Page 97 of Endgame

Was I one of those masochistic girls who loved a bad boy that treated her like shit?

I never would have thought so, but since coming to this godawful town, I wasn’t so sure.

He was wrong for me, so incredibly wrong.

Boys like Rourke Owens were dangerous. I wasn’t a fool. I’d grown up around a different jackass every month. I knew a player when I saw one –kissedone…

Whatever sick and twisted game Rourke and I had been playing with each other, I was ending it now. Before I got hurt, or worse, fell so deep I couldn’t back out.

Locking my bedroom door and not answering his soft knocking last night was the first sensible thing I had done since I got here.

I needed to cut him off. Break away from this twisted connection that seemed to be growing between us. Rourke had a hold on me I was determined to break.

I vowed to give all of my attention to school and cling to Molly like the pathetic, friendless person I was. Monday and Tuesday had passed in a new-kid-at-school-trying-to-find-her-feet sort of way. It wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling to me.

By lunchtime on Wednesday, I was feeling settled. I knew it probably took other new students a hell of lot longer to feel that way, but three days was long enough for me.

Taking a bite of my pasta salad, I listened to Molly as she rambled on and on about the Falcon’s first game of the season tomorrow night – and the fact thatshewas hosting the after party.

“You don’t have to throw the stupid party, you know,” I informed her when she began to hyperventilate for the third time during lunch. “It was just a joke.”

“A joke?” Molly squeezed out, wide eyed. “Daryl agreed to come over!”

“So?” I shrugged. “If it’s making you feel this uncomfortable then cancel.”

“I can’t justcancel,” she spluttered, like the thought alone was lunacy. “Daryl King agreed to come tomyparty.”

“Yourimaginaryparty,” I chimed in between bites of my lunch. “And so what? I thought you said you didn’t care about those guys?” I specifically remembered Molly telling me she didn’t give a shit about the prestigiousit crowd. I scoffed at the thought. “They’re a bunch of jackasses.”

“Cute jackasses,” she countered with a grin. “You’re going to come, right?”

“Yeah.” I nodded and speared a pasta noodle with my fork. “I’ll come by for an hour.”

“And the game?” she added. “You’re coming with me, right? It’s the Falcon’s first game of the season.”

Swallowing a mouthful of pasta, I dropped my fork on my plate and leaned back in my seat. “I don’t think so, Molls. I’m not big on football.” I was trying to avoid Rourke as much as humanly possible. I hadn’t told Molly anything about our encounter last night, and I had no plans to, but going to a football game he was playing in didn’t sound like a good idea. “And anyways, don’t high school football games usually take place on Friday nights?” I asked. At least that’s what I remembered from my previous school.

“They do,” Molly confirmed. “But every so often the game has to be switched to a Thursday or a Saturday. Oh come on, Mercy!” Molly begged. “Please say you’ll come? I need you to come with me.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“You don’t get it, Merc,” she explained in a pained voice. “For two years, I’ve been invisible to Daryl King and his friends. Two years! Now, he’s interested in coming to my party? At my house?” Molly sighed heavily. “I’m not dumb enough to believe Daryl’s sudden interest has anything to do with me.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, you’re the common denominator here, Mercy. The boys want to go to my party because of you.”

“And I told you, I’ll come to the party –”

“It’s not enough,” she blurted out, cutting me off. “What if, when they don’t see me with you after the game, they decide to go somewhere else?”

On a Thursday night? “Do you even care?”

“I shouldn’t,” she muttered. “But I do.”

“Fine,” I replied in defeat. I didn’t understand Molly’s need to feel accepted by these rich pricks, but I liked her. “If you really feel that way, then I’ll come with you to the stupid game.”

“Thank you! Oh, you’re going to have such a great time,” Molly said enthusiastically. “Our boys are so good to watch, Mercy. The Ocean Bay Falcon’s kick ass almost every game.”

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