Coming Home - M.J. O'Shea
Prologue
“Hey Butters, you dropped your books again!”
Lex looked up from the floor where he’d been hastily gathering his books and papers, hopefully before anyone noticed.
Damn, shit, hell. Too late.
It was Tallis Carrington and his dick squad.
“Aren’t you guys missing remedial math or something?”
Lex knew he was getting himself in more trouble but he’d never had much luck keeping his mouth shut.
“What’d you say, fat ass?”
He wasn’t sure what that particular goon’s name was. Bradley maybe. He looked like an under grown gorilla. Probably not quite that smart either. Wouldn’t want to insult the gorilla.
“Nothing,” he muttered.
“I think our well-fed little freshman friend called us stupid,” Carrington said, his aristocratic voice ringing out in the nearly empty hallway. “Not such a good plan, junior.”
Why does he have to be so damn beautiful?
Lex looked at the floor, hating himself for even thinking it. The last thing he needed was something else for the self-proclaimed king of Rock Bay high school and his loyal sycophants to torture him for. It wasn’t like he asked to have daydreams about making out with the biggest asshole on the face of the planet.
“Just leave me the hell alone. You don’t even know me.”
Lex held on to his books as hard as he could, trying not to slip on the newly waxed floor. His cheeks heated.
“Awww is little butterball James going to cry?”
“My name’s not James.”
“How come it says that on your ID card?” Carrington brandished Lex’s brand new freshman ID. “James A. Barry,” he read in a singsong voice.
Great. His parents would kill him if they had to pay to replace that thing. “Give it back please. My family doesn’t have a lot of money like yours does.”
Tallis Carrington laughed. “Oh, poor Jamie. Is that why you’re wearing the same thing you had on Monday?”
Lex gritted his teeth. He hated being called Jamie.
“You might want to ask yourself why you know what I was wearing on Monday.”
Lex knew that wasn’t the smartest accusation for him to make—at least not to a big jock who was a half second away from wiping the linoleum floor with his ass. It just slipped out.
The look of stunned anger on Carrington’s face was even worse than he thought it would be.
He used the momentary silence to reach up and snatch his ID card from frozen fingers and was about to make his escape when he found himself slammed cheek first against the air grate of the closest locker with Tallis Carrington’s hot breath against his neck.
Aw, shit, shit, shit. Trouble.
The teasing laughter was gone and in its place there was anger—seething anger that frightened the crap out of Lex.
“Listen you little fucker. You’re lucky my dad’s the damn mayor or I’d pound you to insensibility right here. I’m not a fag, you got that?”
His words came in angry heated whispers tinged with something wild and afraid, like he didn’t even want the possibility of that accusation to be released into the atmosphere or something.
What was his problem? Insinuating that a guy was gay was, like, the oldest insult in the book. Practically generic.
Lex nodded against the chill of the locker, hopefully saved by fact that Tallis didn’t want the word fag associated with him—oh and because the asshole’s father was a damn public hero. Whole town loved him. He’d probably threatened his jerk of a son within an inch of his life the last time he’d caused trouble, which from what Lex heard was fairly regularly.
“Get the fuck outta here Butters. I don’t want to hear another word from you this year.”
Lex squirmed out from under the big jock and escaped, making it to the front entrance of the school before he turned and gave Tallis Carrington and his friends a silent salute with his free middle finger.
Before they could come after him, he scrambled out the front doors and into his older sister’s car. While it had felt great at the moment, he realized that final little bit of retaliation would most likely mean he hadn’t seen the last of Carrington and his friends. He’d have to watch his back for the rest of the school year.
Great. Assholes.
Chapter One
It was raining. Again. It was the kind of rain that fell in large wet drops and splashed noisily on the windshield. Rain that seemed to seep all the way through the glass to drown Tallis Carrington’s skin until even his bones were cold.
It had been raining like that the whole damn four-hour drive from Seattle back to the last place he