by Gen Griffin
Hissy Fit
a possum creek novel
GEN GRIFFIN
If you purchase this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher. In such case neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this stripped book.
HISSY FIT
A POSSUM CREEK NOVEL
Copyright © 2014 by Gen Griffin
All rights reserved.
ASIN: B00TE9PQIE
ISBN (ebook): 9781311652010
ISBN13: 978-1507752852
ISBN-10: 1507752857
The uploading, scanning, and distribution of this book in any form or by any means — including but not limited to electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the permission of the copyright holder is illegal and punishable by law. Permission is granted to copy or reprint portions for any noncommercial use except they may not be posted online without permission. Please purchase only authorized editions of this work, and do not participate or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Also By Gen Griffin
The Possum Creek Series
Hot Southern Mess
Hissy Fit
Hot Southern Nights
Pretty Is As Pretty Does
Give Me Some Sugar (Coming Soon)
Long Dead (Prequel Novella)
After The Apocalypse
The Scavengers
Church of Chaos
False Idols (Coming Soon)
DEDICATION
To the readers.
Without y'all, there would be no point in being here.
Prologue
“Let me see if I've got this straight.” Cal was grinding his molars together as he spoke. “You shot Brett and then David dumped his body in the swamp?”
“I didn't have a choice.” Gracie didn't want to look into his dark brown eyes but she forced herself to do it. Cal's square jaw was set in a tight line.
“Oh, I think that's debatable.” Cal crossed his arms over his broad, muscular chest. The sleeves of his navy blue polo shirt were stretched tight across his biceps. “You should have called the cops, Gracie.”
“And told them that I shot the governor's nephew?”
“You should have called the cops before you ever pulled the trigger,” he clarified. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that I could get out of the situation on my own,” Gracie said. “I didn't want to look like some stupid little freshman girl who couldn't handle being on a date. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it would have been to call the cops and tell them that Brett had locked me in his car and wouldn't let me out?”
“I think that I'd rather be humiliated in front of the entire goddamned town than be convicted of murder.” Cal's thick knuckles were nearly white as he gripped the steering wheel of his parked truck. Gracie could tell that he was having a hard time controlling his anger. He was furious with her and, to be honest, she didn't blame him.
“I screwed up,” Gracie acknowledged. “I told David that I screwed up.”
“You told David.” Cal rolled his eyes in exasperation. “David isn't exactly known for having the best judgment when the people he loves are in danger.”
“David-.”
“David thought it was a good idea to dispose of your boyfriend's body rather than call the cops,” Cal cut her off. “Yeah. Classic David. That's how he thinks. Why tell the truth and run the risk of getting into trouble when you can just get rid of all the evidence and pretend the crime never happened at all?”
“He wasn't my boyfriend,” Gracie said. “We went on one date. He tried to rape me. I shot him.”
“Right. I got that part already.” Cal sighed. “You shot him and then you called David. Why the hell did you call David?”
“I didn't call David. I called my brother. David had Addison's phone because he'd left it there.” Gracie closed her eyes and leaned back against the truck's worn bench seat. She fought the urge to cry.
“Why didn't you call me?” Cal demanded. “I would have told you to go ahead and call the police. We could have gotten you a damned good lawyer, Gracie. Everything would have turned out fine.”
“Why would I have called you?” Gracie countered. “Prior to last weekend, we hadn't spoken more than two sentences to one another in the last eight months.”
“Only because you refused to talk to me.”
“What is the point in talking to someone who doesn't listen to a damn word I say?” Gracie's eyes popped back open and she glared at him. “Or are you forgetting Friday night?”
“I was drunk,” Cal said. “Not that it gives me an excuse for my behavior. I'm sorry.”
“You broke your best friend's nose because he was helping me.” Gracie crossed her arms over her own breasts.
“You were wearing lingerie and nothing else.” Cal was getting good and irritated now. “I thought you were sleeping with him.”
“Why do you give a shit if I'm sleeping with him?” Gracie threw up her hands in irritation. “You dumped me nearly a year ago. You have a girlfriend.”
“You know how I feel about you.” Cal took a deep breath. “And I don't have a girlfriend.”
“Since when?” Gracie demanded.
“I've been acting like a jackass, okay?” It was Cal's turn to look away from Gracie. “I admit it. I fucked up eight months ago and I fucked up again Friday night. You want me to say I'm sorry, then here you go. I'm sorry.”
“Maybe sorry isn't good enough,” Gracie said. “I needed you Friday night. David needed you. I'm the first to admit that David and I are like fire and gasoline. You're the calm one. You're the sane one. You're the one who makes the good decisions. You're also the one who walked out when we needed you the most.”
“I didn't know!” Cal snapped. “I just thought-.”
“You just thought?”
“I thought that you'd finally given in to him. We broke up because you were bored. David's a lot of things, Gracie, but boring isn't one of them. Y'all have always been close. Its not hard for me to see that he would be my logical replacement.”
