Different Roads
Authors: Lori L. Clark
Different
Roads
By
Lori L. Clark
Copyright
© 2013 by Lori L. Clark
Cover
design by Lori L. Clark
Without
limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of
the above author of this book.
This
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents
are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various
products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without
permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized,
associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Dedicated
to fans of fast cars and hot men, and the men and women everywhere who like to
read about them.
"Jacqueline
Carter, tell me you aren't going looking like
that
?" Amanda asked
and fisted her hands on her hips in the total bitch-like way that is so Amanda.
"Why?
What's wrong with the way I look?" My eyes narrowed into a glare at my
best friend.
"Chrissakes
Jaq, why you always got to be such a
guy
?" She shook her head and reached
behind me to yank the scrunchie from my hair. "Lose the tail, Jaq. Why
don't you try and girl it up a little bit for a change."
My
auburn waves tumbled down over my shoulders and I swatted her hand away from
me, "
Girl it up
? You want
me
to girl it up?" I asked,
already wrestling my thick hair back into another pony tail.
She
rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, what the hell was I thinking? I mean why
tonight's party should be any different from all the others we've gone to is
beyond me."
"What
are you saying Mandy?" My eyes challenged her playfully. "I mean,
don't hold back on me now by being all shy and shit."
"Never
mind, you're hopeless," she sighed. "Just one of the guys."
"That's
why you love me so much, right?" I teased and raised my eyebrows
suggestively.
"You
wish," she grinned. "You only wish you were as sexy as me. You might need
to shed the virgin ball and chain first though. That'd be a good place to
start."
"You
make it sound like being a virgin is like wearing a second skin the whole world
can see," I smirked at her. "I'm
only
fifteen. I'm pretty sure
that doesn't classify me as a lost cause. Besides, just because you lost yours
to some loser in the back seat of his dad's Oldsmobile doesn't make you an
expert on the subject."
"I
can see right through that act of yours, you know," Mandy's eyes sparkled
mischievously. "I mean that whole shy, innocent side you show the world
might earn you respect from the bad boys, but let's face it Jaq, you know as
well as I do, you
crave
bad boys. You're just itchin' to let that wild
and crazy side out and one of these nights it's going to come kicking and
screaming to the surface."
I
suppressed a smile and turned my back on her so she couldn't see from my
expression just how right she was about my inner wild child. Amanda Dodson has
been my friend forever and most days, I'd swear she knows me better than I know
myself but there was no way in hell I'd ever admit it to her face. "Shut
it, Mandy. You only
think
you have me figured out."
"I'm
just sayin'. One of these days Rick is going to dump your virgin ass. I mean if
you don't start putting out, he'll find someone who will," she shrugged.
"You do realize how hot he is, right? Because if you don't, I know about
six or seven other girls who do. The dude is seriously fuckable and you're
choosing
now
to save yourself for... for whatever it is you're saving
yourself for." She shook her head and flipped her honey colored,
stick-straight hair over her shoulder dramatically as though I was a lost cause.
"Rick's
not like that," I muttered staring down at my feet.
"Like
what? Like every other guy his age? Horny?"
"That's
not what I mean and you know it," I shot her a poisonous glare.
"We're just waiting for the right time. And place. Miss Oldsmobile,"
I snickered. Before she could come back with a snarky comment about Rick's
primer colored, putty-filled Chevy 4x4, I heard it rumble onto our street and
grabbed my sweatshirt. "Come on, he's here."
"At
least the Olds had a back seat," she yelled after me as I was halfway to
the front door.
Again,
Mandy's right. Rick Madsen
is
hot. A jock. He's the type of guy who
could pull off modeling underwear with a wrench in one hand, a football in the
other and a rose clenched between his teeth just for the hell of it. I know
other girls want him. I also know several have tried. I think part of me sticks
with Rick because he's safe. He only
looks
badass. And, he wants me.
Me
.
Of all the girls he could be with, he chose me. He's definitely a wanted man.
For all the right (or wrong) reasons.
Rick
hopped out of the truck and motioned for us to come around to his side where he
held the door open. "Get in over here," he told us.
