Mercedes - One Month Later
EVERYTHING CHANGED AFTER THAT DAY. My plans, my goals, what I thought I wanted and needed? It all changed. At the time, I hadn’t realized what a monumental moment in my life it was; climbing into his car, climbing into his bed, choosing to take a risk with him. That slope I had been teetering on since July had finally given out beneath my feet in tremendous fashion. And even now, I was still falling; slip sliding and tumbling blindly for a boy whose only promise to me was that he wouldn’t keep me forever.
Rourke’s warnings when we first got together should have been enough to make me rethink having a relationship with him, but they weren’t because I was in love with him.
There was no point in denying it anymore; not after spending every waking hour of the past month with him.
It felt like the moment accepted Rourke’s offer of friendship, something inside of me gave way, allowing Rourke the power to take over every waking hour of my day.
During the daytime, I watched him from a distance, sat beside him in class when I could, and thought about him all day long.
At night, I waited for him to come to my room, heart hammering in my chest, nervous butterflies flapping around in my stomach. Every single night, I would lay in my bed waiting in wistful anticipation for the moment the mattress dipped beneath me and I was in his arms again, our bodies fused together, desperate and needy.
I was in love with him. It made me weak and incredibly stupid, but there it was. Rourke Owens had taken ahold of my heart and I knew I wouldn’t be getting it back anytime soon.
When I was with him, I felt everything. Every single emotion I had spent my whole life denying existed. An intense connection. A deep, yearning need. This burning ache in my chest. All of it…
“YOU HAVE TO COME TONIGHT.” It was Friday afternoon and we were in our last class of the day. I had hoped to put my head down and learn something. Molly, however, had other ideas. “You’re Rourke’s girlfriend,” she hissed in my ear for the third time since class started almost an hour ago “How do you think it will look for the poor guy if you don’t bother showing up to a single one of his games?”
“I’ve told you a million times,” I shot back, forcing down the urge to choke her into shutting up about the stupid game tonight. “I don’t like football.”
Since it was public knowledge that I was dating our school’s star wide receiver, people kept coming up to me to tell me how excited they were about the game, and asking me how many touchdowns did I think Rourke would make.
One guy even had the audacity to ask me if I could somehow persuade to score a specific number of touchdowns; apparently, he had a lot of money riding on Rourke’s performance tonight and was willing to split his winnings with me if I persuaded my boyfriend to score at specific times during the game.
I told him to fuck off and I didn’t even like football. He then proceeded to get all huffy with me and say that Britt would have made it happen before stalking off.
Of course, the mention of the former love of Rourke’s life did little to calm me down; the opposite in fact. Hate was a strong word, but I honest to god loathed Brittany Beckitt with every fiber of my being.
Truly, I did.
“Do you like Rourke?” Molly challenged sweetly, bringing me back to the present.
“You know the answer to that,” I growled. I did more than just like Rourke.
“Then prove it,” she countered, brown eyes narrowing. “Go to the homecoming game tonight and show him some support.” She raised a brow and added, “You know he’d do it for you.”
Dammit! She had me there. “You only want me there to protect you from Daryl King and his creepy fascination with you!” Molly turned red and I smirked. “Go low with me, Molly Peterson, and I’ll go lower.”
“He doesn’t have a creepy fascination with me,” she shot back, tone defensive.
“No?” I raised a brow, calling her out on her bullshit. “Then why is he constantly watching you. And why does he always seem to show up wherever we go? Did you lie to me?” I asked then, narrowing my eyes. “Did you actually make out with him at that party instead of just talking like you said?”
“I didn’t make out with Daryl,” she bit out. “We have a past. That’s all.”
A past? “What past?” I leaned closer. “You never mentioned this before?”
“Because there’s nothing to mention,” Molly replied. “Daryl and I were…friends a long time ago.” She bit down on her bottom lip for a moment before adding, “And now, we’re friends again. Just friends. End of story.”
“You’re holding out on me,” I muttered, knowing full well she and Daryl weren’t just friends. There was something weird going on between them. Ever since her house party last month, Daryl and Molly had been joined at the hip.
“Anyway, stop trying to change the subject,” Molly said. “The game. Tonight. You are coming, Mercy James.” Damn, she was freaking relentless.
I’d been to one of Rourke’s football game at the start of the year and had come extremely close to barfing. Watching my boyfriend’s ex jump around the sidelines with her pom-poms and throw her arms around him when he was walking off the field had been enough to turn me off going to his games for life. Ugh.
For the past month, Britt had been a consistent source of discord in my life. She had this infallible ability of causing trouble for me – even when she wasn’t around. If she wasn’t spreading rumors about me or tripping me up in the hallway between classes, she was laying on the charm with Rourke, flirting boldly with him right in front of me.
To be fair to Rourke, he didn’t encourage her and always told her to stop, but it still hurt me. Knowing there was a period in Rourke’s life – a five fricking year long period – when Britt was the center of his world, made me feel incredibly inferior and insecure. And Britt, being the clever bitch she was, had immediately honed in on my blatant vulnerability and used it to her advantage at every opportunity.
