3 Book High School Romance Bundle: A Kiss at Midnight & Prom King & Under My Skin

by Zara Rivas

  oOoOo

  "So anyways, then he's all, 'but we met in jail', and I say, 'yes, but you were in jail, I was just picking up my brother'," Torrance said, exasperated. "Guys just don't get it sometimes."

  "True story," Avery and I chorused, our mouths stuffed full of food. Henson and Tyler were watching us with extreme amusement.

  "How do you always end up picking the…interesting ones," I said dryly.

  Torrance passed me some sort of fruit drink she'd picked up in the lunch line, and I took a sip. I scrunched up my nose, passing it back to her. "Needs more sugar," I explained, and she rolled her eyes.

  "Imagine that, the health club over here wanting more sugar."

  "Hey, I take care of myself," I argued, smiling. "Gimme your candy bar."

  "Not on your life," she said, swiping it out of my reach.

  "So what did Logan say when he realized you escaped the family dinner again?" Avery asked me around a mouthful of pizza.

  "Ooh, he was pissed," I said with relish. "But of course, the ever stoic Mr. Lexington didn't say anything uncouth about it. He just gave me an irritated look and walked off."

  A few more people marched up to our table and sat down, Christian and Adrian included. She sat down to my left, and Christian took his customary place by Avery, but there was an element of affection missing in the way they greeted each other. I studied my best friend's body language and decided I would most definitely be cornering Christian in the near future.

  "Hey you guys, how's it going?" Torrance asked, eying all of them, and I knew she'd noticed the weirdness hovering over our friends. They mumbled unintelligible responses and dove into eating their lunches.

  Sinclair chose that moment to show up, and I noticed him giving a strange look to Adrian while she beamed cheerily at me. Her back was turned to him, so she didn't notice, but I gave him a quizzical look and he shook his head and brushed it off. Okay. That was weird.

  Torrance gave me a 'let's get out of here' look right after that, so I stretched out and announced, "Alrighty, guys, I'm going to see if I can get some work done before my next class. Catch you later."

  Once out of the cafeteria I sent her a hurried text message.

  Roof access stairwell in the maths hallway.

  Normally students weren't allowed in there, but Finn brought his keys with him and I'd asked to borrow them in case I needed an unpredictable escape from the house in the next few days. The lack of security cameras in the hallways was a bonus.

  Torrance met me there five minutes later, a sheaf of papers in her hands and a weird look on her face.

  "What's up?" I asked, holding my hands out when she made to give the papers to me.

  "I did last-round edits on the newest edition of the school paper last night," Torrance explained in a rush, "because it seems like there's always something the junior editors miss, and I was right. But, Sloane, there's some weird stuff in here."

  A furrow appeared in her eyebrows and I raised my own. "Weird as in…what?"

  "Well, it's no secret that it was you who wrote all that crap about Sinclair in the newspaper," she continued, "but someone's trying to do it to you."

  "Do you think it's Sinclair?" I asked skeptically. I really didn't think he would do something like that, especially not if he was trying to get in my pants.

  "I doubt it. Everything you wrote was ridiculously dramatized, something people would laugh at and not take seriously. This stuff? This is just creepy." She gestured to the pages. "I've highlighted all of them, I think, although I might've missed some."

  The bell rang for the next class, and I organized the papers and put them in my bag without reading them.

  "I'll check them out in a little bit," I said to Torrance, and pushed the door open so we could blend in with the crowd. The hallways were still empty, though, and Torrance gave me a worried look.

  "You should keep an eye out for whoever wrote that," she said, voice hushed.

  I started shuffling through the pages in Art, and I was shocked at some of the things this person had written about me. Slurs about my family, cutting remarks about me personally, how they'd like to take me out, a large number of positively alarming things.

  "Whatcha reading?" Tyler asked, leaning over my shoulder. I furrowed my eyebrows and handed him some of the pages.

  "Tyler, do you know of anyone who would do something like this to me?"

  His eyes skipped around to the highlighted parts and they got wider and wider, eventually looking up to meet mine, astonished.

  "No, I don't. Does Torrance know?"

  I shook my head. "She said the junior editors missed all of this, and it's in every single article on here, so someone had to go through when the paper was finished and add all of this in."

  "Well if Torrance caught it, they didn't get what they wanted, did they?" Tyler asked, trying to reassure me.

  "Except maybe they did," I murmured, reading a few more of the pages. "Either they wanted it to go around the whole school, or they know Torrance would've done a thorough edit and given these to me anyway."

  I flipped my phone open and texted Torrance.

  Any way we can find out who logged in to the school computers after hours?

  I snapped it shut again after setting it on vibrate and set it on the couch beside me.

  "Sloane, you really should take this to Hotchins," Tyler said, shaking his head at the papers.

