Bad Girls Page 17

  Mrs. Ryder choked out an audible sob as she leaned into her husband’s hold. Swallowing a bile in my throat, I continued.

  “About a month back, I found out why. He didn’t tell me about his…condition. I found out because I snuck into his house.” I laughed a little, blinking back the tears that were already forming in my eyes. “He had to come clean with me then. I practically scolded him sore for that. He didn’t want to hurt me. And he thought by hurting me then, he wouldn’t hurt me now. He’s an idiot.”

  “As cheesy as it sounds, he is my idiot of a best friend. After all that happened, we still remained best friends because truly, no one can ever blame him for what he did. He cared about me, about everyone around him in his own little way that isn’t obvious to the others. That’s a quality that I love about him, I guess. Just how caring he is. I once thought he had a heart of ice, but the truth is he only had a heart of gold underneath that layer of falsity he had placed for strangers to see.”

  From afar, I could see Wesley nodding his head in support, flashing me a brief smile as if urging me to continue.

  “I can go on for days about his good qualities, probably even write a thousand-page essay about what a wonderful friend he is, but I will not. Call me selfish, but I don’t want to share him with anyone else. I want him to be forever inside my memory, our memories together to only belong to us and not a random stranger who came across it. Those memories mean so much to me. He meant so much to me.”

  I took in a shaky breath, playing with my necklace that held the gumball machine plastic ring. “You know what was one of the last few things he told me? He said that Satan needed him. He meant it as a joke, but he was so so, so wrong. He wouldn’t be looking up at us from down under the earth. He would be looking down, from the clouds watching over us.

  “It was a short thirteen or so years that I knew him, but they were the best years. And they will always be. He created an oasis for me in the middle of the desert of my life, and for that, I’m forever thankful.”

  I stepped away from the microphone to face the coffin where Blake rested. He laid there, the lid still not yet down. He was dressed in a nice fitting tux, a serene look on his pale face. At that moment, he was etched in an image of peace for the rest of eternity. Knowing that this image of him would never be burned from my mind no matter how much I tried, I fiddled with my charm bracelet and detached a charm. A single key with a heart design.

  Whenever he saw my bracelet back when we were still an item, he had always joked about how I was the key to his heart. I had not worn it for a long time because of how much it reminded me of him. Placing the charm into his cold hand, I took a step back and wiped a tear away.

  “You’ll always be one of the keys to mine, Blake.”

  ***

  The rest of the day passed by quickly, a few students from our school coming up to the stage to give a few words. What made me want to gag was the fact that none of them were even close to being friends with Blake, yet they acted as if they knew each other for their whole lives. They kept going on about what a great friend he was, and how he would be missed dearly by everyone around.

  Bullshit.

  They didn’t even talk to him in the hallways of the school. At most, they would only notice his disappearance for about a week or so before they go back to their original lives.

  Yet I knew that I, on the other hand, could never go back to my original life now.

  I smiled slightly when Wesley rested his hand on my shoulder, sparing me a comforting smile before pulling me into his embrace. Breathing in his cologne, I sighed against his chest, closing my eyes for a bit and allowing my emotions to run free.

  “It’s okay to cry, you know,” Wesley whispered, stroking my hair gently as I wrapped my arms tighter around him.

  “He wouldn’t like it.” Licking my dry lips, I pulled away and let Wesley grab hold of both my hands, pulling me along with him.

  “He wouldn’t like you grieving as well,” Wesley whispered, combing a stray strand of my hair back.

  “I know,” I mumbled in reply, rubbing my hands together.

  “Hey, I know something that can cheer you up.” Wesley suddenly beamed, causing me to look up at him with an eyebrow raised.

  “What?”

  “I overheard—”

  “You mean you got the information out from beating someone up,” I interrupted, and Wesley rolled his eyes dramatically.

  “Yeah, whatever. Anyways, the word on the street is that Charlotte Brooke is in a nuthouse getting treatment.”

  “What? You’re not joking, right?” My eyes widened at the news.

  “Not for a second. She has a short-circuited wire in her brain. The cops took her in after her own parents placed her in the mental institution. The bright side is that you’ll never have to see her again.”

  “The first good news all month long,” I whispered more to myself than to Wesley, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.

  I didn’t argue when Wesley pulled me into his chest again, wrapping his arms around mine and resting his chin on my head as well. I breathed in the smell of his intoxicating cologne, sighing in relief.

  Like I said before, someone once said that good girls are just bad girls that haven’t been caught.

  And Charlotte was finally caught.

  Epilogue

  “Where are we going?” I could already feel my heart jumping out of my chest as Wesley led me through wherever we were at. I could hear the sound of laughter and countless chatter all around me, but I couldn’t seem to pinpoint where I was at. “Can I take it off yet?” I tugged slightly at the blindfold, only to have Wesley slap my hand playfully away.

