The Accidental Kiss Read online

  The Accidental Kiss

  Copyright © 2014 Nicole Simone

  Cover Design by Regina Wamba of Mae I Design

  http://www.MaeIDesign.com

  Formatting by Indie Pixel Studio

  http://www.indiepixelstudio.com

  All rights reserved.

  DEDICATION

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  To Matt, who didn’t think it was such a crazy idea to become a novelist. Thank you for your endless support.

  Deb Hartwell: Thank you times a million for shaping this book into what it is today.

  Regina Wamba: You have the the patience of a saint. Thank you for putting up with my countless notes about the cover. It turned out beautiful.

  Literati Author Services: Thank you for getting my books out there and making my job a little easier.

  My parents: Your love of literature has transpired over to me and for that, I will always be grateful.

  Friends: Sorry for disappearing months on end while I'm trapped in the writing cave. Without you guys, my sanity would be more precarious then it already.

  Lastly, my readers and fans: What can I say without sounding mushy? Your emails, comments and excitement about my novels fill me with joy. Can't believe I get to write author as my job title now and it's all because of you.

  The stark white hallways smelled like cleaning fluid as I navigated my way through the throngs of students. I glanced down at the piece of white paper with the number 301 written on it and looked back up. Down right panic coursed through my veins when I realized the lockers didn’t have numbers on them; only weird symbols that looked as if they belonged in a geometry book. I was totally screwed. Math was my nemesis. As I stopped short to figure out my next move, a girl with a blonde pixie cut crashed into me from behind. Her books went crashing to the floor with a loud thud.

  “Shit,” she cursed. “Now I’ll really be late.”

  I spun around and crouched on the floor to help her gather her books. From the titles on the spines it looked as if she was a literature nerd.

  “I am really sorry,” I said meekly. “The symbols on the lockers were tripping me up.”

  The girl smiled, flashing me a row of perfectly straight white teeth. I ran my tongue over my own and felt their imperfections. My mother never felt as if it was necessary for me to get orthodontics. She said I should embrace my quirks, not hide them. Easy for her to say.

  “You always know the new person by the confused look on their face as they wander the halls.” The girl grabbed the last book, a well-worn edition of Pride and Prejudice, and stood up. Sticking out her hand, she introduced herself. “I’m Emily with an E.”

  Now that we were face to face, I took in her angular jaw line, bleached blonde pixie cut with pink tips and a painful looking lip ring. I never would have guessed her name was Emily in a million years. Then I glanced down at her conservative clothes and it made sense. She was an angel and devil tied into one neat little package. I instantly felt myself warm toward her.

  “I’m Sky Noelle. You can call me by either name,” I responded.

  Emily grinned. “I love that. You sound as if you belong in a Bond movie.”

  “You don’t strike me as the kind of girl who watches action flicks.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Emily launched into a fake fighting stance with her hands clasped into fist. “They are my favorite.” She punched the air. “Someday I wish I could kick ass like that.”

  A small laugh escaped my lips, surprising me. It had been forever since I felt an emotion outside the five stages of grief.

  “Have you ever seen the movie Relief of Darkness?” Emily asked.

  Just like that my happiness bubble burst. Raw hurt clawed up my throat and threatened to bury me. I must have shaken my head no because Emily launched into a play by play of the movie. My gaze wandered over her head and focused onto the metal doors, marking the front entrance. Although I said I had never seen it, Relief of Darkness had been my best friend, Melissa’s, favorite movie. We used to watch it religiously every year on her birthday and then pretend as if we were the characters the rest of the night. Melissa wanted to be an actress so she was better at falling into the roll of the sultry Miss King. I, on the other hand, usually returned to my normal boring self by the third hour.

  Taking a deep breath, I attempted to keep the haunting images of Melissa’s death at bay. Broken glass, blood—so much blood—and her once beautiful blue eyes vacant as glass. The sounds around me lowered to a faint buzz as reality started to wash away, but before I could plunge over the proverbial cliff…I saw him.

  Dirty blonde hair that was longer on the top and shorter on the sides framed his square jawline, which was dotted with a five o’clock shadow. His bright green eyes held the wisdom of a man well beyond his seventeen years. Then again, he could be a teacher but the attitude he was sporting said otherwise. Peeking out from under his t-shirt sleeve was a scar in the shape of a rattlesnake tail. It was almost as if he had been branded. He drew closer. The musky smell of his cologne wrapped around me and lust hit me square in the stomach. I knew it was rude to stare but I couldn’t help myself. I was like a moth to a flame. My eyes silently begged him to look at me, which then turned into a desperate plea when he got close enough to touch. Much to my chagrin though, his gaze stayed glued straight ahead. My body deflated as he passed and I subconsciously touched my hair. I guessed the hour I put into primping myself this morning didn’t do me any good. I should have let my chestnut hair flow free instead of in a tight ponytail. According to my mother, boys didn’t like the librarian look. Since she was a beauty mortician though, I rarely took her advice to heart. But maybe I should start.

  “Oh God, you too.”

