Chapter 5

• DANI
• If I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I was wrong. As usual, I had dressed meticulously to boost my confidence but today... Today, I was going to need more than a nice hairdo and a killer outfit to make it through the day.
• Zack’s friends and the football team had been giving me a hard time, and they believed the new rumors that Mrs. Miller and I were in cahoots to blacken their friends’ names. Reputedly, I was bitter and conspired with my slutty professor to get back at Zack for dumping me. Zack was a golden boy and would never screw the coach’s wife. That was unheard of and supposedly out of character for their star football player. It was all lies concocted by me, the jilted, vengeful girlfriend who couldn’t accept that the boy wasn’t into me anymore.
• It’s like the whole school had turned against me and I found myself at a loss. How did Zack become the victim in all of this? There was no end to the rumors and every day there was a Two-point-O version.
• That morning, when I was walking to the computer lab, snickers, secretive smiles, and eyes that didn’t bother to hide their disgust, followed me.
• “Not here, Zack.” A girl from my swimming class taunted me in a shrill voice.
• “Zack, we can’t….” Another said in a breathy voice. Was that an imitation of me?
• All the students in the hallway cracked up and I was the only one who seemed to be in the dark. Then, I saw it and it all came crashing back.
• My hot-pink lace underwear was pinned on the notice board, and it became clear why I was the butt of the joke again.
• Today was the worst and I doubt that my reputation would ever recover after this. How could I show my face here after something like this??
• Dashing forward I yanked it off, quickly stuffing it in the back pocket of my jeans. “You’ve got good taste, Morgan.” Noah, a guy from the football team caged me in with his tree trunk arms and the snickers grew louder. “I bet it still has your sweet nectar on it.”
• “It was you?”
• “It was.” His tight smile showed no remorse. “Zack used to claim it was his lucky charm,” he scoffed. “A lot of good that did him.”
• “Why are you doing this?”
• “I know something you don’t know,” he held out his phone, his blue eyes gleaming with malice. “Watch this.”
• He pressed play and my back filled the screen. My traitorous ex had taken the clip when he’d snuck into the girls’ locker room when I was getting ready for swimming practice and we’d dived into a hot steamy make-out session. I had stripped down and was only in my lace thong(ergo the hot-pink one) when he walked in. “For my eyes only,” he’d promised when I’d asked him to delete the footage. Fool that I am I believed him. At the time I thought it was so risqué and romantic. Our own little secret.
• Now the whole campus knew what my breasts looked like.
• Suddenly it got hard to breathe. I had to get out of here before I had a nervous breakdown. Taunting laughter trailed after me as I made a run for it.
• “Nice rack, by the way!” Noah’s voice carried down the corridor, invoking more laughter.
• What had I ever done to deserve this? Who had I wronged??
• My feet pounded on the concrete as I ran back to my car, echoing loudly in my ears along with my racing pulse.
• And if I thought my day couldn’t get any more bizarre, again fate proved me wrong. My steps came to an abrupt halt at the side of my convertible, my eyes blinking rapidly, unable to believe what my eyes were seeing but not believing.
• What was it with me and always stumbling into such scenarios?? Were two people really having sex in the back seat of my car??! In broad daylight???
• “Excuse me?!!” I hovered over the horny students, my loud shriek piercing the still morning air.
• The brunette who was bouncing on the guy’s lap like an Energizer Bunny, had the decency to stop. She shuddered her lips forming an O, and her face frozen like she was going into cardiac arrest. Except it wasn’t shame that she was displaying, she was at the peak of nirvana, and lucky me, I got to witness it.
• “Are you kidding me?!” Not sure what to do, I looked around wildly, but the parking lot was deserted. I’m being punked that it. Or it’s a bad, crazy erotic dream gone wrong. And voyeurism was definitely not my thing.
• “Just a minute, petite amie.” A somewhat familiar tattooed arm with a smoking cigarette dangling between his fingers shot up. “I’m so close…yeah…trop près…si proche…” he repeated in French, his other hand clasping her hip as he drilled into her, chasing his completion.
• Only that was not going to happen. Not on my watch and not in my car!
• Yanking the girl’s ponytail, I tried pulling her out of my car but the horny French guy-that I couldn’t believe I crushed on held fast and a tug of war broke out, between him and me.
• “Oh, come on, baby,” he groaned, flicking his cigarette to the ground. “What’s it going to take for you to go away so I can finish?” he quirked an eyebrow. “I can…suck your boobs while you wait,” he bounced his brows, leering at my chest and making me feel naked. “Those juicy berries are peaking from behind your shirt look like they could use a bit of attention.”
• “You stay away from my boobs!” I snapped, cursing myself for not wearing a padded bra. “Not in my car!” This guy was officially so not my crush as of this minute!
• “Why not?” he drawled. “You weren’t even using your car and there’s no harm done, yes?”
• “Urgh!” I screamed and tackled the girl, half my body hanging out.
• “Attendez une minute.” His hands pushed me up and I slid back to the ground. “I just need five more minutes and I’ll be done and out of your hair-I mean car-and then we’ll all be happy. Everyone will win, yes?”
• “Get out of my car. Now!” I stomped my foot and wrenched the back door open. Tired of the drama, His fangirl scrambled out and scampered away like a frightened cat. “Get out of my car, you-you-Cochon!”
• “Pig?” he dropped his head back and he shook with silent laughter. “That’s the best you could come up with, ma tigresse?” He made a show of tucking his impressive package back in his boxers and zipping his jeans up. I tried not to look but being the thirsty groupie that I am, I failed. And for some sick reason, I was turned on. “Guess there’s no chance of you finishing off what you didn’t start, but ended?” No, this guy was the ultimate pig. A filthy, uncouth animal.
• My teeth were clenched so hard they squeaked. “Get. Out.”
• “Très bien,” he smiled, slid out of the seat, and towered over me. “You have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen, ma petite poupée.” Long fingers clasped my chin, tilting it up. “D’une beauté exquise.” Did he just call me exquisitely beautiful? “Eyes like a beautiful dark-haired doll.” Oh, he was talking about my unique violet eyes that people usually gushed over.
• Not me. Just my eyes.
• I'd learned to differentiate the two.
• The anger, stress, and frustration of the past weeks boiled over and my emotions came crashing down. Try as I might, I couldn’t stop the tears.
• I cried when I was happy and I cried when my temper got the best of me. I cried at weddings and funerals alike. I cried when I watched mushy movies. I was a crier, an ugly crier at that. And the tears always came at the wrong time, for example, now.
• “Pardon,” he murmured gently, his hand stroking back a strand of hair that had escaped from my neat French knot. “Je suis désolé, I didn’t mean to make you cry, pretty girl. Next time I will take her to the janitor’s closet, yes?”
• “Just leave me alone!” Blinking back tears, I hopped into my car, floored the accelerator, and sped away. Hoping with all my might that I’d never have the misfortune of laying my eyes on Remy Le Roux in this lifetime.