“Paige,” Naomi bites out as she reaches to take my hand, her ebony fingers entwining with my tanned ones. “Stop being a brat, or you can take the bus to school.”
I force a smile for Naomi. If it weren’t for Nae at my side during all this shit with my dad, I would’ve gone off the deep end right along with Mom.
“Is everything okay?” Nae asks the moment Carrie and Paige start chattering about their schedule and coinciding classes.
“Never better.” I flash her a wider smile this time, the one that’s gotten me out of all kinds of trouble my entire life. “You ready to reign?”
She rolls her chocolate-colored eyes. “You know I hate that crap.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that you’re the hottest, most popular girl at school.” I shrug, ignoring Paige’s annoyed huff from the back seat.
Where Naomi hates the attention, Paige begs for it. Nae is the deserving queen of the school, where Paige is more like an evil princess waiting to dethrone her sister the first chance she gets. If it weren’t for Carrie, Paige would have probably sold her soul to the devil already. Luckily for her, my sister is just the right amount of good to keep Paige from the dark side.
When a song that Nae loves comes on the radio, she turns it up and sings along. This time, my smile is genuine. Most days, I don’t feel like I deserve someone like Naomi Young. She’s too sweet and pretty and brilliant to put up with an asshole like me. Thank fuck she hasn’t figured out she can do better. That day is going to hurt, but it’s only a matter of time.
I pull into the school parking lot, pleased to see several of my football buddies standing in a parking spot, saving it for me. Laying on the horn, I flip them off and laugh as they scatter. Once I whip into the spot and kill the engine, my best friend, Damon Billings, flings open my door.
“You almost ran me over, dumbass,” he complains, punching my arm. Then he leans in, making a kissy face at my girlfriend. “It’s my bae, Nae. When are you breaking up with this anime porn-loving dork so we can get married?”
I smack him upside his head and ignore his cackling as he walks back over to Gage Combs and Cain Nash. Those two fuckers, though, only have eyes for Paige as she prances away from my black Dodge Challenger. Carrie follows behind Paige, her cheeks bright pink from the attention of two seniors, even though they’re mostly checking out the way Paige has filled out since last year.
“Gross,” Nae mutters under her breath. “I swear to God if one of those fools sleeps with my sister, I’ll rip their faces off.”
Amused, I turn to smirk at Naomi. “You’re sexy when you’re violent.”
My girlfriend, the biggest damn nerd at this school, is sexy without even trying. Her black hair is cropped short in tiny curls against her head, and she rarely wears makeup aside from a few strokes of mascara and her usually shiny lip gloss. The dark, almost black tone of her skin is radiant and naturally shimmers as if to point out that she’s a fucking goddess. Where most girls at our school—like Paige—are wearing short skirts and low-cut tops, Nae wears faded holey jeans, bright yellow Chucks, and a NASA T-shirt that molds across her nice handful-sized tits.
“Don’t be such a perv,” she warns, laughing at my expression. “Keep it in your pants.”
I sling my arm over her shoulders and kiss the top of her head. “Until later.”
“Keep dreaming, boy.”
We both laugh, but she’s right. I’ve been trying to get her to give it up to me for a year now, ever since we started dating the beginning of our junior year. There’ve been a few times we’ve gotten hot and heavy, but Nae always stops it when it gets too far. The girl’s given me blue balls more times than I can count. But I love her, so as much as I’d love for us to take things to the next level, I dial the pressure down anytime I get the yellow light.
Gage playfully grabs at Paige’s ass, making her giggle. Damon, the good guy he is, shoves Gage, ramming him into Cain’s truck. They get into a pushing match, but no one pays them any attention. All the guys on our football team are forever giving each other shit. Coach Healy tries to make us behave because he’s afraid one of us will get injured and ruin his chances for a winning season, but no one ever does.
“How’s your momma?” Nae asks once we walk into the building.
I tense up, swallowing down the rage that surges up inside me, hot and furious. “Fine.”
She stops in front of a bank of lockers, lifting a black brow up at me. “Really?”