Jaded (Jaded #1)

Becky Lew was one of the head cheerleaders and the queen of the underworld minions. She ruled all her little queens, cheerleaders, dance team, some of the cross-country, yearbook, and all the skinny blonde girls who aspired for popularity. Some brunettes and redheads too, but there just always seemed to be more blondes than any other hair color.

I didn’t not like her, but I didn’t like her either.

Becky hated me, but was nice to me. I was pretty tight with Bryce and Corrigan so she needed to be nice to me. To tell the truth, I would’ve handled it on my own anyways. I could turn bitch when I was heated enough, but it didn’t happen that often.

“Becky,” Corrigan grunted and turned his back.

Bryce leaned his back on his locker and watched.

Two minions gasped behind Becky and we all knew why.

Corrigan had snubbed Becky Lew.

I didn’t care about that.

Why had Corrigan snubbed Becky Lew?—that is the real question.

“So, Sheldon—let’s talk about this weekend,” Corrigan continued, ignoring his own snub. “I’m thinking that when you go to reacquaint yourself with Steele, you should wear one of those pink lacy thongs. You have about a million anyway.”

“How do you know what my thongs look like? You snuck into my room, didn’t you?” I should’ve cared. I didn’t.

Corrigan looked affronted, but I saw the mirth that sparkled in his eyes.

I swore, good naturedly.

“I just went up once to look for Bryce. Any decent red-blooded male would’ve looked.”

“Corrigan,” Becky spoke up. She had decided that she wasn’t one to be ignored.

Corrigan resumed, passionately, “And then you should ask if Steele’s sister has a matching pair of pink lacy thongs. That’d be awesome. You could both wear them when you bring her to the party.”

“Corrigan,” Becky said again.

I laughed and shifted so my side pressed against Bryce’s when I noted, dryly, “Someone’s knocking at your door, Corrigan.”

Bryce snaked an arm around my waist and cupped my hip.

Corrigan grew still and sighed. He turned to Becky and asked, “What do you want, Lew?”

“I’d like to know when you’re coming over tonight.” She pressed, eagerly, happy for her opening. “My dad’s coming home for dinner and it’d be nice to make sure he won’t walk in on us.”

Corrigan froze in place.

Becky smiled sweetly.

And hot damn—the minions seemed to preen.

Corrigan said slowly, “Becky, if and when we hook up—you can be sure that your dad’s going to be scheduling around us. Not the other way around.” The statement made no sense, but it didn’t matter. Corrigan was being his usual cocky self and to add insult to injury, he tsk-tsked her—such a dismissal.

Becky tightened her mouth and started to retort, but I drawled, “Corrigan, I never knew. Were you hoping for a twosome with Steele’s sister and Lew?”

Becky hissed, but caught herself in time. She knew better than to play her games with me.

Bryce must’ve grown bored because he straightened away from me and left the group.

“Where you going, Bry?” Corrigan called after him and eagerly left to follow.

Bryce had given him his ‘out.’ Don’t ever say best friends don’t look out for each other.

“It’s true, you know.” Becky tore my attention from the guys back to her.

“What is?” I asked, suddenly tired of the game. Baiting her wasn’t fun without Corrigan to suffer the consequences.

“Me and Corrigan. We hooked up at Bryce’s party on Friday. You weren’t there.”

No, I wasn’t. I knew everyone wanted to know where I was, but I told none.

“You and Bryce have a fight or something?” Becky shifted closer to me, like it was a whispered secret between the two of us.

“Well, if we did then we just kissed and made up.”

“I don’t get the two of you. You’re on his arm half the time and the other half, he’s got someone else on his arm. What’s the deal?”

“So…you and Corrigan, huh? Good luck with that.” I patted her shoulder and pushed past to my own locker.

I wasn’t really surprised to see that Corrigan had waited for me.

“Your girlfriend’s a bit too nosy for her well-being,” I murmured as I opened my locker and stashed my book.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” he muttered.

“Where’d Bryce go?” Spanish for second period wasn’t looking too enticing. Sex was.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “What am I going to do about Lew?”

Spanish it was. Sadly.

Corrigan fell into step beside me when I pointed out, “It’d help if I knew what happened.”

“We hooked up,” he evaded. That was a duh, but what else happened? There was always something else.

“And went back for seconds last night?” I guessed the ‘something else.’

“Please,” he puffed his chest up, arrogantly. “Thirds was last night.”

His cockiness just rolled over off his shoulders.

“And you suggested a fourth tonight?”

“Something like that.”

“So Becky Lew is your new screw-buddy and she doesn’t know it?”

“She thinks she’s my girlfriend.”

Bingo. We just found the problem. So many thought they were the girlfriend.