“Great. Lead the way,” I told her as I gave her a little pat on the butt. She opened the door to the nastiest bedroom I had ever seen. And I’m a guy. It was disgusting. She was going to need to look really fucking good to turn me on with that nasty smell invading my nose.

  “Sorry about the mess,” she said as she racked her hand across the bed, spilling clothes, and different foods onto the floor.

  “Umm, do you have a pet or something? I think it died.” Good God, the smell was awful.

  “You’re funny.” She laughed.

  “Yeah, look…you know what would be really fun since we have the place to ourselves?” I needed out of that room. Quickly.

  “What?” she asked placing a hand on her hip.

  “The couch. Let’s go back out to the couch.”

  “I like the sound of that,” she said sauntering over to me and slamming her mouth on mine. She was a little eager but she wasn’t a bad kisser. I walked us backwards until we were back in the living room then spun us around, before I lowered her onto the couch. I moved my mouth to her jaw then down her neck while my hand smoothed over her tits. They were big and I forgot all about the nasty bedroom.

  I quickly got rid of her T-shirt and panties, and I explored her body. As hot as she was, every time I would close my eyes a beautiful curly blonde girl would flash through my mind. I opened my eyes and stood up to remove my jeans. I needed to hurry this thing up and forget all about Mackenzie.

  Afterwards, I grabbed my clothes and started putting them on as quickly as I could. I wanted to get out of the disgusting house. The smell was starting to assault my nose again and I wanted to hurl.

  “Why don’t we forget about the party and stay here? My parents won’t be back until really late.”

  “Yeah, no. I gotta go. Got people to see.” Mackenzie. I wanted to see Mackenzie.

  “We see those people all the time.”

  I got up from the couch and walked to the door. “See ya,” I told her as I opened the door and left.

  I needed another shower.

  ***

  “I’d so tap that,” Kurt commented as some chick with her tits hanging out walked by. She was hot. I grabbed a beer from a cooler and hopped up on the tailgate of Austin’s truck. Field parties were a staple in our town, especially to kick off the school year.

  “What’s up with the sexy blonde you drove to school this morning? You get in her panties last night or something?” Kurt asked looking at me.

  “None of your fucking business.” Mackenzie was off limits to talk about. I still wasn’t sure why I wanted to be her friend or why I wanted to protect her, but I did. I definitely did after watching her wince when I had touched her arm. She didn’t think I had noticed, but in third period I saw it was bruised. After she admitted that her dad was a criminal, I had my suspicions on where the bruise came from. It made my blood fucking boil.

  “Shit, Hayes, you got feelings for the girl?” Kurt asked laughing.

  “Shut the fuck up,” I said eyeing him then taking a drink of my beer.

  “Speaking of the devil, isn’t that her with Miranda over there?” he pointed.

  I looked to my right and Mackenzie was standing next to a couple of guys and Miranda Clark. Mackenzie looked fucking gorgeous with shorts that were way too short, exposing her long legs. Her shirt was skintight and showed off her perfect tits. I needed to get her out of my system, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to use her and I didn’t want to end our new friendship.

  “Later, dumbasses,” I announced as I sauntered over to a crowd of girls. It was just a detour before I found my way to Mackenzie.

  “Hayes,” I heard as an arm draped itself around me. I looked over to see Bianca. Shit! Earlier was coming back to bite my ass. Some girls just didn’t get it. Just because I slept with them once didn’t mean I wanted them for anything else.

  “Bianca,” I said removing her arms, which made her pout. It wasn’t going to work on me. I leaned in close, making a smile break out on her lips. I whispered in her ear, “Earlier meant nothing. You were a good time. Nothing else.” I leaned back and grinned before I walked over to another crowd.

  I flirted with different girls and joked with some guys before I finally found myself standing next to Mackenzie. She had to be the hottest girl there. Bianca was hot but Mackenzie was way better. She had brains to go along with the body.

