Ultimatum (Dirty Secrets #1)

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

This book is dedicated to “Mercy’s Pimps!”

Devianna, Jenna, Jenn, Ashley, Amanda, and Lauren!

Love you girls!

Monday, August 25

We have just enough time for a quickie.

I wake up two minutes before my alarm goes off. Most people think it’s weird that I wake up at five a.m. everyday, but I can’t help it. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always woken up at this time, no matter how late I stayed up the previous night. I even woke up at this time during summer break.

My morning always starts out the same way — with running. I live beside a lake, and the road around it is exactly five miles. It takes me thirty-five minutes to run it. I’ve done it faster, but thirty-five minutes is comfortable for me. I don’t do it to push my body, but because I enjoy it. I like the fresh air, solidarity, and the burn in my legs.

I get out of bed, throw my long blonde hair into a messy bun, and put on my running shoes. After spending a few minutes stretching, I take off. I have my phone tucked safely inside my bra, and I put on my headphones. On my phone, I have a playlist of songs that I listen to while I run. I change it up at least once a week. I’m always listening to different bands. I like music, and I listen to a lot of different genres. Even if I don’t like a song the first time I hear it, after listening to it for an entire week, I usually end up liking it. Plus, music is something
everybody
has in common, which means I can have a conversation with just about anybody.

My love of music started as a kid. My dad loved music. He played guitar, and he always said he wanted to be a rock star. He also said that instead of becoming a rock star, he had me, and I was way better than money or fame. He died when I was seven years old, but his music lives on through me.

I am in a band. Well, sort of a band. My twin brother Trey and I have a garage band. I say garage because that is where we practice. We aren’t good enough to perform anywhere yet, but we’re working on it. Trey plays guitar, like my dad, and I sing. Our drummer is Trey’s best friend, Jace. Our bass player, Beau, left for college a few days ago, so we are currently looking for somebody else to fill his spot. I’m not
too
worried about it, because in a year the rest of us will be leaving for college too. It’s not like music is what I plan to do with my life. It’s just something fun to do right now.

Thirty-five minutes later, I am back at the spot where I started. I go inside, take a shower, and get ready for the first day of my senior year.

I’ve spent my whole high school experience looking forward to this year. It’s my last year of being in high school, and I’ve heard it’s also the most fun. All I know is that I plan to enjoy every second of it.

After my shower, I blow-dry my hair and straighten it. My hair reaches the top of my butt, and I like that it’s long. Anybody can have short hair, but not many keep it as long as I do. I like standing out.

For my first day of school, I put on a bright orange sundress and wear a pair of white sandals with it. Orange is my favorite color, so any time I see orange clothing, I buy it.

When I come downstairs to leave for school, Jace is standing in the foyer waiting for Trey. He rides with Trey because most of the time his truck won’t start. He drives an older Ford pick-up and it needs some serious maintenance. His mom doesn’t have a lot of money, so they can’t afford repairs right now, and Jace can’t get a job because of football and baseball practice. Everybody says he is probably going to get a baseball scholarship, which is his only hope for being able to afford college, so he can’t be distracted.

Jace lives next door to us. He moved in there when he was four, which is probably why Trey and he became best friends. Jace and I used to hang out together a lot, but now that we’re in high school we don’t as much. We have different friends. I hang out with him when he’s here, or when we’re at band practice, but we’re not as close as we used to be.

“Do you want to get suspended on the first day of school?” Jace asks, looking at my legs.

My dress is short. Way shorter than the school handbook allows. “I won’t get in trouble,” I tell him confidently. It’s the truth. My teachers all love me, and even if I were sent to the principal’s office, I would sweet talk him into letting me wear whatever I want. Mr. Holbrook is in his late forties, and he’s going through some kind of midlife crisis. He lets the pretty girls get away with
almost
anything.

“Of course you won’t,” Jace says. I can hear the irritation in his voice.

“What’s wrong? Is this dress making you hot for me?” I joke. I drop my bag onto the floor and bend over slowly to pick it up.

“So hot,” he says once I stand back up. He looks at his phone. “We have about ten minutes before we leave… just enough time for a quickie.”

I roll my eyes like I’m annoyed, but my heart skips a beat. I
might
have a tiny little crush on Jace. Okay, okay… I definitely
do
have a crush. And it’s actually not tiny. I’ve kind of been in love with him since I was four years old. He had just moved in next door, and I was in my tree-climbing phase. I climbed up higher than I meant to, and I got scared. Jace saw me up in the tree and I asked him to go get my dad. He refused, so after about an hour of arguing with Jace, I finally climbed down. It’s because of him that I’m fearless. He pushes me to go to the extreme and do stuff I wouldn’t normally do.

“You so wish,” I say and then walk past him toward the door. “See you around.”

“Later.”

As I’m about to shut the door, I look back and see that Jace is watching me. He smiles, and for a moment I think
maybe
he’s in love with me too. But I’ll never know, because I will so never admit it to him.

We pretend to hate each other.

We flirt.

We joke about sex.

But that’s it. It’s all a joke. And I don’t want to be the one to admit I’m not joking. He has to admit it first, and unfortunately, Jace is the only person who is as stubborn as I am.