  "Yeah," I said, distracted. "Torrance probably already did, but I'll ask her anyway."

  My phone buzzed and vibrated its way about half an inch across the couch. I picked it up and read the message.

  Yeah, I already talked to my journ. prof. He says it was Jake Carey, but that can't be right. He's out of state right now; prof already called parents to confirm.

  "That's weird," I said, handing the phone to Jake. "Maybe he asked someone to pose as his parents?"

  "I kind of doubt it," Tyler said. "Someone probably just filched his username."

  "That's comforting," I said, sarcasm tinging my words.

  "Isn't it though?" He grinned uneasily.

  oOoOo

  Xavier slammed his locker door shut and turned back towards Christian and James. They'd decided to hang out at his place that afternoon, not really doing anything but that was the best part. No plan, no homework, no nothing.

  Christian leaned against a random locker, concentrating on reading something on a folded piece of paper. James stood off to the side, hands in his pockets, looking bored with the world.

  "Time to go," Xavier said, swinging his bag over his shoulder and heading for the door. James followed, but Christian didn't. They turned back.

  "Something wrong, man?" James asked Christian, who shook his head. His expression told a different story.

  "No, it's all good." He folded the note back up carefully and slid it into an inner pocket of his bag. "Hey, do you think we could make this a big group thing?"

  "What do you mean?" Xavier asked.

  "You know, invite a lot of people out, go out to eat or something."

  James shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

  Xavier agreed and Christian started texting people to meet up with them somewhere.

  Forty minutes later, a large group sat around in the small bakery right next to Fours. It was cozy enough, with tables they pushed together and couches and comfortable chairs shoved around them. The entire group was comprised of Sloane, Torrance, Avery, Christian, Xavier, James, Henson, Tyler, and a few other randoms who'd tagged along uninvited. Nobody really cared, though—the more the merrier.

  Xavier noticed Christian texting something that looked like, "I don't want Avery to know" and passing her the note he'd been reading under the table.

  Sloane read it, a strange expression crossing her face, and passed it back silently. A second later Christian got a text message and, curiosity overruling his non-eavesdropping policy, he glanced at it out of the corner of his eye.

  What the fuck?

  Christian tu
rned his head and Xavier looked away, pulling out his own phone.

  Never knew secrecy was your game, Lexington. he typed out, sending it quickly.

  People at the table continued talking and laughing, unaware of anything going on under their noses. He looked down the table and saw Sloane give him an odd smile, and his phone lit up.

  Yeah, well, everybody's got to change their game sometimes.

  He shook his head with a smile and didn't bother replying. Tuning back into the conversation he realized Henson was talking about the party-to-be at Sloane's house.

  "I wonder what the theme's going to be this time," Henson said, not-so-subtly giving Sloane a hint to tell them.

  She smiled, watching Tyler stuff his face full of a slice of strawberry cake.

  "I dunno, I was thinking of maybe going with a nineties theme." She stirred her milkshake with the straw. "There's tons to go on—slap bracelets, all the ridiculous music, the clothing fads. Everybody could come up with something."

  A chorus of agreement rose up and the chatter consumed everyone again.

  oOoOo

  The impromptu outing was a lot of fun, but the note Christian passed me worried me a lot.

  Perhaps it's a good thing it's all crumbling down around you, the unfamiliar scrawl spelled out, because your soon-to-be ex-girlfriend is headed nowhere good.

  The note gave me the creeps, and I'd tried to hide it from the group. I'd guessed that I was mostly successful, except Sinclair gave me a Look and I knew I'd have to either avoid the subject or just tell him it was nothing important. I could understand why Christian didn't want Avery to know.

  I invited Avery and Torrance over to spend the night, and have a fun night with me and my brothers (Logan wasn't there, and wouldn't be until mid-week, thank God), because I wanted to keep them close. I had no idea why someone would send Avery and I both messages like that in the same day. Well, not to Avery, but about her at least.

  "Torrance, baby, how goes it?" Finn asked with a rakish grin when she walked in the door. I elbowed him and he ruffled my hair.

  She rolled her eyes. "It goes, Finn, it goes. Yourself?"

  "I would say the same," he said, mock-contemplating the question. "Good to have you back at Lexington Manor."

  "I'm here a lot more than you," she said, amused. Avery trailed in behind her and waved at Finn with a smile.

  "And the lovely lady Avery," he bowed.

  "You are such a dork sometimes," I grinned, and he gave an extra sweeping bow in my direction.

  A few minutes later when we were all grouped around the kitchen talking and laughing, I pulled Torrance aside.

  "Did you get anything, you know, weird today? Like the newspaper stuff?" I asked in a whisper.

  "No, why? What happened?"

  I told her quickly about the note from Christian's locker and she shuddered a little.

