A Piece of Heaven (Allendale Four 1)

My fists balled into the bottom of my sleeves. “Justin and I are friends. Since pre-school. You know that.”

She nodded, her stupid frizzy hair bobbing along. “You and Eric were ‘friends’, too.” Her eyes dropped and she reached over and pushed my hood back. “That looks fun.”

My hand flew to the burn on my neck. I looked at the all-knowing smirk on Jennifer’s face and shifted my gaze to Eric. I thought he would defend me but instead, he had his own all-knowing smirk on his own face.

I tilted my head and plead, “Eric...”

He shrugged, basically throwing me under the bus, and said, “It was fun, Heaven, see you around.” He rounded the car and waved over Jennifer’s shoulder. Frozen in my spot, I watched as the two of them walked into school.

Chapter 4

Thankfully the school was abuzz with a different sort of energy that day. Every student was getting a school-issued laptop. We lined up alphabetically, shuffling through the library to sign the waivers agreeing to our end of the deal; any damage was our fault, any lost property was our fault, no porn, no games, nothing but homework and studying.

In theory, we couldn’t watch porn or play games due to the controls set on the devices, but by lunch word had traveled around school about the way to circumvent this. Seriously, my generation was smart, but they needed to use their powers for good and not evil.

The Fakestagram account said this was a long-shot.

Oliver cornered me at my locker after lunch, new laptop tucked under his arm. He touched the burn on my neck. I sighed and glanced over his shoulder. Jackson Hall stood behind him, watching me intently.

“Who told you?”

“Hayden.”

“Hayden? Why is Hayden talking about me?”

“He overheard Jennifer in Art. But that’s not the point. The point is, less than twenty-four hours after I tell you not to pull this crazy stunt, I get word you were in Eric’s shitty car and came out with a hickey.”

“It’s not a hickey.” I sighed, grabbing my book and slamming the locker door. “It’s a burn. I burned myself on my fucking hair straightener and for the record, I told him ‘no’, and that stupid skank Jennifer saw us together and blah, blah, blah, the rest is Allendale High history.”

His eyes dimmed, realizing he’d yelled at me for no reason. “What happened to Eric?”

I groaned. “The last time I saw him, he was getting high-fives in the hallway from Mark and Alex.”

“Assholes,” Jackson says. I’d almost forgotten he was there. You know, other than the fact he’s so handsome my hands had been sweating just knowing he was nearby.

Oliver nodded in agreement.

“I know.” I felt like a fool. I turned the corner to where we could have a little privacy. “Everyone really will think I’m a whore after this. What am I going to do?”

“Who cares?” Jackson asked.

“Umm...everyone, apparently.”

His gray eyes hold mine. “But do you?”

“No. I know I’m not a whore. Most virginal whore ever.”

Both boys stared at my admission. Jackson ran his hand through his hair.

What Oliver said next took me by surprise. “I hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but what you said yesterday gave me an idea. It’s risky and it may totally fail, but really, at this point, it may be the best way to handle it.”

I braced myself, already feeling the anxiety rising. “Okay, tell me...I’m ready.”

But, I wasn’

t ready. Not at all.

*