Boom - Sabrina Stark Page 0,28

was.

For the last few years, it had been three of us against the world, and Waverly wasn't part of the team.

No. The trio consisted of me and my two brothers. No parents. No aunts. No uncles. No doting grandparents either.

It had been like this for a while now, beginning late in my senior year.

And this – in a roundabout way – was why Arden Weathers hated my guts. And vice-versa.

Chapter 17

Brody – Six Years Earlier

It was Saturday, and the last place I wanted to be was in school. But I'd promised Arden Weathers – my overachieving lab partner – that I'd be here.

So here I was.

Yeah, maybe I wasn't on time, but if Arden knew the grief I'd gone through to get here, she'd be kissing my ass, not scowling like someone had peed on her pancakes.

I spotted her before she spotted me.

She was wearing jeans and a gray T-shirt along with a little white jean jacket. Her long brown hair was tied in a tight ponytail, and her bangs fell loose over her eyes.

She was waiting outside the door to the chemistry lab, staring up at the clock on the opposite wall. She wasn't leaning either. No. Not Arden Weathers. She was standing straight-up, as if to make it obvious that she wasn't one to lounge around, waiting for anyone while there was schoolwork to be done.

At the sound of my footsteps, she turned to look. When she spotted me, her scowl deepened.

No surprise there.

She didn't like me. But hey, the feeling was mutual. Arden was too uptight, too worried about her grades, and too ready to raise her hand for extra credit.

She was the kind of girl who made guys like me look worse than I was. And considering how little I cared for school – or for kissing ass – that was saying something.

She was cute, even when she scowled, but that didn't mean I was interested.

I had bigger problems than school and no time for girls who were such a hassle. I made a point to slow my pace as I approached.

When I reached her, she said, "Nice of you to show up."

No kidding. This morning had been a shit-show at home, and the way things had looked when I left, I might not have a home to return to.

But I wasn't one to complain and saw no reason to start now. So with a shrug, I replied, "Hey, I thought so." I glanced toward the door of the lab. "I figured you'd start without me."

I wasn't kidding. The last time we'd met up, she'd gotten there early and was half-way done by the time I'd arrived.

Not today.

Today, she hadn't budged from the hallway. That wasn't the only thing that was different. Something in the hallway reeked like a party gone stale. I asked, "What's that smell?"

Her cheeks flushed. "Oh, shut up."

So the smell was coming from her?

No way.

She smelled of smoke, booze, and cheap perfume. I grinned in surprise. Maybe there was more to my partner than I'd thought. "Hey, I'm just asking."

"Well, don't."

I was still grinning. "Rough night, huh?"

She stiffened. "What makes you say that?"

"Because you smell like it."

Now she was scowling again – like she was embarrassed to be caught doing something other than studying.

I couldn’t resist tweaking her. "If you need a light, let me know."

She blinked. "What?"

Obviously, she didn't get the joke. But hey, I had a prop to drive the point home. I reached into the pocket of my jeans and pulled my lighter. I flicked it to life and held out in front of her, old-school style, as if offering her a light.

She gave the flame an annoyed look. "In case you didn't notice, I don't actually have a cigarette." Under her breath, she added, "Or anything else, for that matter."

She looked so annoyed that I couldn’t let it go. "So?"

"So I don't need a light."

"Eh, your loss." I flicked off the lighter and lowered it to my side.

Sounding less than amused, she said, "You do realize, I had to get special permission to use the lab today."

Yeah. Bummer for me.

If only the teacher had said no, I wouldn't be here at all.

Instead, I'd be dealing with the stuff at home, or maybe working at my side job, just like I had last Thursday, when everyone else had been sitting in school like good little boys and girls.

At the time, I'd figured it was no big deal. I had a lab partner, right? Arden never missed class, and she