Chapter 1 1.

HONORIA.

Kayden Lachlan was lying through his perfect teeth, and I was about to call out him on it.

He leaned against the café counter like he owned it. His voice carried across the empty space as he spun his story for the blonde hanging on his every word.

"Sixty yards. I broke through three defenders and scored the winning touchdown in the fourth quarter and the crowd went absolutely insane."

The blonde looked just about ready to propose to him. "That's incredible."

It was also complete bullshit.

I grabbed two cups and started on their order on the espresso machine, while I tried to ignore the way Kayden commanded every inch of space he occupied. He was big in the way football players got when they'd been training since childhood.

Broad shoulders tested the limits of his jacket sleeves, his arms looked like they could snap someone in half without effort.

Looking anywhere else felt impossible even when I wanted to. He had thick dark hair that fell just right over his forehead, a jawline that could cut glass, and eyes so impossibly blue, they looked like someone had taken the sky and Photo-shopped it into his stupidly handsome face.

"Coach said it was the best play he'd seen in twenty years." Kaiden's voice got louder, like he wanted to make sure everyone in the café heard.

I nearly choked.

The blonde's voice went breathy. "That's amazing."

He shrugged with false modesty. It would've been convincing if I hadn't been at that game. "Yeah, well. I try not to let it go to my head."

Too late for that.

I had spent four freezing hours in those bleachers last Friday. The music program needed volunteers to sell raffle tickets, and I needed the community service hours.

In a school as prestigious and competitive as Thorpecan Prepretory, I needed all the points on my academic portfolio I could get my hands on.

Kayden had scored in the second quarter. It was orty yards and two tackles. We'd already been winning by seventeen points when he crossed into the end zone. The crowd had been pretty tame because it wasn't even a close game.

But why would Kaiden Lachlan care about facts when he had a reputation to maintain?

Star quarterback.

Team captain.

Six foot three muscle of pure athletic perfection the entire school worshipped.

And he was a future heir to some important family legacy nobody talked about but everyone knew existed.

He was untouchable, and he knew it.

My jaw clenched as I finished their drinks. My hands moved on autopilot while my brain screamed at me to just let it go.

Take his money. Stay invisible. Don't make things worse than they already are.

But six months of watching him get away with everything he wanted while his ex-girlfriend made my life a living hell had burned through whatever patience I'd had left.

I set their drinks on the counter. "It was forty yards."

Kaiden went completely still. His jaw ticked once, then twice. He still wasn't looking at me. "Of course you were there."

"Forty yards. Second quarter, not fourth. We were already winning by seventeen."

Now he looked at me. Those blue eyes locked onto mine with pure irritation.

"Most people don't spend their free time memorizing my stats, Honoria."

"Most people don't spend their time making them up either."

The blonde glanced between us nervously. "Wait, do you two know each other?"

"Unfortunately," we said at the exact same time, holding each other’s gazes.

Kaiden's mouth tightened into a line. He turned back to the blonde. "She's wrong. She’s been that way since the day I met her."

"I was there the whole game. Hard to be wrong about something I watched happen."

"You know what's harder? Minding your own business. But apparently you've never been good at that."

"And apparently you've never been good at telling the truth."

"I don't need to lie about my performance on the field, Greyheart. The scoreboard does all my talking."

"Then why are you here doing it for free?"

His eyes narrowed into slits. "Why are you here eavesdropping on conversations that have nothing to do with you?"

"You walked into my workplace. If you wanted privacy, you should've gone literally anywhere else."

"If I'd known you were working, trust me, I would have."

"Funny. I was thinking the same thing."

The blonde cleared her throat loudly. "Kayden, maybe we should just go."

"Yeah." He pulled out his wallet without breaking eye contact with me. "We should go before she decides to fact-check my entire bloodline. That'll be fourteen fifty, right? Or did I get that wrong too?"

"Money's one thing you actually know how to count."

He slapped a twenty on the counter. "Keep the change. Buy yourself something nice, Greyheart, God knows you could use it."

The comment landed exactly where he'd aimed it.

My worn sneakers with holes in the soles.

My jeans from the thrift store. My Wednesday night shift serving coffee to people like him who would never have to worry about rent money or whether they could afford to eat.

He grabbed both drinks in one large hand. His fingers wrapped around the cups easily, and I hated noticing how strong and perfect his hands looked.

He turned toward the door. The blonde followed him like a lost puppy. He glanced back at me over his shoulder one last time. His expression was pure annoyance mixed with something else I couldn't identify. And for just a second, maybe less than, his eyes flashed gold.

Not blue or anything similar. Pure metallic gold.

What?

Then he was gone. The door swung shut behind him with a soft chime.

I stood frozen behind the counter.

Was it the sun? Reflecting in his eyes?

Eyes didn't just change color like that.

By the time I locked up and started the walk home, I had almost convinced myself I'd imagined the whole thing.

Almost.

––•––

My bedroom was barely big enough for a single bed and a desk, but at least the door locked.

