by Lila Rose
Copyright
Senseless Attraction Copyright © 2014 by Lila Rose
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Published: Lila Rose 2014
Editing: Hot Tree Editing
Cover Design: LM Creations
Formatting by: http://www.blackfirefly.com/
Publishing assisted by Black Firefly: http://www.blackfirefly.com/
(Shedding light on your self-publishing journey)
Justine Littleton
Without you Senseless Attraction would not have made sense!
Thank YOU!!!
You are a wonderful, sarcastic person and my life would be a lot duller without you in it. You know I love you!
To my family and friends for all the support and encouragement throughout this process.
To Becky at Hot Tree Editing: I know I say this all the time, but you are awesome and without you and Kayla the Bibliophile I would have given up.
And if it wasn’t for Becky I would not have met Louisa my cover designer. Louisa, you are so amazing at what you do and I look forward to working with you in the future.
To my street team: I love all of you girls and guy each in your own way.
Lindsey you are a godsend. I am so glad to have met you!
To all the readers, bloggers and fellow authors who have helped me along the way. I have made new friends and I am grateful for each and every one of you.
I really wanted to stay home. I already knew there’d be no good with attending, but why delay the inevitable? No matter what day I went, I’d still have to find out who my new history partner would be. Still, just the thought of it made my stomach churn. Because everyone knew, Mr Gavin was known for pairing up the wrong type of people for the midterm assignment. So no doubt, I’d end up with someone who was the total opposite to me. Someone snotty, over-classed, popular, and who wouldn’t be caught dead speaking to the likes of me.
I lived in a small, three-bedroom brick home with my momma. It was nothing to rave about, but it kept us warm at night, and really, I couldn’t help but love the place. Momma and I had made it our own. We moved in a year ago when my father ran off with his secretary, leaving us high and dry.
Momma had to take on a job; she worked night shifts at our local supermarket, stocking shelves and sometimes at the register. At least it was something she loved doing. And being night work, it was enough money to keep the banks off our heels.
“Skylar James, hurry up with that God-awful makeup and get your butt in here for breakfast,” Momma bellowed from the kitchen. She didn’t need to yell; my bedroom was only a door away. I could even hear a normal conversation going on, like the ones where Momma would sit there with her friends and complain about my dad. She’d never figured out I could hear. It killed me when I heard her crying sometimes.
I walked out of my room and straight into the kitchen to find her at the stove still wearing her work uniform. She had only walked in the door an hour earlier.
She turned and sighed. “Tell me again why you wear that stuff? It clogs up all your pores, and you’re too beautiful for it anyway.”
I rolled my eyes as she placed a plateful of eggs and bacon in front of me on the table.
Yeah. I snorted. Me, beautiful? I don’t think so. My hair was too black and too straight. My body was too fatty and too tall. I had no boobs to gloat about, and way too much ass. The only thing I liked about myself was my dark, leafy-green eyes.
“Momma, you know why. One, I like it, and two, it makes the other kids at school stay away from me. They think I’m a witch or something.”
She scoffed. “I may start thinking that myself. Should I be checking your room for voodoo dolls?”
Again, I rolled my eyes as she laughed at her own joke. She knew she could trust me not to fall into any of that sort of stuff.
The makeup she was referring to was the white powdered foundation I used on my face. It also helped me hide the deep two-centimetre-long scar I had on my forehead that I got when I was six after a skateboard accident. My long, in-the-eyes, black fringe assisted to cover it as well. Wearing black eyeliner and black lipstick was just a preference of mine. It matched the style in which I liked to dress. Like today, I had chosen ankle boots with black fishnet tights, a short tartan skirt, and a black t-shirt. It was still summer, so I wouldn’t need my long black jacket.
“Hurry up and eat, girl, or you’ll be late for the bus.” Momma gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’m going for a shower, and I’ll see you tonight. Have a good day, hon,” she called over her shoulder as she headed down the hall to the bathroom.
“Yeah right,” I muttered.
I finished my plate, rinsed it, and quickly raced out the door as the bus travelled up my street. Right out the front of my house was the last stop before Freddy, the Santa-looking bus driver, dropped us off at school. His route took him to the snob zone first because they lived on the west side – the farther side – where all the mansions and estates were. I lived on a normal street that contained the smaller houses that were close to one another.
Climbing onto the bus that would take me to my wonderful school—feel the sarcasm?—Mt. Henry, I showed my bus pass, and gave a small chin lift to Freddy. He grunted back, and then I sat down in the first seat up at the front, next to my friend Jessie Mitanni. I didn’t bother looking in the back anymore, knowing that if I did, all I would receive is laughs and glares. Besides, the one I used to look for no longer attended our school. Actually, he no longer lived on the same continent.
A high-pitched squeal touched my ears, causing me to shudder. I knew straight away who it was, Miss Donna Evans, the most popular girl in school. And I knew who she’d be sitting with, Kane Stanley, her rich—well, richer than her by a little—boyfriend, and some of their evil posse who chose to ride the bus with them.
