Shannon Stults

Chapter 1

“Come on, Bentley. You’re telling me you didn’t do anything over winter break?” Aubrey stared at me as she leaned back against the blue metal of her closed locker, her arms crossed in front of her.

I shrugged. “Dad had to get ready for the new soccer season. And Mom stayed in the basement writing most of the time, which means I was on babysitting duty.”

“Boring. You’d think with all the money your mom makes on her health and fitness books she’d take the time to enjoy it every once in a while.”

“It’s not so bad. My mom already travels so much for work anyway. She likes to relax at home when she can.” I grabbed the chemistry book from my locker and shoved it in the small messenger bag hanging from my shoulder. “What about you? Do anything exciting?”

She picked at the dark red polish on her nails. “Oh, you know. Christmas up north with my mom’s family, then New Year’s with the rest of the Miller clan in LA.”

I tried not to be jealous as she described her winter break outside our small town of Oakcrest, South Carolina.

“Oh, and did I mention my parents let me go skiing with Beth and her family at their condo for a week?” she added, perking up for the first time all morning.

“You finally told your parents about your girlfriend, and they let you stay at her place?”

Despite Aubrey’s painfully tight skinny jeans, low-cut purple top, and face full of dark, smoky makeup, her parents were uber religious and conservative. They’d met each other on a Christian dating website, went to church every Sunday, and made Aubrey pray with them each night before bed. A complete stranger would be terrified to come out to Aubrey’s parents.

Aubrey laughed. “Please. Do you honestly think I’d still be allowed out of the house if my parents found out?” She shook her head. “As far as they know, Beth is a friend.” She ruffled her short, black hair.

“Did you two,” I leaned in closer, lowering my voice to a whisper, “do anything?”

“Your sexual innocence is so amusing.”

“What would you know about it?” It wasn’t like I was some doe-eyed little girl. I was seventeen. I’d had my fair share of heavy make-out sessions. Well, fair-ish.

“Relax. Nothing happened. She slept in her bed, and I had an air mattress on the floor. We’re still taking things slow.”

I wasn’t sure how staying a week at her girlfriend’s vacation house was considered taking it slow. Then again, I knew a few people who probably thought a sexy sleepover was moving at an agonizing snail’s pace.

I took a step back and shut my locker door with a clang, internally groaning at the guy with green eyes watching me.

“What’s up, Bentley?”

Cooper Bradshaw leaned against the locker next to mine, mirroring Aubrey’s posture to a T. His dirty blond hair was a few inches shorter than it’d been before the break, and his eyes shone with the type of renewed energy that usually resulted from a much-needed break from the oppression of high school. In his case, that break most likely involved copious amounts of partying and drinking at the University of South Carolina campus.

There was an ease to him, a carelessness I’d never been able to understand and I envied sometimes. And then there was his charm that made most girls swoon. Crossed in front of him, his arms pulled his red sweatshirt tightly across his broad shoulders.

I had no idea how long he’d been there, but the grin spreading across his face as his gaze shifted between me and Aubrey told me he’d at least heard some of our conversation.

“Miller.” He gave Aubrey a wink and a once-over. “Always a pleasure.”

I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes. I figured he’d assume his charm would work on our school’s partially out lesbian. He must not have gotten the memo there were, in fact, women in the world even he couldn’t attract.

“Bradshaw.” Aubrey didn’t smile back, offering him zero chance to interpret her greeting as flirtation. The last thing she needed was him crying “bi” to get one more girl’s attention.

“What do you want?” I asked before either of them could say more.

He straightened, the grin on his face dimming some as he looked at me. “Lovely to see you too. I’m fine today, thanks for asking. Why yes, I did have fun over the holidays. How was your break?”

I couldn’t remember the last time Cooper Bradshaw sought me out for conversation, casual or otherwise. Which made me almost certain he had more than catching up on his mind. I stared at him without saying a word. I didn’t have to wait long.

“I need a favor,” he finally said, the false pleasantries forgotten.

“I’ll see you later, Aubrey,” I told her before turning on my heel and heading down the hall.

As expected, Cooper was at my side. “Does this favor involve me tutoring you or something?” That was the kind of favor I was used to. In the last two years, I’d somehow become the go-to person when anyone needed help with their grades, especially when it came to the school’s varsity athletes. Probably because of all the times I’d helped my older brothers and their friends before they graduated. And because I was currently tied for the top spot in our junior class.

Cooper laughed, throwing his arm over my shoulders. “You insult me, Bentley. You and I both know we have the same GPA.”

I grimaced at his arm on my shoulders and at the truth in his words. It so happened Cooper was the guy I was tied with GPA-wise.

