Free Hometown Girls: Beginnings (Hometown Girls Series Book 1) by Tressa Messenger

stomach flip. There was no telling what they were doing, not that she had any room to be mad after everything she had done that day with Randy. She hoped to get into her house unscathed, preserving the last bit of her dignity, but she knew from experience with Katie, they would have seen her head lights through her bedroom window when she pulled in. Feeling paranoid that they may be watching her through the window, she took a deep breath, held her head high, and walked into her house without a second glance.
    Ten minutes later, she was lying on her bed flipping through a celebrity magazine when someone rapped at her door.
    “Come in,” she said mindlessly, without breaking from an article about who’s dating who in Hollywood, figuring it was one of her parent’s, probably coming to lecture her about skipping school. After she heard the door open and shut, without someone speaking, she looked up and froze. Standing before her was Daniel and by the look on his face, along with his tightly crossed arms over his chest, she could tell he wasn’t so happy.
    “What?” she finally asked when she couldn’t take his silent, judgie stare any longer.
    “What was all that about earlier today?”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said and turned her attention back to her magazine.
    “Bull, Maris! What were you doing skipping school, and with the likes of Randy Farris of all people?”
    “I felt like it,” she said stubbornly.
    “Seriously, Marissa! He’s a bad guy.”
    That was enough to break her composer. She had spent the entire day with him, which was a lot more time than Daniel ever spent with him, so she could safely say she knew him better than Daniel. Feeling defensive she jumped up to her bare feet and stuck her finger in his chest. “I don’t need no superman swooping in and saving me. What I do in my life is my business, not yours, not anymore. I can do and hang out with anyone I damn well please.”
    “But him?” he asked, his voice breaking.
    “You don’t even know him!” she screamed, then crossed her arms over her chest and fought the urge to cry. She refused to give him the satisfaction. “I’d rather be with him than watch that little humiliating drama scene I witnessed earlier today. If you don’t like it, it’s your problem, not mine. Thanks for that by the way.”
    The words stung, she knew, but he knew she was right. He didn’t like Randy, not even a little bit, but most of all, he and Katie hadn’t even thought about her or how she would feel about seeing them together so soon.
    “You’re right. I’m sorry,” he said and slowly walked out of her room.
    Once he was gone she plopped down on her bed and squeezed her comforter in tight fists. He had some nerve to be jealous. He was the one that moved on first. Then it hit her. He was jealous because he cared. The thought sent electricity through her. The trick was to keep him caring. Apparently Randy was the trigger. Plus she could have some fun with him in the process.
    “Live life, be free, and have fun,” she said to herself, repeating Randy’s mantra and that’s exactly what she intended to do.

Chapter Ten
     
    The following morning Marissa Lou walked through the senior hallway with her head raised high with confidence radiating off her. She knew everyone was talking about what happened yesterday. There was no way to avoid it. Also she knew she would have to see Daniel and Katie today and them she could avoid. She refused to allow the same scene from yesterday happen again. Although, by all the eyes of her fellow classmates, they expected, maybe even anticipated, it.
    Today was different. Today she had a new found purpose, a distraction from everything wrong in her world, in the form of Randy Farris; the sexy bad boy that made her smile when she never thought she would again. And the moment she saw him standing by his locker her smile widened. It struck her again how different he was from Daniel. The difference