Dating: On the Rebound

by Stephanie Street

  Copyright © 2019 by Stephanie Street

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Image(s) © DepositPhotos – alexhalay & torsak

  Cover Design © Designed with Grace

  Created with Vellum

  This book is dedicated to victims of bullying.

  Contents

  Invitation

  1. Tierney

  2. Noah

  3. Tierney

  4. Noah

  5. Tierney

  6. Noah

  7. Tierney

  8. Noah

  9. Tierney

  10. Noah

  11. Noah

  12. Tierney

  13. Tierney

  14. Noah

  15. Tierney

  16. Tierney

  17. Tierney

  18. Noah

  19. Tierney

  20. Noah

  21. Tierney

  22. Noah

  23. Tierney

  24. Noah

  Author’s Note

  Find Stephanie Street

  Also by Stephanie Street

  Invitation

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  1

  Tierney

  “Ready for your first day of high school?” I asked my step-sister, Hannah, while driving to school.

  Hannah grinned from the passenger seat. “You know it. How about you? Are you ready for your last first day of high school?”

  It was a good question, but the truth was I was more ready for the last day of high school nine months from now than I was for today.

  I shrugged. “Just another first day.”

  Hannah dropped her jaw and gaped. “The first day of your senior year!”

  Obviously, Hannah hadn’t been disillusioned by the establishment yet. And by establishment, I mean the high school hierarchy. Although Eastridge Heights wasn’t as bad as my old school, it was bad enough and some days flying under the radar was work, but I’d perfected my plan and most of the time the eyes of my fellow students just glazed over me like I wasn’t even there.

  Driving a freaking Lexus to school was not part of my perfect plan, but what was I supposed to say when my stepdad, Doug, bought before the start of the last school year right after he married my mom and moved us from our dumpy apartment in the city into his mansion in the country. The car was pretentious and drew too much attention, but it ran well and had only required monthly oil changes as far as maintenance went, which was a vast change from the hunk of junk Mom and I shared before she married Hannah’s dad. I should be grateful. And I was. I just didn’t love the looks I got when I pulled into the school parking lot driving a sixty thousand dollar car. Those looks weren’t easy to hide from and I was all about hiding.

  “I wish I was going into my senior year. You can drive, go to parties,” she paused, her brows jumping up and down. “Date.”

  I rolled my eyes and shook my head. My recently acquired sister had gone completely boy crazy over the summer. “You don’t have to be a senior to date, Hannah.”

  Hannah made a face. “Yeah, if I wanna date freshman.”

  I had to laugh at her tone, like the idea of dating a freshman was about as appealing as stepping in dog doo. “You are a freshman,” I reminded her.

  “I know. But have you seen the guys in my grade? They’re just barely coming out this side of puberty.” She scrunched up her nose in disgust. “Cracking voices and zits. Not at all attractive. An older guy on the other hand? Now that, I’d be interested in.”

  Her words worried me. I knew all too well what it was like to be where she was right now, dying to be older and catch the attention of a cool older guy. I was also well acquainted with the heartache that kind of thinking could bring. But how to explain that to Hannah? I’d never shared my past with her. She didn’t know anything about my life, who I was before Mom and I came to live with her and her dad. And that was how I wanted it.

  I tried to warn her without raising suspicions. “Just be careful, Hannah. Older guys seem cool now, but mostly they are the same as the dweebs your age you already aren’t interested in. They’re just bigger and hurt you more when things go bad.” Oops. I might have said too much. I took my eyes off the road just long enough to shoot a glance at my sister. Her lips were turned down and a deep furrow marred her otherwise smooth forehead.

  “Tee-” she began, but I cut her off.

  “Look, just,” I searched for the right words and added an element of pep to my voice. “Just let things happen naturally. High school is supposed to be fun. Don’t let yourself get dragged down with pressure to be someone you’re not. When you’re ready for parties and boyfriends and all that other stuff, you’ll know.” I hoped I said it right. Hannah was so full of fun and laughter and light. I hated the thought of anything snuffing out the qualities that made her special. I’d have to keep my eye on the little sister who’d become my best friend despite our age difference.

  Hannah sat quietly until I pulled into the parking space I’d paid twenty dollars to the student council to use for the school year. Hannah and I had spent several hours last Saturday decorating it with spray painted emojis. She didn’t speak up again until we were making our way into the two-story building where we’d be spending most of our time for the next nine months.

  “What about you?” She nudged my arm with her elbow. “I never hear you talk about any boys you like.”

  “That’s because I don’t like any.” Even if I did like anyone, I would never admit it because nothing would come of it.

  “I don’t believe that. Anybody who reads as many romance novels as you has to like someone,” she said with all the confidence of a fifteen year old who knew everything.

  I shook my head with a laugh. “What does reading have to do with me liking someone or not?”