"Some mechanic you are," Mandy
muttered and rolled her eyes. "Still didn't get that door handle fixed, I
see."
He shot her a venomous glare, "Hey
don't judge me. I bought the part; I just haven't had time to put the damn
thing in yet."
Rick's brown eyes met mine and I ducked
into a weak, apologetic shrug. I knew he only tolerated Mandy because she was
my best friend. He brushed his lips lightly across mine and boosted me up into
the cab of the truck. I slid across the cracked vinyl seat into my usual spot;
careful to leave him easy access to the gear shift lever planted strategically
between my long legs.
He slid in beside me and released the
e-brake, dropped it into first and eased out the clutch. The tires spun in the
pea gravel in front of my house as he pulled a u-turn and headed back the way
he came. The speakers blasted out some Mötley Crüe song loud enough to hear
over the throaty dual exhaust. No one said much while he drove us out to the
country for the bonfire slash kegger, mostly because the window-vibrating
decibels he had the stereo cranked up to didn't allow for idle chit-chat.
The party was out in the sticks at the
house of some guy Rick knew. It started out like the other countless parties we
would go to -- boring and uneventful. The air was so thick with testosterone
you could have sliced it up and served it for breakfast. If I had a dollar for
every time I heard some moron yell, "Hey watch this. Hold my beer,"
I'd be beyond rich.
Rick and his buddies stood around
talking about differentials and lift kits and though I know enough about cars
to hold my own in their conversation, I didn't feel like getting into the
middle of a debate over who had the best rear end gears. I thought about
pulling up a log to just observe for the night. I do that a lot. People
watching has always been kind of my thing. Just by taking note of how someone
stands, their mannerisms, the expressions on their faces, I can size them up
accurately and within the first five minutes decide what kind of person they
really are underneath all the hype and bullshit.
No sooner had I grabbed a beer and gotten
all comfy by the fire when Mandy's hand darted under my nose, "Oh no you
don't," she huffed. "I did not let you drag me clear out here to East
Jesus, Illinois just to have you ignore me all night. Come on. I need a beer
pong partner."
The fact that we'd already been there
about an hour and she was still able to coherently say "beer pong
partner" without slurring was a good sign. I took a deep breath and blew
it out slowly, eyeing her hand in front of my face for a few seconds before I
let her pull me to my feet. "Why not? I'm feeling lucky tonight." I
grinned.
About a half hour into the game, Mandy
and I were kicking ass and taking names when some goofy looking guy from the
sidelines chimed in with the brilliant idea to make it
strip
beer pong.
I knew Mandy well enough to know that no matter how hammered she got, she
wasn't one to show off the goods in a game of chance. I also knew that she'd
bow out and I wouldn't be able to continue without my partner. We were a team
after all.
"That's about the most ignorant
thing I've ever heard," Mandy said and poked goofy in the chest with a
red-tipped fingernail. She reached for my hand and swung our arms up in the
air. "We won and now we're out!"
The people knotted around the table
erupted into cheers and I gave Mandy a high five, "I knew you wouldn't let
me down."
She grinned, "Oh hell no. No way in
hell I'd get laid tonight if you lost your shirt first. One look at your melons
and none of the guys would see me. Even if I stood there buck naked."
"Oh whatever," I said, cheeks
burning.
Our anatomy conversation was suddenly
put on hold when Mandy planted her hands on my shoulders and leaned in,
"Don't look now," her blue eyes shifted from mine to somewhere over
my right shoulder. When I started to turn, she dug her nails in and held me
firmly in place. "I said. Don't. Look. Now."
"Okay? What am I not looking
at?" I whispered.
"That," she said and spun me
around.
I found myself locked into the bluest
eyes I'd ever seen. Like a vacuum, the breath instantly whooshed into my lungs
with an audible gasp. I'm pretty sure my heart forgot to beat for a few
seconds. When my bodily functions erratically resumed, the thundering blood
pounding in my ears temporarily deafened me.
I didn't want to stare but couldn't even
blink, let alone look away. The piercing way his blue eyes peeked out from
under his baseball cap turned the ground beneath my boots into rapidly setting
cement. He had me locked on his radar and the bad girl part of me loved every
mind blowing second of it.