Ride: An angsty enemies to lovers romance Read online

  Giving her a smile, we fall into easy chatter as lunch goes on. We actually hit it off pretty easily, better than I have with any friend’s I’d made at other schools. Swapping numbers, we agree to meet up after school, since she normally takes the bus, I offered to drive her home. I don’t know why, but it just came out my mouth, too late to take it back.

  All day I’ve been waiting for something to happen, but lunch went off without a hitch.

  Making my way to my last class of the day, I stop in the doorway when I see the guy from earlier sitting behind a desk. Getting my bearings, I continue in and do the same thing I did in my other classes, I wait to find where I am sitting. Unfortunately, being science class, the desks are made for two students at each, and again the only desk that’s free, is the one right next to blue eyes.

  Shit.

  Making my way over, I plop down in my designated seat. Getting my pen and notebook out, keeping my eyes facing forward and trained on the teacher, doing everything other than looking at him.

  “Hey Jared, party this weekend?” someone asks him.

  So, Jared is his name. it suits him.

  Holding my breath while I wait for him to reply, I wonder if his voice is as sexy as his name. “Yeh, my place, Friday” he says in a gravelly tone. I feel the rumble of it right in my chest.

  “Hey, new girl” the guy whisper yells across from Jared. Looking over, I see a douchey jock type guy, he’s handsome, but in a conventional way. Where Jared is more of a dark and dangerous kind of handsome.

  “Yeah” I say avoiding looking at Jared.

  “You wanna come to a party Friday?” he says giving me what he thinks is a sexy smile. All it does though is make me blanche. So not my type.

  “Erm, no I don’t think so” I try not to sound to bitchy, but this guy is after one thing. I can see it in his eyes, he just wants to get laid by the new piece of ass at the school.

  “You sure babe, would love to see you in something short and tight”

  Erg does that really work.

  “Darren, quit being a dick” Jared interjects. Hearing his reply, I finally look up at him. Those piercing blue eyes seer me when he looks back. As soon as we make eye contact though, he looks away.

  “Hey, I’m just being friendly. I could give you a ride baby, if that’s the problem” Smarmy Darren replies.

  “I have a car, I just don’t fancy it”

  “Here, take my number, just in case you change your mind” he says before passing a piece of paper in my direction. I take it, just to save any embarrassment. When he finally looks away, I screw it up and chuck it on the floor. Yes, its littering, but I felt dirty just holding his number.

  Hearing a small rumble next to me, I turn to see Jared trying to hide his smile. He must have seen me throw the number.

  “What?” I say, actually speaking to him for the first time.

  “Nothing. Just, most girls would kill for Darren’s number, and here you are throwing it away”

  “I’m not most girls” it’s all I say before facing the front again.

  There, I actually spoke to him, now I can go about my school day with no more awkwardness. I mean I have to sit next to him in science for the rest of the year. So better to get it out the way now.

  The rest of class, I go about my work as normal, I do secretly steal glances at Jared when I think he isn’t looking, he does catch me once in a while though.

  Walking out the school, I take in a gulpful of fresh air. I made it. I got through the day with little to no incidents. I call that a win.

  Seeing Angie at the bottom of the school steps, I make my way down to her. “Hey Angie, ready to go?” I say standing next to her. “Hey, yep all ready. How was your first day in the end”

  “It was actually okay” I say as she follows me to my car.

  “Damn, your car is sexy!” she exclaims as we get to my baby.

  “Yeah, she’s my pride and joy” I smile.

  Hearing an engine fire up behind me, I turn to see Jared’s Boss pull out of its spot. Clearing my clogged throat, I turn back for my car and unlock the doors.

  “Okay miss, what was that?” Angie says sliding into the passenger seat.

  “What was what?” Jamming the keys into the ignition, I turn the key and relax a little when the engine purrs to life under me.

  “You know what. That little moment watching Jared leave”

  Ah shit, I didn’t think she saw that.

  “It was nothing, he’s got a nice car, that’s all”

  “Uh huh, right. Don’t want to know anything about him then huh?”

  The bitch has got me, I’m intrigued by him, and she has info I could do to curb this curiousness I have about him.

  “Fine, reveal your information” I say pulling out the parking lot.

  “Well, He lives just across town, ended up pretty popular as soon as he started high school. Hasn’t really been seen with a girl more than once, loves his car, works in a garage part time, that’s the short version I guess”

  Taking a moment to digest all the information, my mind clings onto one part. It sounds like he has a revolving door of bed partners and doesn’t keep them around for long.

  For some reason that makes me insanely jealous. Which then makes me feel sick. Why the hell am I jealous, I’ve spoke to the guy once! I have no claim on him. What’s wrong with me today.

  “You interested in him?” Angie asks making me tighten my hands on the wheel.

