Sweet Agony (Sweet Series Book 1) (7 page)

Somehow, I managed to stop myself from rolling my eyes at the uptight woman who loved to find any reason to throw me in detention. “Do I have to, Ms. Edwards?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and started tapping one of her high-heel-shod feet on the floor. An impervious eyebrow rose before she looked down her nose at me as she replied, “I wouldn’t be surprised if you do not have an answer, Lucas. That would require you to pay attention to what I’m teaching, which I highly doubt you are.”

The old shrew never failed to tick me off.

“If you want to know what I think of Odysseus, fine. He was an unfaithful, egotistical schmuck. Did he defeat some enemies? Yeah, but he also lost a bunch of his men, too. His wife sat at home for twenty years, waiting for his dumbass to come home, when she should have shacked up with a new guy. At least Odysseus got to bang a nymph and a sorceress.”

My classmates laughed around me, while my teacher’s face turned red in anger. Ms. Edwards opened her mouth to say something, but the bell rang, and I took the chance to get out of there before the hag gave me detention again. As I walked out of class, a soft hand grabbed my bicep and tugged a little.

Looking to my side, I found Rachel, a junior cheerleader I had already gotten a taste of.

“Hey, Rachel, what’s up?” I kept walking toward the cafeteria, unwilling to waste time by stopping to talk to a girl I’d already had.

“Lucas,” she practically purred, “my parents are going to be gone this weekend. I was wondering if you’d like to come over.”

Her question stopped me in my tracks. Sure, lunch was important, but the chance to get between Rachel’s thighs again was an awesome incentive to wait to eat.

Turning my back to the lockers, I leaned back and took a moment to glance up and down the hall to make sure Gin wasn’t around before I looked Rachel over from head to toe. Damn, she had a nice rack.

“If I come over, what are we gonna to do?”

Rachel stepped closer to me and brushed her breasts against my chest as she stood on her tiptoes and whispered into my ear, “Whatever you want.”

I brought one of my hands around to land on her back then slid it down until it was resting on her ass. “And if all I want is to fuck you and leave?”

“Sounds like a good time to me,” she purred.

I flexed my fingers so that I was now squeezing the cheek of her ass instead of cupping it, and Rachel gasped against my ear.

“Then I’ll be over on Saturday. Now back up. I want to go eat lunch.”

Rachel stepped back then followed me down the hall. Apparently, my Saturday booty call was going to cost me a lunch companion today. Whatever. She knew I didn’t date or do serious. If she wanted to follow me around, then she could waste her time.

After going through the lunch line with Rachel right on my heels, I sat down at the table filled with my football teammates. I had hoped Rachel would sit down with her cheerleader crew, but she pasted herself to my side, and I had to push her away a little to actually eat my lunch.

One of the guys asked me about this weekend’s upcoming game, and while we debated the other team’s offensive strength, I felt Rachel reach over and caress my chest.

I snapped my brows down in annoyance and looked over at her. She knew better. I didn’t do that clingy shit. I might not be saving myself for marriage, but that didn’t mean I wanted to cuddle with broads, and I definitely didn’t flaunt my shit for Ginny and everyone else to see. Tap it and go was my motto.

I grabbed her wrist to stop her wandering hand and snapped, “What the hell are you doing?”

She bit her bottom lip coyly. “I just can’t help myself around you, Lucas. Forgive me?”

I wasn’t stupid. Rachel was up to something, and it didn’t take long to figure out what, either, when I saw her try to sneak a look over to her left.

Turning my head in that direction, I saw Ginny sitting at the table in front of me, next to my sister. Her burger was hanging forgotten in her hand, her dejected eyes glued to Rachel and me.

Fuck.

Rachel was playing at her catty bullshit games, and Ginny was her victim. As much as I had tried to shield Ginny from the snobs of the school, Rachel and her squad had somehow figured out how Ginny felt about me. It didn’t matter that I took great effort to keep my own feelings at bay. Ginny was always around. Add it all up and it did not bode well for my girl, because the little bitches like Rachel made her life a living hell. They took my rejection of a relationship with Ginny as proof that it was free season on her.

