Balls: A Bully Romance (The King of Castleton High Book 4)

by Ellie Meadows

  I smiled, thinking about the limitless black credit card Dad had forgotten to take away when he’d gone on his post-photos rampage. It wasn’t even an account he checked regularly, not since hiring his financial advisor.

  I’d have zero trouble charging everything needed for the trip, and I’d just leave a note at the house that I was traveling with Steve’s family for the break.

  My parents wouldn’t give a fuck, even if they were still pissed at me.

  Not that my mother was around to be mad. I was beginning to think she’d never come back from her most recent ‘spa treatment’. Had a feeling it was another one of those several month rehab stays. The last one had been three months. I’d only found out where she was thanks to the header on an envelope that sat unopened for two weeks collecting dust.

  Angry cheating father.

  Addicted absent mother.

  Obviously, they had a normal, stable son.

  I tossed back my head and laughed. Normal and stable were fucking overrated anyway.

  Could I wait until the mountains to see Tarryn?

  Probably not, I realized sheepishly feeling like a grade A stalker.

  5.

  T A R R Y N

  -Wednesday, winter break begins…-

  Exams are over. I managed to avoid Drake at school again today. Go me! The mountain trip’s a heartbeat away. No idea what the hell to wear on this date with Aiden...

  And he was going to be here in an hour!

  Nope.

  Nope.

  God, definitely not.

  I tossed article after article of clothing onto the floor at my feet. I’d thought about wearing the red dress with the little bow at the neck and the triangle peephole, the one I’d worn to Peterson Lake. My first party... my only party since coming to River Valley. But for some reason, though I’d spent that entire night talking to Aiden, it reminded me of Drake instead. I could wear my lucky skirt...

  No.

  Finally, I fished out a pair of distressed jeans and pulled a white shirt over my head. My hair was haphazardly arranged in a messy bun. Not a cute messy bun, but a ‘librarian at her wit’s end’ messy bun, and I had mascara smudges under my eyes.

  “Wow, Tarryn. Way to make your best effort to go on a date with a cute guy.” I rolled my eyes, appraising myself in the mirror, then padded off to the bathroom to wash my face and damage-control my hair. When the raccoon eyes were gone, and my hair was spritzed and scrunched and looking a little less frizz city, I sighed.

  My heart wasn’t in it—going on this date with Aiden.

  I wanted to want to go out with him. He’d made a mistake with Drake, sure, but at his heart he was such a good guy. Loving, kind, cared about his family.

  And he was cute. Tall, dark, handsome. He had really shallow dimples when he smiled hard.

  I wanted to like Aiden.

  And I knew that if I hadn’t met Drake first... If he hadn’t stolen that candy bar for me out of the teacher’s desk and caught me when I fell, maybe Aiden would have a chance. But the fact was that Drake was there first. Golden god, speed demon Drake.

  It was so funny how, physically, the two boys couldn’t be more different.

  One glance would have you thinking that Drake was light to Aiden’s dark, but the opposite was true.

  Drake was the shadows.

  Aiden was the sunlight.

  And I, to my damage, was drawn to the coolness beneath the trees, instead of the warmth of a clear summer’s day.

  A knock on the front door announced Aiden’s arrival and I straightened my shoulders.

  You are going to give this a chance, Tarryn. You’re going to give Aiden a chance. A real chance. Maybe you’re wrong. Maybe he is the right guy for you, and Drake was always a mistake. You can leave him in the past and move forward to something better. Someone better.

  The front door whined open, and the murmur of voices floated upstairs as I exited my room, slipping into a pair of tennis shoes that I’d discarded in the hallway earlier before continuing downstairs. I took the steps two at a time, a smile already plastered on my face.

  I didn’t look up though, my eyes focusing on the steps as I descended, my mind walking through the necessary steps to make this date successful. Not only because I wanted to ‘get over’ Drake, but also because I didn’t want to hurt Aiden by accepting a date and then acting like it was a waste of my time.

  Okay, look up. Keep smiling.

  Only it wasn’t Aiden standing in the foyer.

