by Riley Ross, Sally Slayer, Kaydence Rayne, & Dovey Mayali Cralk
Chapter One
High school was over, finally, and Alyssa Hunter was both excited and annoyed. Rachel, her best friend since childhood, was going to be gone until the week of Alyssa’s 18th birthday party. There were only three months until she left for college, on her own because Rachel was only a senior this upcoming school year, and this was going to be the most uneventful school break of her life. To make matters worse, the one person she had really wanted to spend time with was avoiding her like the plague.
Growing up, Rachel and her brother Seth were almost always together, despite their two year age gap. He was protective of his sister and liked to stick around. It wasn’t until he had started high school that Alyssa's feelings for him began to change into something more. She tried flirting with him, to the best of her ability, when Rachel wasn’t around, but he would always just ignore it and act like nothing was happening. Eventually, he just stopped hanging out with them altogether.
She could have just taken it as a rejection, sucked it up and moved on. Except she was too prideful and he technically didn’t tell her no, so in her mind she still had a shot with him. Which was exactly what she had planned for her summer, because she knew Seth would be staying in town. He did some sort of program every summer; he was never forthright with that information but she knew it had to do with martial arts, and was taking classes at the community college.
Shortly after her parents had left for the day, she changed into her bathing suit and went outside with her current book in tow. Alyssa knew that Seth was home; his car was in the driveway. It would be getting him to come outside that would be the difficult part. He had been taking classes that would transfer over to the University of Houston in the fall. She had found it weird that he had decided to stay in town for college, always assuming he would get the hell out of his house at his first opportunity. Especially because he seemed to always be moody lately and she assumed it was because of something between him and his parents.
It wasn't that she was against him wanting to graduate college earlier and ruining his summer with school, but he needed to have fun every now and again. It just so happened that the particular fun she had in mind would also involve her – a win-win situation.
Her own parents had already left for the day, so she was alone. The house was pretty clean, so there weren't really any chores to do until later in the day. Her best option would be to hang out by the pool in her backyard, which she knew his room overlooked. Grabbing her bathing suit, a purple and black two piece tankini, she threw it on and ran her fingers through her short brown hair. A pixie-cut had its advantages and it was perfect in the summer when it was so hot that she sometimes contemplated just shaving off all of her hair to escape the heat. The Texas sun could be brutal. Thankfully, the crazy heat wouldn't be around until after her birthday.
Once outside, she set herself in a spot that she knew would catch his attention, even if only briefly, because his computer desk was next to his bedroom window. There was a sun umbrella over her to keep her protected from the heat and she lathered herself in sun screen to avoid burning. Her skin tanned pretty easily in the sun, but she didn't ever want to risk it. Plus there was the whole issue of skin cancer. Better to be safe than sorry. Once situated, she pulled out her kindle and started reading. Hopefully it would keep her distracted long enough to get his attention.
She had been scrolling through her book for at least an hour when she heard her gate creak open. Not needing to look up to know it was him, since there was nobody else who would be coming over, she tried to feign indifference at his entrance while her stomach was doing flips knowing that her clever plan had worked, and much quicker than anticipated. He would have to be the one to initiate the conversation.