Page 1 of Deal Breaker
Prologue
Sophie
Age 14
“Don’t be too long,Soph! I wanna start the movie!” Autumn waved the remote at me, the TV screen frozen on Channing Tatum. We were watchingStep Upfor about the millionth time. The film—or rather a certain Mr. Tatum—was Autumn’s current hottie of choice. Not that I was complaining. He did have a certain appeal.
“I won’t!” I called behind me as I darted up the stairs to the bathroom, not wanting to keep Channing waiting too long. But I needed to get rid of the taste of chili and pepperoni first. Autumn always ordered the pizza too spicy for me, and the tang of it lingered in my mouth.
Our regular sleepovers at her house were nothing if not consistent. Catching up on homework before pizza and a movie, accompanied by gossip about boys we liked and girls we didn’t. As we grew older, the discussion around the boys in our class became more prevalent. Autumn’s crush changed on a fairly constant basis; one week we were discussing the captain of the football team, the next someone she’d spotted on the swim team, or the new guy who’d transferred from out of town. I, on the other hand, kept the true object of my affection to myself. Instead, I agreed with Autumn’s choices to keep the peace.
Before I went into the bathroom, I headed into Autumn’s room and found my comfy clothes to change into. After too much pizza, my stomach was so full, and my skinny jeans too tight. It was always the same—I never learned. But the pizza was always so tasty, with all the cheeses and all the toppings. Mom never allowed us to order pizza; she preferred to make her own authentic Italian version. It was okay but never the same as Joe’s Pizza.
“Phew!” I let out a breath after undoing the buttons on my jeans and shrugged them off, pulling on comfortable stretchy shorts instead. Thankfully, vegging out on the sofa with my best friend didn’t require much dressing up. Quickly I pulled my tank top over my head, just in case Autumn’s older brother, Max, or his friend happened to be passing and saw me getting changed. I replaced it with an oversized New York Giants football jersey, so big it practically swallowed me. Immediately my tummy felt better for being less constricted, and I could relax. I pulled my blonde hair out from the collar and wound it up into a ponytail, using the band I had around my wrist to secure it.
Max was home tonight, and his best friend, Joshua, was also staying over. Being two years older, he wasn’t around much anymore. No doubt football practice and hanging out with the varsity cheerleaders was much more interesting than being at home with his little sister and her best friend on a Friday night.
I’m sure Max never noticed me.
Never noticed the immense crush I had on him.
If he hadn’t, I hoped Autumn hadn’t either.
Momentarily, I contemplated putting my jeans back on, but comfort won out over glamour. Max would never see me anyway; he was holed up in the study with his friend. I could hear the noise of their video game through the door. Online games had never appealed to me.
I stepped into the bathroom and dug my toothbrush and toothpaste out of my toiletry bag. I squeezed a dab of toothpaste onto the brush and vigorously began brushing my teeth, trying to rid my mouth of the chili taste and replace it with a fresh minty one.
Midway through, the door to Max’s side of the bathroom swung open, and he dashed in, one hand already unzipping his pants.
“Oh, shit, sorry, I didn’t realize anyone was in here.” His hand froze in midair as he laid his gorgeous eyes on me.
Mentally, I cursed myself for not locking the bathroom door. The shared bathroom between Autumn and Max’s bedrooms was fraught with danger every time I stayed over. I had to remember to lock both doors not to be caught in an awkward situation. Like now.
“S’okay,” I mumbled through a mouthful of toothpaste, feeling a little dribble over my lips.Real classy, Soph, real classy. Bet he can’t wait to get his hands on you now.
Max stepped towards me, until he was only inches away. The hand which had been about to unzip his jeans reached over and swiped the toothpaste away from my bottom lip.
Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. It was the first time he’d ever touched me. The slightest brush of his thumb over my skin had me breaking out in goose bumps. If I wasn’t careful, I’d be drooling even more.
“You had a little…well, you know.” His mouth curved up into a smile. “And if you don’t mind, I’m desperate to take a leak.”
Jolted out of my reverie, I nodded. “Sure, yes, of course, give me a sec.” Turning my back so he couldn’t see me spit, I quickly finished cleaning my teeth, wiped my mouth, and got the hell out of there.
“Thanks, Soph, you’re an angel.” Max beamed as he slammed the door shut in my face.
I stared at the whitewashed wood for several seconds, trying to gather my thoughts. It was the longest time we’d ever spent in each other’s company without anyone else around. All two minutes of it. And me with toothpaste all around my mouth, Max desperate for the bathroom. I cringed.
What a perfect meet cute.
“Sophie, where are you?” Autumn shouted up the stairs. “You’re missing the start!”
“Coming!” I called back. I stashed my things back in her room and scampered down the stairs, not looking to see if Max was behind me. “Sorry, your brother needed the bathroom.” I rolled my eyes as if exasperated by his actions.
“Ugh, gross, sorry you had to see that. Now can we watch the film?” Autumn’s eyes were firmly fixed on the television, not giving the interaction between Max and me any attention.
For the next hour and a half, I barely saw the screen in front of me. All I could think about was the exchange with Max. In the grand scheme of things, a two-minute conversation where he basically wiped toothpaste off my face hardly counted as the big love affair of the century. But a girl could dream, right? If Autumn had her way, it would only ever be a dream.
Once the film had finished, we went up to bed. With the lights out, under the pretense of trying to get to sleep, Autumn quizzed me again about which boys I was interested in.