I was going to have to squash that shit right then, before it went any further. Rachel and her band of bitches were like leeches; once they latched on, they wouldn’t fall off until they bled their victim dry. I would allow myself to be used as ammunition against Ginny.

Throwing Rachel’s hand off me, I grabbed her lunch tray and slid it down the table until it fell noisily to the floor. Looking back at Rachel’s shocked face, I snarled, “Looks like you’re done with lunch. I suggest you go.”

Rachel sputtered, “What’s your deal?”

Raising my voice so at least half of the noisy cafeteria could hear me, I said, “That’s my little sister and her best friend, and nobody, including you and your little crew, is going to fuck with them. Now get the hell away from me.”

Turning to give her my back and my dismissal, I looked at the guy next to me. “Can you believe the chicks here, always starting some bullshit? Makes me think I should start hanging around the local college to pick off some freshmen there. I hear college girls are wilder in bed, anyway. Last time I let Rachel suck my cock, she was so sloppy I got bored.” Admitting it wasn’t my favorite thing to do, but this broad needed to be put in her place. I hated knowing Ginny was listening, but in the end, I couldn’t come up with something better.

Rachel squealed in anger behind me then stomped off, presumably to sit with her friends.

I turned my head enough to look at Ginny and Olivia, only to wish I hadn’t. My sister was glaring daggers at me while Ginny peeled the label on her soda bottle and avoided eye contact with everyone.

Before I pulled my gaze away from her, I spotted a lone tear traveling down one of her pretty cheeks and cringed.

Now more than ever, I realized I was doing the right thing by following my dreams to go into the Army. I would go on a journey like Odysseus; only, I wouldn’t wait twenty years to come home to get Ginny.

Teenagers should have all the answers, right? Well, I didn’t. The fact that I so desperately wished I knew what was right killed me, but it seemed like everything I did was wrong. Hurting her was hurting me, but she didn’t know that.

As I watched her grab her backpack and leave the cafeteria, I worried Gin would hate me by then, which frustrated me. Actually, it pissed me off.

Was this the first time I had inadvertently hurt Ginny’s feelings? No. Nevertheless, that didn’t make it any easier to watch her walk out those doors. And there I sat, having to act nonchalant about hurting the one girl who mattered.

The guys around me joked about how the girls were tripping all over themselves to get a piece of me. I didn’t laugh with them, though, because I was watching my little sister race out of the cafeteria after her best friend.

The way that tear had slowly slid down Ginny’s face would haunt my dreams tonight. If only I could give her the big picture now… But I couldn’t. She had her life to build, and I had mine. Then we could be together. We were young, too young, for all the things I wanted for the both of us.

I felt like I had torn myself in two from the inside out, battling my need for Ginny against what I had to do until I could have her. I would be lucky if I didn’t go certifiably insane before I finally got the chance to hold my girl and tell her how damn sorry I was for everything I had put her through.

No matter what, I would endure whatever hell I had to go through until I could make Gin mine for one solid reason alone: I would never be able to live with myself if I destroyed the person who meant everything to me.

Ginny

Fourteen Years Old

I was going to hide in the school’s media room for the rest of the day. Scratch that. I would hide in there for the rest of the year.

“Gin!”

The sound of my best friend’s voice did not stop or even slow down my quick strides to get as far away from that freaking cafeteria as I could. Heck, at this rate, I could probably walk out of the school and get to my house in no time. Screw the media room; hiding in my room sounded like a fabulous plan.

“
Gin!
Wait up!”

I still refused to stop for Olivia, though I could hear her footfalls getting closer. I wouldn’t even turn my head to look back at her. Keeping my head down so I was watching the floor kept anyone from seeing the stupid tears slipping down my face.

How pathetic I must look to everyone. It seemed like the entire school had figured out my feelings for Lucas. With my drawings and reserved nature, they already thought I lived with my head in the clouds. Rachel sure seemed happy enough to rub it in my face that she could get her hands on him, while I couldn’t.

I felt like such a freaking idiot for wanting someone who so obviously did not want me back. I couldn’t help myself, though, because this wasn’t some trivial, little crush like Olivia thought. Although I was only a teenager, what I felt for Lucas was a certainty. What I felt for him was more than an increase of my heart beating in anticipation, more than the feeling of butterflies in my stomach when he smiled at me. It was more than the dreams I had where he kissed me breathless and told me he would wait until I was ready to do more.

