Labeled Love (27 page)

“You won’t,” he says, finishing my sentence with a little splash to my face.

“I might go. It just depends if I have something going on that day.”

I’d rather have teeth pulled.

I glance over at Cole who is being very quiet. “What are you doing?” I ask when I notice he’s holding my phone.

“Nothing,” he says, laying my phone down and putting his arms over the back of the lounge chair. “Why are you staring at me, Starkie? You ready to dump your boy from the hood to get with the real deal?” He gives me a smug smile. I don’t care how good-looking Cole is. When he talks about Jace, he’s ugly to me. I give him my biggest trademark smile.

“Never.”

He huffs. “You will. He’ll show you his ghetto ways eventually.”

“There’s nothing ghetto about Jace. And, I take offense to that. Just because someone doesn’t grow up spoon-fed like we all have doesn’t mean they are beneath us. You need to stop making comments about him, Cole. Believe me, nothing you say about him will ever change how I feel.”

“Whatever. Like I said, one day he’ll crack, and you’ll know why you’re here, and he’s there.” He points down the hill.

I don’t like to swear, but Cole’s such a bastard sometimes. Brett looks at me, and Jules rolls her eyes. Now I feel like my perfect day is ruined. I jump out of the pool, walk right up to Cole, and grab my phone off the glass table. “I’m going inside.”

Jules splashes down into the water off her float. “Me, too. I have a date with
Gossip Girl
.”

Brett jumps out. “What the hell do you mean you ‘have a date with
Gossip Girl
’?”

“It means that I would rather swoon over a guy on television than go out with you real guys that don’t know how to talk to girls,” she says, drying off.

“Hey, what did I do?” Brett says.

“You didn’t do anything, but you’re guilty by association.”

Cole stands up, stretching his perfect body that is nothing like his personality. “See you later, Starkie,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows. “Something tells me you won’t be watching
Gossip Girl
. You’ll be too busy doing damage control.” He walks away, laughing. Brett waves at us and follows him.

Damage control? What the heck does that mean?

I SAY GOOD-BYE
to Jules and take a quick shower. Feeling a little hungry, I walk into the kitchen and warm up some Thai noodles from our favorite place on Hollywood Boulevard. Taking them back to my room, I sit on my bed and scroll through my phone. As I take a big bite, I see I have messages from Jace. All smiles, I open the first one, but practically choke on my drunken noodles when I scroll down.

My Boy: Hey baby. I just wanted to tell you I love you.

My Boy: You must be enjoying the sun. I can smell coconuts from here. Damn, I miss you.

The third message is from my phone.

Me: I’m sorry. It’s hard to miss you while Cole’s keeping me company.

Linked to the message is a picture of Cole’s feet on the lounge chair with me in the pool smiling.

Oh my God!

Me: You’re right. You should be able to smell coconut all the way in the hood. I slathered so much all over her sexy back :)

I’m going to kill Cole!

My Boy: Are you trying to fuck with me?
Don’t touch Shay.

Me: She wasn’t complaining when we were in the water wrapped around each other. Maybe you should think about that.

I’m REALLY going to kill Cole!

That is the last response, and that was over an hour ago.

Crap!

Jace has been sitting at home thinking that I’m all over Cole. I take a deep breath and put on my big girl panties and call him.

MY PHONE RINGS,
and for the first time, I don’t want to answer it. I’ve never been so pissed off in my entire life. I worked all day trying to make money to fix my damn bike, and the whole time I had that prick’s voice in my head.
“Drive with me.”
Over and over I heard his stupid voice begging for Shay to go with him to that party. Then this. He’s been at her fucking house. Swimming with her. Touching her. And, she looked liked she was having the best day of her life with him.

Landon shows up at my house as I’m pacing with greasy hands, watching my mom stagger around the kitchen, already on her way to passing out. As soon as I open the broken-ass door, I tell him I need to work out. I have so much adrenaline running through my body right now. So here I am, running around the track between push-ups.

“Bro, I’m tired. Let’s call it,” Landon says, sitting down on the ground when I run up to him.

“You can. I’m not ready yet.”

“What’s up? You seem mad at the world,” he says, out of breath.
“You know, I probably already know the answer to this because I rarely see you with a girl.”

“Do you have any idea what it feels like to be so in love with a girl that you have no business loving?”

“No, I have no idea. I’ve never even come close to liking someone a lot,” he says, looking up to me. I lean down, putting my hands on my knees with a shaky breath.

“I’ve been living that since I was thirteen. It wasn’t that bad when we were younger. We had no options. She came to the center once a week, we hung out, and that was it until the following week. I swear, bro, I fell in love with her the first day I met her, but now when things should be easier, they actually have gotten harder.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just mean, Shay is so busy with school now, she drives, she has parties, and functions that she’s always surrounded by the rich and famous. She has this friend she grew up with… He’s really flirtatious around her. He messed with me today when he got ahold of her phone.”