  “No peeking, princess. It’s meant to be a surprise.”

  “I swear, Wesley, if this is some birthday celebration, I will cut off your nuts and make you eat them. You know I hate celebrating my birthday, especially after…” I thought about what happened exactly one year ago.

  “Stop making wild guesses and have a little trust on your boyfriend, will you?” I could hear the smirk in his voice, and an image of that devilishly handsome smirk soon followed in my mind. “There, now you can take it off.”

  I waited patiently as I felt Wesley’s hands untying the knot of the bandanna he used as a blindfold, and I breathed out slowly in anticipation. At first, I squinted slightly at the sudden burst of light, then I peeked open, only to notice the huge castle structure in front of me. I know I keep saying that I don’t like parties, especially birthday celebrations, but this was way too thought-out to hate.

  “You didn’t,” I breathed, smiling as I noticed a few close friends and family crowded around the area, all waiting with huge grins on their faces.

  “I did. Are you still going to feed me my own balls?” Wesley shrugged, wrapping his arms around me and resting his chin on my shoulder.

  “Still deciding on that.” I laughed as our friends started to move closer toward us, Winnie raising her hand and waving around like a mad woman.

  “When you two lovebirds are done, come find us at the carousel!” she hollered, cupping her hands over her mouth to project her voice. I gave her a nod and a wave before she dashed off to join William and Peter.

  “Thanks, Wesley,” I mumbled, still grinning as I turned around and took his hand in mine, slowly pulling him toward the castle. “You really didn’t have to, but I appreciate this so much. Make sure you know that.”

  “Only the best for my princess. Happy birthday, beautiful,” he murmured under his breath, snaking an arm around my waist to pull me closer toward him before placing a kiss on the top of my head.

  “You’re such a bad, bad boy, you know? Lying to me and all that,” I teased, glancing at his arm before looking back at him.

  “Only because you’re my bad girl.” He laughed in return, making my heart flutter as an unrestrained smile filled my features.

  I’ll always be the bad girl to your bad boy, Wes. That’s what we, as girls, are.

  Bad
girls. The whole lot of us.

  The End

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  Chapter 1

  There’s something oddly satisfying about sitting at my desk and seeing the same pencil-written letter K that’s scrawled in the upper right corner. There’s always a nice feeling of familiarity to it. When I sit at my desk again today, it’s not there. The desk seems to be wiped clean; the pencil marks and eraser shavings are nowhere in sight. This bothers me. I like familiarity, and now this desk doesn’t even seem like it’s mine anymore. Even though I didn’t write the K in the first place, I became accustomed to seeing it.

  Familiarity always seems to get me through the long school days. It might bother other people to see the same thing and the same people over and over again, but it soothes me. Change is something I don’t like.

  It’s like walking down the hallways of Fairfield High and seeing the same groups of people standing in the middle of the hallway like they don’t have a class to get to in the next three minutes. This is the familiarity of high school. Every day, I hear people talking about last weekend’s party, the homework they had to cram on Sunday night, and who’s hooking up with whom. I push past these people to make it to class on time. Grades are all that matters to me right now. I don’t play any sports, so I can’t depend on my athletic ability to get me into a decent college. I want to get the hell out of this town, and I have to work hard to do it.

  Jesus, I am a nerd.

  I waltz into my last class of the day, and I pray time will go by quickly. Exhaustion has taken over my body, and I just want to go home and lay on my bed. Thankfully, class goes by swiftly, and I’m soon gathering my things. My teacher, Mrs. Clarke, stops me on my way out and hands me a book she thinks I’ll like. I thank her and walk home. I’ve never bothered my mom for a car. My house is within walking distance from the school, and I never go anywhere outside of school, so what’s the point?

  As I round a corner, I open the book Mrs. Clarke has given me. I start to read the first chapter. When I hear footsteps behind me, I don’t think anything of it. But the footsteps increase in speed and sound like they’re getting closer. Before I can turn around to investigate, I’m knocked to the ground, and my book falls out of my hands onto the side of the road.

  “What the hell?” I say as I frantically stand up to dust myself off. My only injury is the scratch on my forearm. No blood seems to be gushing anywhere, so I whirl around to face the person who knocked me down.

  Aiden Callaway, Fairfield High’s known troublemaker, is standing in front of me and looking around wildly. His eyes travel to the ground where my book is still laying. He hastily picks it up and shoves it in my chest. “Here,” he grumbles.

  He runs into me and has the nerve to snap at me? I feel like giving him a piece of my mind, but I decide against the idea. He isn’t someone I want to be acquainted with in any shape or form. His whole demeanor screams trouble. Instead of yelling at him, I simply walk away without saying a word.

  “What? No ‘thank you?’” I hear him ask me.

  “Thank you,” I say without turning around. This ends up being a big mistake. I know when to pick my battles, but he clearly doesn’t.