Like last weekend, for example. The Falcon’s had an away game in a place called Church Hall, a three-hour drive from Ocean Bay. Because of the distance, the school had agreed the team should stay overnight on Friday and travel back early Saturday morning.
I had to work last weekend and couldn’t go, which I didn’t even care about, until Britt made it perfectly clear that the cheerleading team would be staying over in Church Hall, too.
Several of the cheerleaders were dating footballers and both teams had inevitably ended up partying it up together in one of the hotel rooms. I didn’t sleep a fricking wink that night and ended up stalking Britt’s numerous Snapchat updates and Instagram posts, checking for any of her with Rourke. There hadn’t been a single one, and that should have been enough to ease my mind. But I was seventeen and in love with the hottest, most unattainable boy at school; it didn’t exactly bring out the confident side of me.
“I’m going to the dance, Molls,” I offered then. “Isn’t that enough?”
All week long, the only thing people at school seemed to be interesting in talking about was the homecoming dance tonight. It was being held at Ocean Bay’s elite five-star hotel and country club on the outskirts of town. I found this totally weird since every public school I had ever attended held their dances in the school gym.
The bell rang, signaling the end of last period, and I released a sigh of relief.
“I’m done talking about this, Mercy,” Molly announced, tidying her books into her bag. She shoved her chair back and stood swiftly. “You are coming to the game tonight if I have to drag you there myself,” she said in an assertive tone. “Now, go home, grab some dinner, kiss the hell out of your boyfriend and wish him good luck, and then get your game face on. I’ll text you in a bit.” And then she skipped off, leaving me sitting at our desk with my mouth hanging open.
Shaking my head to clear my thoughts of Britt and football games, I got up and slipped the straps of my backpack on my shoulders before falling into step with the hordes of students all barging towards the school entrance, eager to start their weekend.
When I finally pushed through the main doors and managed to get outside, I descended the steps and hurried to the student parking area.
Traffic was always hectic at the end of a school day. Unlike previous high schools I had attended, everyone at the Academy seemed to either have their own car or their own driver. It was crazy. In the month I had been here, I had never once seen a yellow school bus full of kids. I guess Ocean Bay Academy was too elite and too damn posh to dabble in public transportation.
Head down, I marched through the crowd, eager to get to my destination.
When I reached the student lot, my heart began to thud rapidly in my chest, excitement churning inside of me.
There he was, leaning against the passenger side door of his truck, looking like the worst decision I would ever make, and still I bounded towards him, moving my feet in the direction of the only boy on this planet that had the ability to destroy me. Conflicted and overwhelmed with my feelings, I walked straight into the arms of my enemy turned lover.
“Fuck, I’ve missed you all day,” Rourke whispered in my ear, wrapping me up in his arms.
Rourke and I didn’t have any classes together on Fridays and it sucked.
I didn’t reply, but my heart screamed the words back at him, even if my brain tried to shield me with silence.
“Don’t say it back, Six,” Rourke teased. Releasing me from his hold, he opened the door of his truck for me and winked. “I’m in a real masochistic mood today and enjoy my girlfriend’s complete silence when I tell her how I’m feeling.”
“Are you all set for the game tonight?” I asked as I climbed into the passenger seat and fastened my seatbelt. I needed to veer the subject away from feelings because if I cracked and told Rourke how I felt, I had a feeling he would run like the wind. He hadn’t said the L word and I was determined not to be the first one to admit it. I knew Rourke cared about me – he treated me like a freaking queen this past month – but love? I had no clue if he loved me or not and that terrified me.
I watched as he closed my door and rounded the truck before hopping into the driver’s seat. Rourke cranked the engine and pulled into the long line of cars trying to exit the parking lot. “I’m always ready, Six,” he finally replied, tone breezy.
I rolled my eyes. “You’re always cocky.”
“I’m that too.” He grinned. “You changed your mind about coming tonight?”
“Yeah.” I scrunched my nose up at the thought of it. “Molly threw a tantrum on me in econ. She’s practically forcing me to go to the game with her.”
“Forcing you to go,” he repeated, tone deceptively low.
“Yeah,” I replied. “For someone so tiny, she’s actually pretty damn bossy.”
I watched as Rourke’s jaw ticked, but he didn’t respond to that, obviously lost in his own brooding thoughts.
“Rourke?” I said, staring at the side of his face in concern. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he finally replied after a long stretch of awkward silence. “Did you get a dress for the dance?”
I nodded. “Molly’s going to loan me one of hers.”
“Six.” He turned to face me, blue eyes snaring me. “If you need money –”
“I’m fine borrowing a dress, Rourke,” I quickly interrupted. I hated that; him offering to buy me stuff. It was like the time he offered to fuck me. It made me feel like a charity case. A burden.
“Fine.” He threw a hand up in exasperation. “Suit yourself.”