“S’up?” Jessie asked while applying her black lipstick. Unlike my momma, her mom couldn’t stand her wearing any of this sort of makeup, so Jessie applied it in the mornings and removed it before heading home. At least her mom wasn’t so grouchy when it came to the clothes both Jessie and I wore.
I found that it suited Jessie more, with her slim figure, medium height, dark blonde hair, and light blue eyes. She was even lucky enough to have been visited by the boob fairy.
“Not much, you?” I asked as I skidded down lower in my seat.
“Usual. God, I hate Mondays.”
“Tell me about it. I wish I caught some very long-lasting disease over the weekend, and then I wouldn’t have to deal with being matched up with a partner in history today.”
“Oh, man, that’s today? I feel for ya; I have that Friday.”
“Just pray for me that I don’t get any of those asses in the back.” I gestured with my head towards the back of the bus.
“I’ll pray as long as you do it for me. At least you know there’s no chance
of getting Trevor, Beth, or Megan, ‘cause they’re in my class.”
“Yeah, but they’re the better out of the lot.”
“True, too true.” She nodded. “You have it first period, yeah?”
“Yep.” I sighed loudly.
“Best wishes, Sky. See ya at lunch.” She gave me a wink and flew past me to get off the bus. I just wasn’t in the mood to move. I waited until the last person had stomped off, and then dragged my reluctant form from the bus to—da-da-daaa—History.
I walked straight to my table in the middle of the class that I shared with another friend of mine, Mitch. Even though we were in the same classes most of the time, he should have actually been in year twelve. He was asked to repeat a year, so that made him eighteen, where I was still—cry—seventeen. Mitch and I got along really well. He had even chosen to hang with Jessie and me instead of the other crowd in year twelve that he used to hang with. Well, except for Javis, a skateboarder friend, and Massie, a girl who was into the same things as Jessie and me. Another reason Mitch was hanging around with us was because of a certain crush he had going for Jessie. Not that she was aware of it, or the fact that I’d figured it out, but I did hope he would make a move. They’d be good for each other.
“Wad’up?” Mitch asked as I sat next to him.
“Fretting, you?”
“Nah, it should be all right. As long as we don’t get any of the snobs. Jessie here today?”
I gulped back my laugh and nodded at him as our teacher Mr Gavin walked in. He wasn’t bad for a teacher, besides the fact he wanted to try and fix everything by having the idea of ‘share your midterm experience with someone you don’t know’. He should’ve known it was useless; we mingled with whom we wanted, and that suited us. Though, no matter how many times students complained, or just didn’t do the assignment because of being paired with someone they despised, and then, in turn, failed the half-year assignment, Mr Gavin never backed down by changing. He still thought it was the right thing to do.
“All right, class, we all know what today is. So once I call your names, please, one of you change your table to sit with your new partner. This will not only be for this half-year assignment, but for the rest of the year.”
Groans erupted all around, myself included.
I closed my eyes, leaned my head down on the desk, and sent out a silent prayer. Please, no snob.
He called names out that I didn’t care for, but then he came to Mitch’s name, and I had to look up and give Mitch a sympathy pat on the shoulder because he had just been paired with Dale, the class clown. It was going to be so hard to work with him. Poor Mitch would probably have to do all the work himself.
“Skylar James—” I stiffened; here it was. “You are paired with Kane Stanley.” Mr Gavin moved on to call out the rest of the class, but I had stopped listening. I think I was in shock. How could he do this to me? Anyone but him would’ve been better.
“Oh, babe. I feel for you,” I heard Donna say.
It must have been obvious I wasn’t moving, so Kane had decided to come to me and my table since Mitch had already moved to sit with Dale. The chair next to me was pulled out and Kane Stanley sat down.
“Hi,” he said.
“Yeah, hi. I’m, um, Skylar,” I uttered, looking at him for the first time. He was your usual jock type: tall, broadly built, with short dark brown hair that hung too long in the front, and nice, warm golden eyes.
Nice? Warm? Where did I pull that from?
He turned his chair a little to face me and smirked, flashing his perfect white teeth. “I know who you are.”
Of course, he did; how lame did I sound? But really, it was the first time we’d met, wasn’t it? I mean, besides the fact that we’d known each other by association for some time.
I couldn’t help but look over my shoulder to see who Donna had been paired with. It was Kevin Meit, one of the smartest kids in school. No fair. She was going to breeze through the assignment by making her partner do all the work.
Would Kane make me do that as well? He could certainly think again if he tried it.
“Now, class. Take this time to talk to your new partner about what you think would be a good subject for this assignment. Remember, I have allowed you to cover anything in History.” With that, he sat down, and the talking around us started.
Kane cleared his throat. “So, any ideas?”
“Um,” I said while flicking through our textbook. I gave up and sighed. “Nope, none. You?”