  “Hey, Mac. How’s it going?” I said pulling her into me for a friendly hug. She smelled so good. I had no idea what she smelled like but it was fucking amazing.

  “Hi, Hayes.” She grinned and I found myself doing the same.

  “Enjoying the party?”

  “Yeah. Miranda’s introducing me to everyone. I probably won’t remember anybody’s name on Monday though.”

  “As long as you remember mine.” I winked. “Miranda will be a good friend. She isn’t someone that you want to piss off though. I’ve seen her beat some ass before, but that also means that if you’re her friend, she’ll beat ass for you too.”

  “Good to know. Don’t piss Miranda off. Oh and thanks for the job,” she said.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked even though I already knew. I had went to Jan’s Diner at lunch and talked to the owner, Jan, about Mackenzie.

  “Don’t give me that. As soon as I walked in, Jan asked if I was Mackenzie and when I said yes, she said that you had already told her about me and that I had the job.”

  “Oh that?” I smirked.

  “Yes that. Thank you.”

  “You, my friend, are very welcome.”

  “Hayes Morgan you better not be flirting with her!” Miranda yelled.

  I laughed and held up my hands. “I’m just talking to Mac. No need to get mad.” I looked at Mackenzie, “See? She’ll protect you.”

  “That’s right, I will. Protect her from man whores like you. Or should I say boy whores?”

  “Oh, I’m all man, baby,” I told her with a cocky grin.

  “Just leave her alone.” She turned to Mackenzie, “Don’t let this one fool you. Behind all those good looks is a S.O.B.”

  Mackenzie looked over at me with a huge smile on her face. “Noted. Hayes Morgan is a S.O.B.”

  “Aww, Mac, you can’t believe her. Miranda secretly loves me.” I pulled Mackenzie in for another hug and inhaled her scent. I couldn’t stop myself from touching her. I leaned in close, “Do you see that white truck over there?” She nodded. “Meet me there in thirty minutes.” She pulled back to search my face. “Just trust me.”

  I walked away to grab another beer. I was headed for Carson when Bianca moved in front of me. “Why are you being such a jerk?”

  “I’m not,” I told her while I kept walking.

  She grabbed my arm to spin me around. “You think you can just sleep with me and that’s it?”

  “Yeah, I do,” I informed her. She was really starting to piss me off. “Get it through your fucking head. I don’t want you. You were an okay lay and now I have no need for you!” I yelled at her louder than what was necessary.

  She burst out in tears. “I hate you Hayes Morgan!”

  “Okay,” I answered. I wasn’t sure what she expected me to say. I didn’t care about her in any way, shape, or form. Call me an ass, but at least I was truthful.

  She ran away sobbing and I turned back around. I definitely needed that beer. I walked over to where Carson and Austin were still sitting on Austin’s tailgate. “That was hilarious!” Austin laughed.

  “It was a little rude. Was it really necessary?” Sam asked. Carson and Sam had been dating on and off since we were freshman. By the looks of things, I was guessing tonight was an “on” night.

  “It actually was. I had already told her that earlier tonight had meant nothing to me. Why can’t she understand she was just sex? What’s so hard to understand about that?”

  “You’re such an ass, Hayes. But for some reason I still love you.”

  “You love Hayes? I thought you loved me?” Carson said while copping a feel.

  She giggled before giving him a kiss. “You know I love you too.”

  All the talk about love was making me want to vomit. I looked across the field and immediately found Mackenzie talking to some guy. I felt a rage inside of me I had never felt before. I wanted to go over there and beat his ass. What the hell is wrong with me?

  “I’ll catch you love birds later,” I told them as I walked back to my Jeep to grab a flashlight and clear my head. I was about to spend some alone time with Mackenzie and I needed to calm down. So what that she was talking to another guy? She wasn’t my girlfriend. Hell, she was barely my friend. And I had just slept with some other girl a few hours ago.

  I grabbed my flashlight then walked next to the white truck I had told Mackenzie to meet at. She was already waiting so I took a moment to take her in. Her blonde curly hair almost gave her an innocent vibe but that didn’t stop me from thinking she was gorgeous.

