Page 49 of The Secret Girl (Adamson All-Boys Academy 1)
Now, I don't belong in Connecticut … and I don't belong in California either.
“It's …” I start, and Monica cocks one, perfect curved brow at me. A sour taste coats my tongue, and I decide it's just not worth it to say anything. What's the point. Exhaling, I force myself to breathe past the disappointment, and put a smile on my face. “Cody.” I turn to my boyfriend, the guy I had a childhood crush on for years, and all I feel is sad. “Can I borrow your Jeep?”
“My Jeep?” he repeats, glancing over at Monica. They look at each other like some secret, silent communication is going on between them. Cody glances back at me with his pale blue eyes, and throws out a grin that he probably thinks is panty-dropping. It's more like wedgie-inducing. It just makes me cringe. “We were thinking of watching a movie, and then hopping in the pool for a little midnight swim. You don't want to join us?”
Join us? I think, looking between the two of them and not liking what I'm sensing, what I've been sensing since just a few weeks after Dad and I moved.
“I just need to … go visit my aunt,” I lie, feeling this sweaty, itchy sensation in my palms. All I want to do is get the hell out of there.
“Will you be back?” Cody asks, passing over his keys, but I just shrug. Will I? I have no idea.
I turn and take off for the front door, heading down the steps, and hopping into Cody's shitty old red Jeep Wrangler. The engine kicks back at me a few times before it finally turns over, and I peel down the gravel drive with rocks flying.
Santa Cruz isn't exactly a big city, so there's not a lot open late, but I head over to the boardwalk. They're having some special late-night competition at the arcade, so it's open several hours later than usual. Once I park the car and weave through the crowds, I buy myself a corn dog and sit on one of the horses at the carousel. It's closed for maintenance, but the lights are still on. Two horses over, there's a couple making out on one of the benches. Not long after, they get up and run off holding hands and laughing, like they’re off for somewhere more private.
“Lucky bastards,” I murmur, my mind briefly drifting back to Spencer. The way he kisses is … criminal. His mouth is hot, and his hands … I wonder what they'd fall like if they slid up my waist to cup my breasts. “Don't think about Spencer,” I whisper, taking a huge bite of my corn dog and closing my eyes. As soon as my lashes flutter closed, I try to imagine one of my hot and heavy moments with Cody. Instead, all I can see is the clumsy way he groped me, and how he smells like suntan oil all the time. “Fuck.” My eyes open back up, and I find myself staring at the haunted house. Cody and Monica are screwing, aren't they? I'm no idiot; I can see it plain as day.
Tears prick my eyes, and I lean my forehead against the gold pole.
“Why the long face?” a pair of voices ask in unison, and I jump, spinning around in the saddle to find the twins standing on either side of the faux horse's rump. “It's your birthday, isn't it, Chuck?” they repeat, leaning in and grinning at me. They each have one hand on their hip, and they're dressed in loose jean shorts, and red tanks, the rose tattoos on their shoulders bright and beautiful under the sparkling lights of the carousel.
My eyes fill with tears, and even though I sniff hard and try to hold them back, I end up crying. Just a little.
The twins exchange a look, and step forward, one on either side of me.
“Are you crying, Chuck?” Tobias asks, reaching out and brushing one of the tears from my cheek, his green eyes dark with concern. He leans in so close that when he blinks, I swear his eyelashes brush my forehead.
“I think my best friend is fucking my boyfriend,” I say, and then sigh, reaching up to brush the tears from my face. Tobias leans back and studies me while Micah crosses his arms over his broad chest. “That, and they both forgot my birthday.”
The two boys look at each other, and it occurs to me suddenly that … we're not in Connecticut. We're in California. What the hell are they doing here?!
“Um, what are you two doing here?” I ask, and they both turn to look at me.
“Our mother is the dean of the university,” they tell me, shrugging their shoulders in unison. “She wanted us here for break.” They both blink big, beautiful eyes at me before cocking their heads. “How do you think your father got scouted out for the position at Adamson?”
