Broken Lyric ((Meltdown book 2)) by RB Hilliard (36)

Chapter One

Max McLellan appeared on my radar the very first day of my freshman year in high school. I was standing at my locker wondering how I was going to get all of my homework done and cook dinner for my aunt later that night, when I felt an elbow in my ribs.

“I’m ignoring you,” I told my best friend, Piper. She’d been blatantly trolling the halls for cute boys for the past thirty minutes, and I was having trouble organizing my locker while listening to her never-ending commentary. Piper O’Connell and I had been best friends since fourth grade, when she moved to Charlotte from Texas. With a head full of strawberry blonde hair and a smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks, she was extremely loud, very direct, and the polar opposite of me. I loved her with all of my heart, but sometimes she was exhausting.

Like right now.

“Oh my,” I heard her say. “Ellie, you’re so gonna want to see this.”

Pulling my head out of my locker, I glanced at what held her attention. A group of guys was sauntering down the hall toward us. I rolled my eyes and was about to resume organizing when I spotted him. He had on black biker boots that were partially concealed under his faded denim jeans. A black t-shirt hugged him in all the right places. From what I could see, he had collar-length black hair, but since it was peeking out from under a baseball cap turned backwards, I wasn’t able to get the complete picture. Naturally tan, his slightly bearded face was flawless. I stood there drinking in all six plus feet of this man-looking boy and was disappointed I couldn’t see his eyes behind his reflective sunglasses.

What color are your eyes, beautiful boy? I really want to know…

He was flanked on all sides by crazy hot guys.

It’s raining men, hallelujah popped into my head, and I tried not to laugh. Before breaking out into song and dance, which was way more Piper’s style than mine, the girl standing next to us chimed in.

“Beautiful, aren’t they? It’s a shame they’re off limits.”

“Nothing is off limits,” Piper replied in a challenging tone.

“Those boys are,” the girl insisted. “They go for hot older girls who put out.”

“I put out,” Piper declared, clearly offended. This made me laugh.

“Trust me, you do not qualify. Those boys would eat you up and spit you out.”

Wow, she’s really serious. Maybe Piper should back off.

Not at all interested in sharing my sexual status, or lack thereof, I nodded my head in biker boy’s direction and asked, “Who’s the one in the middle?”

“That–” she stressed “–is Max McLellan. He’s tough, but fun to look at.”

I was about to ask what she meant when the first bell rang.

Crap! I hadn’t finished organizing my locker.

“I’ll call RJ tonight and get the scoop,” Piper said.

Richard James, better known as RJ, was one of Piper’s big brothers. He was now a freshman in college. Even though he’d spent his last two years of high school away at boarding school, he still knew everyone, and was our official go-to guy for information.

As it turned out, the only thing RJ knew about Max was that he could kick some serious ass, was a chick magnet, and liked older girls.

Thanks for nothing, RJ.

*     *     *

Throughout ninth and tenth grade, I would see Max and his friends in the halls. They were enjoyable to watch and provided hours of fodder for my daydreams. Day in and day out I watched him. He was always either surrounded by his friends or a mass of girls. Every now and then I would catch him looking my way, at least that’s what I told myself and, each time it happened, it made my day. Yes, I was pathetic.

The summer before my junior year, my life took a turn for the worse. It was a Thursday and I had the day off from Providence, the café where I waited tables. I had my black, polka-dotted, skimpy bikini on as I was going to lie out in my backyard. Carrying my iPod in one hand and my iced tea in the other, I was headed out the door when my phone rang. Seeing Piper’s name on the Caller ID, I hit the Talk button, and said, “Put on your skimpiest bikini and come lay out with me.” I heard her sniffle and instantly knew something was wrong.

“Honey, what’s wrong?”

“Mom and Dad are making me go away to school next year,” she tearfully responded. “They just told me we are leaving in a few days to visit schools and I’ll be going off this coming year. They won’t listen to me, El. They don’t care that I don’t want to leave. They just want me out of the house so they can travel and party without the hassle of having to deal with me.”

Travel and party? Really?

Richard and Marie O’Connell were two of the nicest people on the planet. They treated me like their own child, and I dearly loved them. Coming from old money, they’d both been raised in boarding school families, where all of the kids went off to school in ninth grade. I was surprised they’d let RJ, Rex, and Piper stay at home through their sophomore year. I did not, however, voice this out loud. I was heartbroken. I was losing my best friend for our last two years of high school.

Three days later, I said good-bye to a depressed Piper and a morose-looking Richard and Marie. By the time Piper returned a week later, she’d chosen a school in Virginia and it was a done deal.

*     *     *

Piper leaving weighed heavily on my heart. I didn’t want her to go away. I didn’t want to be left alone with my aunt. For as long as I could remember, Piper and her family had been my buffer. They were who I ran to when I couldn’t take the criticism or negativity from home any longer. Take them away and I was…alone. The only saving grace was my job at Providence.

My aunt demanded that I get a job the summer before my freshman year in high school. She believed working would keep me out of trouble. Piper’s mom thought this was silly, but being her awesome motherly self, she introduced me to her friend, Amy, who owned Providence. Not only was Amy laid back and extremely cool, but she let me pick up as many shifts as I wanted, whenever I wanted. Two years later, I held the title of the longest lasting employee.