  The halls were crowded and noisy with students catching up after being away from each other all summer. Making friends hadn’t been a priority last year, so there wasn’t anyone waiting to find out about my summer vacation and for the first time in a long time, I was hit with a wave of loneliness. Thank goodness for Hannah. But Hannah was a freshman and since she’d lived here all her life, she had loads of friends. It was only a matter of time before she realized what a loser I was at this school. I just hoped we could still be friends when she did.

  Hannah sighed. “Nobody could read about romance as much as you do and not want a little action of their own.” Hannah wiggled her brows suggestively.

  I fought the urge to roll my eyes. “Just because I like to read romance doesn’t mean I want a boyfriend. I’m happy with my book boyfriends, thank you very much.” Book boyfriends were perfect, they hardly ever let you down and were always as hot as your imagination could make them. I’ve never had a less than spectacular looking book boyfriend.

  “Book boyfriends,” Hannah snorted. “Can a book boyfriend hold your hand? Take you on a date? Can he kiss you?” She raised her brow, but didn’t wait for my answer. “No, he can’t. Because he isn’t real. Have an awesome last first day, Tee,” she called over her shoulder before disappearing into the crowd, leaving me standing in the middle of the hallway getting jostled left and right by a sea of students who never seemed to notice I was there.

  And that was just how I wanted it.

  Wasn’t it?

&n
bsp; Sighing deeply, I trudged down the hall toward my first period AP Biology class. It was too late to go to my locker now. I’d have to wait to unload my backpack until afterwards.

  Without Hannah by my side I felt like I was in my own bubble, held captive in an invisible force field of my own making. It was my own fault. No, it was my own choice. I didn’t want them to see me. I didn’t want them to talk to me. I just wanted to get through the next nine months of my life completely unnoticed. I had plans, goals, and none of them required making friends with anyone at this school. All I had to do was keep my head down, keep writing, and before I knew it, I’d be on my way toward my goal of becoming a published author.

  I knew what it was like to be popular. I knew what it was like to have my every waking moment consumed by some guy who just wanted to hang out with me for the sake of status. I knew what it was like to have friends who only had your back as long as you were on top, but if you ever tumbled, or even stumbled, from that pedestal- they’d stab that same back so fast you’d never know what hit you.

  A broad shoulder bumped mine with enough force to almost knock me over.

  “Sorry!” A deep voice called over the noise.

  I glanced up and almost died on the spot as I caught sight of the face that went with the shoulder. Noah Jacobs. He barely paused as he hurried down the hall, just enough to cast a quick bone-melting smile of apology over his shoulder before disappearing around a corner ahead of me.

  Sweet mercy! If I was being honest, just to myself of course, I’d have to admit Hannah was right. There was no way a romantic like me could possibly not be crushing on someone. And that someone was Noah Jacobs. They called him Mr. Perfect and they weren’t kidding. And since I was on this honesty kick, I might as well admit all my book boyfriends since I’d seen him looked like Noah. No matter what the author described the hero to look like, in my mind, he had dark hair and looked like a Greek god.

  It didn’t matter, though. I wasn’t ever going to go out with Noah Jacobs. For one, he didn’t even know I existed. For two, he was already dating Trina Davis, Miss Perfect to his Mr. It was almost disgusting how perfect they both were. Perfect clothes. Perfect hair. Perfect friends. Perfect grades. Perfect life. They were just perfect for each other. And lastly, Noah was perfectly popular. He played basketball, hung out with the ‘in’ crowd, and he was hot. The boy was definitely at the top. And that made him enemy number one as far as I was concerned.

  It was fine. I just thought of Noah like all my other book boyfriends- unattainable. Good thing I’d gotten used to boyfriends existing only in my dreams. Because in my dreams was the only place anything would ever happen between Noah and me.

  AP Biology was packed with a bunch of juniors. I was a senior, but by the time I registered for classes last year AP Bio was full and the guidance counselor asked if I’d be okay going into Physics instead. She’d reassured me I wouldn’t be the only junior in the class and told me to let her know if it was too hard and she’d find me something else. I was certain after that first day, no matter if it took blood, sweat, or tears, I’d make Physics work because that was the only class I had with Noah.

  Goodness, I sounded obsessed even to my own internal ears. But, good grief, I was done the moment I looked into those aquamarine eyes. In fact, some of my best writing had been inspired by Mr. Perfect. Ha! Too bad he wasn’t Mr. Perfect for me. But then, nobody was. Maybe someday I’d be willing to risk my heart again, but not today and not any day soon.

  As was my habit, I walked to the back of the class and found a seat. Since I had no one to talk to and no homework to deal with yet, I pulled out the book I’d started reading the night before. I hated not finishing a book once I started, but Mom had snatched it right out of my hands at about eleven and told me to go to sleep like I wasn’t seventeen years old and able to figure out when I needed to go to sleep on my own. At least she’d left it on the counter downstairs before leaving for work this morning or I would have been pissed!

