Page 3 of Treacherous

I watched her intently as she stretched her arms and legs out, clearly basking in the summer sunshine – I couldn’t turn my face away.

For some strange reason the words of Gareth Brook's songUnusually Unusualpopped into my mind which was weird as fuck because I wasn’t a country music fan.

She twisted her face to one side, opened her eyes and looked straight into mine.

She didn’t look away.

Neither did I.

I just stood there, barely breathing, with a fucked up tightening pain in my chest, as her hazel colored eyes searched deep inside of me, pulling at a part of me I never knew existed.

"What are you doing?" a voice demanded from behind me, startling me and breaking the weird thing I had going on with the girl over the fence.

The blonde closed her eyes, turned her face up to the sky, and the moment was gone – as was the weird pulling sensation in my chest.

Ellie stepped into my personal space. "Noah, I asked you a question…" her voice trailed off as her eyes followed my line of sight.

A harsh laugh escaped from her. "You know you can't, right?" Ellie sneered, glowering over the wall at the girl. "You know what's at stake for us. Never piss on your own doorstep."

"I know," I told her.

It didn’t stop me looking at her though.

I think she seared me that very first day…because I sure as hell wasn’t the same after her.

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Chapter 1

Present Day

Teagan

My next-door neighbor was certifiably evil – I was sure of it.

When I first arrived here at the beginning of the summer she snubbed me and ignored every one of my salutes and 'good mornings', looking through me like I was invisible.

That would have been fine by me if it had stayed that way, but it hadn’t…

Something changed and I had no idea what that something was, but in the space of a week her attitude towards me switched from being cool and uninterested to malicious and downright hostile.

In the beginning I forced myself to believe I was imagining her hostility – I mean, she didn’t know me, and I'd done nothing to perturb the girl. But the morning she wound her car window down as she reversed out of her driveway and verbally attacked me I had very quickly realized it was personal.

Three months later – and with a whole bunch of verbal sparring sessions under our belts – it was clear that Ellie Dennis and I wouldneverbe friends.

Aside from the fact that she'd told me, on more than one occasion what she thought of me, the girl seemed to deliberately go out of her way to cause trouble for me.

If she wasn't camped outside my driveway, armed with her group of brainless friends, idiot of a boyfriend and cartons of eggs, then she was cranking her stereo in the middle of the night or spreading very nasty – very unoriginal – rumors about me.

Ellie and her little gang of followers had decided to make my life a living hell for reasons unknown to me.

Thanks again for the fabulous relocation, Uncle Max…

Because of my so-calledguardian– and I used that term lightly – we were the latest family to take up residency in Thirteenth Street, University Hill, Boulder, Colorado, andIwas the sole target of the bitch over the fence.

And because of my wonderfully unconventional uncle, I was starting sixth year – senior year – tomorrow morning, in a brand new school, with no clue of the curriculum and a serious issue with driving on the right side of the road.

It really sucked because I had a hard enough time fitting in back home in Ireland, so what hope had I in America – with bears and earthquakes and heat waves, spiders, snakes and tornados?

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