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

by Zara Rivas

  I felt so much better after I told Sinclair about my mother, and I didn't even know why. It wasn't some great big secret, and honestly the only reason I never told anybody outside of my core group of friends was that I didn't want the pitying stares. So people just assumed that my mother left and it had some sort of big impact on my family.

  I think he knew that there was going to be a taboo on talking about what happened in public, so he didn't say a word about it to me that morning when he met me at my locker. With gum, no less. And a pair of concert tickets.

  "I've never heard of this band," I said blankly as I stared down at them.

  He waved them a little bit in front of my face.

  "Doesn't mean you won't like them," he said, blowing a bubble with his own gum and stuffing the tickets down into his bag again.

  I smirked at him and snatched the pack of gum from his hand, stealing about five pieces and tossing the now nearly-empty package at him. I unwrapped one and tossed it in my mouth. Huh. Same flavor as New Year's. I grinned blatantly at this, and he knew exactly what I was thinking.

  "Rude," he intoned.

  "Don't care," I said, eyebrow raised in a challenge.

  Sinclair reached out and wound his fingers through my still-damp hair. I'd tried to shower out the paint, but some of it still stuck fast, so I was probably a pretty interesting sight to behold.

  "Interesting," he said calmly. "You might start a new trend."

  "What, looking like three year olds did my hair?"

  "Exactly. You never know what's going to come back into style," he said, surreptitiously shoving a finger in the direction of a girl wearing a rather questionable outfit. I snorted and turned back to my locker, pulling out the things I needed and kicking it shut.

  "Hey, Sloane, I—" Avery interrupted, digging around in her backpack for something. She looked up, saw Sinclair standing there, and flushed bright red. "Sorry, Xavier, can I borrow Sloane for a minute?"

  He raised a shoulder in a half-shrug. "Sure. I have to get to class anyway." He started walking backwards down the hallway. "You should request that night off from your job."

  "When is it again?"

  "Two weeks from today."

  "You got it." I snapped a bubble and raised a hand in farewell, and he reciprocated it and turned around. I turned to Avery. "What's up?"

  "Can I spend the night tonight?"

  I stared at her. Avery had never, ever in living memory asked me that question before. She flushed even darker under my scrutiny and I couldn't seem to be able to come up with a reply. Finally the silence started to get awkward and I forced the words out of my mouth.

  "Avery…you never have to ask that," I said warily.

  "I know," she said, flustered. "Things have just been weird all around lately, you know?"

  I sighed. "I know."

  "Christian and I are breaking up," she said point-blank. Her words startled me completely, and were so…unlike Avery that despite the talk I had with Christian, and I stop fiddling around with the strap of my bag and just stared at her.

  "I mean, it hasn't happened yet, but I know it's going to," she said miserably. I didn't know what to say at all, so I gave her a twisted, sympathetic look and offered her a piece of bubblegum. She gave a choked little laugh at that and popped it in her mouth.

  "Thanks, Sloane."

  "Anytime. You know I'm no good at," I gestured at the space between us, "this sort of thing."

  "It's just…I know it's not healthy, but I heard Henson's having a party tonight. I wanted to know if you'd go with me and sort of babysit."

  "Not healthy?" I asked, and then it hit me. Of course. "Sorry, being daft here. You want to get completely wasted?"

  "Pretty much," she admitted. Torrance showed up and swung an arm over her shoulder protectively.

  "Well, darling, you're in luck, because we're the best at that," she sang, and the three of us walked arm in arm down the hallway.

  It was quite the twisted inspirational scene.

  oOoOo

  I hung around after my class before lunch to go find Amy in her office. I knocked on the doorway since she had her door swung wide open, and she beckoned me inside.

  "How are you, Sloane?" she asked, looking up from the pile of papers she was grading. She smiled at me and gestured to the chair across from her.

  "I'm okay, I guess," I said, and it was the complete truth. "I wanted to talk to you about the CAP."

  She assessed me over her pen, and I got the uncomfortable librarian-stare feeling from her for a moment. The thought almost made me laugh out loud, diffusing all the tension, but she set her pen down and shook her head, laughing lightly.

  "You know, if you don't want to be the main artist on it anymore, you don't have to be," she said unexpectedly.

  "What? Why?" I asked, puzzled. Not that I didn't want to be, but I was curious.

  "It's true that you're probably the most talented student I've ever taught," she started, "and you would have been the main artist on it anyway. The whole thing was just a setup to get you and Xavier to get along. Two highly creative people at war with each other in these halls? I'm not sure the school would survive."

  We both had a good laugh at that, then she sobered quickly.

  "But no one would deny that you're under quite a bit of stress right now. The incident with your locker, the notes to your friends, you have a job on top of all this, homework, you're valedictorian, and the whole situation with your father," she finished.