  I was going through a bit of a historical fiction phase after finding an entire bookcase filled with paperbacks at my grandma’s house over the summer. When I asked her if I could read them, she’d dug a cardboard box out of the garage and told me to take as many as I wanted. It took some work, but I managed to cram every last book inside that box and I’d been plowing through them ever since. Grandma called them bodice rippers, thick paperbacks with covers designed to make a streetwalker blush. The cover of this one was truly awful, a beautiful damsel in a torn silk dress that covered the essentials and nothing else. She was held by a bare-chested pirate wielding a sword, his lips a breath from her exposed neck, which was why I’d folded it back so no one could see it.

  I was a nerd and a bookworm, but usually nobody messed with me. The last thing I needed was for someone to notice the bodice ripping cover of my romance novel and tease me about it.

  The bell was seconds away from ringing when he walked in. I should have known. After all, he’d been in my Physics class last year.

  Usually, I got lost in my books and it took an act of God or my mother to pull me out of them, but Noah was a different story altogether. He was impossible to ignore.

  Through my lashes, I spied as Noah greeted a junior named Dustin Hart and introduced him to a tall guy with a pierced lip I’d never seen before. Keeping my head down, I stalked Noah with my eyes as he sat beside Dustin a few rows away from me and the new kid stuffed his too big body into a desk on the edge of the room a few rows in front of me.

  Mr. McGowan slid into the classroom just before the bell rang and said something about moving seats and lab partners. I tried to hold in a groan as small tendrils of anxiety began working their way through my body. I hated assigned seats almost as much as I hated group work.

  Mr. McGowan began going through the roll, taking attendance, when the door burst open and Piper Hines, one of the girls on the basketball team, came skidding into the room.

  “Miss Hines.” Mr. McGowan frowned. “Find a seat, Piper.”

  “Sorry, sir,” Piper mumbled, her face burning bright red as she found her way to her seat. I felt bad. I knew exactly what she was feeling, as though every eye was on her. I glanced around the room to see if that was true, but the only person still looking at Piper was the new guy. Curious, I watched him for a few seconds, the bar in his lip jumping up and down from his tongue messing with it inside his mouth. I anticipated his lips would be turned up in a smirk, he seemed the smirking type, but instead they were pulled into a frown as he watched Piper with concern filled eyes.

  Maybe it was the romance author in me, making a story where there wasn’t one, but I didn’t think so. Something was definitely going on between those two characters.

  While I’d been distracted keeping watch on Noah and spying on Piper and Mr. Mysterious, Mr. McGowan had begun pulling names from a glass bowl on his desk. As he did, each pair of lab partners stood and moved to the back of the room.

  Dang. This was happening. One of those names would be mine.

  “Noah Jacobs.”

  My breath caught.

  And someone in this room would be partners with Noah.

  Adrenaline pulsed through my body. Please, don’t be me. Please, don’t be me. I might have had a massive crush on Noah, but that didn’t mean I wanted anything to do with him.

  I watched, like it was in slow motion, as Mr. McGowan reached his hand into the clear glass fishbowl on his desk and pulled out a slip of paper with a name written on it. The name of the person who would sit beside Noah and be his lab partner for the whole semester.

  “Tierney Hiatt.”

  2

  Noah

  I glanced at Tierney just in time to see all the blood drain from her face. Her eyes darted to me and widened before the dark curtain of her hair fell, effectively keeping me from witnessing any further reaction. With a sigh, I stood, ready to move to the lab tables at the back of the classroom, but Tierney hadn’t moved a muscle. I debated if I should wait for her or
just pick a table on my own. She seemed disappointed having me as a lab partner which made me feel bad because I’d felt nothing but relief when her name was pulled out of Mr. McGowan’s fishbowl.

  Tierney was shy and usually had her nose stuck in a romance novel, but the girl was wicked smart. We’d had Physics together last year and while she hardly ever volunteered to answer questions in class, she always had the right answer if the teacher called on her.

  I wracked my brain trying to come up with encounters I’d had with Tierney in the past. Considering the way she reacted to being my lab partner, there must have been something negative, but I couldn’t think of anything. Except maybe this morning when I bumped into her in the hall. But I’d apologized for that and given her my most charming smile. It worked on my mom every time, even when I forgot to pick up the laundry from my bedroom floor, which other than not making my bed was her biggest pet peeve.

  Tierney finally set her book face down on top of the pile of notebooks on her desk and stood. She hiked her backpack onto her shoulder and hugged the books to her chest before making her way over to me. I gave that smile another shot.

  “Hey, Tierney.” She flinched like I’d struck her.

  What the hell?

  Barely restraining the urge to sigh, I took stock of the available tables. There were only two. Other than Piper and Drew, who were in some kind of stand off, we were the last pair to find our table. I had a choice, the middle or the back. I took the middle and left the back table for Piper and Drew. I’d known Piper and her twin brother, Luke, for most of my life and I’d never seen Piper take to anyone the way she had Drew. But right then, she looked ready to combust, from anger or something else. Either way, she looked ready to take Drew’s head off. As for Drew, his grin was so wide, he looked more like the Cheshire Cat than a badass with a lip ring and tattoos.