Beneath Our Faults (6 page)

Keegan groaned, running his hands through his hair. "Damn Cora, are you ever going to get over that? It was forever ago."

"It has not been forever, it's only been a year and she was heartbroken! She believed you actually liked her," she fired back.

He tilted his head back. "Then maybe you or someone else needs to help her out and tell her she needs to ask guys if they like her or not before she fucks them. I didn't make her any promises before or after she decided to spread those pretty little legs for me," he threw back, smiling in earnest. A sour taste filled my mouth.

"You are seriously a pig," Cora scoffed, grabbing a fry from Lane's tray and throwing it over my head at him.

"Dude," Keegan said to Lane, dodging the fry and letting it fall onto the floor. "Control your crazy girlfriend."

"Fuck that, asshat, I'm not defending your ass," Lane laughed.

"You're so pussy-whipped.”

"Damn straight and I will be pussy-whipped every damn day for the rest of my life if it means I'm getting the prefix." He gave the entire table a naughty grin and Cora smacked his arm. Grabbing her shoulders, he kissed her cheeks in between his laughs. My stomach hardened and jealousy slapped me in the face watching the back and forth banters between Cora and Lane. I missed having that connection with someone and I wanted it back.

"You're incorrigible," Cora laughed, attempting to swat him away but he just kissed her again.

"That was a good one, though." Gabby said, reaching out her hand to give Lane a high five. Even if my sense of humor was non-existent now, he had managed to get me to crack a small smile.

Keegan shook his head at his cousin again and switched his attention to me. Great, he already sicced the school mean girl on me, what did he want now? "I came over to tell you I can give you a ride home after school."

I swallowed, dreading having to endure another wretched car ride with Piper and her nauseating whine but I felt bad saying no. He was being nice offering me a ride home. Plus, I didn't even know if I had a way home. Neither my aunt nor uncle had said anything about it. "Okay." I told him, keeping my attention on the salad in front of me and separating the cheese from the lettuce with my fork.

He winked at me then patted me on the back. Saluting the rest of the table, he strolled back to his table and a pissed off looking Piper glaring daggers my way. I sunk back in my chair looking away from her.

"God, you are such a lucky bitch." Gabby said, her eyes still on Keegan. "I'm just declaring right now that all girl's nights will now be held at your casa from now on. I would be peeking through his windows every night like some stalker if I lived next to him." I gave her a lame attempt at a smile and gulped.

If she only knew.

I
WAS
usually the last person to walk into class, making it there at the exact time the bell rang, but Piper had invited me to have dinner with her parents. Anytime a chick mentioned meeting the parents, that was my cue to get the hell out of dodge, which made my arrival to Health class earlier than usual.

For as long as I could remember, I had always been free to do whatever the hell I wanted. My mom despised staying at home and being an actual mother. Even on the rare occasions she was home, she didn't give two shits about what I did anyways. She turned a blind eye to the revolving door of girls and the nights I didn't come home.

I brought home different girls all the time because I knew I could. I screwed them because I knew that's what they wanted. Every single one of those girls wanted to have the opportunity to brag to their little sidekick girlfriends they secretly hated that I gave them the time of day. Then they would all make a lame attempt of being that "one girl that tamed me," which was fucking stupid on their part. But hey, I wasn’t banging them for their brains, anyways.

I had never been tamed, owned or in a relationship and never will. I warned each and every girl I'd ever been with before I would even unbutton my jeans that I didn't do relationships. There would be no sending flowers or cuddling afterwards talking about our future children.

There were a few exceptions to my "one time only" rule, and one was Piper. When her skinny ass hopped on my lap last night buck ass naked, it was nothing new. Piper was my hanger-on, always available whenever I called and she knew when to leave me alone. She could handle not getting goodnight phone calls or Friday date nights. I called, she came, in more ways than one. That was our arrangement and it was a pretty fucking good one.

The class was almost full when I walked in and headed towards my usual seat at the back of the room but it was taken. My sexy, little spyin' neighbor was settled in it with her attention engrossed in some notebook. Lucky for me, there was a seat open next to her and I plopped my ass down in the seat. My chair screeched when I moved it closer, moving her eyes away from the notebook to glare at me.

"Seriously," she groaned, slamming her notebook closed. I frowned, not the usual greeting I received from the opposite sex.

"Nice to see you too. I thought I would show some neighborly love and see how your day was going, my young voyeur." A wicked grin crept over my lips and her dark eyes turned cold.

"First of all," she leaned into me, whispering harshly. "I am not a freaking voyeur like I have already told you. You saw me watching, I get it. Joked adjourned. Secondly, it would be much easier for the both of us if you would please move to another seat, preferably at least fifteen feet away."

"Yeah, I can't do that.”

"And why is that?"

"You are actually sitting in my seat."

"There are assigned seats?" She asked, looking at me skeptically.

"Pretty much.”

