My Ex From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy, #1)

What doesn't kill you makes you seriously doubt your sanity (Part 1)

I pivoted around to angrily confront whoever had just wrecked the best moment of my life with a sucker-punch to Kai's pretty face.

"Theo?" I asked, astounded.

His actions smacked of jealousy, but that was so not Theo's M.O. Not over me, anyhow. Theo (to clarify) was gay. In theory. There'd never been a real guy I'd seen him crush on, but the selection available here at Hope Park was hardly stellar. If he'd been jealous over gorgeous Kai, he would have punched me. So no idea what his deal was.

Other games were at play here and while I seemed to be a participant, I was clueless about the end goal.

I turned to check on Kai. He was gingerly rubbing his jaw but didn't seem to have suffered any major damage. I had to know what was going on. Why did I think I'd had a relationship with Kai before? Why was Theo so mad? How could I get more of those kisses? Suckily, I never got a chance to ask.

"Stay. Away. From. Her." Theo spat out. He grabbed my hand and with a strength I wouldn't have thought he possessed, forced me back over the fence with him, onto the school grounds.

To be fair (and yes, I was shallow enough to be thrilled by it), Kai tried to get me back. But when he reached the fence, Theo yelled something at him in some language I didn't know he knew and certainly didn't recognize.

Whatever he said stopped Kai dead in his tracks.

"This isn't over," he called back to Theo.

I caught a final glimpse of him kicking the fence in anger before Theo's sprint forced me to pay attention or risk breaking a leg.

"Ow! Let go, you psycho," I gritted out at him as my ankle bumped painfully over a rock. "You're damaging the goods."

Theo refused to speak to me until he'd shoved me into my room with seconds to spare before bed check. Since juniors and seniors were allowed to stay at the dance until midnight, bed check had been extended from our regular 11pm curfew to 1am.

He pushed me backward onto my bed, with its very excellent thread count. Felicia didn't stint on the linens.

Hannah was staring wide-eyed at the two of us. "Mommy, Daddy, please don't fight."

"Stay," he ordered me.

"I'm not a dog," I shot back at him.

"Too bad for me," he muttered and stalked out.

I glanced at Hannah. "Did I miss something at the dance? Who peed in his cornflakes?"

"No idea. One minute we're doing rock paper scissors to see who'll go get you for bed check and hopefully ruin any fun you're having for being a total monkey butt and ditching us, and the next he storms out. What did you do to him?"

"Nothing."

"You must have done something." She looked at me eagerly. "Let's back up and go into great detail. Did you meet Mr. Stud?"

"Yes." I pulled my pjs out from under my pillow and slipped into them.

"And?"

"I am no longer a crush virgin." I crawled under my comfy blue comforter and lay back against the matching sheets.

"You didn't!" Hannah practically bolted up.

Our guidance counselor Mrs. Rivers poked her head in. "Girls, I know it's been a very exciting night but at least pretend to sleep."

We smiled at her. She was one of our cooler staff. "Sure thing, Mrs. R," I replied.

"Good-night," she said, and shut our door.