  I crept up behind her then hugged her from behind which surprised her. “It’s just me. Sorry.”

  “What the hell?” she asked turning around.

  I pulled her close to me, pushing some hair behind her ear. “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. You ready?”

  “Should I be scared? You’re taking me off in the woods by myself.”

  She had a point. “I promise you shouldn’t be scared. I just want to show you something.” I held out my hand, which she reluctantly took. My night had just gotten better. I was getting alone time with my new favorite person and she wasn’t talking to some other asshole.

  Chapter 5

  Mackenzie

  I felt safe being with Hayes, but I also knew what I was doing was a little dumb. I mean, I barely knew him and I was going off into the woods alone with him at dark. After we had walked about ten feet, he turned the flashlight on. “I’ll walk slowly. Just hold my hand.”

  “Why didn’t you want anyone to know what we were doing?” I asked as I tried to maneuver over broken branches and rocks.

  “Because I wanted to be alone with you and I wanted to show you something. I think you’ll like it.”

  His words made my stomach flutter. “Okay. I still don’t understand why we had to sneak around though.”

  He stopped and turned to me. “Look, Mac, I’m not normally friends with girls. I sleep with girls. That’s it. People see us going into the woods together, they’ll think that we’re having sex. I don’t want people thinking that about you. Okay?”

  I didn’t really know how to feel. I wanted to feel a little sick because he just admitted he sleeps with a lot of girls, but I also wanted to feel special because he wanted to be friends with me. But did that mean that I wasn’t attractive enough to sleep with? I was too ugly for that so he had just placed me into the friend category? Instead of replying, I nodded.

  He turned around, squeezing my hand and began walking again. After walking for a little bit longer, the trees thinned out and we walked onto a big, flat rock. With the help of the flashlight, it looked like we were on top of a small hill.

  “My buddy, Kurt—his dad owns this land. We used to come out here and camp when we were younger. Lie down.”

  “What?” What the hell had I gotten myself into?

  “No! Shit that didn’t come out right. Just lie down. I’m not going to attack you or force you to have sex with me.”

  “Umm, okay,” I replied as I gently sat down.

  Hayes sat down next to me then put his arm around my shoulder as we leaned back. “Look up,” he whispered.

  The night sky was gorgeous with thousands of little, white twinkling stars. I turned my head to face him. “This is what you wanted to show me?”

  “Yeah.”

  I looked back up at the sky, but I could feel Hayes staring at me. “It’s gorgeous.”

  “Breathtaking,” he replied before he placed a gentle kiss on my cheek. “I wanted to show you something almost as breathtaking as you.”

  My heart stopped then started racing at his words. He had just called me breathtaking. I wasn’t sure what to say so I cuddled up closer to him instead. He squeezed me tighter to his side as we lay there for several minutes.

  “This is so peaceful. I need to do this more often,” I told him.

  “Why don’t we make this a weekly thing? We can come out here at least once a week. It’ll be our thing.”

  “That sounds perfect.”

  “Busy on Saturday nights?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “Now you are. You’re my date every Saturday night.”

  I was thankful for the darkness because I couldn’t contain the huge smile that spread across my face at his words. I was his date every Saturday night. I knew it was nothing. We were just friends but I still felt happy.

  ***

  I felt a finger stroking my cheek. “Hey,” he whispered in my ear. “Hey, Mac, you gotta wake up. You fell asleep.”

  I opened my eyes. “What?”

  “You fell asleep. We better get back before Miranda comes looking for you and punches me.”

  “How long have I been out?” I asked as I sat up.

  “Maybe thirty minutes. You looked really peaceful so I let you sleep. I couldn’t find your phone or I would’ve texted Miranda and made something up.”

  “Um, I don’t have a phone.”

  “We’ll need to fix that. Soon,” he said. What the hell did that mean?

  I got up and dusted myself off then took Hayes’s hand. He gently squeezed it and I followed him along the path we had originally taken.

