Collecting the Pieces Read online

  I was late for my first day, detained by a broken locker. Once I spied that my locker was not in working order, I headed to homeroom and was immediately sent to the office where a maintenance guy waited for me. Homeroom was almost over by the time he finished fixing the lock and as I unloaded my books and checked my schedule, the sound of voices came from farther down the hall. Glancing at the approaching people, I recognized one immediately. It was the sexy guy from the parking lot. He was with another guy, both pretty buff for high school kids, which clued me in that they were likely jocks. Up close, I had to change my opinion of him. He wasn’t merely hot; he was beautiful. He probably had every girl in the school chasing after him because after just one look, he fascinated me—a condition felt by countless others before me I was sure.

  He approached, seemingly lost in conversation, but as he grew closer his focus shifted to me. I held my breath, but I wasn’t sure if I did so because I was afraid to lose his attention or draw more of it. And as he stared, the intensity of those dark brown eyes caused goosebumps to break out over my skin. A slight smile touched his lips before his gaze moved down my body in a leisurely study, as if he had all the time in the world. He walked past and yet his head turned to keep me in his sights. And me, I just stared back. My portrayal of a dimwit was cut short when he winked at me. Yep, he winked and in response my heart dropped into my stomach. He disappeared around the corner while I worked on remembering how to breathe. My body felt funny, like I didn’t have any control over it. Like I’d been on a roller coaster and my equilibrium was off. Grabbing my books, I closed up my locker and started down the hall just as the bell rang. The hall immediately filled with bodies, but I didn’t see any of them. I had wished that someone would see me; never in my wildest dreams would I have dared to wish for it to be someone like him.

  Sitting in biology class, I studied the Bunsen burner while dreading who would be assigned as my lab partner. There were a few cute guys in my class, not like the guy from the hall, but cute enough to make me feel self-conscious. I tended to get klutzy when I felt self-conscious. I’d make a fool of myself if I were teamed up with one of them. Being cool was not something I did well. I heard the teacher call my name and waited in dread before he called Rylee Doughty. A girl, a bit taller than me with wild blond hair and grass-green eyes, sashayed over. She had the biggest smile on her face as she settled on the stool to my left.

  “Hey. Sidney right?”

  “Yeah. Hi.”

  “Man, I’m glad I was teamed up with you. I’d be all thumbs if I got one of them,” she said as she tilted her head in the direction of the cute boys in the football jerseys.

  I couldn’t help the chuckle because talk about uncanny. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  “Hard not to with half of the junior varsity football team in our class. Now we can be cute from afar.”

  I suspected the boys would have really liked being partnered with her. Most of them were already staring at her, hitting each other in the arms and grinning.

  “The teacher broke a few hearts when he assigned you to me.” Her head jerked in my direction. Her eyes assessing before she broke out into laughter.

  “You’re funny.”

  I hadn’t been teasing, but I didn’t correct her.

  “So, tell me about yourself, Sidney? Brothers, particularly older and really cute?”

  “I have one brother, Connor.”

  “Connor Reid?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But your last name is Ellis.”

  “We’re foster kids.”

  “Ah. So you live under the same roof as Connor Reid. What’s that like?”

  “I’ve known him since I was ten, so much like a typical brother/sister relationship I would imagine.”

  “So you haven’t spied on him in the shower?”

  Oh my God, I’d rather go blind. “No, that’s gross.”

  “Connor Reid is not gross.”

  “Connor, my brother, seeing naked. Yeah, definitely gross.”

  “I’m thinking we should have sleepovers at your house…often.”

  I laughed even suspecting that Rylee wasn’t trying to be funny, but thinking of Connor in any way other than brotherly was foreign to me. I wasn’t surprised to discover he had a fan club though, because I could appreciate that he was very cute even being my brother.

  “And you, any hot brothers I should know about?”

  “I’m an only child and extremely spoiled.”

  I couldn’t tell if she was teasing or being serious.

  She added, “I really am spoiled, but I try not to be too pricey. My parents are older, they dote over me.”

  She said that as if it explained things. She even sounded a little embarrassed by it, but the idea of doting parents appealed to me coming from a home where things were quite the opposite. She seemed to pick up on what I didn’t say when she asked, “Not great at home, huh?”

  “Doting is just not something Connor or I have experience with.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  I shrugged since how else could I reply?

  “I think this is going to be a good year,” she said.

  After that moment in the hall with the hot boy and now meeting her, I was beginning to think the same very thing.

  I strolled outside after the final bell had rung. It hadn’t been so terrible for a first day. I had gotten lost twice, but based on the size of the school I didn’t think that was so bad. One of the kids I had asked directions from had tried to send me upstairs, but I hadn’t fallen for that. Many of my fellow freshmen had from the stories I’d heard in class all day.

  When I reached the parking space where Connor had parked, it was empty. I looked around for his car, but the lot was mostly cleared out and his beat-up white Pontiac wasn’t there. He’d said he’d see me after school, but he must have forgotten. I didn’t know my bus number, which meant I was walking home.

