Page 2 of Summer Skin

“LET ME SEEyour class schedule,” Chase’s sister Brooklyn demanded, grabbing the folded piece of paper from his hands and peering at it intently. “Pfft, we have, like, none of the same teachers.”

She slid the sheet back to him and shoved a french fry into her mouth. “Fucking new schools suck,” she mumbled through a mouthful of food, lightly kicking at his shin from underneath the cafeteria table.

“Ow! What was that for?”

She glanced behind him. “Redirected aggression.”

“Mad at Mom?” It would be fair.

“Pissed at the entire world,” Brooklyn corrected. “Have you taken a look around? Humans are completely shit for brains.”

Chase considered his sister for a moment. The wisp of a girl she still was at fifteen-years-old. Box-dyed black hair with a burgundy streak, and dark eyeliner she’d spent god knows how long drawing on in the bathroom that morning while he waited, and waited, for a shower. The now too-familiar perma-scowl she’d worn on her face since they moved to Washington state a few weeks back.

Still, beneath the teenage fury, there were reminders of the little girl who wrote letters to fairies and left them under her pillow at night. The sister who served Chase Play-Doh pancakes in bed, asked him to read to her when she had a nightmare, followed him through forests, and rivers, and out to the sea. Who refused to blow out the candles on her own birthday cake unless Chase got a wish too.

For the thousandth time, an ache for a more stable life grew deep in his chest. A life for Brooklyn that hadn’t been so relentlessly shaped by their mother’s reckless choices.

Forcing his face to relax into a grin, he told her, “You’re too young to be so jaded,” snatching a fry off her plate and swiping it through ketchup before popping it into his mouth.

“Only two years younger than you are,” she reminded him.

“I’m too young to be so jaded.”

“Yeah, well.” She pushed her fries towards him to finish off. “Can you blame us?”

Not really.This high school made their third new school in the same number of years. Luckily for Chase, this was his senior year, and his last trip around the school track. But for Brooklyn …

“There’s still good people in this world,” Chase told her, using his thumb to swipe a spot of ketchup from his chin.

“You,” she said.

“Me what?” he asked, looking up to meet her gaze.

“You are one.” She stared at him with cat-drawn-eyes over the grubby cafeteria table. “A good person.”

He kicked her lightly in the shin with the toe of his shoe.

“Hey!” Brooklyn cried. “What was that for?”

He lifted a shoulder, a grin playing at his lips. “Inability to handle positive emotions.”

“You’re such a weirdo.”

Chase opened his mouth to retaliate, but his student guide, Andi, appeared at their table before any comeback could be had. She looked back and forth between Chase and Brooklyn like she was trying to pinpoint exactly who he’d chosen to latch himself onto on the very first day of school.

“My sister,” he said, helping Andi out, “Brooklyn.”

Brooklyn gave a half-hearted wave and pulled a paperback from her bag, flipping open to a page near the middle, excusing herself from any further conversation.

Andi shifted her attention to Chase, big, hazel eyes taking him in for a moment before she tucked a strand of platinum blonde hair behind one ear. “What’s your next class? I’ll walk you.”

Chase didn’t exactly ask for a student buddy, and he was ninety-nine percent certain Brooklyn had crafted a way to ditch her own. But despite the fact the moonstone bracelet Andi wore on her right wrist certainly cost more than his entire secondhand outfit alone, Andi seemed alright. She’d given him a tour of the school that morning full of enough snark to push past Chase’s persistent insecurities around other people his own age.

When the school guidance counselor described Andi in glowing terms as a straight-A student who was class secretary and on the cheer squad, Chase wasn’t expecting the quick camaraderie that developed between the two of them. It wasn’t that he hadn’t known girls like Andi who were good people, it was more he always felt like a misfit loser standing next to them. Fitting in didn’t come naturally to Chase.

But a student buddy was a free pass to skip first period and Andi took her role as school ambassador with all the seriousness of a person who gave absolutely zero fucks. Weirdly, she’d seemed way more into asking questions about him than anything to do with the high school campus, which she described as ‘a breeding ground for assholes’ with a shake of her head, like she couldn’t quite believe she had to deal with everyone here.

He”d gotten a taste of what Andi meant a few minutes later at her locker, that word she’d used, asshole, echoing through his head, when some dick with daggers in his eyes brushed past Chase, slapped his palm against a locker door, and said, irritated, “You”re in my way, man. Move.”

