Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
ELIZABETH
Senior Year
I t’s our first day of our senior year, and I’m sitting on Julien’s bed waiting for Jayson to get out of the shower. I swear, Jayson’s worse than a girl when it comes to getting ready. He takes for- freaking -ever. I get dressed in about fifteen minutes. The irony is not lost on me.
“Yeah, we’re getting ready to leave in a few,” Julien tells Elijah and turns his phone toward me. “Say hi and bye to E, Liz.”
Elijah’s grinning face greets me on the screen. “Morning, Liz!”
I put down my tablet and take the phone.
“Hey, handsome. Are you coming with?”
“No can do. It would take too long to drive there and back. Would be easier if we all went to the same school.”
The shower turns off, and Julien plops down beside me so that both of us can be seen on the video screen.
“Babe, I got to go. Love you.”
“Love you, too. And you too, Liz,” he adds when I pout.
Shutting off his phone, Julien sits up.
“You two are so cute.”
“Sexy, not cute. No one wants to be called cute.”
He kisses me on the nose and clambers off the bed when Jayson enters, a towel wrapped around his waist, steam billowing out behind him from the bathroom. Seeing him wet and half naked causes heat to race up my legs and settle between my thighs.
“Keep looking at me like that, Princess, and I can’t be held responsible for what happens.”
Julien takes that as his cue to leave.
“Don’t need to see that. I’ll meet you guys downstairs. Ryder said he was on his way, so no hanky-panky because we’ve got to go. You have ten minutes.”
He walks backward out of the room, doing that double finger to eye thing.
Jayson laughs and shuts the door in his face. With a flick of the lock, he turns around and stalks toward me. My heartbeat picks up with excitement at his possessive smirk.
“He said ten minutes. I only need five.”
He grabs me before I can dash to the door and hauls me against his still-damp body. Jayson’s towel falls away when he picks me up and carries me into the bathroom. He sets me down on the bathroom vanity and hikes up my skirt. Teasing a hand under my panties, I moan when his fingers slick through my arousal.
“We need to be quick.”
He rips my panties out of the way and lines himself up. Last summer, we decided that I would go on the pill, and he’s been taking me bare ever since.
Gripping my neck, he jerks me forward for a blistering kiss, moaning into my mouth when he plunges into me with one hard thrust. Jayson kisses me the same way he fucks me. Carnally. Brutally. My fingers curl over the lip of the vanity, and I throw my head back when my orgasm hits me hard. He buries his face between my breasts and grunts his release before easing out of me.
“One day, I’m putting a baby in you”—he trails a fingertip through the wetness between my legs and shoves his cum back inside me—“and my ring on your finger.”
He’s been saying things like that a lot to me lately, and for some reason, it instills a feeling of apprehension when he does. He keeps making all these big plans for us. College. Living together. Marriage. Children. Don’t I get a say about what I want for my future?
He strolls out of the bathroom and returns with his discarded towel. With gentle care, he cleans me, then tosses the towel into the wicker laundry basket. Figuring there is nothing I can do to fix the state of my underwear, I ball them up and shove them inside my backpack on the floor.
“I’m going to have a hard-on all day at school, knowing you aren’t wearing any panties.”
“Then stop destroying them.”
Mom probably thinks I have an underwear fetish with the amount I’m forced to order every month because Jayson keeps ripping them.
At least my skirt is long enough that I should be fine, provided that a strong wind doesn’t suddenly blow out of nowhere.
“Blue or black?” He holds up two shirts.
I point to the blue one. Putting it on, he zips up his shorts and sits on the end of the bed to lace his sneakers. I smooth down my hair and adjust my clothes. I give myself a once-over in the bathroom mirror and decide I look presentable enough. Thoroughly fucked, but presentable.
Julien is standing at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for us. “Nine minutes. I’m impressed.”
Ryder passes me the yellow packets of sweetener, and I rip two of them open and dump their contents into my coffee.
“Coach told me there would be a couple of scouts at the game.”
Varsity soccer season is several months away, not until next year at the beginning of February, but it’s tradition for Fallen Brook and Highland High to play a scrimmage match at the start of the school year.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that you and Jay will get a full ride to college,” Ryder comments, shoveling a ham biscuit in his mouth.
I nibble on my scone to allow time for my coffee to cool down. Jayson rests his arm along the back of our booth and plays with the ends of my hair.
“You know, we should apply for early admission to CU.”
That was a pact we made a long time ago. Jayson and Julien are CU or bust. CU obsessed is more like it. I should count myself lucky that Jayson let me have his favorite CU T-shirt, which I kind of stole and refuse to give back to him. I like to sleep in it.
Ryder doesn’t care one way or another which college he goes to since his future is certain. He’s going to take over his dad’s garage, but plans to get an MBA. Me? I haven’t figured that part out. I guess where they go, I go.
Julien throws a sugar packet at his brother.
“There’s no rush. We have several more months before we need to start sending in applications.”
The waitress drops our check on the table, and Jayson pulls out his wallet.
“On me today. We need to head on out if we want to make it before the first bell.” He slides out of the booth and reaches for me. “Jules, you with us or Ry?”
“I’ll ride with Ry.”
I hug Julien and Ryder goodbye, and Jayson opens the passenger side door of his truck for me to get in. It’s not like I won’t see them again today. Julien, Jayson, and Ryder are taking two AP courses with me, first period being one of them, and I’ll see them again for lunch.
Once we get to school, we park in the senior lot. Maria is already waiting next to the walkway that leads from the lot to the school building. She runs over to Ryder’s car when he pulls in and jumps him as soon as he gets out. He subtly pushes her away. If I wasn’t watching so closely, I would have missed the exchange. I wonder what’s going on.
I jump out of Jayson’s truck before he has a chance to come around to open the door for me.
“Maria!”
She saunters over. Jayson places a quick peck on my lips and joins the guys.
“Ready for senior year?” I sling my backpack over a shoulder and walk with her.
“I can’t wait to get out of this place.”
Maria wants to live in a big city. I never want to leave Fallen Brook.
When we get to the quad, she says, “Skanky bitch alert.”
Jacinda hears her and turns around. It’s not like Maria was being quiet.
“Who are you calling a bitch, la puta ?”
Samantha and a few other girls from the cheerleading squad gather around Jacinda.
“Whore, really? That’s the best you can come up with? At least I don’t have to drug guys to get them to have sex with me.”
Did Maria really go there? She knows how touchy I am with what happened at Fallon’s party between Jacinda and Jayson.
“Maria, let’s go.”
I try to get her to move, but she isn’t budging.
Jacinda smiles a wicked grin. “Your boyfriend won’t even touch you. I got to touch him all over.”
She puts her finger in her mouth, moving it in and out to imitate a blow job. Another shitty night I’d rather forget.
Fed up with Mean Girls bullshit, I snap, “Do you always have to be such a vapid bitch?”
Samantha pops her hip and throws her long ponytail over her shoulder. “Don’t even get me started on you.”
Her eyes flick to something behind me.
“Do I need to tell Fallon that you’re messing with Elizabeth?” Ryder says.
Apparently, that works because Jacinda and her crew skulk off without saying another word.
Ryder touches Maria’s arm. “Come on. I’ll walk you to class.”
Without saying bye to me, Maria follows Ryder into school.
Looking at Jayson, I ask, “What did he mean about Fallon?”
“No clue and don’t care. Come on or we’re going to be late.”
“Julien?”
“Nope.”
I huff. “Seriously?”
I’m met with silence.