  "My father?" I asked, confused. "How do you—"

  "Finn called me," she explained. That made sense. Finn was always on good terms with Amy, considering he was the sculpting genius in our house. "He wanted me to keep an eye out for you. Even though you're twins, sometimes I still think he thinks of you as his baby sister."

  I rolled my eyes. Brothers.

  "I just wanted to ask you if anybody turned in some really, really late proposals. None of the ones we've gotten really have spark, you know? I mean a couple are good," I said, "but none of them are really…capturing my imagination."

  I rested my elbows on her desk while I talked, waving my arm around in slight irritation.

  "We haven't," she shook her head. "I'm sorry. Maybe read through them again?"

  "Yeah, I guess I will," I said, a little defeated. I picked up my bookbag and swung it over my shoulder.

  "Did you give Xavier any to look over? Maybe he's found one he likes," she suggested, and I shrugged.

  "He hasn't said anything."

  "Yes, but have you asked?" she said with a small smile.

  Good point.

  oOoOo

  Everybody was already at the lunch table and eating by the time I finally sat down with my tray. Torrance and Christian were in a heated debate about the ethics of something or another (the conversation was pretty difficult to decipher without having context), Avery picked at her lunch, and Tyler was waiting for me with a chocolate bar. Xavier was nowhere to be found, along with Henson.

  "Uh oh," I said dryly, accepting the chocolate, "what do you want?"

  He looked wounded. "Why do you always assume I want something when I bring you things?"

  "Because you do," I said matter-of-factly, sinking my teeth into the delicious chocolate-and-caramel confection.

  "Nah, not really. Not this time, at least," he corrected. "Just wanted to hit you up for information regarding this supposedly awesome bash that's taking place in just a couple of weeks at your house. You know, the one you wanted me to bartend for?"

  "Oooh, that," I said around a mouthful of chocolate. He winced and I grinned at him. I leaned in close after I swallowed to make sure nobody could hear what I wanted to say but him. Nobody was really paying attention anyway, but I figured the extra precaution couldn't hurt.

  "Nineties theme is a go, I'm thinking," I said, then lowered my voice. "Are you bartending at Henson's tonight?"

  He nodded his head in an affirmative.

  "Cut Avery off once she start
s talking about how every popular movie ever made would be better with Matthew McConaughey, alright?"

  "Uh oh, does our little Aves want to get trashed tonight?" he teased, for my ears only. I gave him a look.

  "You have no idea. I'm worried about her," I said, then leaned back a little to end that particular conversation. Tyler picked up on my cue and started chattering on about the CAP and asking me whether or not I had any brilliant ideas. Torrance and Christian stopped their argument long enough to dive into that conversation, as well, and all conversation sort of halted when Xavier and Henson showed up.

  "Where've you two been, making out in a closet?" Tyler asked mischievously, and Sinclair flipped him the bird, settling down beside Christian.

  "Sorry, Tyler, as much as you love me, guys still really aren't my thing," Henson said promptly, tossing him a bag of chips.

  "Yet you bring me wonderful gifts of salty snacks." He sighed. "Mixed messages, no?"

  "Yeah, he's fucking with your head," I agreed. Torrance snorted.

  "You're so blunt, Sloane."

  "I do what I can."

  oOoOo

  I'd caught Xavier after lunch and asked him if there were any particular CAP entries that caught his eye, and he handed me a stack of papers. I raised an eyebrow and he'd just shrugged, saying he meant to give them to me before but never got around to it. The ones marked with a star, he explained, were his favorites, and the ones on the top were his least favorite followed by his preferred entries in descending order.

  "Confusing much?" I'd joked, and he just gave me a Look. I dropped it pretty quickly.

  It really was a simple enough system, though, and I rifled through the pages on my way down the hall, absentmindedly blowing bubbles with my gum. Sinclair had a pretty good eye for talent, and the ideas he'd marked as good were pretty damn fantastic. It looked like I'd handed him the whole stack of good entries when we'd divided them up.

  The halls were empty, seeing as I'd stayed after to talk to Carroway about getting my locker moved to a different location. He seemed surprised that I asked him first, and I told him I didn't want anyone but Avery knowing the new combination. He suggested a rotating schedule, where I used different lockers each half-week, and for some reason I agreed to it.

  I shuffled through the papers, bringing the next one to the top of the stack, and realized I was getting closer to the very bottom. The writer of the proposal suggested an oceanic theme, which we'd never had before, being that far north, and I thought it sounded pretty interesting. The ocean held quite a lot of possibilities (well, duh) for us to do all sorts of original work.

  I dog-eared the end of this page to mark my own approval before moving it to the bottom.

  "Oi, Lexington," somebody called out behind me. I smiled a bit, knowing exactly who it was, but didn't turn around.

  "Get yourself into trouble, Sinclair?" I asked lightly, continuing my trek down the hall.

  "Why would you think that?" His voice got closer with each word.

  "You're lurking around the hallways after school," I pointed out. "You're either in trouble or causing trouble."

