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"I’m not sureI don’t thinkwhat I want is irrelevant You and Nan"

"Me and Nan are over There is no me and Nan But there is a me and you Even if you don’t want to ad like Nan"

"You think I don’t know that? Dairl, if you were like Nan I wouldn’t be here I ended things with Nan because she’s poison You’re everything she isn’t"

Harlow’s body began to slowly ease under ainst her waist in suys like me because of my dad I keep my distance I don’t want to be a status syh my chest at her vulnerable words Damn Rush had lived with this sauy who didn’t care He hadn’t been looking for so about a guy using sweet Harlow just to get near her father pissed me off If I could hunt down every bastard that had hurt her I would

I liftedme directly in the eyes I wanted her to see I was serious I wanted her to believe et near your dad I’ve known Kiro all my life Rush is my best friend I’m not starstruck by the members or lifestyle of Slacker Demon This is all about you I want you Just you, Harlow Just you"

Tears prickled her big hazel eyes and she blinked rapidly Had no one ever told her that?

"Will you kiss me now?" she whispered

Daain with my first crush Five si I never expected her to ask e herher soft lips with mine was like nirvana She tasted so da her sweet girl

I licked her botto her ainsther I would do whatever I had to do to keep her Hell, I’d o For the first tiainst her lips before claiain

Harlow

Present day

He had only called once after his friend had drowned He’d been drunk and hadn’t ain the next day, but he hadn’t I kneas grieving and I decided it was a sign fros I had et close to me, and I hadn’t told hiht he did, and for a moment I let myself live in that fantasy

I knew better now The sords he’d spoken had all been a ploy, and they had all worked on me I had taken theht, I would I wasn’t going to roiven hiinity and run For once I had let myself pretend

I sat on the bed and stared out theat the gulf outside This was going to be an even tougher nine ined Not only did I have to deal with Nan, but I had to deal with Grant and Nan I wouldn’t let it hurt inity but I had already been robbed ofJereht he loved ht he was my forever He was so attentive and sweet He carried my books at school and treated me with such care I had told him the truth and he had pretended it didn’t matter

Then I’d found him behind the bleachers after his football practice with Nikki Sharp’s cheerleading skirt pulled up and his shorts pulled down as he screwed her up against the cement wall That had been it for hter, and I was broken I was only wanted for uys sahen they looked at me

Except Grant

He had been different I hadn’t been Kiro’s daughter to hioods, he was done My granduys like him She’d be so let down if she could see me now I shook my head I couldn’t think about that It only made s Feeling sorry forI did Wherever I was and whatever situation I was put in, I survived I was good at it Grandh and don’t let ’em see you fall You show ’em the steel in that spine I ain’t raisin’ a spoiled princess I’, self-sufficient, ‘don’t need no man’ woman You hearwith me She believed I hole I was fine And at ti back up, I went to take a shower I would get ready and go to the club and play tennis They had a tennis pro there whoolf I would fill s I could do without friends Maybe even lie out at the club’s pool I was going to o

The one The way he’d acted after kissingor if he had just regretted it and didn’t kno to get away fro without Grant there had answered that question

Dad was also gone He hadn’t coe, but then I wasn’t surprised by that Grant’s running off had hurthim had been a mistake I wasn’t his type I never wanted to be his type Nan was not soas it had before Grant Instead, I threw hts of Grant’s face out oflabel on his lips: Beware, don’t touch They were hard to forget