  “Drake...” His name fell from my lips, my voice soft and surprised. Was this another of their tricks? Had Aiden played me yet again, acting as an agent of the guy who’d... who’d hurt me so badly? “Why are you here?” I forced out the question, anger bolting through my chest like lightning, and my brain racing a mile a minute.

  “Hey, Tarryn,” he said almost casually, giving me a nod. But I knew him well enough now that I could see the tension behind his gaze. “Your dad needed some files before my dad headed to Morocco.”

  “You’re not going with him?” I crossed my arms, staring him down. No way was he using this lame excuse. Running an errand for the dad he hated? It was pathetic. “Couldn’t my dad have just gotten the files from work?”

  “Not these files.” He shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. He stood straight, posture confident, voice neutral. But I could see the way his fingers were curled into fists inside his jeans.

  Dad and Mom looked between the two of us, faces curious. Mom was actively nibbling her lower lip, dying to ask what the heck was going on between us.

  “Well, they have the files now,” I pointed out, making it obvious that I wanted him to leave.

  “Sure, yeah. It was nice to see you again, Mister and Misses Monroe.” Drake smiled at them, charm oozing from his pores.

  “So nice to see you again too, Drake. We wondered what had happened to you! Tarryn was mute on the subject,” Mom nearly yelled out the words, as if she just couldn’t hold them back anymore and they’d come bursting from her body at jet speed.

  Dad gave her a look that would freeze ice, and my mouth dropped open.

  “Mom!”

  “Tish!” Dad hooked an arm around Mom’s waist, his other arm supporting the files against his chest, and he steered her towards the kitchen and away from the foyer.

  Drake and I stared at one another, after a moment of silence, I shuffled my feet and sighed. “You should go. I’ve got company coming over soon.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Drake ran his hand through his hair, tousling it more than usual. A golden curl fell across his forehead, spiraling down between his perfectly manicured eyebrows. “Date with Aiden, right?”

  Frowning, I walked towards the front door and opened it. “I’d ask how you know that, but Sasha already knew too. So, what? Are your friends spying on me? Spying on Aiden? Is Steve running around with binoculars keeping tabs on me?”

  “It’s a small town, Tarryn.” He reasoned, though he didn’t deny anything.

  “Am I going to look out my window one night and see some jerk up a tree getting his Peeping Tom on? You’ve seen me mostly naked, so no surprises there, unless you’re wanting pictures for posterity. Is that what’s happening? You’ve paid someone to troll around town snapping pics?” My tone was bitter, but I couldn’t help it. He didn’t have any right to be checking up on me, to be keeping watch on what I was doing or who I was doing it with. He’d lost his chance at dating me... No, he didn’t lose it. He burned it to the dang ground.

  “Stop, stop.” He tilted his head back, closing his eyes for a second, and then he straightened his posture, eyes opening and gaze focusing on me. His mouth was drawn into a sad line, but not quite a frown. His eyes were stormy, unsettled. Something about him in those seconds drew me in, like he needed a lighthouse, or he was going to crash into shore. “I don’t have anyone following you around. Buddies of mine overheard Aiden making reservations for tonight at the Mediterranean place near the theater. Two people, corne
r booth. Not that he needed reservations for a damn Wednesday in River fucking Valley. It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together.”

  “He could have been making dinner plans with his mom for all you knew. I don’t buy it.” I leaned against the open door, shoving hands into my jeans and starring daggers at him.

  Drake relented, a near-smile threatening to chase the near-frown away. “Dax and Brad aren’t exactly shy. They might have teased the truth out of Aiden. It’s not every day that Castleton High’s very own Black Superman picks a Lois Lane.”

  “He didn’t pick me, Drake. I’m not a thing. I’m a person. We decided, together, to go on a date. And it’s harmless.”

  “Tell that to Superman.” Drake shrugged, shoving his hands into his own pockets and mirroring my body language. “He started liking you back when I was paying him. Remember that? When he accepted money to be your friend?”