  “Random question. Which bedroom is yours?” he asked.

  “The one at the front of the trailer. Why?”

  He laughed. “Just in case I need to know.”

  I laughed as well. “I have no clue what to say to that.”

  He pulled me closer to him and draped his arm around me. “Why don’t you just lie to Miranda and come home with me?”

  Holy shit that sounds like such a good idea! “I can’t. I have to get home. My dad will freak if I’m not home by midnight.”

  “You only have an hour then,” he said looking at the ground.

  “I guess I better make this hour fun then, huh?” I asked as we walked up to the area we had met at by the white truck.

  He leaned in, kissing my cheek. “I guess you better.”

  I watched him walk toward his friends while I composed myself. It may have only been a couple of kisses on the cheek, but I couldn’t help but feel like it was something more. I finally made my way over to Miranda who was talking to two guys. “Mackenzie, where have you been?”

  “I, uh, just needed some alone time,” I told her. Hayes was right. If I said that I’d been alone with him, she’d assume we’d had sex. Not that having sex with Hayes would be bad, it’d probably be amazing. I just didn’t want to start off at a new school with everyone thinking I’d had sex at the first party I attended.

  “I want you to meet someone.” She pointed to a guy. “This is Jace.”

  He had light brown hair and gave off a hipster look with his skinny jeans and faint beard. He was cute even though he wasn’t my normal type. “Hi, I’m Mackenzie.”

  “I know who you are. It’s nice to finally meet you,” he replied.

  He knew who I was? I was normally the wallflower that nobody noticed. That’s how I liked it. “I’m going to leave you two to talk,” Miranda informed us as she walked away.

  “So, Mackenzie, how are you liking our little school?” he asked.

  “Good, I guess. I haven’t really been here long enough to tell.”

  “You’re already making friends so that’s a plus.” He smiled.

  “Not really. Miranda’s my only friend but I don’t really care.”

  “And Hayes. Right? He brought you to school this morning and I watched you talking to him earlier.”

  Watched me? “Um, I guess. We have a few classes together so we know each other.” I wasn’t sure why I didn’t really want to admit to my friendship with Hayes. Maybe it was because I didn’t want to seem like all the other girls that pined away for him.

  “Hayes doesn’t normally give rides to people that he has a few classes with.”

  He was starting to irritate me. “What are you getting at?”

  “Look, I just want to know if it would be appropriate to ask you out or if Hayes will kick my ass for it later.”

  “Oh.”

  “So?”

  Did I want him to ask me out? He was definitely cute and I knew that even though I was friends with Hayes it would never be anything more. “It would be appropriate.”

  “Great. Can I have your number and we can set it up?”

  “I don’t have one,” I told him sheepishly.

  “Mackenzie, we gotta go,” Miranda yelled at me.

  “I better go. I’ll talk to you later?”

  He tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. “Yeah, I’ll just talk to you at school on Monday.”

  “Perfect,” I told him before turning to leave. I walked up to Miranda where she was standing with a couple of girls. I tuned out their conversation and made eye contact with Hayes. His lips curled up into a sexy grin that made my insides clench. God, he’s hot. The way he was looking at me, he knew it. He knew he was God’s gift to women and he used it to his advantage.

  I needed to forget about him and focus on the cute guy that wanted to take me on a date. Jace. Jace was cute but he didn’t make my heart race or set off butterflies in my stomach. Maybe that would just come with time? I didn’t know but I needed to find out.

  I started to walk away as Hayes lifted his hand slightly and gave me a small wave. I waved back then followed Miranda to her pickup.

  “Did you have fun?”

  “Yeah, I did. I wasn’t really expecting to since parties aren’t really my thing, but I had a lot of fun.”

  “Where did you and Hayes sneak off to?”

  Shit! “Huh?” I asked giving my best perplexed look. Hopefully she’d believe it.

  “Cut the crap. I know you and Hayes snuck off together. I won’t say anything.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21