  "Causing trouble, more like," he said, finally catching up to me and swinging an arm around my shoulders. I decided to ignore this and keep walking. "Do you work tonight?"

  "No, I'm off until Sunday morning," I murmured, still ensnared by the proposal I was reading.

  "Want to work on this tonight?" he asked, gesturing at the papers I held in my hands. "I meant to ask you when you got the papers from me, but I was running late for class."

  "Has that ever mattered to you before?" I asked sardonically. "Being on time?"

  "Well, no," he said, and I could hear the grin in his voice. Seemed like arrogance was the flavor of the day for him. "Just wanted some excuse so I didn't have to say I completely forgot."

  "You were just transfixed by my beauty," I said, flipping my hair out. Two could play that game.

  "Of course," he said, voice dripping with amusement. "That was it. So, can you?"

  "Sorry, I'm booked for tonight. Avery has some therapy involving a bottle of Jack Daniels and some loud music I have to attend to."

  He sobered up pretty quickly after I said that.

  "Yeah, Christian told me. Still together, but things aren't exactly going well, are they?"

  "If they were going well, I'd expect the Jack Daniels would be in somebody else's hands, wouldn't you?" I raised an eyebrow. He made a noise in the affirmative. We pushed our way out through the double doors of the front entrance to the school, his arm never leaving my shoulders. It was kind of comforting, having him there with me.

  "Where'd you park?" I asked, and he pointed to a giant tree, under which his bike rested.

  "Ah, I'm on the other end of the parking lot." I halted my footsteps for a moment. "I guess I'll see you later?"

  "I'll walk you to your car," he said, sounding surprised as though I thought he was going to ditch me at the front doors. I honestly wouldn't have minded if he had. We kept walking in a comfortable silence. I didn't really have anything to say, and I guess he didn't either. We reached my car and he leaned confidently against the back of my car, flipping his hair around like a bad teen movie. I laughed and shoved him away from my trunk.

  "Get out of here," I teased, throwing my bag into the trunk of my car. He swept into a mock-bow and grabbed my wrist right as he spun away from me, half-twirling me, half making me trip directly into his path.

  "Catch you later," he smiled, and pressed his lips quickly against mine, then pulled away. It was short, quick and sweet, and so foreign that I just stared at him with an uncontrollable half-smile flooding my face. I don't know when he pulled his camera out, but I heard the click and then saw him stuffing it back into its bag. I didn't even know what to say to that.

  He raised a hand without looking back, waving. Nonsensically, I raised my own hand in the same gesture and then shook my head and nearly smacked myself when I got my wits back and realized he would never be able to see me through the back of his head.

  I knew I wouldn't be able to get that image out of my head for a long time.

  oOoOo

  "Need any money for a cab?" Nic asked me later that night. I was putting the finishing touches on my eyeliner when he walked into the bathroom and hopped up on the counter. I flicked my lighter and ran it over the end of the eyeliner pencil, melting the wax a little and blowing on it.

  "No, I'm designated tonight," I said, preoccupied with drawing the pencil carefully across my eyelid.

  "Are you sure?"

  I smiled at my reflection in the mirror and looked up at Dominic. "Don't worry about me. I'll probably have one drink, but I have to look out for Avery tonight. No alcohol poisoning on my watch," I said solemnly, and the words tasted bitter in my mouth. I cast my eyes around, looking for something specific on the counter, but mostly I was just avoiding Nic's eyes.

  He reached out and opened his hand, revealing the double rings I always wore on my middle fingers. The ones Daphne had the matching set to. I finally looked up and smiled at him a little sadly.

  "Thanks, Nic." I slid them onto my fingers carefully, almost reverently.

  "Anytime." His tone of voice said he meant it, and he wasn't talking about the rings.

  "I feel like," I started, then faltered. I ran a hairbrush savagely through my locks, noting that the blue was very nearly faded completely. "I feel like I've been a terrible person lately."

  "No, Sloane," Dominic said softly, taking the brush from my fingers. He set it on the counter and pulled out a comb, drawing it slowly through my hair and gently pulling out all the tangles. It felt nice, to be babied for once. To feel taken care of. "Why would you even think that?"

  "I've been so wrapped up in my own world, I haven't even spent any time with Avery or Torrance lately," I said, and it was like a dam burst and all my faults were staring me in the face. "I just freaked out on Logan and stormed off, and it ran him out. I feel like you spend half your time playing
mediator and cleaning up my messes."

  Nic's fingers didn't waver as he combed my hair, and I was grateful for that.

  "Logan did a lot of things wrong," he said, trying to soothe me. "We didn't deserve to have to grow up so fast. And Avery and Torrance are your friends. They'll forgive you for not being around twenty-four seven, Sloane, especially with the threats you've been getting."

  "You're right," I said, but I still sounded miserable.

  "Hey," Dominic said softly, leaning his head on my shoulder and looking at me in the mirror. "You can't change around the past, but you can work on the present." He smiled.