She was small, blonde, pretty. Beautiful, really. She walked with a straight back and a raised chin like she was ready to own the world. She dressed conservatively and piled her hair on the top of her head in a messy bun like she couldn’t be bothered to style herself.
I drifted in her wake, keeping my distance.
I’d seen her a thousand times over the last three years, but I always kept my distance. I didn’t want her to know who I was. I didn’t want her to realize what my family name meant.
Pretty little Ashleigh. Ash, to all her friends.
She walked fast, hips swaying. I felt half hard, watching her ass. I shouldn’t have been this excited, but for some reason I couldn’t help myself.
She was everything.
My future. My past. She was the reason I came to Blackwoods and the reason I was going to throw away my senior year.
For revenge.
Ash reached a group of her friends and I hung back. Any one of them might call out and drag me over. They were members of a student society, one of the powerful but secretive groups that operated in the shadows at Blackwoods. I’d been to their parties, fucked their friends, did their drugs.
All to keep within striking distance of Ash.
She looked over her shoulder, like she knew I was watching. I didn’t look away. In the past, I would have.
This time, I had nothing to hide.
I smiled. She looked confused, brushed a stray piece of hair behind an ear, and smiled back. Her friends laughed and someone whispered something that made her blush.
“Oh, Ash,” I said quietly to myself. “I can’t wait to kill you.”