Gracie opened her mouth and then closed it abruptly. “I care about David. A lot.”
“And he'd die for you. Yeah. I got that all day long.” Cal ran one hand over his face. “And if being with David makes you happy, I reckon I'm happy for y'all.”
“I'm not with David.”
“You slept with him.”
“I slept with him because I wanted to be held and I was madder than hell at you.” Gracie took a deep breath. “Not that you have the right to care who I sleep with.”
“Do you love him?”
“Not the same way I love you,” Gracie admitted. “But if you're going to marry Jo Beth-.”
“I'm not marrying Jo Beth. I broke up with Jo Beth.”
“Why did you go and do that?”
“Because seeing you with David made me realize how badly I was fucking up my life. I don't love Jo Beth. I love you.”
Gracie sat silently for a minute. She'd wanted to hear him say those words for so long. “I love you too. I've loved you since I was in kindergarten. I'm always going to love you.”
“We can get through this, Gracie.” Cal took a deep breath. “But we need to figure out a plan. Tell me everything that's happened since David brought you back to college.”
Gracie took a deep breath and cringed. “About me and David. He thought it would be a good idea if we made sure people remembered seeing me return to campus with my boyfriend from back home.”
“What did y'all do?”
&n
bsp; “Promise me you won't get mad?”
Cal scowled at her. “Just tell me what y'all did.”
“I mean it, Cal.” Gracie leveled her turquoise blue eyes at him. “I see no point in confiding in you, in trusting you, if it just means I'm going to have to fight with you. Promise me you'll hold your temper.”
“Whatever has happened between you and David in the past, I accept it. I'll deal with it.”
“You really mean that?” She barely dared to hope he was sincere.
“I'm here because I'm trying to put our lives back together, Gracie. I'm over you and David. Whatever y'all did is in the past. Today is a new day.”
Gracie nodded, took a deep breath and then started talking. “Sunday night when we went back to the dorm...”
Chapter 1
Three Days Earlier
“I feel sick.” Gracie stared up at the massive archway that lead through the courtyard. Colloway Hall was the largest underclassmen dorm for women that State University had. Gracie wasn't looking forward to going back inside. She twisted sideways in the front seat of the Toyota. “I can't do this.”
“You'll be fine.” David wasn't smiling, but he wasn't frowning either. He looked calm, if not relaxed. He pulled a pack of gum out of the pocket on the front of his t-shirt and handed her a thin stick. “Chew this until the urge to barf passes.”
Gracie took the gum in trembling fingers. “Why does Brett's death seem so much more real now than it did this morning?”
David shrugged and pulled a pair of dark sunglasses down over his hooded green eyes. He smiled at Gracie. “It’s show time, Gracie Jayne. Put on your big girl panties and get out of the truck.”
“I don't-.”
“Stop. Just stop. The time for changing your mind is over. You made your choice when you shot Brett and didn't call the cops.” David reached across the cab of the truck, taking her chin in one hand. He pulled her close to him. “You made your choice and now you have to play the part. You can't run away right now if you want to be able to walk away permanently. If you want to claim you don't know what happened to Brett, you're going to have to live your life like you never watched him die.”
“I'm too scared,” Gracie whispered.
“Don't be scared,” David leaned into her. His lips were less than an inch away from hers. She could taste his breath on hers. “You've just spent an amazing weekend with your boyfriend, remember?”
Gracie didn't know what else to say, so she closed the distance between them and pressed her lips against his. His lips were soft and tasted like cinnamon chewing gum. He didn't pull away when she pressed her tongue in between his teeth. Instead, he opened his mouth to welcome her. She slid across the gear shift of the truck, focusing all her nervous energy into kissing David so hard that neither of them would be able to breathe. He slipped his hands down her shoulders and around her waist, pulling her closer.
Someone knocked on the window of the truck.
“What the fuck?” David pulled back away from Gracie abruptly.
Gracie cracked open one eye and peered over David's shoulder. A disappointingly familiar, curly-haired brunette was standing outside the driver's side window of the truck. Gracie buried her head in David's shoulder, seeking shelter in the comfort of his hot skin. “I hate this place. Get me out of here.”
David twisted to the side, shifting Gracie onto his other shoulder as he used the hand crank to lower his window. “Who the hell are you and what do you want?” He practically spat the words at the girl who was still patiently standing outside the truck, peering in.
“I'm Patty Possier, Colloway Hall's Senior Resident Adviser.” The brunette addressed herself to David with a distinct tone of superiority. “I'm sorry, but public displays of affection are not permitted on or around the Colloway Hall premises. Y'all are going to have to go somewhere else if you want to behave in a sexual manner.”
“We're not in Colloway Hall, Patty. We're in our own truck.” Gracie pulled away from David so that she could glare at Patty Possier, a self-righteous thorn in her side since the day she'd set foot on campus.
