wouldn’t hear. I was on the opposite side of the house, the distance between us too big.
The bottle of liquor, sitting patiently on my nightstand, called to me.
I wasn’t an addict, but I needed it. Tonight, at least.
Grabbing the bottle, I sank into my couch and watched the shadow dancing over my walls in my dark room. I took a long swig of the bottle, feeling the sweet burn in my throat.
Rage… Hate… I breathed it in.
My head swam, the air was thick and hot.
To everyone, I was Maddox Coulter – the golden boy, star quarterback and Berkshire’s king.
To my parents, I was a disappointment.
To myself? I was just the boy trapped in the closet.
Hate was cold fire; there was no warmth from it.
My eyes fluttered close. Before I became lost in the space between sleep and consciousness, a mouthy girl with pretty brown eyes and black hair came to haunt me.
I slowly smiled.
Fuck, she was something else.
Lila
The next day, I walked through the halls of Berkshire as if I was on display. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought I forgot to wear clothes this morning, but no, I was definitely dressed. Their eyes burned into the back of my head, and the whispers followed me. They made no attempt to hide their curiosity; some of them – Maddox’s fangirls -- even looked at me with open distaste.
Shit. Now what?
Riley popped next to me out of nowhere and gripped my arm. “You owe me an explanation,” she hissed in my ear.
Confused, I looked down at her. “Why? What did I do?”
“The rumor,” she started, but then trailed off as her gaze skirted over my head. Riley scowled hard, and I turned around to see Maddox and Colton walking through the entrance.
I stayed rooted on the spot as he sauntered toward me. My brain told me to run. The look on his face was anything but nice. Mischief glimmered in his blue eyes, and a smirk twisted his full lips. Uh-oh.
The hallway became quiet, as if awaiting a long, overdue dramatic scene. I could feel everyone holding their breaths, anxious and curious as they stared back and forth between Maddox and me.
I tried to backpedal out of his way, but he ate up the distance between us with three long steps, stopping right in front of me. “Coulter,” I said in greeting, eyeing him with suspicion.
Maddox dipped his head to my level, breathing against my lips. My heart stuttered, and I froze on the spot. His lips skated over my cheek in a chaste kiss, and he lingered there for a second too long. “Good morning, Lila,” he said, his breath warm against my skin.
I felt the stares on us, the silent gasps coming from the others at Maddox’s public display of affection, even though it was anything but affectionate. He was teasing me, making me the center of attention because he knew how much I despised it. This wasn’t good.
I pulled back, glaring up at him through my lashes. Without a word, I stalked past him, but his voice followed me as he called out across the hallway. “Don’t forget to give me back my jacket, baby.”
Double shit!
I snuck a quick look to my left to see people staring at me with open-mouthed expressions. Holding back a growl, I didn’t spare Maddox a glance as I stomped away with Riley at my heels.
When we rounded the corner to a fairly empty corridor, she grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop. “You kissed him!” she whisper-yelled, her face a mask of astonishment.
A groan escaped me. “Is this why everyone’s staring at me like I’ve grown two heads?”
“Someone saw you two kissing at your locker two days ago, and you know how quickly rumors spread,” she admitted.
The rumors in Berkshire spread like a wildfire, untamed and unstoppable. The people were hungry sharks in the tank full of blood. They probably thought Maddox and I were dating now due to the kiss and then the jacket comment made by Maddox.
“Well, here’s one important fact. I didn’t kiss him. He kissed me.”
“He kissed you?”
I threw my hands in the air. “Yes,” I growled. “Why is this such a big deal?”
Riley’s eyebrows popped up, giving me a look that said the obvious. “You kissed Maddox Coulter after declaring war on him. Yeah, babe. It’s a pretty big deal.”
“Whatever. It won’t happen again.”
She followed me, hooking her arm with mine. “Is he good, like the rumors say? I heard some girls