The Boyfriend Deal

By Charity West

When Hadley’s ex-boyfriend starts to become a stalker, she decides it’s time to take drastic measures and kisses the first boy who walks past her locker. But she isn’t prepared for the kiss, not at all, or what happens afterward.

Tyler Robbins, the captain of the football team, is every girl’s dream guy. He has somewhat of a reputation for using girls and tossing them aside, not that it stops them from flocking his way. All of that changes the moment Hadley’s lips touch his.

When Tyler proposes that Hadley pretends to date him as a way to save them both—him from his mother and her from her ex-boyfriend—Hadley is reluctant to give it a try. In the end, she agrees, but she’s nowhere near prepared for the journey she’s about to embark on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Evernight Teen
• Release date: Mar 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781772337297

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Published by Evernight Teen ® at Smashwords

www.evernightteen.com

Copyright© 2016 Charity West

ISBN: 978-1-77233-729-7

Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Editor: Melissa Hosack

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

THE BOYFRIEND DEAL

Charity West

Copyright © 2016

Chapter One

Hadley

Seeing Hunter head my way, a determined, slightly psycho look in his eyes, made me panic. I did the only thing I could think to do. I grabbed the first boy I saw and kissed him like my life depended on it, but as my body pressed against my unsuspecting target and my lips crashed against his, three things became very apparent to me. One, the boy knew how to kiss; his lips were divine and the hands going around my waist weren’t so bad either. Two, I was slightly in over my head, as he pressed me back against my locker. And three … well, I was still reeling from one and two. Three would have to wait for later.

If you wanted me to kiss you, Red, all you had to do was say so.

My eyes popped open and I stared in open-mouthed shock at the boy who had just made me melt with his kiss. Tyler Robbins. The one boy I should avoid like the plague. The only boy who had the power to completely devastate me, rip out my heart and stomp on it, and do so without any true effort on his part. I’d had a major crush on him since pre-kindergarten. Perhaps crush was too tame a word. When you’ve obsessed over a boy since the age of four, it escalated things beyond crush level.

He winked at me and moved along down the hall, as if the earth hadn’t just moved, as if lightning hadn’t just struck, as if … well, you get the point. He was everything I’d ever wanted, and the one thing I’d never have. Tyler flitted from one girl to another. He didn’t have a flavor of the month; he had a flavor of the day. Or maybe it was a flavor of the hour. Except for Alicia Thompson. She was his on again off again girlfriend for the last two years, and she was a total witch. The last time they’d broken up, she’d egged the car of his next conquest.

It took me a moment to realize Hunter was standing beside me, looking both livid and hurt all at the same time, but really, the entire thing was his fault. If he hadn’t cheated on me, then turned stalker, my lips never would have touched Tyler’s. Then again, maybe I should be thanking him. Now I could cross off a major item on my wish list. I’d been dreaming of kissing Tyler Robbins since the first time I saw him, on my very first day of school. Of course, that was before he started crushing on the snotty girl in our class, then I just wanted to pelt him in the face with a mud pie at recess.

Why are you doing this, Hadley? Tyler Robbins? Don’t you know he’s going to use you and toss you aside like yesterday’s garbage?

Yeah, because there’s no one around here who hasn’t already done that, right? In case you missed it, Hunter, we broke up. You have no say in who I do or do not kiss. If I want to make out with him in the janitor’s closet, that’s my business and not yours. And stop stalking me! I’m not taking you back. Not now, not ever.

I snatched the books out of my locker, slammed it shut, and took off down the hall. I could feel his gaze boring into my back, and I wasn’t not going to lie, it seriously creeped me out. But what could I possibly do about Hunter? My own family thought I should give him another chance; every girl in school was praying I wouldn’t, and no matter what I said to the boy, he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

What I needed was a boyfriend. Someone who wouldn’t be intimidated by Hunter, who would stand up to him and tell him to back off and leave me the heck alone. What I needed was a jock, but no self-respecting jock was going to be seen with a band geek like me. And I wasn’t even in the marching band, the semi-cool band geeks because they kept the audience revved up during football games. I played the flute, but I wasn’t coordinated enough to walk and play at the same time. Not without landing on my face at any rate.

I sat through first period in kind of a daze, not really hearing anything the teacher said. I managed to write down my assignment and shuffled toward the door when the bell rang. It seemed I wasn’t the only one in a daze and ready to leave Mr. Bertram’s math class because everyone bottlenecked at the doorway. As I was squeezing my way through, someone grabbed my arm and I found myself plastered against Tyler for the second time that morning.

Startled, I looked up at him, wondering why his hands were on my waist, and more importantly, why was he looking at me like that? You know, in that you’re the only girl in the world kind of way. Not even Hunter had ever looked at me like that. He didn’t say anything, not at first. He just stood there smiling down at me. I took a moment to admire his perfectly gelled hair and—sniff—his heavenly scent. I had no idea what type of cologne he wore, but if I could wrap myself in that scent—preferably by way of his arms being around me—then I would die happy.

Mind if I walk you to class? he asked.

I didn’t think I could have spoken if I’d wanted to, I was that shocked, but I managed to squeak out some sort of reply that he must have taken as consent. He gave me a little smirk, and with his hand resting at the small of my back, he ushered me to my next class. My conclusion was that I’d somehow fallen into an alternate reality during math class, because in what world did the captain of the football team walk someone like me to class?

No, I’m not ugly. But I’d seen the girls Tyler dated, and I used the term loosely. They weren’t anything like me. They were all blonde, curvy, and at the top of the social food chain. He could literally have any girl he wanted in the entire school, so why was he escorting me to class as if he was my boyfriend? Sure, our kiss was probably the most important event of my entire life, but he’d locked lips with plenty of girls. I doubted my kiss was special.

We paused outside of my next class and he pulled me close again. His head lowered and my breath hitched in my throat. Was he going to kiss me? I felt my eyes widen, but he stopped a mere inch from my lips, lips that were now tingling and begging for a kiss that would probably never come.

I’ll meet you here after class.

There was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes right before his nose caressed mine. He pressed a kiss my cheek, making my lips insanely jealous, and then he took off. I was left standing outside my class, slack-jawed and probably looking like a complete loon. Somehow, I managed to snap out of it and went inside to find my seat. My best friend, Amber, stared at me, eyebrows raised, as she waited for me to dish about what was happening between Tyler and me. Except, I didn’t know what to say.

He wants me to wait for him after class. I know I had to look at least half as dazed as I felt. Amber smiled at me, but it was this devious I’m plotting to take over the world kind of smile.

Maybe he can be your Hunter repellent. You should ask him out.

I think I must have hallucinated for a moment. Did you just say I should ask out Tyler Robbins?

She nodded, that same scary smile on her face.

"Amber, he’s Tyler Robbins. Why would he go out with me?"

Maybe for the same reason he just kissed you. I know you don’t see it, but you’re gorgeous, Hadley. He had to have noticed at some point, and now that you’ve broken the ice, not to mention having dumped Hunter, he figures it’s time to make his move.

She believed the words coming out of her mouth, but I just thought she was crazy. No way Mr. Football Captain wanted to date me. He probably hadn’t even known I existed before I kissed him this morning. Maybe I gave him false hope and he thought he was going to get lucky? Well, if that was what he believed, I would have to straighten him out next time I saw him. My lips craved his, but that was as far as I was willing to go. Unlike the girls he usually hung out with, I was far

Reviews for The Boyfriend Deal

[kyra brimley · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Too cheesy, it had no substance and the characters were poorly developed, as well as their relationship.