  I headed out of the parking lot thinking about all the homework I had. It was our first day and yet every teacher assigned homework. High school was definitely different from middle school.

  Music came from down the street followed shortly by the sight of a sleek, black car pulling up alongside me. It was him. And in response, my knees literally went weak. Who knew that knees could really do that?

  The window rolled down as he leaned over the passenger seat. “Do you need a ride?”

  A ride? What’s a ride? He was asking me if I wanted a ride. In what universe would that happen? The rule of not getting into a car with a stranger popped into my head. Did he count as a stranger? And should I take into account that I really wanted to get into his car? He grinned causing a dimple to peek out on one side of his face. “I’m harmless.”

  Surprised that he read my hesitation so accurately I asked, “I’m that easy to read?”

  “Yeah. You’re a freshman?”

  “You can tell?”

  He smiled now, not showing teeth but enough that I discovered he had twin dimples. “A little. You’re Connor Reid’s little sister.”

  He knew who I was? How did he know who I was? Then I realized I didn’t really care how he knew who I was, only that he did know who I was. “Yeah, Sidney.”

  “I’m Jake Stephens. Your house is pretty far, let me give you a ride.”

  My house was far, but that wasn’t why I agreed. I just wanted to be near him, wanted to share that small space with him, wanted to breathe in the air he exhaled. Holy crap, I didn’t know I had latent stalker tendencies, but if I were to take up stalking I couldn’t have picked a better object of obsession. “Ah…yeah, okay. Thanks.”

  Leaning farther over, he opened the door. I climbed in. He waited for me to buckle up before he pulled from the curb.

  “How was your first day of high school?”

  “It was okay, better than I was expecting.”

  “Did anyone try to send you to the second floor?”

  “Yes.”

  “Every year. You’d think i
t would get old, but it doesn’t.”

  “Have you ever sent freshmen to the second floor?”

  Humor-filled, chocolate brown eyes turned to me. “Of course.”

  I felt lightheaded, but God he was hot. “Are you a senior?”

  That earned me his face; the grin that tugged at his mouth was the icing. “No, I’m a junior.”

  I hadn’t noticed the car had stopped and didn’t realize we’d reached my house until Jake turned in his seat so he was more fully facing me. I didn’t want to get out of his car; I could spend the next year or two just staring at him, but staring wasn’t at all cool. I reached for the door. “Thank you for the ride.”

  “Any time.”

  If only he meant it, I would so take him up on that offer. I managed to climb from the car and stay upright. Hunching down, I peeked into the window. “See ya later.”

  “Definitely.”

  How I walked down the path to my front door without face planting, I didn’t know. As soon as the door closed at my back, I leaned up against it and worked to slow my heartbeat but I was smiling like an idiot.

  Connor returned home an hour later and came right to my room. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I got a ride home.”

  “Yeah? From who?”

  “Jake Stephens.”

  “Jake? Really? I’ll have to thank him.”

  I wanted to ask him about Jake, wanted to pry from Connor’s head every bit of knowledge he had on the boy, but remembering the crowd of girls that had flocked to him that morning kept me from doing so. Reading more into the ride would be foolish, so instead I asked, “So what happened to you?”

  Connor dropped on my bed and linked his fingers behind his head. “I had to see a friend about something and I honestly forgot you were at school. It won’t happen again.”

  “It’s okay. I probably would have forgotten you too.”

  He tossed my pillow at me. “Liar.”

  That night when I dreamed, I dreamt of Jake Stephens. It was, hands down, the best dream I’d ever had.

  Rylee and I were eating lunch outside at the tables set up just behind the cafeteria. She was catching me up on her first fourteen years, like going into detail about her various clothes and hair styles. She was a riot, just one of those people that seemed to be perpetually happy. I envied her a bit.

  “I did the purple hair. My parents were not thrilled with that, so I switched it to green.”

  I almost choked on my sandwich. “They had a problem with purple hair but not green hair. Are you kidding?”

  “No. Green they said was more organic.”

  “How old are your parents?”

  She laughed out loud; the fact that she caught on to my subtle humor had a grin pulling at my mouth.

  My attention was pulled from Rylee when I caught sight of Jake Stephens walking from the building. Butterflies went off in my stomach—a feeling of anticipation that was very heady. My crush was silly, but I didn’t have any control over how I responded to him. And honestly, I liked it. I liked that my heart skipped a beat and my hands grew damp and a chill worked down my body from my head straight down to my toes. I’d never experienced that, such a visceral reaction to another person. Watching him move was like art in motion—confident and a sexy kind of grace. He wasn’t someone who cowered, he knew who he was and didn’t shy away from it. How I wanted him to walk over to me and say hi. To acknowledge, even in the smallest measure, that yesterday meant something to him too. And as I wished for the impossible, those eyes shifted and landed on me as if he knew I was there. His focus didn’t waver as he studied me and then he smiled; the familiarity in that smile settled very comfortably in my chest.

