Mistakes I’ve Made by Jordan Marie

2Reed

I watch Callie walk into her classroom and I swear to God, my hands are tingling. She’s freaking hot. Dark hair that falls in waves just past her shoulders, an ass that looks like it was specifically made for those jeans she’s wearing, and her tits are bona fide wet dream material. She’s the best-looking girl I’ve seen—probably ever.

I stand back from the door, out of sight from most of the class. That’s because my brother is in there, and Mitch is a fucking asshole. He’s my older brother, but he acts like a giant, damn kid. He’s also just ten months older than I am. Yet, because my birthday falls late, we’re in different grades in school. He might be the older one—albeit not by much—but I’m always covering for him with Mom and Dad. He’s an asshole and enjoys hurting people. I see it, even if no one else can. The thing about Mitch is he can always play to the crowd and somehow make himself look like the good guy. It’s not until you get burned by him that you see the truth. I’ve kept our parents shielded, but I keep him at a distance, mostly because I know him.

Miss Thomas—who is a spinster, mostly because she’s bitchy as hell—comes to the door. She sees me standing here, watching Callie, and gives me a disgusted look. I smile at her and give her a wink—just to irritate her. I mean, hell, it’s not like I had my tongue hanging out panting after Callie. It was close, however. She slams the door a little harder than she has to and for some reason that makes me laugh. Maybe I’m a little bit of the asshole I always accuse my brother of being.

“You’re not supposed to be running the halls after the bell rings, Mr. Lane,” Vice Principal Joseph says as he comes up from behind me.

“Sorry, sir. I was just heading that way,” I assure him. Sam Joseph is an okay guy. Sometimes, I think he takes his job a little too seriously, but then, I don’t have to deal with the shit he does if things go bad.

“Where are you supposed to be?” he asks.

“I’ve got study hall in Mrs. Fincher’s room,” I tell him.

“I expect trouble out of your brother, but definitely not you, Reed.”

“Yes, sir. Sorry,” I mutter, turning away.

As I walk away, I think about the new girl. Callie Street. She had a beautiful laugh and when she let it out, her eyes light up. A guy could get to craving that sound. I don’t have my license yet, and there’s a chance she will find that lame as hell. Still, I like her enough to risk asking her out. It would be embarrassing to explain that I have my permit, but my parents can’t seem to find the time to take me to get my license. If my brother wasn’t a fuckwad that would probably put the moves on Callie, I could get him to drop us off somewhere. Maybe I’ll just wait until I see if Mom or Dad will take me next week. Dad took Mitch right away, but I think that was just so Mitch could do all of the errands and shit that took Dad away from his bottle.

It’s a long shot, but it’s all I can do.