Page 3 of Sinful as They Come (Sinful Trilogy #1)

SAWYER

“What the fuck were you thinking?” was the first thing I said to my cousin. My words were a little muffled, a cigarette loosely hanging between my lips. Yes, it was a bad habit. But I had no plans on quitting.

“What do you mean?” He frowned.

I offered him a cigarette which he declined, and then I leaned back up against the brick wall that none of the teachers ever seemed to care about. It was my usual spot; I had told Brodie about it earlier when I gave him a quick tour in the morning.

It was our spot now that Brodie was gonna be hanging around thanks to his parents splitting up. His mom and dad were both planning on moving in with their new partners – both of which Brodie didn’t get along with. He felt like he didn’t have any real place to stay.

Our dads were brothers, and me and Brodie had always been close, so I offered him the spare room at my trailer. It was an offer he quickly took. Despite my dad being an asshole, he had no problem taking in his brother’s kid. Me though? He couldn’t wait to get rid of me.

“Working with that spoiled fuckin’ brat,” I said.

“Who?”

“Pom poms? Big mouth? Daddy’s maxed out credit card?”

Brodie’s eyes widened. “Wait, Holly? Nah, she’s cool.”

I couldn’t help but scoff. He didn’t know her like I did.

He didn’t know our history. I attempted to like Holly once upon a time, but that very quickly didn’t work out.

And I held grudges. I didn’t care how long ago it was or what someone had done to smooth things over.

Nah. I wasn’t like that. I didn’t just not forgive people, though; I didn’t forget either.

Blowing out some smoke, I gave my head a shake. “I can’t believe you actually joined her dumb, little club.”

“You shouldn’t have mentioned the school paper if you didn’t want me to join!” Brodie said.

“If I knew you’d do it, I never would have mentioned it. Also, I specifically told you not to join. It was a warning.”

“Well, whatever. I’m looking forward to it.”

“You just wanna fuck her.” I puffed out more smoke.

“She’s pretty. But I don’t think I see her like that. Plus, I think she has a boyfriend.”

Yeah, I knew all about him. Carter Henderson. Biggest asshole in school. It made sense that he would be dating Holly. He was also on my list. Right at the top. Above Holly, in fact. Sending him to the ER last year was so fucking fun…

“Does she?” I mumbled out.

“Yeah. We only talked for a little while, but she seemed pretty nice.”

“She’s an annoying, little brat.”

Brodie snorted. “Sounds like you wanna fuck her.”

“Fuck no. Can’t imagine anything worse than being with that uptight, pain in the ass.

” I didn’t like high maintenance girls like Holly.

The girls I fucked didn’t walk around in designer shit and live in mansions.

I had spent countless nights pinning girls up against the walls of bar bathrooms, letting them whine and whimper for me as I pushed their cheap dresses up their hips.

Girls like that were easy and fun. Girls like Holly made me want to rip my hair out.

Either way, thank you Owen McCready from English class for the top-notch fake ID.

“Well, either way. I have a meeting on Wednesday for the paper. You think you can pick me up after? It finishes at four-thirty. You’re not busy that day, are you?”

I rolled my eyes. Fucking Brodie. He was my favorite cousin. Hell, he was more like my brother. But the last thing I wanted was to be lingering around school after three. Especially if Holly was going to be there as well. The more I avoided her, the better it was for the both of us.

“Can’t you walk home?” I asked, putting out my finished cigarette with a heavy boot. I adjusted my leather jacket, noticing a new tear on the sleeve. Huh.

“It’s, like, thirty minutes to the trailer park. Come on. Please. I’m still jet lagged.”

“You got the bus here.” I rolled my eyes. “A five-hour long bus ride.”

“If you love me, you’ll do it.”

“I actually hate you, Brodie.”

He laughed and gave me a nudge. “Come on. I’ll put in a good word for you with Holly.”

I turned to look at him, sending him a glare. Holly wasn’t my fucking type to begin with. Uptight. Bratty. Too rich for her own fucking good. I wasn’t the slightest bit interested. There was no way to like her after all the years we had spent arguing each other.

“Tell her I hate her,” I muttered at him. My mind flashed back to that moment in English, where she corrected me with so much glee in her voice. She had loved every second of it.

Brodie shot me a look. “Okay, you cannot dislike her that much.”

“I do not dislike her. I hate her,” I corrected him.

“She was nice when I talked to her. What did she ever do to you?”

Holly Sutton was anything but nice. And she had been that way since the first time we met. Since the first time me and her locked eyes. I remembered the moment clearly. I remembered all of our interactions clearly – because they always ended in disaster.

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll fucking pick you up,” I said instead of explaining the origin of my pure hatred for Holly Sutton.

“But don’t be late.” I wasn’t working Wednesday, so maybe I could get a little painting done before I had to go and pick Brodie up.

