I guess it was fate that we became friends.
It's been almost a year since I saw Tyler Parish the last time.
I can't believe that I'm finally going to see him again.
I know he will probably never feel for me the way I feel for him. However, for some reason deep down inside, I still hope that someday he'll see that I'm not just an old friend who he can rely on and share secrets with; I'm also a woman, one who loves him so deeply that I’m willing to do anything it would take to make him happy.
Tyler Parish. The one who taught me to ride a bike when he found out that I couldn't because I didn't have a father. The one who baked me a cake when Mom couldn't spend my sixteenth birthday with me. The one who spent the whole night in my bedroom, calming me down after I saw a tarantula on our porch (which Tyler killed, by the way, rescuing me).
The one that has no idea about my feelings.
Chapter Two
Tyler
"Are you coming to Ashley's party tonight?" Zac asks me while we're walking to our cars at The Elite Academy’s parking lot.
We've just finished an intense swim training, after which our coach told us to get some rest, but my friend still wants to party, only not to come back home.
"No, I'm out," I say with no regret. It's the day when Kylie gets back home and although she told me we'll meet tomorrow, I can't wait to see her; that's why I decide to show up and stay on her porch until she arrives.
"Seriously?" he asks with anAre you kidding me?look on his face. "What's wrong? Don't you wanna get laid tonight?"
No, I don't, actually,I think but do not say it out loud. I don't want him to know the truth.
And the truth is that, no matter how many girls I've dated, I never slept with any of them. Mostly because they're not my type, despite how famous and beautiful they seem for other guys, but precisely because I'm in love with someone else.
Kylie Thompson.
My best friend since childhood. The only girl I've ever dreamed about. The only girl that I tried to kiss, but she rejected me. Three times, actually.
That's when I started dating all those cheerleaders and other famous girls: to make Kylie jealous. I not only went on dates with them, but I also told Kylie everything about those dates, every single detail, including the sex scenes I made up in my head.
But she never got jealous, not once. She listened to me as if nothing happened and quickly changed the subject after I finished my stories. She expressed zero emotions: no jealousy, no pain, nothing. She never felt for me the way I feel for her.
But I decided that it doesn't matter because I still want to see her more than anything I ever wanted in my life.
Kylie Thompson, my best friend, comes back from her year trip to Africa today, and nothing will stop me from seeing her.
"No, thanks." I shake my head. "I have other plans."
"Other than getting a first-class blow job? Are you insane?" he keeps insisting, his voice becoming louder with each word.
Zac thinks I'm a womanizer just like him. We're both famous at school because the girls think that it's prestigious to date an athlete.
Every girl I’ve dated has told everyone else that we've slept together. Of course they did because they couldn't say the truth: that I rejected them even after they took off their clothes. They all think that I'm a womanizer who’s slept with plenty of girls, and each one of those girls keeps it as a secret that I never touched her. They think it's embarrassing that I rejected them.
What nonsense. Girls call each other 'whores' if they sleep with more than two guys, and at the same time, they call the girls who don't sleep with anyone 'ugly' because they haven't.
This is the cruel reality of life when you study in "Dirty Elite."
"All the cheerleader squad will be there to celebrate the beginning of the season," Zac continues, interrupting my thoughts. "Can you imagine what it would be like if they get drunk? I'll probably have a threesome with Ash and her hot girlfriends."
Zac's sly smile never leaves his face all the time that he's speaking. I don't want to disappoint him and tell him that I already know his own secret, the one he tries to hide from everyone else: that he's attracted to his stepsister, and that he hasn't had sex for more than six months.
Zac got drunk at the last party we went to and told me about it. But the next day, he forgot everything he said, and now I'm pretending that I didn't hear it.
I also do not want to disappoint him and tell him that I already got a proposal to have a threesome with Ashley and Rebecca last week when they came over to congratulate me on my eighteenth birthday.