He smirked again; how could that make my heart race? Goddamn good-looking jock.
“Let’s see. We have options of World War One or Two…”
I rolled my eyes. “Boring.”
“Okay then, what about a person from our history?”
“Could work, like who?”
He shrugged. “Hitler, Gandhi, Patrick Henry, Einstein, Thomas Jefferson…”
“Or what about women from history? Like Martha Jane Cannary, Harriet Jacobs, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Victoria Woodhull. And that’s only to name some, but I’m sure we could look into others.”
He let out a quiet laugh. “All right, what about we do both? What about Mrs Roosevelt and her husband?”
“Sounds interesting.” And easy.
“When do you want to get together and work?” he asked.
I swallowed loudly and coughed it back up when it went down the wrong way.
After clearing my throat, I said, “Why not here, right now, and then every time we have class?” I was not giving Donna any ammunition to start on me. And if Kane and I worked alone somewhere other than class, it was just asking for trouble.
“It’s due in a month, Skylar. We…”
“Sky,” I uttered.
“Sorry?”
“Only my momma calls me Skylar. So call me Sky, okay?”
“Sure.” He smiled. “As I was saying, we only have a month to do a written assignment, and then an oral; both have to sound totally different from one another. There’s a lot to cover for both people, and I don’t know about you, but I need a good grade for this class.”
“I’m not going to slack off if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m not like that.” I glared. “Fine, where and when do you want to do this?”
“Monday nights are good for me, as well as Saturdays—early mornings though. We can alternate; one day I could come to your house, the other, you come to mine?”
I couldn’t help but stare at him. I shut my mouth with an audible click when he started looking confused.
“Look, Kane, it’s real nice of you to try this ‘partner thing’,” I made air quotes, “but I cannot see you coming to my house and playing nice. And I really cannot see myself at your house. Come on. Your parents would freak if I walked in the door, and probably worry I’d steal something.”
Okay, he looked angry. “Is that how it is then? You obviously already think I’m some rich asshole who’s already judged you not worthy of my time; therefore, we cannot get along enough to get this assignment done.” He took a deep breath. “Not all people judge a book by its cover, Skylar.” I scoffed and looked to Donna. He snorted and added, “I said not all.”
I growled in frustration. Fine. If he wanted to play it that way, he could just come and see how the other side lived. But I would not make it easy on him at all.
“Whatever, Kane Stanley. Let’s do this. Come to my house tonight. The address…oh, you should already know. The bus pulls right out in front of it every morning.”
“Good. I’ll see you there later. I have a few things to do after school first.”
“Yeah, sure.” More like he was worried that if he got off at my spot, people would start talking.
He rolled his eyes as the bell rang. Donna came up beside our desk and leaned over to give him a big, show-off kiss.
Like I didn’t already know she owned his ass.
I walked out of the classroom before they started stripping.
Mitch caught up to me at the door and flung
his arm around my shoulders. We had the next class together. “I don’t know who dibbed out worse here,” he sighed.
“Yeah, me either. Give me a couple of days, though, and I’m sure I’ll be ripping my hair out from all the talk about the rich life.”
Mitch laughed. “Don’t worry, pet. I’ll be there doing it with you.”
“Hey, punk. Get ya hands off me woman.”
I laughed as Javis came up beside us. Mitch didn’t move his arm though; we both knew Javis was joking. Like he always did.
“So, what’s da verdict?”
“I got Dale, and Princess Puff Cake here got Mr Charming himself, Kane Stanley,” Mitch explained.
That was my new nickname. Ever since I ate five puff cakes with cream in one afternoon when we visited the bakery, Fat Papa’s. I wouldn’t usually eat that much, but that day I had some extra spending money from my birthday and splurged on my all-time-favourite: puff cakes. For some reason, I couldn’t stomach them these days, especially after I spent the night throwing them back up.
“Whoa, no way, man. Damn it, if it’s like that for you guys, there’s no telling who Jessie’s gonna get. Glad I’ve already been through that last year.”
“Yeah, and who were you with?” I asked.
Javis pretended to shudder. “Byney Steill, who I thought was the love of my life at the time.” He shrugged and added for me, “Sorry, babe. But once I got to know her, found out she didn’t have a brain, and was a robot, it was off. All she could talk about was clothes, Brad Pitt, clothes, Brad Pitt, and…”
“Clothes,” both Mitch and I answered.
“Right. Anyway, better fly before I’m late and get into trouble once again. See ya’s at lunch.”
He ran two doors down where he had Science, as Mitch and I walked into Social Studies.
*
At lunch, Mitch, Javis, and I walked into the loud, already-busy cafeteria. After grabbing some lunch, we headed to our usual table where Jessie and Massie were seated. As I walked over, I noticed Jessie’s somewhat eager expression. I rolled my eyes; she must already have known who my history partner was.
“Princess Puff Cake, you seem to have caught not only Mr Charming’s attention, but Miss Evil’s as well,” Mitch casually said.