Page 20 of Pretty Broken Things

Jace gives me a bored look. The kind I’ve been getting from rich pricks like him my entire life. The kind that says I’m inconsequential beyond my abilities on the field. “This is none of your business, Shaw. I see there are a couple of girls interested in slumming it, you should run along before they come to their senses.”

Tessa, to her credit, shoves Jace away from her. “Don’t be a snob. Your parents have money, not you. Don’t go thinking that because someone else accomplished something that in any way makes you better than Ford or Shane.”

He scowls at her. “Then why are you talking to me? I thought maybe you had changed, but I see you’re still the same uptight bitch you were in July.”

He’s lucky looks can’t kill, because hers would have flayed him alive. “I see you’re the same self-absorbed douchebag you’ve always been.”

“Let’s go, Contessa,” I growl. Sure, she’s doing what I want her to do, but I’m still irrationally pissed off she was talking to him in the first place. I guess I haven’t managed to fully convince myself she doesn’t belong to me.

Tessa turns the same scornful look on to me. “Don’t start ordering me around. We’re friends, that doesn’t give you the right to interrupt me every time I talk to a guy.”

All rational thought flies right out of my head. In one small part of my brain I recognize that she’s absolutely right, and I’m a hypocrite. I was talking to Mandi, fully planning on finding somewhere to get her alone, yet she can’t stand on the bleachers talking to another guy. While I recognize how unfair I’m being, I just don’t give a fuck. In truth, I don’t think I would have actually done anything with Mandi, not with how preoccupied I am with Tess.

“We’re not friends,” I snap and she gasps. A frustrated growl rumbles in my throat. “I mean, we’re not just friends. I don’t know what the fuck we are, but my feelings toward you are far from friendly.”

“What a coincidence, because I’m not feeling all that friendly toward you at the moment either,” she replies.

Lydia comes over, and bumps her hip into Tessa’s. “I don’t think Ford knows the meaning of the word friend considering he calls Tracy one of his best friends and they bone on the regular.”

“Shane,” I shout toward the field, but he’s already storming up the bleachers.

“You wanted my attention woman, now you’ve got it,” he tells her.

Lydia rolls her eyes. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I happen to like being treated like shit by rich assholes. You just ruined a good time for me.”

Oddly, I’m not sure she’s entirely joking. I don’t know why she would purposely seek out that kind of treatment, but there is a lot Lydia keeps to herself.

“Well, I’m not rich, but I promise to do bad things to you and disrespect you afterwards. Will that be enough?” Shane teases her. I swear he’s incapable of taking anything seriously.

I’m done with this bullshit. “I need to get out of my gear and shower. Go home and wait for me.”

Her eyes darken, and I take a step back. I’ve got at least a hundred pounds on her, and several inches of height, but the look in her eyes makes me fear for the safety of my balls.

“Go home and wait for you? Really?” Her voice is soft and low, somehow more threatening than if she was screaming at me.

“Ugh,” Lydia groans. “Let’s just go to your house. I’m dying to see it anyway.”

The girls walk off toward the parking lot. Shane just shakes his head. “Well, that went differently than I saw it going in my head.”

“You don’t say,” I reply, deadpan.

Shane playfully shoves me. “Let’s go shower. I agree with Lydia, I’m dying to see Tessa’s house too.”

I’m annoyed with their intrusion into my bubble with Tessa. The fact I am having a hard time sharing her even with our friends should make me freak out, but it pales in comparison to when I saw her with Jace. That leaves me only one option. If I’m going to hulk out every time I see her talking to a guy, I will just have to claim her for myself.

ChapterNine

Tessa

The closer weget to my house the more nervous I get. It’s one thing for Ford to know that I live here alone, but I’m not really ready to let anyone else in on the facts about my life. It’s still early enough that maybe Lydia and Shane will believe my dad is working late.

“Oh my god! This place is massive. It’s just you and your dad living here? You’re so lucky to have all of this to yourself,” Lydia gushes.

“Yep, all to myself,” I mutter while I unlock the front door.

Lydia wanders around the house giving herself a tour that promptly ends at the pool in the backyard. She spins to face me. “Do you have a suit that would fit me?”

A wide smile stretches across my face. “Does this mean you’re not done torturing Shane?”

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