Chapter 1
1570 Words
Kate
“Kate, move your ass! We’re gonna be late!”
Liam’s voice echoed from downstairs, pulling me out of my concentration.
I blinked, fumbling for my phone in the back pocket of my jeans. The screen lit up with the time.
Crap.
I was never the late one.
Normally, I was the person dragging Liam out the door while he spent twenty minutes fixing his hair or changing outfits three different times. Honestly, for someone who claimed not to care what people thought, he spent a suspicious amount of time staring at himself in mirrors.
But this morning, I was the one cycling through my closet.
My bedroom looked like a graveyard of rejected outfit choices. Every surface had become a casualty of my panic spiral.
I eventually settled on a simple light blue T-shirt, fitted jeans, and a pair of Converse that should’ve been retired a long time ago. At this point, they were basically emotional support shoes.
“Coming!” I yelled back as I searched my desk for the only two forms of makeup I owned—eyeliner and tinted sunscreen, if that even counts as makeup—and applied a quick layer of each before giving myself one final glance in the mirror.
I don’t know why I bothered stressing over how I looked. It’s not like anyone would notice anyway.
People noticed Liam. We couldn’t walk ten feet through the school hallway without someone stopping him to talk. Teachers loved him, freshmen worshiped him, and girls practically lined the halls hoping he’d look their way.
Me? Most people barely remembered I existed.
I’d spent most of high school blending into the background. Teachers remembered me as “Liam’s sister.” Half the student body didn’t even realize we were related.
I wasn’t the kind of person people looked at twice.
I took a deep breath, whispering, “Okay,” as a sort of last-minute attempt to pull myself together before grabbing my backpack and heading downstairs.
“Dude, what was taking you so long?” Liam asked as soon as he saw me at the top of the stairs.
“Dude,” I repeated mockingly. “None of your business.”
“Actually, it becomes my business when I’m your ride,” Liam replied smugly. “You’re more than welcome to take the bus instead.”
“You only get to drive because you’re older. Once you leave for college, the car is basically mine.”
“Probably. Mom and Dad will likely buy me a new one as a graduation present anyway. I am the favorite after all.”
“You only get special treatment because you’re mentally challenged.”
Liam grinned. “So you agree they love me more.”
I shot him the bird, “Ha ha. You wish.”
He turned and opened the door, “Come on, we’ve gotta go.”
“What’s with the rush anyway?”
“I have to pick up Jackson before we head to school. His car wouldn’t start this morning.”
Irritation instantly flared at the mention of Jackson’s name.
“Really? Do we have to? You would be my favorite brother in the world if we didn’t.” I clasped my hands together dramatically, grinning at him pleadingly.
“Yes, really, and I’m your only brother, so I’m your favorite by default,” Liam replied.
“Ugh. For now.”
“Aw, I love you too, baby sis.” He gave my shoulder a light punch as he reached down to pick his backpack up off the floor.
“Just play nice for this one car ride.”
“Sure. Assuming Jackson has suddenly learned the art of shutting up. I can be an angel.” I looked at him and gave him the sweetest smile I could manage.
Liam shook his head and let out an exaggerated sigh before grabbing me by the shoulders and steering me toward the door.
Jackson, Liam’s best friend since forever. The bane of my existence. The thorn in my side. A walking migraine. Honestly, I could keep going.
Oh, and did I mention he was practically the human embodiment of a red flag?
Girls always throw themselves at him, thinking they can “fix” him, or be the exception. But there was always a new girl and a new disaster following close behind him.
Which was insane.
Jackson Maddox wasn’t the kind of guy you fixed. He was the kind of guy you survived.
The moment we stepped outside, Jackson disappeared from my mind completely.
Across the street, Dean Callahan had just walked out of his front door.
Of course, he looked even better than the last time I saw him, which was literally yesterday. How could someone get hotter within a 24-hour period? It felt illegal. And honestly, a little disrespectful.
Not that I was complaining.
I tried to act like I hadn’t noticed him, even though my brain treated Dean’s existence like a live broadcast event.
I pulled out my phone and pretended to read a text while simultaneously tracking his every movement from my peripheral vision like an absolute psychopath.
Pretending to get a text was actually laughable.
The only people who ever texted me were my parents, Liam, my best friend Cassie, and, unfortunately, Jackson.
Jackson having my number was less a personal decision and more a result of our parents treating him like he was their second son.
They thought it was comforting that there was another person around to “look after me.”
Jackson mostly used it as a convenient way to annoy me at all hours of the day.
“Yo, Dean! You coming over after practice?” Liam yelled out.
I silently cursed him for drawing Dean’s attention toward our direction.
“Maybe. We’ll see, man.”
Something about the way Dean said it caught my attention immediately.
Maybe I was reading too much into it — realistically, when did I not read too much into everything Dean did? — but something in his voice sounded... off.
Talking to Dean required a level of confidence I simply did not have. So, there was zero chance I would ever openly ask him what’s bothering him. Instead, I headed toward the car while shamelessly listening to every word.
“Come on, man! You can’t bail on us again.”
“Okay. I might if I feel up to it later.”
“Alright, text me if you plan on coming.”
“Okay, later.”
A car door slammed shut, and a second later, Dean’s engine roared to life.
Something was definitely going on with him.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t about to get any real information from Liam’s two-second interaction.
Boys and their complete refusal to be emotionally vulnerable.
As I climbed into the passenger seat, I caught myself glancing back towards Dean’s black Mustang as it backed out of the driveway, silently wishing I wasn’t so scared to talk to him
Maybe then I could’ve been someone he leaned on.
~~~~~~~~~~
Jackson
I heard the screech of Liam’s brakes before his car even came into view.
He had a habit of waiting until things were one step away from catastrophic failure before fixing them.
The sound scraped against my ears like sandpaper as he pulled to a stop in front of my driveway.
“I’m assuming you know your brakes sound like a dying animal?” I asked as I pulled open the back passenger door and slid into the seat. “That isn’t a warning they’re about to go bad. It means they should’ve been changed months ago.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know,” Liam said. “I scheduled it for Saturday morning, so you can shut up about it.”
Beside him, Kate stared down at her phone as if there was something incredibly important on it, which I knew for a fact wasn’t true.
Her social life consisted of family, one friend, and, fortunately for her, me.
“Hey, Kitten,” I said, reaching over to ruffle her hair.
She immediately swatted at my hand, but I’d known her long enough to expect that reaction and jerked back before she could make contact.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Down, kitty.”
“And unless you want to end up as roadkill, I’d suggest keeping your filthy paws to yourself,” she shot back.
I smirked. “Rawr.”
I held up my hands like cat claws and hissed at her. “Someone’s extra spicy today.”
“Seeing your face has that effect on me.”
“Good to know my face does something for you,” I replied automatically, throwing in a wink for good measure.
Liam sighed like a deeply exhausted father of toddlers instead of a seventeen-year-old. “Dude. Gross.”
Kate whipped around to face me, a hint of pink creeping into her cheeks.
“Keep talking,” she warned, “and I’ll make Liam crash this car on purpose.”
I bit back a laugh.
She always got meaner when she was flustered.
Liam caught my eye in the rear-view mirror, silently reminding me not to flirt with his sister.
That had always been the unspoken rule between us: Kate was off-limits.
Not that I needed the reminder.
I had no intention of crossing that line anyway.
Teasing her was just a personal hobby of mine.
- Writer
