Please note, this story is told using a nonlinear timeline. Their past helps understand who they are in the future.
Megan sat in the library alone during her study hall. She was serious about school and her schedule was demanding. Her best class was AP US History and Mr. Conrad was her favorite teacher. Her friends were of a similar mind as her and popular was not a word used to describe them. They took part in activities, but service clubs, band, and chorus were more their style. A few were in theater and one played field hockey. Mari was their token athlete. Only Jen was different because her talents were in art more than academics. Still she and Megan had been friends forever and she fit in with the rest. Jen tried in school, but it just didn't come as easy for her.
It surprised her the day that Peter Brenner sat down at her table. Peter or Bren, as his friends called him, was smart, but not studious. Megan had always envied his type. He was one that didn't study or put in the work, but earned A on every test.
"I'm not sure why I signed up to be tortured by Conrad."
She looked up in disbelief at him sitting across from her. "I love his class."
"He's interesting, but it's a lot of reading."
"Oh, so that's it you will actually have to put some effort in."
"What did you get on that first test?"
"A ninety-two, but I studied for two days. What about you?"
"I only got an eighty-eight, but I didn't study."
"I study so hard. It's not fair," she complained.
"I'll have to start studying. Not that I'll know where to begin."
"I'll help you with history if you help me in chemistry?" Megan couldn't believe she suggested it.
Peter Brenner was smart, but he was also popular and an athlete. He was the star goalie for both soccer and lacrosse. He was good looking too with his dark brown hair that he kept cut rather short where a lot of the boys wore theirs long and shaggy. He had blue eyes that were hard not to notice. What Megan had recently noticed was his legs. He was sticking his legs out from under the desk in Conrad's class and she realized they looked like the legs of a man - long, strong and covered with light brown hair.
Megan had been in school with Peter on and off since second grade. She always remembered the day their second grade teacher, Mrs. Phillips, had to console him. The class was making father's day presents, but as they all learned through his distress, his father had left and wasn't coming back.
'Left', Megan didn't understand that a parent could leave. Her father went away on business, but he always came home. Not only did he come home, but he brought presents for her, her brother and her mother. He called her things like, "my princess" or "my favorite girl." At seven she couldn't understand how a father could leave and that sad boy had left a lasting memory on her. He gave his Father's Day project to the school custodian who all the students loved.
Through the years Megan picked up little pieces of information that made up her impression of Peter Brenner. She knew his mother worked multiple jobs including at one time McDonald's which, as a ten-year-old, she thought was really cool. She knew that he, his mother, and two sisters lived at Pineledge, a large apartment complex that seemed to be where all the divorce parents in town lived.
It was in eighth grade that Megan went through a period of hating Peter. Her father may treat her like a princess, but he had high expectations for her academically. She worked extremely hard to get good grades and Peter, who was once again in the same classes as her, would stroll in for every test and comment something like, "Oh right, test today," and then beat her score by one or two points. She was pretty sure his mother was too busy working to put pressure on him to get good grades. She was angry and jealous, because he had the grades with none of the effort or pressure.
Here they were with their schedules overlapping again and he finally needed to study. Justice was being served, she thought secretly. So it began that they met in the library every fifth period and seventh as well when they didn't have chemistry lab. They would study together or occasionally even edit the other's English essay. Individually they had their own academic strengths and sharing them, made them each a better student.
One day, Megan waited for him during fifth period and he never came. When she walked into chemistry the next period, she marched up to him. "Where were you? I had to finish my lab report without you."
They had also become lab partners which suited Megan just fine as science was her weakest subject and his strongest.
"Sorry I finished mine last night. I went to the weight room to hang out with coach."
"Will you make sure I drew my compounds correctly?"
He took her paper and looked at it. He suggested one change and Mr. Shaughnessy called for everyone to take their seats.
After class, Peter handed her a note. Jen and Mari came rushing over to Megan and asked what it said. Her friends were all convinced that Peter would ask her to the Homecoming Dance. They really weren't even friends, she thought, well almost, but not quite. The note said:
Hey sorry for skipping out on library. Here's my cell, call and give me yours. Next time, I'll call you.
"He gave you his number!" Mari said.
"It's nothing." Turning to Jen she said, "Come on. Let's go home."
Later at home, Megan entered his number into her phone. She called him because she knew he would still be at practice and left a message.
YOU ARE READING
Shattered Hearts (TP1)
Romance(Complete) Peter isn't prepared for the reality of another man spending the night with his ex. He should be, but his heart has never let her go. Peter, who was abandoned by his father as a young boy, will do anything for his kids. He won't stop unt...
