SEQUEL TO CHECKMATE. However, you can read this as a stand-alone spin-off, BUT it will make so much more sense if you read Checkmate first.
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To put it briefly, Zedd is a homophobic asshole. His popularity is largely thanks to being a soccer jock...
Also, I'd like to credit my awesome friend @DrillBurger for letting me borrow one of his characters. For those of you who have read Can't Stay Tranquil (I very much recommend it), the new boy in Secrets is a parallel-universe version of the one and only Mason Chafer. If you don't know him, don't worry, it won't impact the story at all. I have simply borrowed the name, face and general description. However, I do recommend my friend's book. 😊
INTRODUCING THE NEWCOMER: MASON CHAFER
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Holy macaroni can I have a piece of that 🥵😍😉
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Zedd
I trudged into school feeling like shit. I'd woken early because I was cold and realised that I was still on top of the covers. I'd fallen asleep faster than I had realised. I quickly snuggled under the covers before realising that I had also forgotten to brush my teeth, and although I was feeling lazy, I didn't want to ruin my white smile and so dashed to the bathroom to get the job done. Sure it was probably useless doing it the next morning but it made me feel better. It felt like only minutes after I had finally gotten under the covers before my alarm clock started blaring and in my hurry to slam the snooze button, it fell off my bedside table. I lunged out of bed to get it and miscalculated, ending up on the floor. So yeah, a great start to the day.
Then, when I was getting dressed, I accidentally banged my cheek and in a flash of pain, last night's fiasco came back to me. One look in the mirror confirmed my worst suspicions. There was no way I could hide it. The bruise stretched along my left cheekbone like someone had gotten a purply-blue paintbrush and painted along the line of my cheekbone. And it hurt like a bitch to smile (not that I did that very often) or move much of my face.
I wore a navy hoodie with the hood up as I walked through the bustling awaking school, hoping to at least not draw too much attention to my face. I didn't have any classes with my friends that morning which was lucky as the majority of my classmates just whispered among themselves when they saw my bruise but were too scared to confront me about it. I sat at the back of class, alone and brooding and all too soon it was lunchtime and I knew that I'd have to face my friends. Which, now that I thought about, I hadn't talked to since the fight yesterday lunchtime where I made Julie cry. Great. My mood dropped even lower, if that was possible.
I grabbed my lunch and walked over to our usual table, prepared for a shitty time. I didn't realise that things would get so much worse. I'd heard rumours of course, that the new guy had started today, something Chafer was his name, and all the girls were gushing over his looks. But I had yet to meet him. When I did, I immediately wished I'd never did. I wished that he'd never got that fucking scholarship. That he'd never thought of moving to our school. And never thought of fucking sitting with us. But let me back up and explain.