That mattered more than anything else in this house.

I kicked off my shoes and pulled out my laptop before I'd even sat down properly. I dialed Sera without thinking twice about it.

Her face filled the screen a second later. Her dark curls bounced as she adjusted her camera angle. "Please tell me you had a better night than I did. My mom's on another health kick and we had fish for dinner. Again."

"I called out Kayden Lachlan for lying about the football game."

Sera's eyes went wide enough that I could see white all around them. "You what?"

"He was at the café tonight. Bragging to some girl about a touchdown he didn't make the way he said he did. So I corrected him. In front of her."

"Oh my god." Sera's grin spread across her entire face. "What did he do?"

"Got pissed. Said some things about how I should focus on my own pathetic life. Then he stormed out like I'd personally insulted his entire bloodline."

"Good. He deserved it." Sera leaned so close to her camera that her face went slightly blurry. "Kayden’s definitely never had his ass handed to him like that."

I picked at the loose thread on my blanket. "Yeah, well. It's probably going to make things worse."

"Worse than what? Honoria, he already ruined your life once."

Yeah that...

The breakfast incident almost six months ago that still haunted me to date.

Kayden had walked into homeroom that morning with a pink bakery box. Another one of Minka's elaborate attempts to win him back after one of their many breakups. She'd been showing up with gifts and homemade meals for weeks, and everyone could see how tired Kayden was getting of it.

He'd opened the box and found cinnamon rolls inside. His face had twisted into something between annoyance and exhaustion and I still remembered when he’d said, "I can't eat another one of these. I'm going to gain twenty pounds if she doesn't stop."

Then he'd noticed me sitting in the back corner where I always sat and he’d asked me if I wanted them.

I should have said no. But I'd skipped breakfast that morning because my aunt had cleaned out the entire kitchen the night before.

She'd been angry about something I still couldn't remember, and when she got angry, food disappeared. And those were on the best scenario days.

I'd thought it was kind. Thoughtless maybe, but kind in that casual way popular people sometimes were when it cost them nothing.

By lunch, Minka had cornered me in the second floor bathroom.

Thinking of our conversation made my cringe till date.

"Did you really think flirting with him was going to work?" Her voice had been sweet as poisoned honey. "He doesn't want you, Honoria."

"I wasn't flirting." The words had come out as a stammer. "He just offered and I was hungry and I thought—"

Minka's smile had been sharp enough to draw blood. "You think you can just swoop in and take what isn’t yours? Talk to my boyfriend. Take the things I give him? You’ve just signed your death sentence, Honoria. Trust me."

She'd kept her promise with the dedication of someone who had nothing better to do.

The cheerleaders had made it their personal mission to destroy me at every possible opportunity. Tripping me in hallways when teachers weren't looking. Spilling drinks on my assignments right before they were due. Starting rumors spreading through school like wildfire.

All of it subtle enough that adults never noticed, but constant enough that I couldn't escape it.

And Kayden? He'd gotten back with her and done nothing to ward his girlfriend off.

He’d acted like he had no clue it was happening.

"He's an asshole," Sera chimed. "But hey, at least you stood up to him this time. That takes serious guts."

A door slammed downstairs. The sound echoed through the thin walls like a gunshot.

My stomach dropped straight through the floor.

Heavy, uneven and stumbling footsteps started up the stairs.

My aunt was drunk.

"I have to go," I said quickly. My fingers were already moving toward the end call button.

"Is that your aunt?"

"Yeah. I'll text you tomorrow, I promise."

"Honoria, wait—"

I ended the call before Sera could finish. My bedroom door rattled a second later like someone was trying to shake it off its hinges.

"Open this door right now."

I unlocked it as slowly as I could. My hands shook. Aunt Margot swayed in the doorway with her eyes narrowed into mean little slits.

"You think you can waste electricity on video calls?" Her words ran together after she'd been drinking. "That trust fund doesn't unlock until you turn eighteen, and until then, you pay your own way in this house."

"I know. I worked tonight. I can give you the tips from my shift."

"You'll give me all of it." She held out her hand. "Every single penny. You're lucky I even took you in after your parents died. Most people wouldn't have bothered with a burden like you."

The familiar ache spread through my chest and settled somewhere behind my ribs where it lived permanently now.

I pulled the cash out of my pocket and handed it over. Forty three dollars in crumpled bills and coins. She counted it twice like she thought I might be trying to cheat her.

Then she left without another word.

I crawled into bed and pulled the blanket over my head and tried to make myself as small as possible.

All I could think about was Kayden's face when he'd stormed out of the café. The fury burning in his expression. The way absolute fire in his eyes when I’d called him out on his lie.

We’d been stone cold enemies for the last six months.

And as I hid from my aunt, laying in bed and thinking of him before the coast was clear so I could get back to working on my thesis...

I was plagued with the knowledge that it really freaking sucked to hate someone as attractive and popular as Kayden Lachlan.