"No there isn't. He's lying to you," a grating voice said from the opposite side of her. I glanced over her head, spotting my least favorite of all assholes, Dirk Bates. If you grabbed a dictionary and went to the word douchebag, you would see a picture of Dirk smiling in his over-bleached teeth and polo with the collar popped. "I don't think we've met. I'm Dirk," he introduced himself, holding out his hand to Daisy.

She nodded towards the douche lord, shaking his hand then turning her glare back at me. "You can't sit there. Your little demon girlfriend is probably already plotting my murder as we speak and everyone is staring."

My eyes widened in amusement. "I don't have a girlfriend so that can't be true, and I could care less if all of these idiots are staring. It's your fault, not mine. If I left, they would still be staring at you because you're the new fresh meat around here."

"I am not fresh meat," she hissed back in horror.

"Baby, you are definitely fresh meat.” My eyes peered straight into hers then moved their gaze to her chest. "And I can guarantee you that every single guy in this room agrees with me, too."

She opened her mouth, most likely to tell me to go to hell, but the bell rang, stopping her. I chuckled and Miss Douglas, or Vicki as I called her, sauntered into the classroom clad in a tight, black dress entirely too risqué for a teacher, but I wasn't complaining. I would say I knew her better than most students, including everything she had going on under that sexy ass dress. In her defense, it was before she actually became my teacher.

"Good afternoon class," her sultry voice called out and her red lips formed a smile.

"Miss Douglas," I interrupted, raising my hand before she got on with her lecture or whatever. "I'm not sure if you're aware or not, but we have a new student with us today." I grinned, pointing at Daisy and every pair of eyes turned to look at her while she looked down at her desk, clearly uncomfortable.

"Thank you Keegan, but I already know this," Vicki said, moving her attention from me to the embarrassed girl next to me. "We have already completed the first two sections that will be on next week's test, but I am sure someone will partner up with you and let you borrow their notes.”

"You can use mine," Dirk offered up immediately, opening his book.

Hell no, not happening, ass clown.

Dirk was the ultra shadier version of me. Sure, I slept around but I wouldn't say I was necessarily a bad person, per se. I never made promises or love devotions to girls just to have sex with them. Dirk played the game differently because he did. The gel-haired prick led girls on telling them he loved them just to wedge his scrawny fingers and cock into their panties then ditch them when he got what he wanted.

"She'll pass. I'll give her mine," I corrected.

"You don't have to work with him if you don't want to," Dirk told Daisy. "And Keegan, just because you share your notes with her doesn't mean she's going to open her legs for you." My chest let out a hard laugh. I couldn’t believe the asshole was actually trying to turn the tables around and accuse me of his games.

"Don't test me, Bates. She's my neighbor, so shut the fuck up."

Dirk might be a little asshole but he also knew not to fuck with me. His had his fair share of my fist in his face when he decided to talk shit about Gabby in the locker room because she didn't put out when he took her a homecoming dance. Yep, the asshole liked to brag and complain about his conquests, and I sure as hell wasn't about to let that happen to Daisy.

"I don't want your notes," Daisy insisted, irritated. "Take your attention and go somewhere else with it, please." Her voice broke at the end, causing my face to drop, but I wasn't going to budge. Let her be pissed at me, oh well.

"I like my attention exactly where it is at the moment. You're not using Dirk's notes and you are definitely not working with him."

Her eyes narrowed into slits. "I'm sorry but you did not become the boss of me because you took me to school. I can use whoever's notes I want to use."

"Tommy told me to keep an eye on you, so that's what I'm doing," I lied. Tommy never said that but the thought of her becoming the victim of one of Dirk's shady cons made my stomach churn. "Alright, let's get this note party started," I told her, opening up my notebook. Shaking her head, she grabbed my notebook of my desk and hastily started copying my notes without saying another word to me.

"Y
OU'RE TAKING
me home?" Piper shrieked when I turned down her street. Her head whipped around quickly and her blonde hair flung into her face.

"I think that's what it looks like," I answered, keeping my focus on the road in front of me. I should have told Piper to find another ride home. Her dad had bought her a shiny new Mercedes convertible but she still insisted on catching a ride with me daily. She was under the assumption that I was clueless why but I wasn't a damn idiot. She was trying to tell the other girls that I belong to her. Yeah right, the chick was highly confused if she thought I belonged to anyone, let alone her.

Even if she was trying to piss a circle around me to show her ownership, it still didn't send the girls away from me. They didn't care and plenty of them were still willing. Shit, I had just hooked up with her best friend last weekend. She sure as hell wasn't worried about Piper's apparent "claim" on me, so it had never bothered me before. But for some reason, with Daisy seeing us, it did.

"But we usually go over to your house after school," Piper whined, attempting to seductively whisper but making sure she was loud enough for Daisy to hear her. Her hand settled on my thigh then moved up to start rubbing my cock. I stopped her hand, moving it away and back her own lap. Piper tilted her head to the side, raising a brow. It wasn't unusual for Piper to give me road head or for us to jump in the backseat before I dropped her off.