Total pages in book: 215
Estimated words: 199344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 997(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 997(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
12
Noah
It’s just after ten when I finally show up at the East View High party just outside of town. I wasn’t planning to come tonight, but Liam hasn’t quit bugging me about it. The second he told the world his parents were out for the weekend, he started planning the first party of the semester, and naturally, every last person in East View showed up.
I’ve spent most of the night chilling with a few of the guys from St. Michael’s, but since moving schools, they haven’t been able to hold my attention, not since coming back here to this place. I’ve been here a week, and to say it’s been a dumpster fire is an understatement.
Tuesday with the rumors about Linc and Shannan’s mob attack on Zoey were a tipping point. It threw me right over the edge, and the guilt for not protecting Zoey like I always promised I would has eaten at me all week. The school has turned her into an outcast, and while she’s held her head high and suffered through it all week, I haven’t been man enough to step up and put a stop to it. If I did, I’d have to admit that I actually care.
Fuck. The school counselor has been earning her paycheck this week.
Shannan has gone out of her way to make life hell for Zoey, but despite how Zoey just sits there and takes it, I know that she’ll eventually bite back, and when she does, Shannan better run. Zoey has always had a backbone, but she keeps it hidden like a secret weapon.
I don’t get what Shannan’s angle is though. Is she trying to impress me or get my approval? Because it’s not working. If anything, it’s just showing me how fucking awful she is. Sure, I might have thought about fucking her when I first got to East View, but now that she’s messing with Zoey, there is no way in hell I’ll touch her. Liam can have her.
I don’t even know why I care so much. Maybe it’s out of habit or a way to protect Linc’s wishes. He would hate the way things are between us now, and that’s on me. He’d hate it all. My relationship with Mom, my relationship with Zoey, the way I’ve let down Hazel.
Fuck, he’d hate that most of all. I need to make it up to Hazel.
Zoey was right, Linc would be so ashamed of me, and that thought kills me. Zoey’s been right about a lot of things. How I’m too scared of my own feelings, how I’m a fucking coward. I hate how easily she can read me. When I first got here, I thought the ball was in my court, that I was the one who could see right through her, read her so perfectly, but it’s been the opposite. She’s becoming a mystery to me, while after three long years, she still knows me better than I know myself, no matter how hard I try to push her away and hide it. She makes me vulnerable.
Trying to push the thoughts of Zoey aside, I walk up the pathway toward Liam’s home. It’s pretty big for East View standards. His family clearly has money, but not the type of money they can just easily throw around and show off. Most families are like that around here. Middle to upper class. It’s why the majority of the kids around here drive expensive cars. If it weren’t for the over-the-top fees of the local private schools, I can guarantee most of these assholes would have been enrolled there instead.
My family is no different. Well, it used to be before Linc died. My father left us after that, and the guilt eats at him, so he overcompensates by throwing money at me to avoid having to deal with the fact that he’s a piece of shit. I’m not complaining though, that money bought my Camaro and paid for the killer matte black paint job. It also kept me out of jail, so there’s that.
People have spilled out on the front lawn of Liam’s property as the music blares from inside. There are kids sitting on the roof just outside the bedroom windows and spilled drinks from one end of the front porch to the other.
Clearly this party has been in full swing for a while, and I’m surprised it hasn’t been shut down yet. Though from my experience, the cops tend to let us party as long as our noise is contained and we’re not bothering anyone. They only need to worry when we’re not partying, and everyone is out on their own.
People I don’t recognize say hello, and when I stop for a second, someone shoves a beer into my hand. I talk with one of the guys on the team, pretty sure his name is Jason something . . . Maybe Harding? I don’t know, but all that matters is he’s a good player, and so far, he hasn’t let me down in training. I haven’t had a chance to get to know him yet, and from what I can tell, he seems to have his head screwed on, apart from the fact that he just fucked one of the cheerleaders in the bushes outside Liam’s home.