English

You know you want me.

I love my car.

I drive an orange Camaro that has white racing strips. It’s a convertible, and it’s a 6-speed. I like driving a stick shift because most of the people I know have no clue how to drive it. I like to be different in every way that I can.

When my dad died, he left enough money for all three of his kids to get a car and to pay for college. Trey and I got to go to the lot on our sixteenth birthday and get a brand new car. It was awesome, but I would
gladly
give it up to have my dad back. I’d much rather have him than this car.

Hailee is my youngest sister. She’s thirteen now, but she was only three when our dad died. I’m sad that she didn’t have the chance to get to know him better. She hardly even remembers him, which makes me sad. I’m thankful for the memories that I had with him.

When I get to school, Lexie Sharp is waiting for me.

Lexie is a really good friend. She’s in drama club with me, and we perform well together… or so our drama teacher says. He always casts me as the lead and her as my sidekick. I kind of feel bad for her, always coming in second, but she doesn’t mind. I definitely would. I have had the female lead in every school play since I was a freshman. I love the spotlight.

Lexie is beautiful in her own subtle way. She has natural cherry brown hair and big brown eyes. I know she has a nice body, because I’ve seen her in a bikini, but she hides it under baggy t-shirts and skirts that are one size too big for her. It’s like she enjoys sliding under the radar instead of standing out. Today, she’s wearing a jean skirt that hangs awkwardly to the bottom of her calves and is somehow four inches higher in the back. She’s also wearing a shirt that says “Virgin — you ain’t getting any”. She has on a pair of fake pink frame glasses, which is weird considering she has to wear contacts to see five feet in front of her face. Why not just get
real
glasses?

“Hey, Mads!” she greets me.

“Hey, Lex,” I say back.

Lexie and I don’t hang out much at school because we are in different groups. Lexie is kind of a nerd, not that there is anything wrong with that. I’m a nerd too, but somehow I pushed my way to the top. I hang out with all the popular girls and guys. It’s not like I
need
to be popular, but I enjoy it. Like I said, I thrive on being the center of attention.

“I heard a rumor that the winter play is going to be a retelling of Cinderella,” she says.

School hasn’t even started and there are already rumors. “Awesome.”

“You’re going to make a great Cinderella.”

“If I get the part,” I say, waving her off. We both know that I will, but I don’t want to jinx it… or sound arrogant.

“Of course you will get the part. Can you believe that we’re seniors now?” she asks, bouncing up and down.

I spot Daisy Lewis standing by Mason Holt and Robert Dixon. I say a quick goodbye to Lexie and head toward them. Daisy greats me with a hug, as always.

Everybody calls Daisy Dee, and she is kind of a bitch. She’s definitely the
mean girl
at our high school, but I love her anyway. And if I didn’t I would fake it, because I’ve seen what she does to people who don’t like her. She’s kind of vicious.

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer… And Daisy the closest.

“Hey, bitch,” she greets me in the same way she has since we became friends our freshman year. “I missed your beautiful face this summer!”

Daisy’s family is rich, so she spends her summer in Barbados, right on the beach. She has an awesome tan, but mine is darker. I spent most of my summer outside too. I played softball every Saturday, and pretty much went swimming with Trey, Jace, and Hailee every day. It was wonderful.

Daisy’s appearance is always perfect. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her wear anything that isn’t custom-fitted, including her pajamas. She always wears her bleached blonde hair parted to the left, and it’s always down. Most of the time she straightens it, but occasionally she’ll curl it into soft waves on the weekends. And even when she is completely wasted, I’ve never seen her get an ounce of vomit on herself.

“Did you have fun?” I ask her.

“You know it. Sat by the pool, worked on my tan, drank fruity drinks, and flirted with guys all day. At night, I’d go out to a club and usually hook up with a hot guy. It was the best.”

I didn’t talk to Daisy once this summer… not that we normally talk a
lot
or anything. I wasn’t worried about her lack of conversation directed at me. I figured she was having too much fun in Barbados to think about texting me. I know I was having too much fun to text her.

Before anybody has a chance to say anything else, the warning bell goes off. We all head off in different directions.

English is my first class of the day. When I walk in the classroom, I take a seat in the back corner. A few seconds later, Jace sits down beside me. He looks surprised to see me.

“What?” he says, trying to sound angry. He slaps his hand down on the desk. “I specifically told them
not
to put me in the same class as you.”

I roll my eyes in response.

He leans closer. “I’m willing to ditch if you still want that quickie.”

I shake my head at him and laugh as the bell rings.

Mrs. Duff walks in the room and starts talking. She hands out the syllabus. I glance over at Jace to see that he’s trying to get my attention.

“Your legs look really hot in that dress,” he signs to me.

Jace’s little brother, Thayer, is deaf. When Jace was seven, his mom got married and got pregnant with Thayer. When his mom was nine months pregnant, her then husband beat her almost to death. She and Thayer both are lucky to be alive, but Thayer has never been able to hear because of it. Trey, Jace, and I all learned sign language together. Thayer is nine now, so sign language comes just as natural as talking.

Ultimatum (Dirty Secrets #1)

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