  I cast a sideways glance over to Emily. “What do you mean?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Daemon Henley is like a beacon for girls. I swear to God, the man gets more ass than is legally possible.”

  Strangely, I felt a hot stab of jealousy at the thought of him hooking up with other girls. Nonetheless, it didn’t come as a surprise. Even his name oozed sex.

  Emily grabbed my elbow and steered me down the hallway. “Take it from me, don’t hook up with him,” she whispered. “A guy like that only spells one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  We came to halting stop and Emily stared me straight in the eye. “Venereal Disease.”

  I studied her face to see if she was joking but she was serious with a capital S. My lips wavered as I attempted to hold back a laugh.

  “It’s not funny, Sky,” she scolded. “As the new girl, it would be social suicide to get herpes.”

  I tilted my head sideways. “He has herpes?” Part of me was hoping Emily would say yes. At least then, it would give me a reason to stay away from Daemon.

  “Not that I know of,” Emily answered.

  “Oh.”


  When she saw my disappointed expression, she grinned. “But I heard he is a really shitty lay.”

  Somehow I didn’t believe that for a second if he hooked up with more girls than God. As I was about to point out the flaw behind her statement, the school bell rang and the halls cleared.

  Emily grimaced. “This is my least favorite time of day. My science teacher puts me right back to sleep.”

  Digging in my pocket for my schedule, I checked to see where I was headed for first period. “I have English class with Mr. Tucker.”

  She clapped her hands together in glee. “You’re so lucky. I had him last year and he’s the reason I want to become a writer.” Emily beckoned for me to hand over my schedule. After she glanced at it, she handed it back. “You’re not in any of my classes but we do have lunch together so I’ll see you then. Look for the girl with a pink Mohawk. I’ll be sitting next to her.”

  A second warning bell rang, signaling if we didn’t get our asses to class soon, there would be hell to pay. Emily started to run toward the stairway as I walked in the opposite direction. The mysterious symbols on the lockers had to wait and so did the mysterious Daemon.

  Luckily, since McCord High School was just as small as the town it resided in, I had no problem finding Mr. Tucker’s English class. What was a problem was the fact I was five minutes late. When I walked inside the stark white classroom, thirty pairs of eyes landed on me. A man with unruly brown hair stood at the front and wiped his chalk-covered hands on his jeans. The streaks they left behind added to his disheveled appearance.

  “I’m guessing you’re Sky Noelle,” he said to me.

  A lump formed in my throat, preventing me from talking so I nodded instead.

  The man laid his palm over his chest. “I am Mr. Tucker with a T, not F.” His joke caused a snicker to rise out of the students. “You’re just in time for a riveting lecture on which novels we will be reading this year. Take a seat next to Mr. Daemon and try not to fall asleep.”

  My heart skipped over in my chest. I peeled my eyes away from Mr. Tucker and faced the classroom. Daemon was staring right at me with a slight smile on his lips as if he knew a secret I didn’t. Clearing my throat, I maneuvered my way to the desk next to his. As I slid into the seat, he leaned in and tugged my hair free from my ponytail. Shock and outrage hummed through my veins. How dare he lay a hand on me without permission? I turned to give him a piece of my mind but the words died in my throat. His green eyes flickered with heat as he took in my wavy brown hair.

  “Much better,” he murmured.

  I rubbed a strand between my fingers, witnessing my locks in a new light. Daemon slid the hair tie across my desk and turned his focus to Mr. Tucker. As quickly as it happened, the moment between us was gone.

  I tried to focus on what Mr. Tucker was saying during the rest of class, but my body was acutely aware of Daemon’s every move. When his fingers tapped to a sound only he could hear, my own hands flinched in response. It was like an invisible thread connected us. By the end of class, I was mentally exhausted. Mr. Tucker wrote the homework assignment on the chalkboard and double underlined the date of when it was due.

  “Ok class, be safe….” The rest of Mr. Tucker’s sentence was drowned out by the sound of the bell. Chairs scraped back as kids gathered their stuff to leave. I snuck a glance over at Daemon but his seat was empty.

  How odd, he was there five seconds ago.

  My eyes searched the classroom to no avail. Disheartened, I swung my backpack over my shoulder and continued to my next class.

  The next two classes were blissfully normal, which was a word that had been missing from my vocabulary for a long time. When my mom first told me we were moving to a backwards town in Louisiana, I vowed to hate her until the end of time. A little over-dramatic, but the thought of leaving the city of Los Angeles had sucked the air out of my lungs. It was the last tie I had to Melissa. Now though, as I held a tray of cafeteria slop in my hands and looked around the bustling room, a wave of relief washed over me. I didn’t have to be afraid to leave my house anymore. This school, town, and people were a blank slate. I could start over and build new memories while still honoring Melissa’s life. Besides, if she were here right now she would tell me to stop being a miserable asshole and go have some fun.

  Scanning the crowded cafeteria, I caught sight of the girl with a pink Mohawk and spotted Emily next to her. An identical set of twin boys sat at the table as well, their heads bent over a notebook. My guess was that this crowd fell under the artsy category, which was good. Better than good because it was the complete opposite of whom I hung out with at my last school. Taking a deep breath, I slapped a smile on my face.