By some cruel joke, he’d been gifted with looks, athleticism, and brains. It was unfair, to say the least. A trifecta like that, he was an instant hit with the female student population, as well as a few guys, no doubt. The rest of the males in our class were torn between jealousy and hero worship. He was literally everything they wished they could be: nerd or jock. He was the complete package, and he knew it.

I shrugged his arm off my shoulders, turning sharply around a corner and down another hall.

“Hey, Cooper,” Ashley Morales practically purred as she and half of the cheerleading squad passed us, making her interest blatantly clear. Not that it mattered.

Sure, Cooper was a flirt. But it was universally understood—at least at Oakcrest High—Cooper Bradshaw only dated college girls.

Only his version of dating consisted of partying all night with a girl, sleeping with her, and the next morning, promptly forgetting about her existence. As far as I knew, Cooper had never had a serious relationship in his life.

“Ladies,” he said, giving them an appreciative glance, but nothing more.

A few of them giggled, and I shook my head at how sad it all was. “What do you want?”

He grinned. “Have I mentioned how much I like your hair?” He reached out, twirling one of the dark brown and hot-pink curls around his finger. “It looks incredibly badass.”

I slapped his hand away. “I’m bored, Coop. Get to the point.”

“You may have heard about what happened to my car…”

Here we go. “You mean when you were having so much fun over the break you failed to notice the large telephone pole you were swerving into? Pretty sure the whole school heard about that one.”

It had been the biggest piece of gossip to blow up my phone all break. Everyone was talking about New Year’s Eve when Cooper partied a little too hard at the University of South Carolina and totaled his precious Maserati.

“So, when do you get a new one?”

“If my dad gets his way, never. He says I need to learn some responsibility.”

“Gasp. Cooper Bradshaw learn to be responsible? The horror.”

He shook his head like he was completely mystified by the thought. Cooper had never been one to earn anything. His parents were loaded, and for as long as I could remember, everything in his life had been handed to him on a platter.

“What does this have to do with me?” I asked. The first bell of the morning hadn’t even rung yet, and already it felt like this day would last forever.

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I need a ride to school.” He rushed on when I opened my mouth to object. “It’s only until my dad comes to his senses. I had to ride the bus this morning, and it was the worst hour of my life. Even you don’t have the heart to make me suffer through that again.”

Wanna bet? “Why me?” We turned another corner into the science hall.

“Because you live next door,” he answered like it should be obvious.

“Surely there’s someone else you’d rather ride with?”

He shook his head. “Not who’s willing to get up early enough to come to our neck of the woods every morning.”

“I don’t think so.” Truth be told, he was probably the last person I wanted to see first thing in the morning. I much preferred our current arrangement where we tried to ignore the fact only thirty yards separated our houses.

“Come on, please. I promised Liam I’d give him a ride, and now that the Maserati is out of commission, he’s stuck taking a bus too.”

“Liam who?” There was only one Liam I knew, and considering he lived several hours away, I was pretty sure it wasn’t him.

He gave me a look, a long crease forming between his eyebrows. “Liam Haynes.”

A soft thud echoed through the hall as I tripped over my own foot. I’d managed to right myself midstride, but not before drawing the attention of several people in the hall.

“You okay?” he asked through tight lips as he clearly tried not to laugh.

“I’m fine,” I said, shaking it off. “Why would Liam Haynes need a ride? I thought he was in Charleston.”

“He came back at the end of the break. He and his mom moved in with his Aunt Claire. He’s still unpacking and getting settled in. Tomorrow’s his first day at school.”

My stomach somersaulted. Liam Haynes was back in town. And even better, he needed me to give him a ride.

Cooper batted his long eyelashes, his bottom lip poking out slightly. “It’ll be like old times. The three of us, hanging out. Please,” he added softly.

“Fine.” I stopped at the chemistry lab door. “I’ll give you guys a ride, but only for tomorrow. Then you can sucker someone else into being your chauffeur.”

The warning bell for first period rang, and he grinned. “You’re amazing, you know that?” He grabbed me by the shoulders and planted an obnoxiously loud peck on my cheek.

I groaned, and he took off down the hall without a look back. “That may have been cute when we were five,” I yelled after him, wiping at my cheek. “Now it’s just gross.”

I heard him laughing as he reached the end of the hall and turned the corner.

***

“I’m home.” My heavy bag hit the wood floor of our foyer with a loud, echoing thunk as I rolled the stress and tension of the first day back at school from my shoulders.

“Benny.” My favorite three-year-old came racing down the hall and slammed into my legs, so I threw her up in the air to a fit of giggles before settling her on my hip. Two moderately deep voices yelled at each other off in the distance.

“What are they fighting about now?” I asked Addie, hugging her tight and spinning us around.

She screamed in delight, her dark pigtails bouncing high on her head. “PlayStation.” What else was new?

