Filed to story: Lily Bennett and Mason Cooper Book
LILY
I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Oliver, sex hair and shirtless, Leah trembling in her bra and panties behind him. My boyfriend and my best friend.
An icy rage comes over me, and all I can say is, “How long?”
“This is the first time,” says Olly.
“Six months,” says Leah at the same time.
Olly and I had been together two years, and he’s been cheating on me with her for six months. The two of them look terrified, like I’m about to grab a knife from the kitchen and cut his cheating dick off.
Maybe I should, I think, but instead I leave without saying another word.
I run from his house, get in my car, and drive on autopilot until I find myself at my favorite running trail on the outskirts of the city. Then I just start walking, not giving two shits that I’m still in a dress and sandals.
I’m halfway around the lake, totally alone with the trees, when I finally let myself cry. Two years wasted on that two-faced dirtbag. My whole life feels like a lie. What a fucked-up way to end the summer.
I’m full-on sobbing when I round a bend in the trail and stop dead in my tracks.
There, about twenty feet ahead, is a guy climbing out of the water, completely naked.
For a second, my brain short-circuits. He’s tall, at least six-four, and broad-shouldered, his skin tanned golden from a summer full of sun. Water cascades down defined muscles, from his shoulders to his chiseled abs, and lower…
Oh my god, I’m staring.
“Sorry!” I say, my voice higher-pitched than usual.
He looks up, startled, then puts his hands over his crotch.
“No one’s usually here!”
I cover my face with my hands.
“I shouldn’t have…” I trail off, not sure how to finish that sentence. I shouldn’t have walked here?
“Toss me those shorts?” he asks.
I look down at a pair of red running shorts on a rock nearby, with his shoes and socks next to them. After I toss them over, I turn my back.
“I, uh… I didn’t mean to interrupt… your bath?” I mumble.
He laughs.
“I actually bathe at home, thank you. I was swimming after my run.”
“Naked?”
“There’s usually not any peeping toms around.”
“I’m not a peeping tom! You shouldn’t be skinny dipping here, it’s a public…”
I turn to confront him but lose my words. He’s walking toward his shoes, shorts on, but still no shirt. He sits on the rock to put on his shoes. His impressive arm muscles flex as he ties them and water drips from the brown curly hair hanging down just above his emerald green eyes. When he finishes, he looks up at me, smiles, totally unbothered that a stranger just saw him naked.
“Rough day, Princess?”
His question catches me off guard.
“What?”
“You look like you’ve been crying.”
“No, I’m fine,” I assure him quickly.
“You don’t look fine,” he states.
I glance back down the trail, suddenly overwhelmed by everything-the breakup, the humiliation, the fact that I just saw a very attractive guy naked.
“I should probably get going,” I say.
“I’m a good listener,” he says, patting the rock for me to sit next to him.
“Tell me what’s up.”
“Why would I open up to a stranger?”
“Stranger? You’ve seen me naked. Plus, strangers are the best secret keepers.”
He might have a point. I can’t tell anyone I know. Olly is like the most popular guy in school. People won’t feel bad he cheated on me, they’ll just think I’m pathetic for letting it happen for six months. Might be nice to actually say it out loud without any fear of a drama bomb going off all around me. Fuck it.
“I just caught my boyfriend of two years cheating on me with my best friend,” I blurt out.
He whistles.
“That’s rough.”
I start pacing in front of him.
“It’s been going on for six months!” I yell, kicking a stone, instantly regretting it when pain shoots through my big toe.
“I don’t get it. It’s not like I didn’t put out!” I shake my head.
“And my best friend…” I whisper, sitting down next to the stranger.
“You’re not going to kill me out here, are you?” I ask skeptically.
“I watch true crime documentaries.”
He chuckles.
“I’m not going to kill you.”
“Senior year is going to suck,” I grumble, pulling my knees up to my chest.
“You go to Ridgewood, right?” he asks.
“Yeah…” I say, wondering how he knows me. Do I know him?
With a mischievous grin, he points at himself and says, “Greendale.”
Just when I didn’t think this could get any more awkward, naked hot guy goes to my arch-rival high school…
“So we should NOT be talking.”
“Right,” he says.
“Mortal enemies and all that.”
“Though, maybe it doesn’t matter-I might as well transfer out of state after what happened today.”
“I’d hate for our state to lose such a beauty over some douchebag’s mistake.”
Is he… flirting? I ignore it.
“I just don’t know who I’m even going to be able to talk to at school after this.”
“You must have other friends?” he asks.
“Yeah. But my best friend Harry is on the football team with Olly and will probably stop talking to me. Ava might still be my friend.” I sigh.
“Wait a minute-Olly? You don’t mean Oliver Kingsley, do you?”
“You know him?” I ask, turning to properly look at the stranger, and taken aback by how beautiful his green eyes are.
“We’re kinda mortal enemies.” He winces.
“You’re Mason Cooper?” I frown, looking him up and down. I hadn’t recognized him without a helmet on.
“Yep! Greendale’s version of Oliver Kingsley. But a better quarterback and better looking.”
“Do you also cheat on your girlfriend?”