  “No way” I say a little too sternly.

  “Liar. Let me just tell you though, he’s bad news. The kind of guy who would chew you up and spit you out”

  Trying to focus on the road ahead, I hear her words. No way will I get involved with someone who would fuck me and throw me away, no matter how good it probably is.

  “Where am I taking you?” I ask, anything to just change the subject from all things Jared.

  “About two miles past that gas station, up on the left”

  Following her directions, she brings us to her giant house. She must come from money to live somewhere like that. It’s a beautiful old style town house with thick grey bricks and giant bay windows on the second floor. It’s a house I could only dream of living in.

  Pulling up outside, she grabs her bag from the backseat. “Thanks for the ride babe. I’ll see you tomorrow yeh?”

  “I’ll come get you, be here about 8am okay?”

  “Thanks babe, you’re a star” she says before closing the door. Luckily, she’s on my way to school, so offering her a ride again seemed like an obvious thing to do. She’s so far done nothing to make me think she’s using me, so for as long as she’s my friend, I’ve decided to roll with it. Truth is, as much as I act like I’m comfortable with my loneliness, sometimes I just need at least one person I can rely on.

  Driving back to my apartment, I park my baby in our designated spot. That is always my one stipulation when mum moves us, I need somewhere safe to park my car. Most of the places we’ve lived have had driveways leading right up to the door, but this is the city, so a spot with our door number was the best she could get. I’ll take that over parking in the street any day.

  Once I get showered and out of that crappy uniform, I start to feel a little bit more myself. Mum is still at work, so its dinner for one tonight, as usual. If she’s not at work, she’s normally out with friends or her latest boyfriend. It’s kind of sad, she has a better social life than I do, and I’m only 18.

  Clicking on the tv, I grab the bag of popcorn out the cupboard, deciding to just eat crap for dinner tonight. I’m too beat to actually cook.

  Watching some trashy rom com, I settle into the couch for the evening. I expected to get some homework today, but I was pleasantly surprised when I found out the school doesn’t actually set that much. They get us to focus more on revision for tests than anything else. Its proving to not be as bad as I’d expected.

  Saying that, it’s only been one day, plenty of time for it all go to shit. I’ll
just have to keep my fingers and toes crossed that things carry on like they have today.

  Three.

  Honking my horn outside Angie’s the next morning, I wipe my hand down my face to try and brush off the tension I feel in my eyes. I slept the worst I have in a long-time last night. The only sleep I did get was plagued with blue eyes and mean looking cars. I finally gave up around 5am and started getting ready for school.

  I’d done a great job of ignoring why I was dreaming about Jared, but it unsettled me more than I’d like to admit.

  Hearing a door close, I look up as Angie skips over to my car with a beaming smile on her face “Morning girl”. Giving her a grunt as a response, I slip the car into gear and pull away once she’s inside. “Did someone not have any caffeine yet?” she chuckles while putting her belt on. “I just didn’t sleep very well is all” Damn, Jared and his baby blues. “Yeah, I guess moving and a new school is pretty stressful, I didn’t sleep well for a full month when we first moved”.

  I give her a tight smile, not correcting her. If I told her Jared was the reason I was up half the night, she would have a million questions. And I haven’t even got the guts to ask myself what’s going on, let alone trying to tell someone else.

  “Anyhow, there’s a party Friday night, you in?” she asks waggling her eyebrows.

  “I already got invited, but I don’t think I’m going to go”

  “What! You work fast girl, who invited you?”

  “Some douchey idiot, Darren or something”

  “Ah yes, he is a major douche, but also very pretty to look at” she giggles from the passenger side.

  “Why aren’t you coming? It will give us a chance to bond” she says giving me a megawatt smile. She’s right, it would give us a chance to get to know each other more. And I can’t help but be intrigued at seeing where Jared lives.

  “Arg fine, I’ve got nothing to wear though” I tell her flicking my turn signal to pull into the school parking lot.

  “I got you sister” she says giving me a wink.

  Oh god, she’s going to make me look like a barbie doll.

  Following her into the school, we compare our schedules and see we actually have a few classes together today. Walking to the gymnasium, we duck into the locker room to get changed into our shorts and tank.

  I hate gym, it’s by far the worse subject ever, and it’s even worse here, as its coed.

  Walking into the hall, my eyes take in the bunch of guys lining the back wall with a coach talking to them. One of those guys just happens to be Jared. I almost trip over when I see he’s watching me come into the hall. I expect him to just glance over and look away, but he doesn’t. once his gaze finds mine, it settles there, not looking away.

  Walking right into Angie’s back, I rip my eyes away from our strange exchange to see us girls are also lining up against the opposite wall to the boys.