Much to her dismay, I set my baby sister on her feet and made my way into the oversize den at the back of the house. Noah and Caden stood in the middle, wrestling over a controller. Noah’s shirt was wrinkled and his face red, making it clear they’d been at it for a while. From the looks of it, Caden was winning, probably due to the two years and four inches he had on our twelve-year-old brother.

I cleared my throat, and the two pulled apart. Caden fixed his glasses hanging askew over his nose, and Noah pointed a finger at him. “He’s been playing for half an hour, and he won’t let me have a turn.”

“The idiot turned the game off before I could save it. I was on my highest—”

“Homework.”

Noah’s mouth fell open. “But I didn’t get a turn on the PlayStation.”

I shook my head. “Homework, or you won’t have a PlayStation anymore.”

They looked at each other before marching with heavy stomps out of the den. Addie grinned at my side. “Good job, Benny.”

“Thanks. Where’s Mom?”

“Office.” She held up one pudgy little finger. “Said she had one more chapter,” she explained, the Rs of the last two words sounding more like Ws.

One more chapter. Meaning she’d be holed up writing in her basement office for another few hours at least. It also meant I was left in charge of my three siblings until then, not to mention the mountain of homework my teachers had piled on me my first day back.

I studied Addie. “Want to make cookies?”

“Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh,” she squealed, nodding frantically as she jumped up and down.

“Good. I’ll race you to the kitchen.” She took off without hesitation.

An hour and a half later, I stood at the kitchen island while I carefully moved yet another dozen double-chocolate cookies from the pan to the cooling racks. Addie had abandoned me as soon as the first batch came out, waiting only long enough for one to cool before she snatched it from the rack, catapulted from her stepstool, and shot out of the kitchen. From the sounds of her innocently out-of-tune singing filling the house, she was now in the den, watching one of her favorite TV shows.

Noah and Caden had left their homework on the kitchen table for inspection before running off with their own plate of cookies. They were likely kicking the soccer ball around out back or watching TV up in their room, which left me alone to finish up the cookies and do the dishes.

“Hey, honey.”

I looked up from the mixing bowl I was rinsing off in the island sink. Mom came in wearing cotton shorts and a thin, black sweater. She raised her arms up over her head in her usual postwriting stretch.

“Hey, Mom.” I smiled. “So Theo and Xander finally left this morning?”

My two older brothers had been staying with us over their break from Coastal Carolina University. Judging from the fully stocked fridge and the lack of dirty clothes strewn around the house, I assumed they packed up and headed back to Myrtle Beach to start their semester.

“Don’t sound so pleased. You know you miss them when they’re gone.”

“Them, sure. Their piles of stinky laundry, not so much.”

“Did you pick Samantha and Sebastian up from school today?” she asked, glancing out the window to the twins’ house across the cul-de-sac.

“Nah. Dr. Caldwell took the day off so she could take them to a movie after school. But I’m watching them tomorrow.”

Mom lifted her hands to her hair and pulled it from its messy bun, running her fingers through it a few times. Then she took in the dirty dishes and the several dozen cookies cooling on the counter behind me.

“Oh no. What’s wrong?”

I shrugged. “I’m fine.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Honey, you’re baking,” she said slowly. She fell onto one of the island’s barstools. “Tell me what happened.”

Curse my tendency for stress-baking. Ever since my obsession with Cupcake Wars back in sixth grade, I had a habit of turning to baked goods whenever something was wrong. Now anytime I got in the mood to bake, Mom felt the need to sit me down for a quick heart-to-heart.

“Do you remember Liam Haynes?”

“Of course. You, Cooper, and Liam were nearly inseparable all through middle school. Why?”

I put the large mixing bowl into the dishwasher. “He and his mom moved back into town over the break.”

“Really? In the middle of the year? I wonder why they’d do that.” She watched as I loaded dish after dish. “You nervous about seeing him again?”

“A little.” I hadn’t been able to think about anything else all day. “I don’t know if we’ll get along like we used to. What if he’s totally different from the kid I knew?”

She nodded. “A lot can change about a person in three years.”

“What if I’m not the same girl he was friends with? What if I’m not what he expects?” What if, after all this time, the girl I am now disappoints him?

“I guess you won’t know until you see him. Some friendships don’t last forever. But I promise, true friends stay close no matter how far or how long they’re apart.”

Mom grabbed a cookie from the counter and bit into it. “You two will get back in the swing of things. Give it time,” she said through a mouthful of cookie. She took another bite and stood. “These are amazing, by the way.”

“Thanks.” Mom smiled before she left the kitchen to go find Addie. With the dirty dishes sitting in the dishwasher, I grabbed some Tupperware containers from the cabinet and separated all the cookies evenly between them.

Mom was right. No need to stress about Liam. We were friends.

Once upon a time, I’d thought maybe there could be more.