“Wow,” Chase said dryly, shifting back and giving the guy with an attitude problem some space. “Okay, charmer.”

A pair of narrowed green eyes snapped in his direction and Chase took another step back. Something about that fiery glare hit him directly in the gut. And Chase wasn’t looking to get into any boneheaded fights on his first day at a new school. Letting his own gaze shift over to Andi, he gave her a quick goodbye, saying they’d catch each other later.

“What was that?” Chase heard her hiss as he walked away. “Caveman bullshit! You’re in my way, man,” she mimicked, in a mocking tone, hands spread across her hips.

The corner of Chase’s mouth curved up as he turned the corner, knowing that at least the dude with the tough guy act was getting laid into.

***

Shoving the memory aside, Chase took a swig of soda, and as Andi took a glance at his schedule over the cafeteria table, her face brightened. “We have drama class together next.”

Not exactly Chase’s first choice for credits, but it had been the only elective left by the time he’d registered.

“Our teacher? Mr. Gardner?”

“Mm hmm,” Chase agreed, though he had no clue.

“Dude was caught swimming bare-ass naked in the bioluminescence at the cove this summer, and, from what I heard, has a massive dick.”

Chase blinked rapidly as he gathered his belongings, giving his sister a wave goodbye that she responded to with a small grunt.

“I mean,” Andi said, pushing through the cafeteria doors, “you’d think he’d at the very least wear a thong, you know?”

“Right.”

“It was two in the morning,” she continued, as though Chase had a special interest in their drama teacher’s cock out in the wild, “but he’s a teacher. Keep that trouser snake caged!”

“Totally.”

“Where the fuck is Aven?” she demanded, as though Chase had any idea who the fuck Aven was, let alone his whereabouts.

Andi pulled out her phone and stared at the screen with a sour expression. “If he’s ditching me to bone some random girl in his car again, I swear to god, I’ll tie his balls off.”

Now that left a mental image Chase was even less prepared for than a teacher skinny dipping in the moonlight.

Entering the theater, a number of students were gathered on the stage floor, strewn about in lazy positions, like this was someone’s home den rather than a classroom.

A holler came from the back of the stage: “Andi!”

“Sit with me,” Andi told him, and the confidence in her tone, that he would, without question, was a little unnerving. Chase wondered what it would feel like to be so certain of himself. Positive he was liked, his company wanted.

A trust in others to care about him at all.

Climbing the stage, they reached a trio of girls dissecting a makeup tutorial on an iPhone, and Andi pulled Chase down beside her.

“Boring,” she decided when she glanced at the video. “Everyone, this is Chase.”

A chorus of hellos rang out, Andi pointing a fingernail at each girl in turn. “That’s Elena, Ava, and Piper. Don’t let Piper suck your cock.”

“Hey!”

“Fair warning, Piper, you remember what happened last year with the communal round of chlamydia. Half the basketball team,” she told Chase, who was pretty certain his face was the color of a ripe tomato at this point. He had no idea how to respond, never having been pulled into a conversation about incidents involving mass jock STI outbreaks.

“It’s all cleared up now,” Piper assured Chase, who smiled awkwardly in response. “So, if you wanna …?” she made a gesture towards the exit.

“Piper!” the rest of the girls shrieked in unison.

“Whaaat?” she said, and this was followed by a cackle. “I like sucking dick. I don’t make fun of your extracurriculars, come on!”

“Andi.” Her name was spoken in a somber tone from directly above, and Chase raised his eyes to find him. The asshole from this morning at the lockers. He was looking down at Chase with an expression that, once again, didn’t read as entirely pleased.

Andi hopped to her feet, standing all of what must have been five foot nothing, glowering up at him. “There you are, finally. First day back from summer vacation and you’ve answered none of my texts, Aven. I spent half of lunch wondering where you were!”

“Something came up.”

“Well,” she said, eyes narrowing, “I sure hope it wasn’t your dick. We had plans!”

He shrugged, like maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. No big deal either way, so maybe she could quit it with the whole reading him the riot act in front of their classmates.

“What’s he doing here?” the glaring asshole, Aven, asked, gesturing towards Chase without an ounce of polite care that Chase could hear every word he said.

