More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
The only thing I’m trying to figure out is if this is some kind of a prank because my dick might never recover from the disappointment if it is.
I have a prominent six-pack, cut, golden, and impressive, with that V that makes girls stupid and a trail of light brown hair arrowing from my navel and into my pants.
I watch her watch me. I’m so hard my brain can barely function. All my blood is in my dick, and it’s so engorged it might explode if she just looks in its direction. So this is what it feels like to die of horniness. My obituary is going to be embarrassing if anyone bothers writing it.
It’s not that I don’t like Mel, Jaime, and Bailey. I’ve just been let down by so many people in my life, so getting attached and giving a shit are not really a top priority to me.
and as much as I feel shitty about doing this to Adriana, I can’t not do it, either.
I feel invisible. I always feel invisible. As though I blend in with the walls, and furniture, and the clear glass bowl on the counter where my parents keep apples shined by our housekeeper.
I’m guarding my heart. It’s not that I’m scared of having my heart broken. It’s that I don’t think any boy can truly like me. If my own parents barely tolerate me, then how can I expect a dude to fall in love with me for who I am?
Feigning happiness is even more depressing than just being your gloomy self. Tears burn my eyeballs the whole time I’m dancing. By the time the sun sets, I feel so empty from all the partying I’m surprised the wind doesn’t blow me over to the other side of the state.
“Are you sure that’s exactly what your ass needs right now? Fried food?” I’m officially turning into Esme. I’m fat-shaming people to get off the hook.
Addy? He knows this bitch?
I wonder if you can rot from within while still being alive.
A girlfriend. Penn Scully has a girlfriend. And a baby. He is such a filthy cheater.
I’ve seen him screw people up for less than looking at her.
“You’re the type of girl who would fuck a married man without batting an eyelash just to prove she can. You let me put my hands and tongue on you, already knowing that I have a girlfriend, so don’t play the fucking saint.”
“Yet you’re still fucking kissing me. With the girlfriend. And the baby. And the sister who will always be better than you. You’re kissing your foster brother who hates you, Followhill. A whole fucking lot.”
“Eat me,” I moan. “You don’t deserve to enjoy this. I’m the one who should be taking everything in this situation.”
I don’t know why this eighteen-year-old feels like more of a man than my almost forty-year-old principal.
I’m her glowing, shiny failure. Blackhearted and empty.
Melody found her joy in other girls. Girls more athletic, and disciplined, and regal. Girls like Via. I got jealous, and I started acting up. Instead of pulling me in and telling me that I was irreplaceable, Mel let me go. So I drifted like a balloon in the sky, waiting for someone to anchor me back down, but no one ever did. It’s been years since she stuck her nose in my life and figured out what was going on. Me and Principal Prichard are doing things we shouldn’t be doing. I have a journal where I confess all the horrible things I do to people. My friends are backstabbers who hate me, and I
...more
“I love myself. Look at me. I’m Daria Followhill.” I motion to my body with my hands.
He is fully clothed, lying in the bathtub, smiling up at me with that grin that can crack up the sky and pull the sun closer.
“No son of mine is going to the wrong college just because they’re shelling out an economy class plane ticket,” Jaime says. “Guess it’s a good thing I’m not your son because I can’t be picky. Sir.”
Talk. I frown at the unanswered message I sent her an hour and a half ago.
The worst part wasn’t that Mel ignored Daria’s existence. It was that she was casual as fuck about it. As if her daughter was an annoying fly.
Mel is batshit scared of her daughter, who acts like anything but her daughter, and Jaime is tired of choosing sides. And Bailey is in the middle of this mess, gathering some bomb-ass material for her future therapist to work on.
“Sir, I really appreciate your generous offer, but for the millionth time, I ain’t about to take your hard-earned money.” “It’s not that hard-earned, boy. The good thing about money is that when you have enough of it, it creates itself.”
“I have friends,” she shoots. “No. You don’t,” I say softly. “You have people you hang out with, and you’ll never give them a truth. Not even a half-truth. Not even a fucking quarter. Now look at me.”
“I don’t have any friends, remember?” “Sucks to be you.” There’s no menace in my voice. She shrugs. “So why are you here?” “Because it sucks to be me, too.” Because it sucks less when we’re together even though I should hate you.
“Go to your girlfriend. She needs you more than I do.” She does. Addy and Harper need me desperately. But they’re not who I want to be with.
After all these years, I still want to ruin her. Then put her back together. Then do it again and again and a-fucking-gain.
Why were you home late today?” she asks. Because I knew you’d be here. “I saw Adriana,” I lie.
Hate motivates much more than love. Love is content and peaceful. Happy people aren’t driven. They simply…exist. Now, us, hateful people, we’re something else. Hungry and desperate. Hateful people make the best lovers.
I feel like a piece of the jigsaw, the one forgotten under the carpet that no one bothers to look for.
Neither of us acknowledges that it’s my birthday today. That I didn’t get a cake, or a card, or a hug. That my family thought they could skip this day just because they agreed to let me have a party in a few weeks.
He finishes his bottle of beer and throws it against a tree. It’s a good throw, and the bottle shatters into tiny pieces.
The older we get, the deeper the shit we’re swimming in gets.”
“Your parents won’t give a shit if I fuck you on the dining room table while Bailey helps herself to another serving of pie.” I raise my hand and slap him. Hard.
I always wondered what a royal bitch would find in a dirty stray. But I know now. Oh, I know very well why girls of pedigree love the mutts. They’re forbidden. Exciting. And taming them is a challenge no silver-spooned princess can turn down.
He squeezes it lightly as his tongue brushes from the base of my chin all the way to my forehead, where he kisses my hairline.
And now some time has passed, and I realize that it’s what Penn has really become. A family of sort. I’m sleeping with someone who’s supposed to be my relative. Giving my virginity to someone I should feel brotherly feelings toward.
“Tell me that you don’t,” I whisper. “But I do.” His forehead crumples in anguish. “There’s nothing I want more than every single thing you have to give.”
We both watch in fascination as he knots the open end and tosses it behind the tree trunk.
I would probably kill my mom if she had pulled shit like that. Lucky for me, she’s already dead.
“Bleed for me,” I hiss. Like I bled for you. Every sleepless night. Each excruciating day.
Our blood is dripping between us on the lush cream carpet of the Followhills’ mansion as we shake on the promise that we’d never betray each other again.
“Four years ago, you flaunted all you have in my face while I had nothing. Now, I’m going to take every single thing that belongs to you and make a show everyone in town is going to have fun watching while doing it. I want it all, Daria. Your dedicated mom, sweet sister, loyal dad, and popular friends. If you have a boyfriend, I’ll take him, too. And fuck him better.” She grins.
“Well, thanks for deflowering me, then ignoring me while you figured the situation out.” “You’re welcome,”
“You’re a solid hobby, Skull Eyes. Just remember that it’s nothing more, and the minute you get attached—that’s around the time I’ll probably cut you off.” “See if I care, baby. You’re just a phase. Maybe my future surgeon husband will fix up your broken leg if you ever make it to the NFL.”
“It would be a pleasure to prove to you just how little you mean to me.”
I don’t know how you deal with that woman. She is so submissive. It was a huge turnoff back then, but it’s a total nuisance nowadays.” My mouth goes slack. Did she actually just talk about my mother like that? The woman who invested more in her than in her own daughter? The woman who fought tooth and nail to bring her back? Who housed her? Who freaking jeopardized her relationship with my father and me—both of us guarded by nature—just to save her?
