Page 3 of Make Me

“Enough, Candace,” I mutter, disgusted by her attitude.

“You’re right, Coop. Not everyone can have a sexy body like me.” She sticks out her chest and moves her head around as if on display. “I’ve lost six pounds over the summer.”

Cami calls Candace over, and she moves away from me. My shoulders sag a little in relief, and I remember my mother’s words, asking me what the hell I’m doing with Candace.

I run a hand through my hair and look around the track. Mr. O’Mara blows his whistle again and points to a group of boys. The phone in my pocket vibrates. I look around to make sure there are no teachers around to confiscate it before I pull it out of my pocket. It’s a text from my older sister, Margie. As I type a response, the phone slips from my hand and lands on the grass. I hop off the bleacher and crouch down on my knees to pick it up. Once it’s securely in my hand, I feel a change in the air. It’s still warm, but for some reason, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Footsteps approach, and when I look toward them, I see a white pair of Nikes pounding the pavement. I smile when I see the bright pink shoelaces.

The stranger is in shorts, and I see a smooth pair of brown legs getting closer and closer to me. My eyes scroll up, and I admire wide hips. The kind you want to grab and hold onto, not the bony hips Candace has. I’d bet my last dollar there’s a luscious ass attached to those hips. The kind you want to squeeze every time it’s near.

I can’t see the ass yet, but the breasts are full and bounce up and down underneath the white tee shirt. She’s breathing heavily, and the thick glasses on her face bounce a little as well. I only get a quick glimpse of the face before she runs past me, but what I saw was enough to make my mouth go dry. Beautiful, flawless brown skin and full lips covered in pink gloss.

I want to see more of the face, but I’m greeted with her very full and luscious backside. This view is good too. The phone drops from my hand again as I get lost in the shape and bounce of her ass. I’d give anything to see it without those shorts, but I shake my head clear of that thought. This is the freshman class, for fuck’s sake. I’m a senior who is almost eighteen. I can’t get caught up in some freshman, but I don’t look away either. Not until Candace returns and attaches herself to me again.

My gaze follows the girl with the bright pink shoelaces, oblivious to everything and everyone else around me. She doesn’t pass me again. She stops a few hundred feet away, head down while she does her best to catch her breath. I hate that I can’t see her face, but I love her head full of tight curls, and I imagine running my fingers through them. But those damn bright shoelaces get my attention again, and I can’t look away from them. Laces. That’s what I’ll call her in my head. At least until I learn her name.

Candace elbows me in my ribs, but that’s not enough to jolt me away from my Laces.

“Cooper!” she yells, elbowing me harder this time.

“What the fuck, Candace?” I say, rubbing where she just hit me.

“Are you looking at that girl over there? OMG! She’s pathetic, right? Those tacky ass shoelaces. She’s in high school, not kindergarten. What a loser. I saw her in the hallway earlier, and she was wearing the ugliest shirt. I swear, she must have gotten it at a secondhand store.”

“Not everyone has two doctor parents like you do, Candace.”

She ignores me and grabs my sleeve and practically drags me away.

Laces is standing there with the rest of the class, but she’s off to the side. All alone. No one talks to her, but she still has a small smile on her face. The bell rings, and they file back inside the building.

I didn’t see her for the rest of that day, but I saw her the next day. Same Nikes but with turquoise shoelaces. Orange the following day. Then green. Every day was different, but one thing remained the same. I could never look away from her. By day five, I decided I had to do something to get her to notice me.

Chapter 3

Laci

I putmy Honda Civic in park as the June sun sets. The evening sky has an orange glow, and I can’t help but look at it in awe. I turn off the car, turn around, and smile at my sleeping girl.

“Time for bed, Ivy,” I say as I open the back door and scoop her out of her booster seat. I balance her on one hip and hold onto the bag of leftovers Aunt Mae packed for us.

It’s only our second day, and I’ve fallen in love with Oak Bend all over again. I’ve loved this town since I spent summers here with my aunt, but knowing that my mother will not call and drag me back to Chicago gives me a sense of peace I’ve never had. I hug Ivy tighter. Despite everything, she’s the one good thing that’s come out of my life. She’s made everything I’ve been through worth it.

Ivy stirs in my arms and kicks her legs, signaling she wants to be put down. Fiercely independent since the day she took her first step, she can’t stand being carried for long. Having a hard time balancing her and the bag of food while trying to get the front door open, I put her down, and she wraps her arms around one of my legs.

While I jiggle the keys and put them in the door, Ivy lets out a laugh and lets go of my leg.

“My doggie!” she squeals. Her short legs run down the driveway, and the bag slips from my hand in my haste to get to her.

“Ivy!” I yell. My daughter is already on the other side of the driveway with her arms wrapped around that ugly mutt from next door. She lets her go and starts to jump in excitement. I roll my eyes when the damn dog starts to bark and run around her.

The same guy from earlier is there, watching the scene and not making any attempts to rein in his giant, hyperactive mess of a pet. He quickly snatches the joint out of his mouth, puts it out against a tree, and sticks it in his pocket.

“Ivy, come on. It’s your bedtime.” I hold my hand out to her, but she ignores me and starts chasing the dog.

I remembered him the minute I looked into his eyes yesterday. Cooper Stevens. He was a senior when I attended Oak Bend High for that one year. He hung out with the popular kids, and his girlfriend at the time was captain of the mean girls.

He wasn’t much nicer. He’d always bump into me whenever we were in the hallway at the same time. Always making sure to rub his leather jacket against my shoulder. He’s almost a foot taller than I am, so he had to bend down and bump into me, but never hard enough to knock me over.

I was a lowly freshman, so we didn’t have any classes together, but even now, I can practically see him walking the halls of the school. Taller than everyone. I can still see and smell his black leather jacket mixed with the fruity scent of his shampoo. I made it a point to inhale whenever he would walk close to me. Even now, I think I smell the same shampoo from all those years ago.

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