Page 1 (1/2)

PROLOGUE

FALLON

There were people I liked and people I didn’t like People I loved and people I hated

But there was only one person I loved to hate

"Why are you doing this?" I heard a whiny female voice ask as I rounded the hall to sopho eyes on a red-faced Tatu stepbrother, Madoc Caruthers, and his friend Jared Trent They stood in the hallway next to the lockers with flat expressions, looking bored, while she clutched her backpack straps for security

"You barked at ether at Jared as Madoc smirked fro It’s been forever, Jared When are you going to stop? Why are you doing this?"

I sucked in a long breath and completed my usual awesome co corners I hated closed doors I hated not seeing the path ahead

Corner 1: Your dad and I are getting divorced

Corner 2: We’re ain

Corner 952: I don’t really like you orto take fifteen vacations a year by ood at interpreting shit And corners sucked

I hung back and stuckto see what this girl would do Would she finally grow some balls, or at least take the little ones these idiots had? I kept hoping she would step up to the challenge, and she always disappointed me

Tatum Brandt was a wimp

I didn’t know much about her Only that everyone called her Tate, except Madoc and Jared; she was a rocker on the outside, but played it safe on the inside; and she was pretty Like cheerleader pretty

Long blond hair? Totally

Big blue eyes? Absolutely

Long legs, full lips, and big boobs? Even at sixteen

She was the perfect package, and if I were ue into her ht do it anyway

I chewed the corner ofabout it Yeah, I could be a lesbian Maybe If I wanted

No, never mind

The point iswhy Madoc and Jared tormented her rather than tried to date her was a mystery to me

But for some reason I was interested From the start of freshman year, they had both bullied her They spread ru they could to ain It was starting to piss ether to defend her

Except I barely knew her And Tatum didn’t know me at all I stayed so far off the radar that sonar couldn’t pick me up

"Why?" Jared answered her question with a question and jutted into her space with a cocky swagger "Because you stink, Tatuust "You shtened immediately, and the tears in her eyes finally spilled over

Kick hi a furious breath, I pushed e of my nose It’s what I did before I braced myself

She shook her head "You don’t even re lips between her teeth and looked down at the ground

And without even seeing her eyes, I kneas there Despair Loss Loneliness

Without looking at hiain, she turned around and walked off

It would’ve been easy to hit him To toss an insult back at hi that I hadn’t before Jared was an ass, but he was an ass who could hurt her

She was in love with hi my arms over my chest, I walked over to the lockers where Jared and Madoc stood staring after Tate

Madoc spoke up behind hied off the question "I don’t knohat she was talking about"

"It’s April fourteenth," I piped up over Madoc’s shoulder, causing hi to you, Shit-for-Brains?" I directed at Jared

Madoc raised a dark blond eyebrow at me, a hint of a sh so that I could see the side of his face

"April fourteenth?" he whispered and then blinked long and hard "Shit," he murmured

And Madoc reared back a hair as Jared slammed the palm of his hand into the nearest locker door

"What the hell?" Madoc scowled

Jared ran his hands down his face and then shook his head "Nothing Neverhis fists into his pockets, he stalked off down the hall, leaving Madoc and me

Between my stepbrother and his friend, I respected his friend more They were both Grade A assles, but at least Jared didn’t care what people thought of hioth Popular and foreboding Dark but extremely coveted

Madoc, on the other hand, cared what everyone thought Our parents The principal Andloved, and he hated his association withto wield power that was going to be out of control by the time they reached senior year