Andi leveled Aven with a stare, their gazes locked on each other in a silent conversation for long seconds before she told him, firmly, “He’s waiting for class to start, same as the rest of us.”

A gruff noise came from Aven’s mouth, but without another word, they both settled down on the stage floor. Only this time, instead of Andi, it was Aven to Chase’s left, and his well-worn survival instincts immediately sounded a warning bell in his gut.

If there was one thing he’d learned transferring schools so many times, it was to hide his weakness. Showing that you were intimidated only brought you inches closer to a bully’s fist. Even though everything in him was screaming to look away, he forced himself to turn and meet Aven’s eyes.

There was a moment, as their gazes caught, when Chase felt his entire body still, time seemingly slowing down. Then all at once, every nerve in his body sprang to life, his heart tripping with something not quite like fear, but equally electrifying.

The sound of the girls’ voices rose and fell around them, but Chase and Aven stayed locked on each other, quietly watching, waiting for the other to blink. Aven’s stare remained steady, like a cat studying its prey, and Chase watched him back just as carefully, looking for holes in this guy’s armor.

But there were none to be found, only a continually intense expression, and Chase’s face heated, looking into Aven’s unflinching eyes. This guy was so self-assured. So sure of himself. So unafraid.

Everything Chase wasn’t.

And he could see why. Aven looked like some sort of teen dream on the cover of a magazine with his perfectly toned arms and bronzed skin, golden highlights flashing in his chestnut hair from months of summer sun. His face was an impossible combination of hard and soft lines—sharp cheekbones, straight nose, and well-defined brows. But his lips were full, flushed, and rosy with color. Soft looking in a way the rest of his face was not.

Chase lingered on Aven’s mouth until his stomach dipped and his gaze immediately snapped back to Aven’s, whose expression had changed. The gray-green of his eyes flashed with what looked like arrogance, a victory in Chase breaking eye contact first.

Aven’s entire body language shifted as he relaxed into a pose that was effortlessly cool. One Chase wasn’t ready to mirror after their stare down, and the strange feeling in his gut didn’t lesson when Aven finally turned away.

As he tried inching back a bit to give himself some space, Chase brushed against Aven’s arm—warm bare skin against skin—and Aven reacted all at once, recoiling like he’d been shocked, eyes flashing as he muttered, “Watch it,” under his breath, and okay. So much for the guy’s cool as a cucumber act.

Chase had been bounced from one school to another his whole life. Same shit, different town. There was always some alpha bully ready to beat his chest in your direction, but this one seemed especially focused on Chase, and he couldn’t understand why.

It was only their first day of school together. Chase hadn’t outscored him on a math quiz or mocked an answer Aven gave in class. There was never a challenge issued to a brawl in the boys’ bathroom at break for bragging rights. Chase had done nothing besides exist. Something was going on underneath this guy’s macho posturing, and Chase needed to find out what that was to create the best defense.

“Mr. Gardner’s taking forever,” Elena complained.

“Maybe he got caught with his pants down again,” Andi suggested with a laugh, and Aven wrapped his bronzed arm around her, drawing her to him, and Chase finally got it.

Aven thought Chase was after his girl.

Which was … definitely not anything he had to worry about. Chase had been with girls, sure. He lost his virginity at fifteen in the coat room of an art gallery, when his mom dragged him to another one of her shows. And, yeah, if a girl made those eyes at him, from time to time, he’d get a hand up her skirt, make her feel nice.

But.

Chase had never had a desire to pursue a girl for a date in his life. Not in the way Aven assumed Chase was after. Trusting someone else with his heart like that wasn’t an option.

After the chuckles over their drama teacher’s supposed outdoor activities faded away, Andi announced in a tone usually reserved for the death of a beloved family pet, “I’m not doing cheer this year,” and her friend circle gasped like she’d announced a desire to no longer breathe.

“Whaaaat!”

“Why not?”

“But we need you!”

Over the chorus of pleas for Andi to reconsider, Chase glanced Aven’s way once more.

His watchful eyes were already set on Chase, silently staring.

This time, though, this time … the corner of his mouth lifted, this knowing smirk. Like he’d figured something about Chase out.

A shock of vulnerability raced through his body.

There was something unsettling about Aven.

Something that forced Chase into feeling that no matter how he played it, he couldn’t hide.