Slipping - Book 1.5 in the Swans Landing series

Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

“Are you even listening to me?”

I looked up from the plate of mashed potatoes and gravy that I had barely touched. I didn’t like cafeteria food much, and today I was even less hungry than usual.

“What?” I asked.

Elizabeth Connors let out a loud sigh. At the other end of the table, everyone else was laughing and talking as usual. Kyle McCutcheon and Gabe Winters were tossing potato chips across the table at each other. I didn’t really sit with them, I just sat at a table that they occupied. It was all part of the image I had to build for myself as a normal high school student, nothing that made me any different than the rest of the people in the room.

“I asked if you wanted to come out on my daddy’s boat with us this weekend,” Elizabeth said. “He said he’ll drive us over to Portsmouth, and then we can ride ATVs around for a while until he comes back to pick us up later.”

Portsmouth Island was uninhabited. A few buildings from the old village that used to be there still stood for tourists to view. I’d been on these boat trips with Elizabeth and her friends before. Her dad owned a nice boat, The Lizzie, and he made his living on the water, like most other people in Swans Landing did.

Mostly, the trips out to Portsmouth Island were meant as an excuse for everyone to hook up away from their parents’ prying eyes. I knew why Elizabeth wanted me to come, why she had tried to get me to come every time lately. She had tried to kiss me the last time I took the trip with her. I’d managed to avoid it then. Going back would make her think something could happen between us.

And it wasn’t that Elizabeth wasn’t hot. I’d noticed the way her hips and thighs curved under the fabric of her tight jeans, the way her shirts stretched across her chest. I’d have to be blind not to notice.

Even though I admired the view, I didn’t want to get any closer. I had been tempted, any guy would be tempted. Sometimes I thought maybe I should sleep with Elizabeth like any other normal guy in this school would and get it over with. It was all part of keeping up the right appearance. Why not take advantage of it?

But as hot as she was, Elizabeth still wasn’t my type.

My gaze drifted to a spot across the room where I had tried not to look. Mara sat with Sailor and Sailor’s friend Dylan Waverly. I gritted my teeth together.

“No, thanks,” I answered Elizabeth. “I have some things I have to do this weekend.”

Elizabeth pursed her lips together, then she tossed her hair over her shoulder and leaned against Kyle’s arm. She lifted her lips to his ear to whisper something, which made him raise his eyebrows and grin at her.

Elizabeth was much more Kyle’s type, and he was hers. She really didn’t know me at all, and if she did, she wouldn’t like what she found. Everyone knew Elizabeth’s dad was the biggest enemy to the finfolk on the island.

I’d had enough of pretending to eat. As I stood, Elizabeth looked up at me.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“I have to see Mr. Richter,” I mumbled. That was true. I did need to talk to the school guidance counselor, but mostly I just needed to get away.

Mr. Richter opened the door with a huge smile when I knocked. “Josh, come in,” he said, stepping back to allow me to enter the small office. I had been seeing Mr. Richter for the last two years pretty regularly. He took his job as school guidance counselor very seriously. I got the feeling that he often thought of himself as more of a therapist than a guidance counselor.