“Well, it’s got to make you feel good that she loves you.”

“That’s the problem. I know Shay loves me. I have no doubt. I just don’t think I could ever give her that life. Not on my own. And, I will never be a charity case.” I grab my hair and pull it, causing my scalp to ache. “I’m not good at anything.”

“Jace, you’re a great guy. I’ve seen what you have to deal with on a daily basis. Trust me, you are good at being a great person. You just need to find what you’re passionate about.”

“The only thing I’m passionate about is Shay.”

“Then make something happen for her. Find a way to make a good living for her.”

My phone keeps ringing and ringing. Landon says he’s going home, but I want to stay and work off all my aggression. “You know, working out to pure exhaustion isn’t going to change your circumstances.”

I raise my eyes to his as I do another set of push-ups. “Maybe not, but it’s going to help with the rage that I have inside me and keep me from beating someone’s fucking ass.”

“Do you trust her?”

Through uneven breaths, I say, “I trust her. I don’t trust him.”

I think back to when I went to the party with Landon. Kayla was trying hard to get my attention. How could I let myself get into that position? When she cornered me, I felt terrible. I didn’t even like her near me.

Kayla has a red Solo cup in her hand. She smells like my mother—cigarettes and beer—and it makes me sick. She grabs my hand. “You want to go get a drink, Jace?”

“No, I’m waiting for the bathroom,” I answer, putting my hand into my pocket. She puts her hand on her hips just like Shay does, but Kayla doesn’t look anything like my girl. Shay is sweet and beautiful.

“So, what’s the deal? You don’t drink?” She licks her lips. Turning toward the bathroom door, I hear people in there. Obviously, whoever it is isn’t worried about the bathroom. As I turn to walk away, Kayla grabs my arm.

“Don’t touch me,” I say, looking down at my arm. She shrugs her shoulders.

“Well, you don’t drink, so do you fuck?”

I yank my arm away from her. “You know what, Kayla? I really feel sorry for you. Do you not have any self-respect?”

“You have no idea what you’re missing.” She laughs while taking a big drink from her cup.

I walk away as I tell her, “Trust me, I’m not worried about what you think is a good offer.”

My phone starts buzzing again, bringing me back to the present. I didn’t tell Shay about that night; there was no need to. I walked out the front door that night completely disgusted by what I saw. I would never put myself in that predicament again. My girl never has to worry. She is all I see.

“She’s obviously trying to get ahold of you. Why don’t you just answer her?” Landon says, wiping the sweat off his brow.

“I don’t want to talk to her when I’m angry. We’ve never fought.” I look down, grinding out as many push-ups as I can. There’s gravel stuck in my palms, and my arms are starting to ache.

“Are you serious?” He laughs. “In all these years, you’ve never had a fight?”

“No. We haven’t.”

“That’s weird, Jace.”

“Why is that weird?” I say, taking a break from doing push-ups.

“I-I don’t know. It’s just… c-couples fight,” he stutters.

“It’s hard to fight with someone, when the majority of your relationship existed only once a week.”

“Yeah, I get that, but now that she drives and you have a phone, you get to see each other a lot more.”

“She’s the only thing right in my life. I don’t ever want to lose her over some stupid petty shit, and that fucker is petty,” I say.

“Remember that, Jace. You got to keep your cool around a guy like that. He thinks the world is his. His daddy has money, and he wants for nothing. He wants what he can’t have.”

“You’re right. He just likes to get under my skin.”

“Exactly,” Landon agrees.

“It’s just hard, you know. All my life I’ve struggled. When I met Shay, every struggle fell away. She’s loving and giving. I just want to be with her. She makes everything right. When she smiles, even when she talks with her sassy attitude, she makes my heart beat with purpose. I know that sounds stupid to you, but I just know she is the only girl for me. But, when I’m not with her, and I look around at how different our lives are, I feel like it’s too good to be true. How could a girl like Shay want a boy like me?”

“Wow, I hope to feel that way about someone someday,” he says sincerely. After a short pause, he adds, “But only after I’ve gone through some sorority sisters first.” I roll my eyes.

“Let’s go. I can’t even move my arms.” Landon and I walk together until he has to head in another direction. Even though the sun is starting to set, it still burns brightly, but the only warmth I feel is the warmth of the girl I long to hold. I don’t want to be angry with her, but I don’t like the thought of another guy at her house. The only thing that guy has that I don’t is money.

I can hold my own next to him since we are about the same build, but the differences are the ones people eventually take notice to. He has money, and I don’t. He gets to be around my girl, run in the same circles with her, and I have to fight to be with her. He can pull up in his fancy car and take her to get ice cream, and I have to take two buses and meet her at a run-down community center for her to pick me up.

I’m a loser.

He’s a golden boy.