Page 19 of Treacherous

It was then that it dawned on me…no matter where I lived on this earth one entity would always remain the same, and that was the stupidity of the pubescent male. It was a comfort, really, to know a dick was a dick no matter what school I went to or which town I lived in.

"I'm actually a little disappointed with that one." Shaking my head I stepped around Noah and strode off in the direction of the changing rooms. "I thought you were more original – my mistake."

"Sweetheart, your mistake was getting involved with me in the first place," Noah called out after me.

"I'm notinvolvedwith you,sweetheart," I shouted back as I stalked inside the gym.

I barely had the words out of my mouth when I turned the corner and an achingly annoying voice drilled through my ears causing me to look up and mentally groan.

"Ugh," Ellie sneered as she stood in the doorway of the girls changing room, blocking my way. "You're like the proverbial bad penny."

"Yeah, yeah, I keep popping up everywhere." I rolled my eyes and pushed past her and grabbed my bag from the bench.

Swinging around in anger I marched back to Ellie and stood face to face with her, giving her my best bored expression. "If you're going to try and insult me, then at least have the ingenuity to use some original material." My words were dripping with sarcasm.

"Anorexic bitch," Ellie hissed and I held my hand to my chest.

"Ouch. That really hurt." I sighed and wiped a pretend tear from my eye. "How will I ever get over that one?"

"Stay out of my way, Teagan," Ellie said in an oddly serious voice as she stepped closer to me and out of earshot of her friends. "Stay on your side of the fence, stay away fromhimand we won't have a problem."

With that she turned on her four inch hooker heels and stalked out of the changing room.

I didn't need to ask whohewas, and she didn't need to warn me off. I wasn't interested.I wasn't.

****

Chapter 4

Teagan

Hope offered me a ride home from school, but I declined when I realized all three of her man-child brothers were travelling with her. They were nice boys – well, Logan was a nice boy – but accepting Hope's offer would involve sitting between Cameron and Colton and I'd had my fill of excitement for the day.

As I strolled down the sidewalk on my walk home from school my mind kept flicking back to the argument I'd witnessed between Noah and that guy on the field. I'd pushed it to the back of my mind at the time, but now I was obsessively going over it. The more I thought about it the more certain I was that the guy Noah had been talking to was one of the Carter triplets. Which one I had no clue because they all looked so alike, but he and Noah had looked so intense and this weird feeling kept tapping away in the back of my mind, like a warning…

"Hey you."

A familiar voice called from behind me and I swung around and grinned like an idiot when I realized it was the hot guy from gym class. "Hey Layton," I said as I waited for him to catch up with me.

As he jogged towards me, I took a moment to appreciate just how good looking Layton Brooks was. He was incredibly beautiful for a man – I know that sounded strange, but it was true.

With his black hair shaved tight, his gentle golden-brown eyes, crystal clear skin, and full lips I had to remember to swallow my spit and not drool on him. "You heading this way?" I asked when he reached my side.

"Yeah," he chuckled as he fell into step with me. "So, how was your day?" He nudged me gently as he spoke and I liked that too. Yeah, he could do more of that. "Make some new friends yet?"

"What, besides you?" I shot back teasingly.

He grinned and my stomach flipped a little.

"I was a given," he chuckled before sliding my bag from my shoulder and placing it on his own shoulder. He winked at me I was sold. It was official, I loved America. Why couldn't all men be like this one?

"Err, yeah," I mumbled, blinking out of my reverie. "Hope Carter and her friend Ash, do you know them?"

Layton nodded solemnly before bursting out laughing. "I should hope so," he chuckled. "I live with one of them."

I stopped and gaped at him.

"Ashlynnis my twin sister," he clarified.

---