  Our coach is going on about what we are doing today, but my mind is elsewhere. I’m trying to work out why he would stare at me like that. We’ve barely spoken, so he has no reason to give me all his attention.

  Feeling a poke in my ribs, I turn my head when Angie pulls her hand away “Everything okay?” she whispers hisses.

  “Yeah, all good” swallowing past the lie on my lips.

  “Why was he staring at you like that?”

  “I have absolutely no idea”

  “Did you speak to him yesterday?” she asks furrowing her brow.

  “Not really, only a sentence really, nothing important. It was when Darren was inviting me to the party”

  Shrugging her shoulders in a ‘I-have-no-idea-then’ kinda way, we get the go ahead from coach to do our own thing today. Grabbing my hand, Angie drags me over to the mats that are in the center of the hall. “We can get away with just doing some light yoga today, no hockey thank god!” she says sitting on a mat.

  “Sounds good” I’d done loads of yoga over the years, I loved how focused and relaxing it can be. Standing on the mat, I start stretching, warming up for some poses. Bending my one arm over at a time to touch my toes and stretch out my back.

  “Looking good baby” I hear a smarmy voice say from behind me. Spinning to see who it is, I roll my eyes when Darren stands there, arms crossed over his chest, blatantly checking me out.

  “Go away Darren, no one wants your kind of funny today” Angie says stretching her own body out on the mat.

  “Come on Ang, don’t be a party pooper. I’m just telling your friend she looks good, no harm in that” he says giving me a wink.

  I try and fail to keep the grimace off my face, this guy gives me the major creeps.

  All of a sudden, his face changes as he looks over my shoulder. “Er on second thoughts, I’m going to run a few laps” he says before jogging away.

  Looking over my shoulder I see Jared leaning up against the wall, staring over at me.

  “Something is going on” Angie pipes up saying.

  Yeah, something is definitely going on.

  “I just don’t understand why he was staring at you” Angie says as we get changed back into our uniform. The rest of gym class, I kept feeling the hairs on the nape of my neck tingling. Every time I looked around, I was struck with those beautiful blue eyes on me. It should have been creepy, but all it did was make me blush uncontrollably. Next chance I can, I need to ask him what the hell is going on.

  “I don’t know what to tell you Ang, I barely said a full sentence to him in science, and that was only because Darren was being a creeper”

  “You know the party Friday is at his house, right?”

  Why do you think I’m going?

  “Yeah?”

  “Okay. Well, you probably won’t even run into him, he’s usually busy with some slut”

  Every time I hear that statement, I feel bubbles of rage simmer up to my throat.

  “I need to warn you about Duke and Cam too” she says walking towards my car. We have a free period, and I needed some fresh air, so sitting in my ride for the hour seemed like the best option.

  “Duke and Cam?”

  “Yeh, Jared’s best friends. You will probably see them at the party, and they are mostly harmless, but just be careful. Cam is a massive player, but he’s a big joker too, constantly flirting and cracking jokes”

  “Duke is a bit more like Jared, quiet and broody. He never used to be like that, but he lost his sister two years ago to cancer, poor guy hasn’t been the same since. They are getting back from vacation soon, so I guess they will probably be at the party”

  “Damn, that sucks”

  Nodding her head in agreement, I unlock the door and settle in my car. Dragging out my phone, I check through the messages I know won’t be on there. Seems I have no friends left from my old school, not one of them has messaged or checked in.

  “Do you work on this baby yourself” Angie says gesturing to my car.

  “Yeh, ever since I was little”

  “It’s sweet. I can’t wait for my dad to lift my driving ban. I’m dragging you car shopping by the way”

  “A driving ban? What you do?” I don’t think I could survive without my car.

  “I may have totaled his Beemer a few months back”

  “Well shit, how the fuck you manage that?”

  “Some stupid cat ran in the damn road. I didn’t want to kill it, so I swerved, didn’t see the lamppost til it was too late” she says cringing.

  “Shit, when’s the ban up?”

  “Next week, I can’t bloody wait to drive again”

  “Well, remind me never to let you drive my baby” I say grinning at her.

  “Ha! I already knew there was no chance of you letting me behind the wheel, you talk about this car like it’s your child”

  “She is” I state making us both laugh.

  “I’ll help you car shop under one condition”

  “Shoot” she says picking up her phone.

  “No prissy saloons”

  “No way, after seeing t
his baby, I need me some muscle” she says giving me a wink.

  Laughing at the fact I’ve corrupted her already, we spend the rest of our free period trailing car ads, looking for something that would suit her, and started messaging sellers setting up to go see a few. The same excitement I used to get working with my grandad simmers away at the thought of having someone to share this with again. Angie may not know much about cars, but she would soon learn if she wanted a car like mine, these babies don’t just keep running by themselves.