Page 3 of The Wrong Bachelor

“You know I don’t like talking about the list,” I murmured.

Hayley’s face dropped. “Yeah, I know,” she replied. “I was just hoping we were at the point where we could laugh about it, you know.”

I nodded, knowing she meant no harm. I think she believed I was just a bit embarrassed by it all. But she didn’t realize that I doubted myself every time I left the house these days. Were my clothes too revealing? Was I wearing too much makeup? Was I wearing too little? That stupid list had made me question the way I portrayed myself to the world. It made me wonder if people saw the real me, or if they only cared about what was on the outside.

We stopped by her locker so she could collect her things before heading a little further down the corridor to mine. I immediately felt my hackles go up as I saw who was leaning against it. Cole Kingston: Lincoln High’s most beloved footballer, and my personal nemesis.

He looked like some kind of Abercrombie model as he casually propped himself up against my locker. His dirty blonde hair was hanging in his eyes, and his low-slung jeans and white t-shirt gripped his body tightly. Lucky for me I was immune to his good looks, unlike most of the girls in the school. He had a reputation for being charming and flirtatious, but to me it just came across as cocky, arrogant and irritating.

“Good morning, Hayley,” he said, smiling at my friend as we approached. “Matthews,” he added, glancing at me briefly, as though it had only just occurred to him to greet me, despite the fact he was waiting at my locker. I certainly didn’t get a good morning smile.

“Do you want something, Cole?” I asked, trying to keep my cool. I was a pretty nice person 90% of the time, but Cole seemed to bring out that other 10%.

Cole and I had once been friends, but that felt like a million years ago now. We’d done almost everything together, but around the time we started high school that had all stopped. Almost overnight we went from best friends to complete strangers. I still had no idea why he stopped speaking to me. When he started again though, his words had turned cruel and taunting. He’d changed.

All that remained of our friendship now were a few memories and a matching scar on our knees from when we tried and failed to ride a tandem bike together one summer. He’d been sweet once upon a time, but the guy standing before me now was nothing like that.

He tapped his fingers across his bottom lip, considering my question. “World peace?” he asked as if he were unsure.

“You know that’s not what I’m asking.”

His lips lifted in a grin. Any other girl in the student population would probably swoon if Cole Kingston looked at them that way. I didn’t see the appeal.

“Can you move?” I asked.

He jumped out of the way of my locker in a flash. But what was revealed behind him only made my mood worse. There was a flyer for the True Love competition plastered across the door.

I immediately pulled the flyer from my locker and scrunched it into a ball.

Cole laughed. “Not a fan of charity?” he asked.

“Not a fan of women being degraded,” I replied. “But I’m sure you’re all for this kind of misogyny.”

“It’s not degrading if it’s for true love,” he replied.

I rolled my eyes at Cole and glanced at Hayley who was smirking at him.

“Traitor,” I mouthed at her, making her grin widely.

I went to open my locker as Cole opened the one next to mine. How we ended up as neighbors in school and at home, I’ll never know. Not only did I have to see him several times a day, but I also had to battle through his fan club to get my books most mornings.

“So, you’re saying you wouldn’t want to be a contestant and vie for our lucky bachelor’s heart?” he asked, closing his locker and looking at me intently.

“I have a boyfriend.” I shut my own locker a little harder than I intended.

“Sure you do,” he said, patting my shoulder like I was a child.

“You know I do,” I growled.

“You keep telling yourself that.”

Before I could respond, he turned and walked away, leaving me standing there, fuming at nothing but air. I wanted to shout a retort after him, but his stupidly large shoulders were already too far down the corridor for him to hear me.

“Did you see that?” I turned to Hayley, who had been standing silently next to me the whole time. She may have been the only female in the school that wasn’t completely infatuated with Cole—well, besides me of course. I suspected it was because she was into college guys. She said high school boys were too immature for her tastes, and when it came to Cole, I had to agree.

“I think he likes you,” she said.

“Cole doesn’t like me,” I replied. “Don’t even joke about stuff like that.”

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