  My shoulder is yanked back, and I’m facing Aiden yet again. The irritation on his face is evident as he says, “You don’t have to be bitchy about it.” He glances around suspiciously before looking at me again.

  I scoff. “I think I can. You’re the one who ran into me and never bothered to apologize or ask if I was okay.” The nerve of this guy!

  “Stay out of my way next time.”

  “Or next time you can run around me like a normal person would.”

  “Like you would know anything about being normal.”

  “Excuse you?” I say loudly. “You’re being rude, and just for that, you’re not a normal person either!”

  He stares at me, and I’m immediately embarrassed by my lame comeback. He bursts into laughter, and I feel my cheeks heat up even more. “Wow,” he chuckles. “You really aren’t normal.”

  “There he is!” someone yells in the distance. I glance behind Aiden’s tall figure and see two guys running in our direction.

  “Shit,” Aiden mutters when he sees them. He grabs my arm and starts to run, bringing me along with him.

  I run with him until I realize what a stupid idea it is. I try to pull my arm away, but his grip tightens. “Let go!” I yell at him.

  “Stop struggling and run!”

  A car halts and the passenger side window rolls down, revealing a driver with sunglasses and a baseball cap. “C’mon, Aiden!”

  Aiden jerks the door open to the backseat of the car and the panic rises in me. I try once again to tug my arm away from Aiden’s grip, but I can’t match his strength. He pushes me into the backseat and flings himself in next to me. The car takes off, and Aiden quickly shuts the door.

  I sit up in the seat and start to breathe heavily. I glance around, thinking of ways I can escape. There is no way in hell I’m getting kidnapped today.

  “Jesus, calm down,” Aiden says to me. He leans back in his seat, seemingly unbothered that he was just chased down by two crazy people.

  The anger wells up inside me, and my fists connect with his arm repeatedly. “Do not tell me to calm down. I just met you, and you pulled me into a speeding car while being chased by two maniacs! This is practically kidnapping!”

  My small hands do little to no damage; he doesn’t even flinch. He laughs instead then says, “Relax. Those guys are gone.”

  “Why were they chasing you in the first place? Who were they?”

  “Just some guys I owe money to.” He casually shrugs.

  I look out the window and see that we’re going in the opposite direction of my house. I groan and slump into the seat.

  If you enjoyed this sample then look for Outcasts.

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  Acknowledgements

  I would like to express my thanks to everyone that helped me through this wonderful journey.

  To the entire BLVNP team for helping me realize my dream. Without you guys, my ideas would’ve never left the boundaries of the internet. So, thank you so much for believing in me and giving me a chance. My greatest gratitude to Klare, my editor, and AJ, my agent. Thank you for picking me out amongst hundreds and thousands of other books, for seeing something in me and giving me the opportunity to rise up, for answering my seemingly never-ending questions about the entire publishing process and even small general things. Klare, I am forever indebted to you for helping me edit the entire book, picking out my mistakes and changing it into something utterly breath-taking. I could’ve never done it without you.

  I would like to thank my readers on Wattpad, the very heart and soul of this entire story. Thank you for taking your time off to read this piece of work even though it had so many mistakes and plot holes at the beginning. For where you’ve all brought this book, all the way from the shambles it had started from, my greatest thanks to all of you wherever you are. When I had first started, I had never expected it to grow as big as it is now. Without you all, this would’ve never been possible.

  Thank you to my friends in school, whom despite having classes and tests, still decided to pi
ck up this book and read it through. My special thanks to one of my best friends, Nina, for cheering me on and being my (in her words) “number 1 fan.”

  To my Fab 4 clique, Iffah, Suyee and Rachel. Thank you for your crazy and overwhelming support even though it has been so long since this book was first completed. Your guys’ love and words of wisdom really helped me to pull through this and pass exams at the same time. So thank you for everything.

  To my darling Happy Meal best friends, for despite never reading this story properly, still showed me support and helped me make decisions in regard to the plot, and also for covering me from the lecturers whenever I was editing or writing in class. You guys are really the best.

  My heartfelt appreciation for my family members. Thank you for believing that I could, especially my younger sister, for being the inspiration that she is.

  Lastly, I would like to give my thanks to the delightful assorted chocolate bars I’ve had that gave me the sugar rush I needed to keep awake at night whenever I felt like writing. And also, my sincerest apologies to anyone in which I’ve failed to name.

  This journey was beautiful and dream-like. Thank you all for making it so.

  Author’s Note

  Hey there!

  Thank you so much for reading Bad Girls! I can’t express how grateful I am for reading something that was once just a thought inside my head.

  I’d love to hear from you! Please feel free to email me at aurora_yeo@awesomeauthors.org and sign up at http://aurora-yeo.awesomeauthors.org/ for freebies!