  “Oh, I remember.” The words dripped like bitter pills from my lips. “And I remember there were two villains in that game. You and him. And of the two? You were freaking worse, Drake. Don’t forget that.”

  “Say it.” The two words startled me. They were clipped and resigned and unexpected.

  Say. It.

  Say what? What else was there to say?

  “What do you want from me, Drake?” I stood away from the door now, hands pulled from my pockets and fingers stretched toward him as I pleaded with him to tell me the words, to tell me what he needed to hear to get out of my house and just leave me alone. Forever.

  “Say that I’m the worst villain. Say that you never want to see me again. Say that I’m unforgivable and unworthy.” He rattled off the sentences so quickly, with so much belief behind them, that sadness rocketed through my chest, replacing the anger and desire for him to disappear.

  I clamped my lips together, heart racing. Eyes wide.

  He was my personal villain right now.

  The first guy I’d really exposed myself to, emotionally and physically.

  And he’d broken faith.

  But he wasn’t the worst in the world.

  I’d seen the boy beneath the bravado.

  Seen the pain in his history.

  He wasn’t unforgivable. No one was.

  “Say it, Tarryn. And I’m gone. I won’t text you anymore. I won’t call. I won’t deliver files to your parents just so I can get a glimpse at your face.”

  “I’d like you to leave now, Drake.”

  We stood frozen for precious moments, our bodies seeming to subconsciously lean towards one another, and then, as if a clock had chimed the hour and thawed his body, Drake walked towards the open door... and where I stood.

  He paused beside me, our bodies perpendicular to one another as he faced the front doorway, and I faced the living room. He didn’t look at me, and I refused to look at him now.

  I stared past him, finding a small crack in the living room wall that my dad kept promising to fix. I poured all my feelings into that flaw, filling it up past the point of overflowing.

  “You didn’t say the words you know.” Drake’s voice floated to me. “Giving a guy like me hope... you can’t take that back.”

  And then he walked away, exiting the house and pulling the door closed behind him.

  My knees wobbled.

  My heart was still racing.

  And a stupid tear fell down my stupid cheek.

  *

  “Nice to see you again, Mister and Misses Monroe.” Aiden leaned forward and shook my dad’s hand. He went to shake my mom’s too, but she pulled him into a quick hug instead.

  “Such a nice, good looking boy!” She gave him a squeeze and then let go.

  Aiden looked uncomfortable, heat rising in his cheeks and sweat beginning to bead on his forehead.

  “Okay, let’s leave the kids alone, Tish.” Dad cupped a hand over mom’s elbow and tugged her into the living room. They both sat, acting like they were really reading books instead of listening to whatever Aiden and I would say next.

  It pained me, though it was ridiculous.

  It made me think of them peeking out the windows, hiding behind the curtains, to spy on me and Drake.

  “Hurry,” I shooed Aiden towards the door, “we can make our escape before they realize their books are upside down.”

  I heard laughter behind us as we rushed outside, closing the front door against the duo of nosey, if well-meaning, parents.

  “I like your parents.” Aiden smiled at me, shallow dimples making an appearance and beautiful white teeth blinking at me from between curved lips.

  “They’re okay I guess.” Though my words were neutral, I couldn’t suppress the smile that spread my mouth ear-to-ear. “They didn’t used to be so carefree though. Before we moved here, they actually fought a lot.”

  “What changed,” He quirked an eyebrow.

  “My paternal grandmother isn’t here,” I laughed out. “I love her, but she tends to pit my dad against my mom. It doesn’t help that he thinks the sun rises and sets on my grandmother. They’ve got an oh-so-slight Oedipus thing going on.”

  Aiden cringed. “I don’t know my dad’s side of the family all that well, but I can’t imagine having a thing for my grandmother. Her wrinkles have wrinkles.”

  “It’s not sexual, dummy.” I punched him gently on the shoulder. “He’s just a momma’s boy is all.”

  “Well, don’t use a Freudian theory about sexual arousal towards a parent as an example then.” Aiden shuddered dramatically and we both laughed loudly, the sound of us floating in the evening air like fireflies waiting for nightfall so they can blink in delight.