The week before the start of my junior year, I was working when a girl about my age came strutting into the café drenched from head to toe. The confident way she walked reminded me of Piper, who’d been gone for over a week. It had been a long, lonely, rainy week without her. Shaking off my nostalgia, I sat the wet girl in my section and, since she was my only customer at the time, proceeded to chat with her.

“Looks crazy out there,” I said, nodding my head toward the park. “What can I get for you?”

“A beer?” she asked, winking at me. I immediately liked her.

“How about a Coke?” I smiled.

I discovered her name was Josselyn Speilman but she preferred Joss. Like me, Joss was about to turn seventeen and was going to Myers Park High School. Her family had recently moved to Charlotte from Washington DC. I watched her ring out her gorgeous curly, white-blonde hair and felt a stab of envy. I couldn’t help but notice the contrast between the two of us. She was the all American girl with perfect hair and big blue eyes. Next to my long, blondish brown hair and odd shaped golden eyes, she looked like a fairy. We talked for a while about the upcoming year before I had to break away and take other orders.

As I was cashing out a customer, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

“I have to get going but wanted to give you my phone number, in case you ever want to talk or hang out,” Joss said.

I walked her to the door, exchanged numbers, and said good-bye. For the first time since hearing that Piper was leaving, I found myself looking forward to something.

*     *     *

Piper decided not to come home for Thanksgiving, which I took personally. I’d filled every second of every day since the first day of school with homework and work. The only enjoyment I allowed myself time for was watching Max in the halls, talking to Piper on the phone, listening to music and reading. I had been counting the days until Thanksgiving break and seeing Piper again. When she told me she was spending the week with a friend from school, it really shook me.

The first few days of break, I moped around. Then, not being able to stand the silence any longer, I picked up the phone and dialed Joss. It wasn’t that I didn’t have other friends. I did. I just wasn’t interested in who was getting cheated on, screwed, or dumped. I liked boys, a lot. I just didn’t plan my life around them. I’d seen Joss in the halls at school and, like me, she seemed a little lost. I hadn’t made an effort to reach out and felt it was way past time, so I called her up and invited her over.

It turned out Joss was a scary movie addict. In fact, she brought over a few of her favorite horror flicks for us to watch. I greatly disliked scary movies and practically hid under the sofa the whole time.

We’d just finished watching A Nightmare on Elm Street and were popping popcorn before watching Halloween, when she asked the dreaded question everyone eventually got around to asking me. “Is it too personal or can I ask you why you live with your aunt and not your parents?” It wasn’t that I minded talking about it. It was the look of pity I received after telling my story that got to me. “I’m sorry,” she said. “That was rude of me to ask.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s just that every time I tell someone, they look at me different, and I really hate that.”

“Hey,” she said, “trust me when I say that your story can’t be much worse than mine.”

Wanna bet?

Internally sighing, I began to explain, “My parents slept together in high school and…oops–” I pointed to myself – “conceived me.” It was hard explaining my mom’s slutty tendencies, so I just gave it to her short and sweet. “Supposedly, my mom really got around. When she told my dad she was pregnant, he offered to pay for an abortion, but only because he couldn’t deny he’d taken a turn on her merry-go-round and there was a chance I could be his kid. He got really angry when she told him she was having me and, before I was even born, he left town. About a month before my birth, she decided she didn’t want to be tied down by a kid after all, so she began adoption procedures. That’s when Aunt Elizabeth, my dad’s older sister, stepped in and stopped her.”

“So, your mom had you and gave you to your aunt?” she asked.

“Yes, but she made my aunt go through regular adoption procedures, because she needed the money.” Something my aunt reminds me of regularly.

“What about your grandparents?”

“Oh, they’re all long gone. My mom’s parents were around some when I was little, but I don’t remember them. My dad’s parents died before I was even born.”

“Do you mind me asking what happened to your mom?”

“She took off for California right after I was born.”

“Have you ever tried to find her?”

“No, she was killed in a car accident when I was four.”

“God, Ellie, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” I shrugged. “It’s not like I knew her. It’s hard to feel something for someone you’ve never met.”

“And your dad?”

“Who knows?” I shrugged. “I’ve only seen pictures of him from when he was in high school. He took off and never came back. I’m his daughter, though, that’s for sure.”

“Oh?”

“I look just like him.”

“So your aunt named you Ellie?”

“Ellison Elizabeth Davis.”

“I like it,” she said, smiling.

Talking to Joss turned out to be just like talking to Piper, easy and comfortable. Changing the subject, I asked about her family. She told me she was the only child of parents who never wanted kids.

Yes, they actually told her this.

Primarily having been raised by nannies her whole life, she felt like her parents were more like housemates. They were incredibly wealthy and traveled all the time, leaving her at home alone or with house keepers. This made my aunt look like freaking Mary Poppins.

I think because neither of us really had a sense of family or a lot of love in our lives, Joss and I related to each other. Regardless of her crappy upbringing, she’d turned out well and I was glad I’d made a new friend.