Page 1 of Ramsay

Prologue

Blue.

It's just a color.

Or so they say until you try to describe the beauty of the depths of the ocean. Or the sky on a clear day. Or your heart when it’s a frozen tundra in your chest.

Blue.

It’s just a color, until it’s not.

The hard dark depths pulled me from the darkness and now, they’re pushing me back into the hole.

I hate blue.

I crave blue.

Blue will destroy me if I let it. I only hope I come away with the one thing left worth fighting for—freedom.

Chapter One

Present Day

Willow

“C’mon, Will,” Sabrina calls over her shoulder, her glossy blond hair swinging along her back in a perfectly straight sheath.

With a sigh, I gather my belongings and follow, pulling my skirt down fruitlessly. The Sterling High cheerleading uniform leaves a lot to be desired, and notwithstanding the symbol it represents, it barely covers my ass cheeks.

Good thing for the standard-issue underwear that prevents the goods from showing every time one of the jackass football players thinks it’s funny to flash everyone.

Ha fucking ha, dicks.

I’m a senior, and this is my last hurrah. Thank god because over the previous grueling year, I’ve come to accept that despite my efforts, I’ll never belong, even if I get up and pretend every day.

I pretend to like my friends. I pretend to like cheerleading. I pretend to like my parents. Hell, I pretend to like myself.

And some days, it feels like my soul is slowly dying, but you wouldn’t know it to look at my face. Nope, my makeup is on point, my hair curled just right, and my fucking uniform pressed just so.

Still, I’m starting to feel like an imposter in my own body. Confusing, to say the least.

Plastering a smile on my face, I follow behind her, but inside, my gut is tearing me apart. I no more want to follow Sabrina fucking Dawson than I want a pen to my eye, but this is the role I signed up for when I came here, and now I’m stuck.

Jensen Becket, Sabrina’s boyfriend, and douchebag extraordinaire, steps in beside her hanging his arm around her shoulder while giving me a disgusting leer. Yet another thing I pretend in this fucking school, that Jensen’s nasty behavior toward the entire female population and me, doesn’t bug the shit out of me.

He’s not bad looking and certainly built, with long, lean lines, a nice chest, and auburn hair, but unfortunately, his dick personality ruins it all.

Why Sabrina puts up with it, I have no clue. She could have virtually anyone she wants, well, except for the Sinners, but they don't date. They fuck. I’ve never seen them so much as glance at a girl twice, even though their sexual adventures are known far and wide.

Strangely, most of the girls they bag are closed-mouthed about the actual experience, making the Sinners that much more legendary in the eyes of their peers. However, since they don’t go back for seconds, ever, eventually they’ll have to go farther afield to avoid complications.

Of course, this doesn’t stop the girls from trying, begging, and hanging all over them. I’d like to say I’m immune to their charms, but I’d be lying.

Ever since I first laid eyes on Ramsay Yates, I’ve silently lusted after him from afar.

Tragic that, because he’s beyond off limits for reasons that don’t already include his abhorrence for the cheer team.

Even so, I envy the trio’s close connection. It’s a beautiful, brutal thing to see how they protect each other as though they were born brothers, and after a year of Sabrina’s bitchy personality, I covet it more than I should.

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