  “Come on, we’ll miss our reservation.” I walked ahead of him, realizing, not for the first time, that part of what I’d liked about Drake when I’d first moved was Aiden’s doing. He might have been Drake’s voice box, but the words were sometimes his own. He was smart, funny. Tonight, might be nice after all.

  It took me a while to realize Aiden wasn’t following me to his car.

  I turned around, smile not faltering. I was now determined to have a good, no great, night.

  “Hey,” Aiden looked uncomfortable, dimples gone and eyes tight, “how’d you know I made reservations?”

  “Well,” I bit my lower lip, “I mean it makes sense, right?”

  “Not really. Not in River Valley on a Wednesday right before Spring Break when most families and kids are leaving town to have fun. I mean, you must have noticed it’s like the great exodus right now? Half the high school’s already gone.”

  “Yeah, I guess I noticed.” It was my turn to shift, uneasy and feeling bad that I was going to have to be honest. “Drake stopped by earlier. Had some files from his father to give my dad.”

  “And he knew we were going on a date...” Aiden sighed. “He knew because his friends basically cornered me at Baba Ghanouj until I told them I was making reservations for a date.”

  “Drake said it was a big deal for...” I hesitated.

  “For what?”

  “For Black Superman to pick his Lois Lane.”

  “You know, a long damn time ago, Drake and I actually kind of liked each other. I didn’t even care that he called me Black Superman. I called him Lex Luthor right back, teased that all he needed was a buzz cut to fit the bill.”

  “What happened?” I reached my hand out and waved him closer. We could talk and walk, moving might get rid of some of the tension.

  “What always gets between two guys?”

  “A girl,” I nodded, not surprised in the least that Drake had parted ways with a ‘friend’ over a girl.

  “Yeah...”

  6.

  T A R R Y N

  Aiden’s story…

  Screw the reservation.

  Screw the movie.

  Let’s talk like we did at the lake.

  “After the lake, Drake wrote you the excuse about the ex-girlfriend who broke my heart and I got fucked up at the party because I started thinking about her. He had to tell me wha
t happened obviously, in case you asked me in person what my problem was.”

  “I remember,” I nodded. As if I could ever forget any of those Cyrano de Bergerac-style communications.

  “It wasn’t just a story to explain a drunk Drake texting you like an idiot.” Aiden took my hand as we navigated the bumpy sidewalk, shoving his other hand in his pocket casually. “It happened. And Drake was the other guy.”

  “God, I’m sorry.” A lump formed in my throat. Drake had made a career out of hurting other people.

  “I’m not,” Aiden shook his head. “She didn’t like me the way that I liked her. She couldn’t have, or she wouldn’t have had sex with him. It was like he thought he was doing me a favor—proving that she was just like any other girl. That she’d cheat and hurt me. He just sped up the process to make it hurt less.”

  Aiden lapsed into silence, and we walked a block before I filled the quiet.

  “But it didn’t hurt less, did it?”

  “No. It’s like... it’s like he’s always doing the exact wrong thing for the right, if twisted reasons. Even this Tabitha shit. I understand the gist of what happened, that he was trying to keep the pictures from getting out. Hell, Tabitha talked about it to anyone who’d listen the day she messaged them to the whole damn school. He wanted to stop that, but—”

  “But he did it in the exact wrong way,” I interjected.

  “Yeah, exactly. I don’t hate him anymore; I just feel sorry for him.” Aiden pulled us to a stop. We’d walked in a giant square, coming to a stop in front of my house again.

  “Drake would hate knowing you pity him.”

  “Yeah, well. I’m not going to tell him as much.” He let go of my hand, and my palm was clammy. I swiped it down my jeans, trying not to be obvious. He was in another place though, mind wandering through memories.

  “Can I ask you something?” I bit my lower lip, worrying it gently as I formed my question.

  “Anything.”

  “If he did that to you, and you disliked him so much, why would you agree to help him with me? Why would you take money from him?”