  "Okay, the first thing was just malicious, but if this continues, that's just creepy."

  "I agree."

  We flowed seamlessly back into the conversation. Dominic made himself a drink and offered one to all of us, but almost everyone declined.

  "Emma might be coming over later," he said conversationally, and I raised an eyebrow.

  "What's this? Big brother wants his lady friend to meet the fam?" I said slyly, inching over towards Finn. He picked up on my cue immediately.

  "Why, that hasn't happened in years," Finn drawled, affecting a Southern accent.

  "By gosh you're right!" I exclaimed, and Dominic shook his head.

  "You two," he said, "are ridiculous."

  The doorbell rang as soon as he finished the word 'ridiculous', and Finn and I gave each other gleeful looks and bounded out of the kitchen. Dominic followed in hot pursuit, but we whooped and laughed and beat him to the door.

  Jerking the door open, Finn and I grinned mischievously at the people on the other side of the doorway.

  Emma pulled her hand back slowly from the doorbell with a wary look, and Sinclair just looked vaguely amused.

  "Why hello there," Finn said, wicked amusement in his voice. "You must be our older brother's, ah, lady friend."

  "Such a pleasure to see you again," I grinned, motioning for them to come in the house. When Sinclair walked by, I said, "What is this, party day? I can't seem to escape big groups for a second."

  "Stop complaining, you know you love the attention." He turned his attention to Finn and held out his hand. "Good to see you again."

  "Likewise," Finn nodded. "But don't forget what I said. If you knock up my sister, you won't think it's so good to see me."

  I snorted a laugh. Emma just watched, entertained. She was all dressed up, I noticed, and so was Xavier. She wore a pretty spaghetti-strap dress in a dark purple that still somehow reminded me of summer. Sinclair wore fitted jeans again, with a long-sleeved black shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Once again, his hair was artfully mussed. I was envious of that look—with my hair it was either a rat's nest or a thirty-minute fight to tame it.

  I realized I was spending precious time being jealous of a boy's hair and snapped out of it.

  "Sorry about these weirdos," Dominic fake-sighed, leading everyone into the kitchen. "They just can't help themselves."

  Emma was quite fun to talk to when she hadn't just interrupted me her brother and I in the middle of making out, I discovered. She was kind of quiet, but had a sharp sense of humor when you got her to talking. Dominic seemed a little on edge about having her around, but relaxed gradually as the night went on.

  I kept my promise to Christian and didn't tell Avery about the note, although I would eventually if any more strange things turned up in our lives.

  "So, I think I'm going to go visit my mum soon," I said conversationally to Avery.

  "Really?" She took the cue and mimicked my nonchalance. "You haven't seen her in a while."

  "Yeah, I know, I've been meaning to though."

  "I'm sure she'd like that." Torrance nodded as well, and Dominic and Emma had stopped talking long enough to listen.

  "Your mum?" Sinclair piped up. "Is she the one in the family photos with you guys?"

  "That's her," Finn confirmed. "Sloane's a real dead ringer for her, isn't she?"

  "Yeah, she really is," Sinclair said.

  The conversation fell flat after that.

  "I feel like," I announced, "we should all go play some mini golf."

  "But it's midnight," Emma said, puzzled.

  "Ah yes, but what you don't know is, we have a twenty-four-hour mini golf place around here that's a rather well-kept secret," Finn said, trying to make his voice sound wise and slow.

  "We're all going to be dead on our feet tomorrow." Dominic grinned wryly.

  "That, dear brother, is exactly the point," I said.

  oOoOo

  Torrance, Avery and I all ended up getting ready for school together the next morning. It turned out that everyone spent the night in our den, on blankets and comforters and couches, because we didn't get back from playing mini golf until around four in the morning.

  We were laughing and joking and tossing my clothes everywhere in the search for the extra school uniforms I had lying around when my phone rang. Avery picked it up off my desk and tossed it to me.

  "This is the phone of the great and wonderful Sloane Lexington," I chirped.

  "Not much on humility, are you?" Sinclair said.

  "Ah, well, you know me." I started shrugging and caught myself, remembering he couldn't see me.

  "Yeah."

  "What's this, Sinclair? No witty remark?" I asked playfully. Torrance tossed me a skirt and I signaled my thanks.

  "Not really in the mood, Lexington."

  "Since when are you not in the mood? Wait, that sounded wrong, but you know what I mean."

  Dominic poked his head into my room.

  "Hey, I'm going to go ahead and go to class, I'll catch you later okay?" he said.

  "Sure thing, Nic, bye," I smiled.

  "Slo
ane—" Xavier said, and this time I stopped paying attention to my surroundings completely. Since when did Xavier call me by my first name?

  Avery waved at me, trying to tell me something, but I held up a finger and everyone went still.

  "What?" I asked calmly. "What's going on?"