Excerpt Going Under
I watched a cigarette butt fly
out of the new guy’s driver’s side window, then his door swung open in front of
me, preventing my escape. He stepped out of his truck, looked down at me and
grinned as he said, “Pardon me, Princess. I didn’t mean to block your way.”
His voice was velvety smooth, but
I didn’t mistake it’s coolness as his tone conveyed his contempt for me. His
unmistakable dislike of me immediately raised my hellcat flag because he had
nothing to base his aversion on since he didn’t know me.
This was our first time face to
face and up close. The other times I saw him was when I stole a few glances
during cheerleading practice over the last two weeks during the times I was
certain Forbes wasn’t watching me.
I realized he was so much more
handsome than I originally thought now that his face mask wasn’t obstructing my
view. His hair was as black as I expected, and spikey, and his pale blue eyes
were piercing. The contrast of their paleness against his dark hair was almost
shocking and I had to force myself to not become lost.
I was angry with him for making
assumptions about me, but I was furious with myself for finding him so
captivating. I tasted my bitter reaction as it formed on my tongue, but couldn’t
stop myself from blurting out, “Asshole.”
He placed his hand over the left
side of his chest where his heart would be and said, “I felt that straight
through my heart. That’s definitely going to leave a mark.”
I watched him shut his door while
he waited for my counterattack and I pushed past him as I said, “Screw you and
my name is not Princess. It’s Claire, so if you’re going to insult me, at least
have the decency to get my name right.”
“Hmm, I think I’ll stick with
Princess. It seems to suit you better,” he said to my back as I walked away.
I couldn’t be certain there
weren’t flames coming off the heels of my boots as I practically ran away, but
Payton managed to catch up with me and said, “I’m totally disgusted by you,
Claire.”
“And why would that be?” I almost
yelled.
“That was one of the best
displays of underthinking I’ve ever seen. He bested you and I know I taught you
better than that. You basically rolled over. How can I call you my best friend
when you caved so easily? And by the way, you’ve got something on your ass.”
I spun around to look at the back
of my dress as I pulled the skirt part around to look and said, “What is it?”
“Hot New Guy’s eyes.” She died
out laughing and said, “Sorry, Claire, but you walked right into that one.”
I narrowed my eyes and pursed my
lips as I said, “Maybe you’re the bigger asshole of the two of you. You should
definitely be a couple.”
“That lacked creativity and it’s
insulting to me as your slander master. We have to work on your comebacks
because you are seriously letting me down,” she said, then added, “I wish you
could see your face right now. Whatever he just did to you has you clueless.
You can’t decide if you should be pissed off at him or hot for him.”
I turned to look at this crazy
person I called a bestie standing next to me. “I’m jealous of whatever are you
smoking because it has you completely reality challenged.”
“He got it all wrong when he
called you Princess. He should have called you Queen of Denial because you’ll
never admit what’s going on here,” she accused.
It was just like Payton to draw a
conclusion with no real evidence to support her theory. “I have no idea what
kind of nonsense you’re talking about.”
“I hope he got plenty of rest
last night because his legs are gonna be really tired after he runs through
your mind all day,” she laughed and joked, making me livid.
“You must have taken your
sleeping pill this morning instead of last night because you are dreaming.”
“When you look back on this
moment months from now, don’t forget the one word I’m about to say to you,
Claire Deveraux. Foreplay.”
