Page 1 of I Don't Need Your Love
Chapter One
Carly
I can’t believe my enemy just invaded my school.
While hanging out with my friends last night in the recreation room of my high school, Harrington Bay Academy, which is located in upstate New York, Ryder Bennett, also known as The Fiend, suddenly appeared. He’s the best friend of my older brother, and let’s just say my past with him is anything but rosy.
I mean, he’s the guy who destroyed my Lego after I spenthourson it. We were only six years old. If he was such a monster as a kid, imagine what kind of creature he is at sixteen.
I’ve been awake for the past hour, trying to figure out the best strategy to avoid the ogre. Harrington Bay Academy doesn’t have the largest student body, but the campus is pretty big, and if I play my cards right, I’m sure I won’t have to interact with him for my entire high school career. If they dare put him in any of my classes, I’ll just transfer to another class. School doesn’t mean much to me, so I don’t care what class they dump me in.
After I toss and turn for another half hour, my alarm blares in my ears. With a groan, I shut it and smash my face into my pillow. Not only am I super tired because I’ve been awake for the past hour and a half, but my new roommate and best friend, Addie Hayes, and I stayed up for hours last night.
I just moved into her room and we couldn’t stop talking about everything and nothing. But neither Addie nor I could help it. I spent the last two months suffering at the hands of my former roommate. Her name isn’t important because she has officially disintegrated from my memories. But due to certain circumstances that happened the past few days with Addie, I was assigned to be her new roommate! Our other best friends,Sophie Reed and Raven Mitchell, are roommates and now Addie and I are, too. This was like the best news I’ve gotten in a long, long time. If not for the sudden arrival of The Fiend, I would say my life at this school is pretty perfect.
Lifting my head from my pillow, I glance to the right and find Addie lying in her bed like a dead log. My alarm didn’t wake her? I swear it can wake the dead.
With another groan, I pull myself out of bed and, while stifling a yawn, stumble to my closet to grab my school uniform. Since I’m not from a rich family like most of the students here, the contents of my closet are a joke. I have a few pairs of the uniform and only a handful of clothes. But the good news is that Addie’s closet makes up for mine. She used to be from an average family, too, but after her parents died two months ago, she spent some time in a group home before being taken in by her grandfather. Even though she’s the granddaughter of one of the richest people in the world, she’s still herself and doesn’t let the money get to her. That’s why Raven, Sophie, and I clicked with her so quickly. But having a super wealthy friend does have its perks, like the ability to borrow her clothes whenever we want.
“Addie, didn’t you hear my alarm?” I call out as I grab my uniform. It’s a short green and black plaid skirt with a matching green vest or blazer, and a crisp white shirt.
She moans and lifts her hand, waving me away.
I go into the bathroom and get ready. When I come out a few minutes later, Addie is still in bed. I call her name a few times, and each time she raises her hand and waves me away. Wait a sec. Is she even awake or is she doing that in her sleep?
“You have to get up, Addilyn Hayes,” I say as I shake her. “If either of us is late to class, they’ll realize we’re having too much fun as roommates and split us. Come on, Addie. I can’t go back to that evil witch. She makes me feel stupid for even existing.”
“Go away,” she grumbles as she throws her blanket over her head.
Okay, I know she’s not a morning person, and yes, I’m partly responsible for keeping her up all night. Hello, I needed to know all the details that went down with her bodyguard Caleb Ashton. Well, he technically isn’t her bodyguard anymore but her boyfriend, but everyone knows he’ll still be her protector. Which is so adorable. Especially because he knows when to step back and let her be independent and when to jump in case she needs rescuing. Well, hopefully she’ll never need rescuing again because the events that happened the last few days werenuts.
Then it hits me. I know how to get this lazybones up. With a smile, I skip over to my phone that’s on my night table and search for a trumpet sound. Then I walk back over and put my phone close to her ear, playing the sound.
A second later, she jumps up in bed and cries out, her light brown, wavy hair flying all over the place. She clutches her chest like her heart just shot out of it, eyes wide as if she’s come face to face with the evilest villain in the world.
I can’t help but burst out laughing. “Sorry.” I shut the sound. “I didn’t mean to scare you, but I couldn’t get you out of bed.”
She rubs her brown eyes. “Did Caleb put you up to this?”
“No, but he was definitely my source of inspiration.”
She mutters under her breath that she’s not a morning person, and I laugh again. Caleb slept in her room over the past month because he, as her bodyguard, had to watch her twenty-four-seven. He had a hard time getting her up, too, and used a trumpet alarm. Addie complained about it all the time to me and the others.
“I promise never to use the sound again if you get up on time,” I tell her.
“It’s a crime to start school so early in the morning,” she grumbles.
I glance at the time on my phone. “It’s seven o’clock.”
“Exactly. Far too early for school.”
“Well, get up.” I gently hit her arm. “I’m starving and don’t want to be late for breakfast.”
Grumbling some more, she forces herself out of bed, grabs her uniform that’s thrown over a chair near her bed, and marches to the bathroom.
I head to the vanity on my side of the room and work on my hair. It’s a dark red color, something I share with my parents and brother, Blake. He doesn’t attend this school, though.
After I’m done with my hair and put on some makeup, I read the text Dad sent me. He insisted I take an advanced class this semester, and I begrudgingly signed up for advanced English. But like I told him, I’m kind of struggling in the class. Sophie, who’s great at school, has offered many times to help me, but I always tell her no. What’s the point? I want to be a professional dancer or choreographer one day, and I don’t need an advanced English class for that. And maybe if I keep flunking out, my dad will finally get the message that I know what I want to do with my life and I sure as heck am going to make my dream come true.
