite on anytime.

“Okay.” He dipped down for a quick kiss. “I’ll see you Wednesday?”

“Why not tonight?”

He turned around at the door and gave me a blank look. “Logan and I are having dinner with our mom. It’ll be late when we get back. We have to go into the city. You want to come?”

I laid back down. “Wednesday it is!”

I could hear his chuckle as he went down the stairs. The sound faded soon after that and I sighed when I pulled the blanket back up. I already missed him so I inhaled his scent. My eyes fluttered closed and I snuggled under the covers, pretending he was still there.

*

“You’re chipper this morning.”

I closed my locker with a slam.

Amelia White stared back at me with a hard smirk on her face. Her hair had been braided and woven in an intricate knot. She had a bag over her shoulder and pulled her uniform skirt down an inch. Her hipbones showed, but I didn’t think she cared.

“What do you want?” I sighed and made sure my uniform didn’t show my hipbones. It wasn’t a look I wanted.

“Mark told me last night that you’re having dinner at their house on Friday. I want you to tell her to invite me.”

“I can’t do that.” I started to move and she fell in step beside me.

“Why not?”

I was aware of the stares and how everyone parted for us. It was always like that when I walked beside an Academy Elite. The crowd parted for them like magic, but I knew it wasn’t. They were the top of the food chain and they had the incisors to prove it. Half of those that watched were scared of Amelia and, as a stab of pain pricked me, of me as well. I’d had my share of confrontations with this school.

“Hey! Back to this conversation!” Amelia snapped her fingers in front of me. She pulled me into an empty classroom and slapped a hand on the door. “Why won’t you have Malinda invite us?”

“Because it’s a family dinner.”

“He told me Becky was invited.”

“That was all Malinda. Becky was there when she came over last night. I didn’t do that.”

“So undo it. I don’t want you to go unless I’m there too.” Her chin jutted out and she crossed her arms over chest.

I glanced down and expected her foot to start tapping. When it didn’t, I groaned. “Oh, come on, Amelia. What is your problem?”

“You have a thing for stepbrothers.”

“I am dating Mason.”

She shrugged. “Who’s to say you won’t want two of them?”

“Do you really think I’m going to go after Mark? He’s your boyfriend.”

Her eyelids shuddered, and her head dipped down an inch. Her voice softened. “He doesn’t want to be exclusive.”

These Elite girls. I was going to kill them. I forced my voice to be calm. “Look, I promise you that I’ll never make a move on Mark. Now, I can’t promise he won’t, but I will never reciprocate. If I did, I will come to school with a tee shirt that says, ‘Slut who sleeps with stepbrothers.’ How’s that for a promise?”

“Really?” Hope shimmered in her depths.

I wanted to bang my head against the whiteboard.

“Well, okay.” Her shoulders loosened, and she dropped her arms to her side. “You would do that, wouldn’t you?”

“I hope you mean the tee shirt.”

She nodded and gave me a quick grin. “Thanks, Sam. Adam’s right. You are pretty cool. Cooler than Miranda right now.” She started for the door, but drew back. “Oh, hey. You might want to steer clear of Cass today.”

“Why?” Everything went tense inside of me.

“Just because.” She gave me a bright smile now. “She’s a bigger bitch than normal lately, and Adam might’ve said a few things about you this weekend.”

She started for the door, but I slammed a hand against it. “Like what?”

“Oh, um, how he was stupid to have lost your friendship, and he might’ve insinuated that you’d be a good candidate for the group…again.”

“You’re kidding me. Isn’t she dating Peter?”

“Yeah, but she’s still got a thing for Quinn. You know that. She’ll always have a thing for him, and we all know he’ll always have a thing for you.” Amelia beamed at me before she slipped through the door. It closed abruptly under my arm, and I frowned. How had she done that?

The morning passed without much drama. Becky was back to her bouncing self between classes and only looked down once between classes. I looked up and narrowed my eyes when I saw that Adam had passed us by. I fought the urge to slam her head in the locker. Instead, I sighed, “Are you really feeling guilty for being friends with me?”

She didn’t say anything. Her head was still down, but her shoulders shrugged up and down.

“Did you know that he’s going to try and be my friend again?”

Her head perked up and the corners of her mouth lifted. “Really?”

“It’s the word on the street.”

She frowned. “I haven’t heard that.”

“My source is higher than yours.”

“Oh.”

Then someone stopped by us, and Becky’s eyes rolled inwards. Her cheeks flushed, and I caught her shoulders as she fell against the locker. When I turned, I wasn’t surprised to see Amelia and Cassandra. Only they’d have that impact on her.