Nico Vaughan, the junior class "Nice Girl" wants to be free from her abusive and obsessive ex-boyfriend.
Valen Henford, the school's resident "Rich Guy meets Bad Boy" wants to spend his senior year with the girl he's been in love with for years.
W...
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"When you rang me at truly shocking hours of the night, I loved you. When you kissed me in disgusting public toilets and pouted in hotel bars and made me happy in ways in which it had never even occurred to me that a mangled-up, locked-up person like me could be happy, I loved you.
And then, inexplicably, you had the absolute audacity to love me back. Can you believe it?" (Casey McQuiston).
|◁ II ▷|
The Alien drives off without me like it has for the past two weeks. What did I do? Surely this isn't all just because of Sam. I don't even like Sam as a friend anymore!
I've tried calling, texting, showing up at her house...
It's like I've deeply offended her, somewhere past Sam, and I don't understand how to fix it.
But, it isn't going to ruin my day. I hop in West's car and turn up my seventies jam playlist, needing some music.
"Well, someone's excited," West voices as he pulls out of the parking lot. "About the game or the party tonight?"
"Both," I decide, letting my lips curve up. "I know we're gonna win tonight, and I'm excited to dance tonight."
West chuckles. "And excited to see Valen play and to hang out with him at the party?"
"What?" I defend. "We're friends. I can be excited for that, too."
"Mhm."
As soon as West parks, I run inside the house, hoping to escape his questioning. Even if I decide I'm ready to date Valen for real, I do not want West questioning me about him. It's weird.
I carefully pull the dress Valen bought me from the top of my closet. I open the fancy box carefully, making sure to keep everything nice. This is a dress I'll treasure forever, and it's one I'll probably hand down to my own kids one day.
I carefully take part of the black fabric in my hand, studying the dress with a smile. I gently pull the dress out of the box and hold it up to myself. The neckline is low, but I don't have boobs enough for it to show any full curves of my chest. I study the slight bunching of the fabric along the top, and I turn the dress around to study the lower back.
I know it's gonna be kind of tight on my butt, but I'm hoping I can get out the door without West giving me any speeches about pretty girls and obnoxious boys. Even when I was with Hunter, I always got speeches telling me to be careful. The more "scandalous" the dress, the longer the speech and more emphasis on safety.
