CHAPTER TWO
STORM
“Eat the fattest bag of dicks,” I muttered under my breath to my shithead brother as he shoved past me.
The jerkoff almost tripped me on his way to the house. Lazy bastard carried a box filled with towels while I struggled along with dishware. Mom’s new husband, Larry, had offered to pay for movers to take care of this stuff. She’d insisted that it would be good for Chase and me to help do our part.
Moving into Larry’s house felt like a punishment I didn’t deserve. Mom made the choice to marry the rich fucker after only knowing him a year. She jumped into this way too fast. On one hand, I didn’t blame her. She’d been doing the single mom thing for years, barely scraping by with her job answering phones at the local car dealership. I wanted her to be happy. Still, they’d moved awfully fast.
“What was that?” Chase turned back to me, a facetious grin on his stupid face.
Unafraid of my brother, I repeated myself, louder this time. “Eat the fattest bag of dicks. Do you need me to say it again?”
Chase was only a year older than me. In a perfect world, we’d both have moved out by now. Unfortunately, rising rent costs and insane tuition prices kept us both at home. Chase hated it as much as I did, maybe more. Now that we were stuck under Larry’s roof, we both felt a renewed urgency to get out.
Not that Larry’s roof was all that bad. His house was in the good part of town and large enough to fit our apartment at least a dozen times. I wasn’t used to polished hardwood floors or a living room big enough to feel like a small movie theatre. It was a little daunting.
“Kiss my ass, brat,” Chase fired back. He shoved into the house ahead of me, swinging the door shut with his foot so it closed in my face.
My temper surged. Once I put this box down, I was going to punch that idiot right in his ugly face. As I struggled to open the door with a box of dishes in my arms, Larry appeared. He opened the door, quickly reaching to take the box.
“Here, let me help with that. Why don’t you take a break? Grab a drink from the kitchen. There’s water, pop, lemonade, iced coffee. Whatever you want.” Larry’s smile was grossly genuine. It would have been easier to hate him if he wasn’t so damn nice.
An injury lawyer with a successful practice, Larry had met my mother when she’d sought an attorney after being T-boned by a driver who ran a stop sign. Once her case was settled, he’d promptly asked her out. I knew that I should be happy for her. On some level I was. Change was hard though. This had all thrown me for a loop.
Chase had been all in with Larry from the start. He was eager to move from the dumpy apartment building we’d lived in for the past few years to the flashy side of town. Although Mom’s settlement hadn’t been huge, it had been enough for her to pay off her debt and buy both Chase and I our own used but decent cars. Since we couldn’t afford to stay on campus in the dorms, we needed a solid ride.
Now that we were moving only a few blocks from our new university, I’d mentioned the dorms again. She shot me down, citing that we didn’t need to live on campus when we were so close. Ugh.
“Thanks.” I offered Larry a forced smile, strolling past his office off the entryway and through the living room to the attached kitchen for some water.
I wasn’t sure why it was so hard to be around him. It had been Mom, Chase, and me for so long. Part of me resented Larry for changing our dynamic.
Mom was in the kitchen tidying up the counters. Her auburn hair was tied in a disheveled braid, stray strands escaping. She hit me with one of her parental glares as I entered. “Can you not instigate with your brother today, Storm? It’s our first day here. Larry doesn’t need to listen to you two swear at each other.”
I searched the cupboards until I found the glasses. While filling my glass with water, I rolled my eyes, choosing not to engage with her. The kitchen windows looked out onto the back deck and the yard. A nice furniture set with a gas firepit overlooked a sprawling hot tub and a gazebo.
Movement to the left drew my gaze to the neighbor’s backyard. The fence was tall but not tall enough to keep me from seeing a large chunk of their yard. Not to mention the gorgeous guy lounging by their pool.
As I drank my water, I helped myself to an eyeful of my new neighbor. And did a double take. Dark brown hair with a blonde streak in front. Loads of tattoos covered his shirtless body. No fucking way. What kind of sick joke was fate playing on me here?
“Storm?” Mom’s tone sounded annoyed, like she’d repeated herself.
I spun around to face her. “What?”
“Can you please make sure to bring in the electronics from the back of my car? I don’t trust Chase to be as careful with those things.”
“Oh, yeah, sure, I’ll get them.” I couldn’t help but take another glance out the window.
Rebel stared at his phone while absently drinking from a frosty beer. I wondered if he went to Wintervale University. Not that it mattered when he lived right next door. How long could I possibly avoid him?
Chase and I were starting classes tomorrow. An upgrade from our former school across town. Not that there was a whole lot of town in Winter Grove. There was the good side, the bad side, and the fine line in the middle.
When I went out to Mom’s SUV to grab the laptops and stuff, I found Larry pulling the remaining boxes from the moving truck. As much as I hated to admit it, she’d scored a good one this time. Although anyone was better than my father. He’d bailed a few years after I was born. I barely knew him. Good riddance.
Larry had even offered to let Chase and me take the entire finished basement for ourselves. Since I’d rather sleep outside than share a space with my brother if I didn’t have to, I’d opted for one of the bedrooms upstairs. It was a huge room with its own bathroom and a balcony. So much better than listening to my brother entertain himself with fart jokes and video games.
Sweat broke out on my brow. The inside of the SUV was hot as hell. It wasn’t usually so hot this early into spring, although we’d had a mild winter. Being this close to Canada’s west coast meant all four seasons with some really great springs and summers.
After depositing my mom’s computer stuff in the living room, I escaped to my new bedroom upstairs. Lucky me. The balcony window looked out into the backyard and right into Rebel’s yard as well.
What were the odds of me living here and him not noticing? I guess if I stayed inside all the time and tried to avoid him out front. Our driveways were side by side.
I flopped down on my queen size bed, staring at the ceiling fan overhead. This wouldn’t be so bad if Rebel weren’t next door. A large room with a nice bed, a desk in the corner, and a walk in closet with more room than I even had clothes to fill. My personal goal was to move out on my own by the time I finished classes. Maybe sooner now that I knew who my neighbor was.
Feeling like I deserved a little reward for my hard work, I rolled off the bed and went to the closet. I dug through my shoulder bag until I found the small tin filled with perfectly rolled joints. Now the balcony would really come in handy.
Tucking a joint between my lips, I grabbed my lighter and let myself out onto the balcony. I was taking a risk here. A potentially stupid risk. Yet I couldn’t squash the excitement that zinged through me.
If Rebel looked up, he would see me. Did part of me want that? Was I seeking out trouble here? Surely he wouldn’t do something drastic to his own neighbor. The breeze caught my deep red hair, tossing it about my face. I shoved it back, tucking a lock behind my ear.
I leaned over the railing, finding the deck below me. A lattice panel covered in vines and flowers stretched up the side of the house next to my balcony. Pretty. If I’d been younger, it would have been perfect for sneaking out.
As I lit up my joint, I couldn’t help but sneak another peek at Rebel. Leaning on the balcony railing, I savored the tangy marijuana. Laying on the bed bingeing Netflix felt like a good way to wrap up this day.
Rebel set his phone down and stood up. He stretched his arms above his head, twisting from side to side. My mind flashed back to last night at the bar. To the way his hand felt around my throat. Ugh, don’t do that.
Wearing only basketball shorts, he rounded his pool, approaching the diving board. Puffing away, I watched him climb the stairs to the board. He walked out to the end of the board and paused.
That’s when he looked up, right at me. Our eyes locked across the distance. Fuck. After a long moment, Rebel raised a hand and flipped me the middle finger before diving into the water.