Chapter One
“Why did I come? Why am I here? I should have said no,” Michelle muttered under her breath as she pushed open the double doors and stepped into her old high school’s gymnasium.
She brushed her damp palms over the red silk at her hips and glanced around looking for direction.
She already wished she had followed her first instinct and avoided this event as if it were a contagious disease. She no longer had anything in common with these people. She still wasn’t sure how her once best friend, Dee Peterson, had talked her into attending their ten-year high school reunion. In her ten-year-old formal gown, no less. Like they were reliving senior prom all over again. She felt like a fool. She was pretty sure she was a fool. Why else would she have agreed to this?
The entire gym was decorated the way it had been ten years before—from the purple and silver balloons to the copious white streamers to the tinfoil-crafted stars taped to the walls and dangling from strings on the ceiling. The theme was written in purple across a huge white banner above the stage. One Starry Night. Who had thought this was a good idea? A prom revival? Really? Michelle struggled to keep her eyes from rolling.
She had been glad to leave the cliques of high school behind. She hadn’t known who she was back then, but she had a pretty good handle on what she stood for now. And she was no longer the scared little follower who’d done anything and everything Dee Peterson asked of her. Well sort of. She was here at Dee’s whim after all. Apparently, old habits died hard. But maybe she hadn’t come because Dee had pleaded with her. Maybe she’d come to see if her so-called friends from high school had become more interesting people or if they were still the same group of mean bitches she’d allowed to rule her social life all those years ago.
Michelle walked up to the reception table and hunted for her nametag among the dozens still there. She recognized several names, especially those belonging to the collection of jocks and cheerleaders who she’d once considered her best friends. One name in particular jumped out at her. He’d been somewhat of a jock—built like a tank in high school and, therefore, recruited by an enthusiastic football coach—but he’d spent more time with the choir geeks than his teammates. And considering he was now a singer, Michelle guessed he hadn’t had the same difficulty in knowing who he was, even in high school.
Sedric Lionheart. She was surprised he’d even consider attending. Michelle glanced up at the attendant. The smiling woman looked familiar, but even the name Claudia Bennett on her badge didn’t ring any real bells.
“Is Sedric Lionheart really attending?” He happened to be the most famous member of their graduating class. The lead singer of the metal band Sinners.
“He’s on the maybe list. Along with Jake Tremaine.”
Michelle’s cheeks went hot. She wasn’t sure how Claudia knew that she’d be interested in seeing Jake. Or more likely avoiding Jake. Jake—the guy who’d claimed her virginity, her sanity, her hold on propriety. Jake—the guy who’d fucked her body right and done her heart wrong. No one knew that she’d met him in secret under the boardwalk late at night or how hot that guy had once made her. Did they? How could they know? Neither she nor Jake had wanted their secret out. She was too goodie goodie to run with his crowd and he was too misfit to hang with hers, but dear Lord when they’d been alone together… There had been more than sparks between them. Their tryst had been an insatiable inferno. And she had definitely gotten burned in the end.
Michelle hadn’t seen Jake since graduation, when he’d pretty much told her he had better things to do than her. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to see him now. Part of her wanted to know what he’d done with his life. Another part was afraid those old wounds would reopen and burn her again. She’d been over him for a while now, but it hadn’t been easy. Their breakup had likely changed the entire course of her life. And, unfortunately, she’d yet to find a lover that made her burn the way he had, so she still compared all men to the guy. And, she couldn’t lie, that really ticked her off.
“Oh, I figured everyone already knew about the connection,” Claudia said.
Connection? That was a nice way to put it. Shit. Maybe Michelle should flee now before she made a fool out of herself over a guy she had never admitted to dating.
“Jake’s a roadie for Sed’s band,” Claudia continued. “So they’ll probably come together, if they come at all. I think Sinners is touring in Europe now.”
Michelle’s breath came out in a whoosh. So Claudia didn’t know about her affair with Jake. Not that it mattered much now, but in her popular-crowd teen years, she hadn’t wanted anyone to know how a troublemaking bad boy had gotten under her skin and between her thighs. And all the while she’d shamelessly worn her purity ring like the other virginal cheerleaders. She remembered being terrified of getting kicked off the squad and somehow that had made being fucked senseless while wearing that preppy cheerleading uniform all the hotter.
She found Jake’s badge in the lineup right below hers, but it was the badge resting above hers that she touched with bitter regret. Devlin McAllister. The sweetest boy she’d ever known. He’d asked her to prom in front of all her friends and she’d had to turn him down. None too gently, she recalled. If he’d have asked her in private, she’d have been more careful with his feelings. She might have even asked him on a date. Not prom—she’d been expected to go with the football team’s star running back and had willingly done her duty as vice squad leader and Dee’s fucking minion. But because everyone had been watching the scene and had heard Devlin ask her, she’d shredded him. And she still felt like a complete bitch for doing so. When she’d tried to apologize to him later, he’d avoided her. Not that she blamed him. She would have avoided seventeen-year-old-Michelle too. She’d been horrible to people. And not just to Devlin. It made her sick to her stomach to think of how mean she’d been to some of her classmates. Why had it taken her so long to grow a goddamned spine and stand up for what she believed in? She doubted she’d ever figure out the answer to that question.
“Was I ever mean to you in high school?” she asked Claudia.
The round faced woman shook her head. “I don’t think we ever crossed paths in high school. All I ever cared about was singing in the choir.”
“I’m glad I wasn’t mean to you,” Michelle said.
“You did make my best friend, Joan Carmichael, cry once.”
“I did? Is she here? I want to apologize to her for whatever I did.” Maybe this was why she’d really come. Not because Dee had begged her or because she cared what her co-bitches had become, but to make amends with everyone she’d ever hurt in high school. Michelle hoped she hadn’t done any permanent damage to anyone. She hadn’t realized how long a person could carry emotional scars. She had a few from Jake Tremaine that still pained her on occasion.
“Joan said she wouldn’t come to this thing for a million dollars,” Claudia said, “but I’ll tell her you’re sorry…”
“For?” Michelle asked.
“Telling her she was too fat and clumsy to be on the cheer squad.”
Michelle’s face went numb and she rubbed her lips with two fingertips. “I didn’t say that, did I?”
Fuck. She was sure she had. Dee had hand selected who she wanted on the cheer squad and had employed her friends to make the other hopefuls feel so bad about themselves that they didn’t bother to try out. It had worked for the most part. The only girl who’d been brave enough to try out against Dee’s wishes had been Phoebe Gates. She’d made the squad because the coach had recognized her talent, but she had never been welcomed into the group because Dee had never wanted her in the group in the first place.
“Tell Joan I was wrong. And I wish she wouldn’t have listened to me and had tried out anyway. I’
m sure she was good enough and no one had the right to make her feel otherwise. Not me. Not Dee Peterson. Not anyone.”
Claudia stared at her with wide eyes. “I’ll tell her. She won’t believe you actually said that, but I’ll tell her.”
“Is Phoebe Gates here?” Because Michelle wanted to apologize to her next.
Claudia shook her head. “I think Dee intentionally forgot to invite her.”
Michelle wondered why she’d ever called that woman her best friend. She didn’t even speak to Dee anymore and as far as she was concerned she never wanted to speak to her again.
“Mishy!” a loud and enthusiastic voice carried across the gymnasium followed by the rapid clicking of stilettos in her direction.
Michelle cringed. Never was apparently a very short span of time. Only one person called her Mishy and refused to stop no matter how many times Michelle told her that she didn’t like to be called that. It seemed she’d be unable to avoid speaking to Dee after all.