“You're in the parking lot,” Patty said patiently. She appeared slightly embarrassed but Gracie didn't care. Brett's death wasn't the only reason she was less than eager to return to dorm life. “All school buildings and property are considered family-friendly environments. No sexual behavior of any kind will be permitted in any public area. The student handbook clearly states-.”
“I definitely don't care about the student handbook.” David cut Patty off.
“It doesn't matter whether or not you care about the handbook,” Patty peered into the truck, “As long as y'all are students here you have to follow the rules.”
“Patty, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't care about stupid dorm rules. I'm 18 years old and I can kiss whoever I want, wherever I want.” Gracie laced her fingers back through David's. “If I want to make out with my boyfriend in the cab of his truck, I'm going to.”
“Not on campus, you won't.” Patty seemed to remember who she was supposed to be and what she was supposed to be doing. “Gracie, I don't want to write you up but I will.”
“Write her up for what?” David slid the sunglasses up onto the top of his head, narrowing his eyes at Patty. He put one arm across the edge of the truck's window, giving Patty a preview of the tattoos that covered most of his torso. Patty took half a step back away from the door. She opened her mouth once and then closed it again abruptly. Gracie almost laughed. Almost.
“Inappropriate sexual behavior,” Patty replied with a slight hesitation in her voice. “You can either stop making out or drive off campus, but I cannot allow you to continue behaving in a sexually deviant manner in an area of campus that is supposed to be a safe learning environment.” She sounded like she was quoting a manual because she was. Patty had a habit of quoting the student handbook anytime she got flustered by the behavior of the girls on her hall.
David turned to face Gracie. “Is she serious?” He jerked his chin in Patty's direction.
“She can kick me out of the dorm for it,” Gracie told him. “I told you I didn't want to be here anymore.”
“That's stupid,” David replied. “Since when are college students not allowed to make out?”
Gracie shrugged her shoulders. Patty surprised them both by answering the question.
“The rule was made so that no one, absolutely no one, will ever feel uncomfortable in the dorm,” she said. “My freshman year here, we had a lesbian girl sharing a room with an extremely Christian girl. The Christian girl complained to Campus Housing about how uncomfortable she felt in her own room whenever her roommate brought her girlfriend over. It wasn't the first time someone had complained about being made uncomfortable by other student's sexual behavior. The college's board of directors decided the easiest way to eliminate problems like this was to ban all sexual behavior from public locations.”
“Explain again how my truck is a public location?” David didn't look remotely amused.
“You're parked on campus. I saw y'all making out, which means anyone can see you.” Patty shrugged her bony shoulders, making her lime green shirt slide to one side. “Look, I'm not trying to make problems. I just want everyone to follow the rules. If someone sees y'all making out here and decides to complain to the dean, I'm the one who has to explain why I allowed this type of behavior to occur.”
“You can really write Gracie up for kissing her boyfriend in a truck?” David asked.
“I can. If I catch her again, I will,” Patty spoke the words firmly. “Now I suggest y'all either go somewhere else or get out of the truck and go about your business.”
“Just go away, Patty.” Gracie glared at the other girl. “We'll do whatever we damn well please.”
“A written reprimand will go in your student file, Gracie.”
It was on the tip of Gracie's tongue to tell Patty exactly how much she didn't care about her student file when David nodded at Patty. He squeezed
Gracie's fingers tightly. “I guess we'll just have to behave ourselves then. Can't risk baby Gracie getting in trouble.”
“One kiss isn't worth the formal reprimand,” Patty told them with a small, smug smile. “You're making the right choice.”
“I'm sure we are.” David smiled back at her. The smile went nowhere near his eyes.
“Well, now that you understand how to behave appropriately, I'll leave you two lovebirds be.” Patty smiled at Gracie again. “Are you coming to our movie social tonight?”
“Avocado facials with 150 giggling girls and a chick flick?” Gracie rolled her eyes as Patty nodded. “Not a chance.”
“Suit yourself,” Patty said with a small sigh. She turned back to face David. “It was nice to meet you. Have a nice evening.”
“You too.” David shook his head as he rolled the window of the truck back up and smirked at Gracie.
“Are you starting to understand why I hate it here?” Gracie gave David the most pitiful, pleading look that she could manage. “Take me home. Please.”
“If I didn't think the cops would be looking for you by the end of the week, I would.” David ran one hand through her long hair, playing with the tips of it. He chewed his lower lip for a moment. “That chick was serious about the no sexual contact policy?”
“Very. Patty writes people up all the time. No one wants to be assigned to Colloway Hall because of her.”
Much to Gracie's surprise, David smiled. “You care if you get written up?”
“Of course not.” Gracie frowned at him. “When have I ever cared if I got written up?”
“True.” David gave her a wicked grin. “Remember when I said that we needed to make sure everyone in this dorm remembered you came back from the weekend with your boyfriend?”
Gracie suddenly had a pretty good idea of where exactly David's train of thought had derailed. “I'm about to get written up, aren't I?”