know that her presence made me feel out of control, that she got under my skin like nothing else, and I hated it. The best thing for both of us was for her to stay as far away from me as possible.
Her chest rose and fell beneath me, her breathing rapid against the side of my face. Drawing back, I waited until her eyes met mine, before I continued. “And you need to stop sucking up to my parents.”
“I’m not,” she whispered, lowering her gaze.
“You are.” I laughed. “You know, they only praise you because they feel sorry for you. You’d have to be completely naïve not to realise that they don’t mean any of the things they say to you. Don’t forget your place, Raine Laurent. You’re insignificant. Nothing.” The cruel lies fell easily from my lips, and she stiffened beneath me, a tiny, pained whimper escaping from her mouth before she clamped it shut.
Glistening tears gathered on her lashes. One fell, and my eyes followed it down her face to her cheekbone. Before I knew what I was fucking doing, I gripped her chin in my hand and licked away the tear, the saltiness bursting on my tongue.
She let out a shocked gasp, and another tear fell.
“Why?” she managed to say. “Why?”
She didn’t deserve an explanation from me, and I didn’t have one to give her. “Because I fucking can.”
Back in the cafeteria, I pushed all thoughts of Raine Laurent from my mind. What had just happened between us, I had no fucking idea. I’d lost all rationality when it came to that girl. All I knew was, my dad needed to get off my back, and she needed to stay well away from me.
The boys didn’t seem to notice anything amiss, and we fell into an easy discussion about the logistics of our plan for Fright Night. Preparation was key—it was no good going in without any idea.
Once we had everything together, we headed outside to join some of the football team before the rest of our lunch break was up.
My ex-girlfriend, Anastasia, was hanging out in the quad area with Imogen and their little group of friends. She caught my eye, tilting her blonde head at me hopefully, and I gave a slight shake of my head. Yeah, she was hot, but way too high-maintenance for me. If she thought there was a chance we’d be getting back together, she had another think coming. I’d been there, done that, and I had no intention of repeating myself. Playing the field was much easier—no commitments, no burden of having to constantly take the other person into account when making decisions. It sounded selfish, but my only goals this year were to stay at the top where I belonged, graduate with the grades I needed to get into Alstone College, and to keep my spot as football team captain. If we could win the football league this season, even better.
I noticed Xavier glancing over at Imogen when he thought no one else was looking, and I rolled my eyes. These were two people who were in serious fucking denial about wanting to get back together. They’d broken up at the beginning of the summer, and Xavier had been a miserable fucker ever since.
Not that it was my problem to sort out. My attention turned to the football game we were playing after school on Wednesday against our biggest rivals.
“You think we can beat Highnam Academy? Blount’s got a serious chip on his shoulder after the last match. I wouldn’t put it past him to try something sneaky.”
“I’ve got it covered,” Preston Montgomery III, one of our strikers, assured me. “You concentrate on holding him back, and I’ll do my thing.”
“Shame I won’t be there, making us all look good by scoring the goals. Hope you’re up to the task,” Kian muttered under his breath, glaring in Preston’s direction. I let it go, because I knew how frustrated he was about being suspended from the team and Preston getting all the praise in the meantime.
We’d be stuck without Preston, though. New to the school this year—he’d transferred from the USA, and other than his irritating habit of referring to football as “soccer,” he was a talented player who worked well with the rest of the team. I just hoped that when Kian was back from his suspension, he’d get over this grudge he was holding against his teammate.
“I’m more worried about Cameron.” Xavier finally tore his attention away from