  Here goes nothing.

  “Hey,” I said.

  Emily looked over her shoulder and practically bounced out of her seat when she saw me. “Sky, you’re here!”

  The girl with the pink Mohawk rolled her eyes. “Geez, Em, bottle some of that sparkle, it’s overwhelming.”

  Emily cut her friend the stink eye. “Ignore her, she doesn’t like anything besides the dark and dreary.” She scooted over and patted the empty seat between them. “Sit.”

  I placed my tray on the table. The twin boys glanced up with interest. A startled sound escaped my lips—not because they were ugly, but because they were identical down to their clothes.

  Pink Mohawk girl laughed. “It’s scary isn’t it? They only do it to confuse the teachers. Outside of school they aren’t so freakish.”

  One of the twin boys spoke. “Isn’t that calling the kettle black, Lucy?” Before she could retort, he turned to me with a grin. “Hi, I’m Jacob and my brother is Logan. If you’re having a hard time telling who is who, look for the freckle on Logan’s nose.”

  Logan pointed to a spot on the left side of his nose. “Don’t mention it to anyone else.”

  I made a gesture my lips were sealed. The slop on my tray didn’t appeal to me in the least but after not eating breakfast this morning, I was starved. Hesitantly, I grabbed my fork and was about to dig in when Emily stopped me.

  Her mouth turned down at the corners in disgust. “Don’t tell me you’re going to eat that?”

  “Well yea…. I didn’t bring anything else.”

  Emily held up her index finger. “Number one rule is to never eat the cafeteria food. It tastes like it looks.”

  “Like shit,” Lucy filled in.

  Logan pointed to a pile of food in the middle of the table. There were carrot sticks, chips, an apple, three different kinds of sandwiches, and a plastic container of donuts. “That is why we pool our resources together and have a potluck sort of thing. Although my loot is never as good as Emily’s and Lucy’s.”

  Jacob grabbed the bag of carrots. “Our mom is just trying to make sure we get our daily dose of carotene.”

  “If we get anymore carotene, we will turn orange,” Logan mumbled.

  I bit my lip to prevent myself from laughing at the dejected look on his face. At least Jacob and Logan had a mom who cared. My mom was too busy making dead people beautiful to stock the cupboards with anything else besides Pop-Tarts and canned soup. That was why I had taught myself to cook. Chocolate chip cookies and grilled cheese sandwiches were my specialties.

  I eyed the gray slop in front of me then looked at the pile of food. There was a ham and cheese sandwich within fingers’ distance. It looked exactly how I liked it, simple without a lot of garnishes.

  “Sky, if you stare any harder at that sandwich it might explode.” Lucy tossed the plastic baggie into my lap. “Enjoy. Everybody else hates ham.”

  To confirm this was true, I glanced at the group, who nodded their approval.

  “Thanks,” I said. “My mom is on a vegetarian kick.”

  “For how long?” Emily questioned.

  My teeth sunk into the white bread and I closed my eyes, savoring the only meal I had today. I swallowed, “For as long as I have been alive.”

  Lucy kicked her feet out in front
of her. Sunlight from the windows above rained down upon her Mohawk, making the pink appear iridescent. A small chain hooked the earring on her cartilage to the one in her earlobe. I touched my own ear and tried to imagine how it would feel.

  Like a son of a bitch, I’m guessing.

  “Can’t imagine not growing up around meat,” Lucy said faintly.

  “Lucy’s family owns a butcher shop in town,” Emily explained. “You can’t miss it. It’s the one with the giant fake meat carcass out front.”

  I knew the place she was talking about because it was the first landmark we had passed when my mom and I drove into town. I was horrified, but my mom took the statue as a sign we were exactly where we belonged.

  “See, Sky,” she had said in her singsong voice. “This town is as kooky as we are.”

  The twins went back to their notebook while Lucy and Emily fell into a conversation about what art really was. Since I had no opinion on the matter, my mind wandered to the textbooks I needed to get from the library. Shockingly, I was looking forward to it. You couldn’t tell from my appearance, but I was a huge bookworm. I read everything from the back of cereal boxes to pamphlets to novels. Deep in thought, it took me a minute to notice the eerie quiet that had settled over the cafeteria. Confused at the sudden energy shift, my gaze settled onto Emily. Like a deer in headlights, she was starting at something or someone to my right.

  “What’s…” The words died in my throat when I saw the cause…Daemon.

  Weariness sparked in his eyes when I met his gaze. “We need to talk,” he growled.

  Daemon was a walking enigma. He had ignored me in the hallway, invaded my space in first period, and was now bossing me around. What the hell? I didn’t care how frightfully beautiful he was. Nobody was worth this much of a headache.

  I raised my chin defiantly. “Maybe instead of ordering me around, you could formally introduce yourself first.”

  A slight smirk danced across his lips. “I don’t need to introduce myself. Everybody knows who I am.”

  I rolled my eyes at his enormous sized ego. The number one problem with small towns is that if you are remotely good looking, you think you rule the place. Daemon needed to get a heavy dose of reality.