Chapter 4

Allie

It was Thursday night. I had a Biology test tomorrow that I needed to ace, and all I could hear was loud music blaring through the house from all the way in the living room. The stench of pot drifted through the hallways, under my door, into my room, driving me insane.

Imani lay on her stomach, tapping through PowerPoint slides on her computer. Since mine had broken because of the rain, I was stuck with a print-out copy of them and this three-hundred-pound textbook.

“Jesus Christ, I’m going to kill him,” I said under my breath.

“Why don’t we stop for tonight? We’ve been at this for six hours now,” Imani said. 

I glanced over at her and nearly smiled. She was stunning, and I knew people said that about their best friends all the time, but it was true. Piercing brown eyes against her flawless dark-brown skin. Ugh, I was so jealous of her genes. All I had was terrible vision, thighs decorated with stretch marks, and twenty-four-seven frizzy hair.

I frowned and slumped back in my seat, knowing that stopping was probably a good idea.

“Or, if you want, you can come to my place to study,” she said.

“No, it’s fine.” I threw my papers onto my desk. “I’ll just fail.”

Imani rolled her brown eyes and shook her head, her curls bouncing all over the place. “Girl, stop. We all know that you’re going to get over a hundred, especially with all the extra credit that Barnes gives.” She pushed her laptop into her backpack. “And if you don’t, you can always ask Barnes for more extra credit. You’re hot enough to seduce him.”

I nearly choked. “Ew, gross. He’s, like, seventy.”

Imani giggled. “All I’m saying is that you don’t even have to work for that A-plus, just shake a little ass,” she said, shaking her hips for emphasis.

After she gathered all her things, we walked down the hall to the living room. The music got louder the closer we got, smoke sitting heavily in the air. 

“I can’t wait to get out of this shitty town,” I said under my breath, staring at all of Jace’s friends, who were drunk and littered around in our living room.

The entire cheer squad—except Nicole—was in the living room with their tits nearly hanging out of their tops and dancing on guys that they were way too good for. I was all for being a bratty slut, but, damn, some of these athletes didn’t even shower.

I shook my head and entered the room, grasping Imani’s hand. People in this town were either filthy rich, like Jace and his father, or dirt poor, like I used to be. There was no in between. And while the rich might’ve thought that they were better than the rest of us, they hadn’t been to the poor side of town. The side where Poison hung out. They ruled the poor, did favors for the rich, ruined people’s lives, all to make a quick buck and to get the hell out of this town one day too.

“You can come back to my place for the night,” Imani offered again, tugging on the straps of her backpack.

I pushed people out of the way to get us to the front door and made eye contact with Jace’s best friend, Jamal. My gaze lingered for a moment longer than it should’ve, but I quickly pulled it away, my cheeks flushing.

“Well, I guess that’s a no.” Imani laughed. “Just be careful with him. You know how guys like him act. He’s like your stepbrother, and he will break your heart too, if you let him.”

“Jace didn’t break my heart,” I said through clenched teeth. 

Memories of sophomore year flooded my mind, and I shivered. I opened the front door, and a few more people stumbled into the house. It wasn’t just any people, but the three notorious Poison boys.

One of them, Landon, looked Imani up and down as he passed, and Imani’s cheeks flushed even more than mine had. She tucked some hair behind her ear and looked down at the ground.

“And you’re telling me to be careful,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her. “The Poison boys are no good. You should know that.”

Imani tried to play it off by rolling her eyes. “I know. Don’t worry about me.”

After waving her off, I made eye contact with Jamal again and walked toward the kitchen to grab some water before I went back upstairs to try to study more. Jamal appeared a few moments later with a can of beer.

“You want a drink?” Jamal said, handing me an unopened can of beer.

I pushed it back. “No, thanks. I have a test tomorrow morning.”

Jamal smiled at me and stepped closer, one foot between mine, his fingers brushing against my forearm. “Come on, Allie,” he said, his voice deep. He leaned down closer to me. “One won’t hurt.”

I stared up into those dark brown eyes. “One leads to two, and two leads to me having a hangover tomorrow morning and not being able to focus.”

He chuckled. “You’re no fun,” he murmured against my ear.

Was I flirting with another football player after what happened sophomore year with Jace? Maybe. Would I choose to fool around with Jace’s best friend because I wanted to spite Jace? Absolutely.

Jace stumbled into the kitchen, pushing a cheerleader off him. “Later, babe.” When he saw us, he stopped and clenched his jaw. “Party is out here, Jamal,” he said through clenched teeth. He grasped my upper arm and pulled me away from him. “Allie wasn’t invited. She should be upstairs, studying, shouldn’t she?” He glared at me with those evil, sinful eyes, filled with so much hatred.

“I’m finished studying,” I lied in a matter-of-fact tone. I snatched the beer from Jamal. “But I don’t mind going back upstairs.” I glanced at Jamal. “Care to join?”

Jamal took one long look at Jace, who was giving him the hardest death stare, and stepped to the side. “Maybe some other time, Allie,” he said and then disappeared into the living room.

I tightened my jaw and glared at a smirking Jace. “You think you’re so fucking cool, don’t you? Why don’t you just leave me alone? What is your problem?” I asked. “You’re always in my love life.”

He leaned around me to grab a beer from the counter, his body too close to mine. “I can’t be in something that doesn’t exist,” he said.

I huffed and opened my beer, taking a huge gulp of it and wanting to relax. “Says the guy who can’t keep a girlfriend,” I said, blowing out a breath.

He growled and grasped my jaw harder than he had last night, pushing me against the counter. “Says the girl who hasn’t had a boyfriend her entire life. You must be really lonely, spending every night alone. Haven’t been touched by a man in, what? One, two years?” He chuckled menacingly at me. “You know, if I remember correctly, I was the last person to touch that pussy of yours, wasn’t I?”

I thrust my beer at him, making it spill all over us both. “You drive everyone I like away because you’re an annoying asshole.”

“That didn’t answer my question.” He tightened his grip and stepped closer to me, his cock pressed against the side of my hip, his lips against my ear. “I am, aren’t I? There’s no harm in admitting that you try to get on my nerves every day to get it again.”

“You’re drunk,” I whispered, knowing that everything he was saying might or might not have been true. But I would never admit it. 

He was my stepbrother, which made everything so much more complicated.

“And you’re a brat,” he said into my ear. 

Heat rushed to my core as he made me feel things that I really shouldn’t. 

“You know what I like to do to brats.”

Someone walked into the kitchen, half-drunk off his ass, and I pushed Jace away. 

“I’m going to go study,” I said. “Take your damn beer.” I shoved the can into his hand and hurried through the kitchen and back toward my bedroom.

Study.