That was how I spent most of my spare time: either fixing cars at work or painting stuff.

Brodie grinned at me before excusing himself. He wanted to grab something to eat before we went back to class, but I was more than happy to pull out another cigarette.

My brain was stuck on what he said. On that stupid shit about me wanting Holly. The idea of me liking her like that made me wanna rip my own eyes out. No way.

She was hot. I wasn’t going to lie about that.

But her personality completely ruined that.

It ruined her Bambi eyes and her permanently bronzed skin (she always looked like she had just come back from some fancy beach vacation on an expensive island, so the Malibu Barbie nickname seemed to fit her perfectly) and her pouty lips and her silky, brown hair.

It ruined her curvy body and her round ass and her big tits.

Just hearing one word out of her mouth was enough to make me lose it.

Sucking in a sharp breath, I let my mind go back in time to the first day of fourth grade.

There Holly was. The new girl. In her pristine, little outfit.

No rips, no creases, no second-hand shit.

And there I was. In my old shirt and jeans, my hair too long because dad couldn’t afford to take me to get it cut.

Not that he cared. Most kids got one before school started.

Not me, though. I liked my dark hair long, anyway.

But Holly looked picture fuckin’ perfect.

We were in the same class. She, for whatever reason, had taken a seat in front of me. And I remembered the asshole that sat right next to us. Carter Henderson. God, that little blond prick pissed me off so much, even back then.

I didn’t have a damn thing on me that day besides the single notebook I would have to use for the rest of the semester. One notebook, too many classes. When you’re poor you’re forced to be economical. And creative.

My usual plan for the start of the school year was to borrow pens from people and never give them back. Most people had no problem letting their pens go. And I remembered thinking that Holly seemed like the kind of person who had a lot of them.

I had tapped her on the shoulder, she had turned around with a smile, and then I asked her for the pen like I did every other year. But Carter… Fucking Carter . Unlike Holly, me and Carter had history at that point. We’d always get into fights. We still did.

“Don’t even think about giving him a thing,” Carter had snapped at me. “Trailer Park Trash steals . He doesn’t borrow.”

He was right. I did steal. But it was that stupid nickname he loved to call me that pissed me off.

I still remembered the look in Holly’s eyes.

She had frowned at Carter for a second before eyeing me.

She saw the old clothes and tussled hair.

She saw a criminal . The kid from the wrong side of the tracks that had no right talking to someone like her.

I had looked at her intensely in that moment.

My green eyes met her brown ones. Was she gonna say anything?

She didn’t know me. I didn’t know her. She could have told Carter to get fucked.

Could have given me the goddamn pen and moved on.

But she didn’t. Her hand retreated, she turned back around, and she avoided my gaze like I wasn’t good enough to even be around her.

It would have been petty to hate her because of a pen.

And I didn’t. I didn’t hate her because she didn’t hand over a flimsy piece of plastic.

What pissed me off was how she sat there watching while Carter said that shit to me without batting an eye.

She did that because she thought she was better than me. Just like everyone else did.

Again – that wasn’t even what made me hate her. I didn’t even dislike her at that point. That was the beginning, though. Because from that point on, she sat back and watched while pretty boy Carter and his dumb ass friends criticized every last thing about me.

My clothes, my hair, my house – fuckin’ trailer, whatever you wanted to call it.

Nothing was off limits. Carter knew I was poor.

Everyone did. Including Holly. It was a dirty word for some people, but that was what I was.

I was the bad kid from the wrong side of the tracks.

The tracks girls like Holly were never meant to cross.

Most people didn’t seem to give a fuck where I came from.

But Carter? He had made it a habit to bring up my lack of wealth every.

Single. Day. We’d fight. I’d kick his ass.

He’d leave bleeding and he’d come back for more.

Holly would always scold me, and I’d tell her to mind her own fucking business.

She slowly got dragged into my rivalry with Carter, but she was always fuckin’ hanging around him, anyway.

It was only natural for me to start saying shit to her.

She’d stick up for herself and I’d say shit back. And then it just escalated from there.

Did Holly ever, even once, show me she was a good person by telling Carter to shut his big fuckin’ mouth? No. She sat back and watched. God, she started dating him about a year ago. Apparently she liked rich, stuck up assholes. She knew what he was like. He showed her his true colors.

But she still fucking fell for him. And if she was in love with Carter Henderson, there was no way you’d ever get on my good side.

She stood for everything I wasn’t. Wealthy. Perfect. Popular. She lived on the other side of town. Rich kid territory. I was way, way, way on the other side. The side she knew existed but had no reason to go to. Because I was bad news. I was a criminal. I was dangerous, I was trailer park trash.

I shook my head and put my cigarette out.

Brodie was insane for thinking I could ever want Holly like that.