  “You know Jake Stephens?”

  Reluctantly I pulled my gaze from Jake to Rylee. “I met him yesterday. He gave me a ride home.”

  “Jake Stephens gave you a ride home? The captain and quarterback of the football team and homecoming king gave you a ride home?”

  He was the quarterback; that explained his very fine body. “Yes. Do you know him?”

  “Of him, but he’s never given me a ride home.” She wiggled her brows and leaned her shoulder into mine.

  “It was just a ride. Connor forgot me. Jake knew how far my house was.”

  “Just a ride, that’s a pity.” She was seriously a clown.

  “What do you know about him?”

  “Why? Are you interested?” Her eyes lit up as she scooted closer.

  “I think anyone with a pulse would be interested.”

  “That’s true enough. Let’s see. His dad is some big shot on Wall Street and his mom is a caterer, but to like famous people. He had a girlfriend, but I think they broke up at the end of last year. He’s nice, but not superficially nice like some of the other bozos on the football team. He doesn’t pretend a conscience to get into your pants. He’s just a genuinely nice guy.”

  I caught a glimpse of that yesterday. Turning my focus across the courtyard, Jake was sitting at a table with his back to me and he was talking to the guy next to him. And even feeling that stir in my gut the sight of him caused, my excitement faded. He was out of my league, no question about that, but it was the slim possibility, however remote, that he could walk up to me and ask me out that caused the butterflies in my stomach. But hearing about his family had that slim, and extremely remote, possibility turning into a nonexistent one. There was no way a boy like that would ever date a girl like me. As if to prove that point, the most beautiful girl approached his table—supermodel beautiful—with her posse of friends following in her wake like ladies in waiting from back in the day. She stopped at Jake’s table, her face breaking out into a big smile as her hungry gaze zeroed in on him.

  “I’m guessing that’s the girlfriend.”

  Rylee’s normally upbeat tone turned somber. “Yeah, that’s her. I guess maybe they didn’t break up.”

  Those butterflies, yeah, they flew away.

  Nuisance

  “I heard they aren’t together. She’s still interested, but he isn’t.”

  Jake’s relationship status really didn’t matter. I’d have better luck scoring a date with Brad Pitt.

  “Did you hear me?” Rylee asked as she nudged me with her elbow.

  “I did.”

  She turned from sunning herself, her eyes narrowing on me. “What’s going on with you? The other day you had little blue birds flying around your head when speaking of Jake and now…nothing.”

  “Reality’s a bitch.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I was in a bubble, but that bubble burst.”

  “Because of her?”

  “No, just knowing more about where he comes from and where I do, the expression from the wrong side of the tracks certainly applies to me.”

  “Because you’re a foster kid?”

  I wasn’t going to answer her, had spent my life keeping it inside. Who was there to complain to? Connor? He was living it too. But Rylee really looked interested and the idea of venting what I’d been carrying around for so long was very appealing. “You really want to hear this?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It isn’t so much that I’m a foster kid, but the fact that my foster parents aren’t really parents. I was ten when I came to live with them. On my first day, as soon as they got me home they curled up in front of the television. That was my homecoming and in the years that have followed if they’ve said a hundred words to me that would seem high.”

  Rylee looked horrified and pissed. “Are you kidding?”

  “No. I’ve never celebrated my birthday, never experienced Thanksgiving or Christmas morning. I don’t know my birth parents. I was dropped on the steps of a hospital. The nurses were the ones who gave me my name. So in light of all of that, my crushing on Jake is ridiculous.”

  “Being neglected isn’t a reflection on you.”

  “In a perfect world that would be true, but the world is far from perfect.”

  In a rare sh
ow of emotion, Rylee reached for my hand and squeezed it; her eyes were bright with tears. “I’m sorry, Sidney. The Millers didn’t do right by you or Connor.”

  “Silver lining, I got Connor.”

  Her expression changed slightly as her lips curved up into a smile. “And what a fine silver lining he is.”

  There was no way I was getting to class on time. My art teacher held me up after class to review my project, but I’d forgotten that my next class was on the other side of the school. I wasn’t running, but I was walking really fast and it was because I was walking really fast that I tripped over my own feet. It happened in slow motion. My books went sailing out of my arms, my hands frantically grabbing for them even as my body followed the books. I landed hard, my hands and knees breaking my fall, and damn did that hurt. After a quick inventory to confirm I hadn’t broken anything, humiliation kicked in because I’d just fallen flat on my face in a hall filled with students. My hope that no one noticed was immediately dashed when laughter echoed down the corridor. If that wasn’t bad enough, I couldn’t flee because my binders and books were scattered across the tile floor. I kept my head down to keep anyone from seeing my face, which I was sure was as red as an apple.

  I reached for my science book at the same time someone else’s hand wrapped around it. Jerking my head up, my breath caught seeing Jake Stephens.

  “That was a pretty hard hit. Are you okay?”