The reason I knew it was more than all of that was simple: anytime I was in his presence, I felt like I was home—safe, protected, wanted, and loved. I barely remembered life before Lucas Young.

My mom and I had left everything behind. I remembered having a huge house with a long driveway behind a stone fence. My mother would read me bedtime stories, and in my little girl mind, our house had been my castle. Then things had changed. Daddy had changed, and Mom packed me up. We never looked back.

Until Lucas and his family had come over with cookies that very first day, I hadn’t been sure I would know how to handle all the changes. The ease in which they had fit into our lives had given me comfort. From there, Lucas became the knight in all my childhood fairy tales. Someway, somehow, he always seemed to be there when I needed someone the most. Rescuing me from locked closet doors and mean girls in school cafeterias. Giving me a hug to comfort me when I had been shaking from head to toe or cracking a joke when he thought I needed a laugh.

Maybe he didn’t love me in the capacity I wanted him to yet, but I kept holding out hope that he would one day open his eyes and see me for who I was—his. Sometimes, it was the little things that fueled my hope. Like the fact that Lucas had just defended me against Rachel when it was obvious he could have anything he wanted from her. Or like the day he’d ditched his friends to sit with me under that tree while I drew then walked me home to make sure I was safe. Surely, he wouldn’t do or say things like that if he didn’t care about me, right?

Days like today made me wonder if I was the biggest idiot in the world for holding on to that hope.

God, I was a huge ball of mixed up emotions when it came to the boy across the street. Why my stupid heart had to be set on Lucas Young, I had no idea. Nevertheless, the heart wanted what it wanted, and that was the boy who didn’t want me back.

I’d once thought he was my knight in shining armor. While I might not believe in all the fairy tale stuff I had before, I did know one thing: Lucas was lucky he wasn’t a knight in shining armor, because if he were, I would take his lance and shove it up his butt for humiliating me like this!

If I allowed myself to hope, then I could say he didn’t mean to embarrass me but rather defend me. It was all too much. God, if I didn’t love him so much, I would absolutely murder him right now.

Sure, he had totally humiliated Rachel way more back there, but now the whole cafeteria knew I had a crush on him. After that little scene, the gossip queens would run their mouths, and by the end of the day, the whole school would know what I’d done my best to hide since I started high school. Now all of the mean girls would say out loud what I feared in my heart—that Lucas would never see me as anything other than his little sister’s best friend.

Pulling my gaze from the hallway floor, I glanced up to see I was only ten feet from the main office. If I could just get in there and call my mom, then I was home free from this nightmarish day.

I barely got another three steps before I was grabbed by the arm and dragged, practically kicking and screaming, by Olivia into the girl’s bathroom.

“Oh, no you don’t! You are
not
going to call your momma to come pick you up so you can hide in your room for the next week.”

Dragging my heels, I tried to stop Olivia from pulling me, and we ended up in an awkward tug of war with my arm acting as the honorary rope.

This was what I did when I got uncomfortable. Momma had always made it so I could call her to come get me. Whenever I felt like people were making fun of me or the anxiety of life seemed to creep up, I found my escape to call her. Without hesitation, my mother was hands down my enabler.

“I’m. Going. Home!” I gritted out through my clenched teeth as I leaned backward, trying to pull my arm out of her grasp.

“No. You’re. Not!” she snarled back.

Olivia gave a mighty jerk on my wrist, and unfortunately, I lost my balance and ended up stumbling through the bathroom door. She spun me away so I could not race back out through the only entrance. Then she stuck her head out the doorway, looked in both directions as if checking if anyone had seen us struggling, and then promptly shut the door and locked both of us in.

Turning back to me, Olivia stomped her foot. “You can’t run from your problems in life, Ginny! You should have flipped both Rachel
and
my brother off. How many times have I told you that bitches like that cheerleader from hell will walk all over you if you don’t stand up for yourself? And let me tell you, sister, she’s not just going to walk all over you with her brand of torture. Nope, she’s going to drag your name through mud, throw you under the proverbial bus, and then do the cha-cha in her whorish designer heels as a victory dance to your complete and utter humiliation!”