Trick or Treat: Steinbeck University, #0.5

By L. A. Cotton

Calliope James would rather live life through a lens than in the spotlight.

 

So when she reluctantly agrees to go with her best friend to a party, she doesn't expect to find herself on the other side of the camera.

 

Zachary Messiah left Bay View High School without so much as a word.

 

Now he's back.

 

He's not the boy she remembers, but she's exactly the girl he's tried so hard to forget.

 

They should stay away from each other.

 

But it's Devil's Night ... and tonight, even good girls might be tempted to the dark side.

 

 

* Trick or Treat is a 15,000-word prequel short that contains mature content. It was previously published in the Love At First Fright anthology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Delesty Books
• Release date: Oct 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393253518

L. A. Cotton

Addictive Romance Author of mature young adult and new adult novels, L A is happiest writing the kind of books she loves to read: addictive stories full of teenage angst, tension, twists and turns. Home is a small town in the middle of England where she currently juggles being a full-time writer with being a mother/referee to two little people. In her spare time (and when she’s not camped out in front of the laptop) you’ll most likely find L A immersed in a book, escaping the chaos that is life.

Book preview

Oh my god. Madison leaped in front of me as I filed out of class. Guess what I heard?

They found out the Earth is, in fact, flat?

Nope. She grinned, taking a big suck on her cherry sucker. Guess again.

Tupac isn’t dead?

Wrong.

I tapped my lip for effect. Tilly Myers is actually a virgin and didn’t sleep with half of the football team over the summer?

Madison snorted at that. We all know Tilly loves baller dick.

She wasn’t wrong.

Football. Basketball. Volleyball. It didn’t matter. If a guy wore a jersey, he was fair game to the HBIC of Bay View High School.

Okay, I played along. I give up. 

We stopped at my locker bank so I could trade some textbooks. It was already the end of October and senior year was kicking my ass. My GPA was good, but I still had to nail my application if I had any hopes of getting accepted into the program I had my heart set on.

Zach Messiah is in town this weekend and Amelia heard from Brendon who heard it from his mom, that he’s going to be at the Devil’s Night party.

I froze at the mention of his name, my heart plummeting as I sucked in a shaky breath. Luckily, I still had my head stuck in my locker so Madison couldn’t see my face. Because I knew it would betray me. 

He is? I composed myself, shutting the door. That’s nice.

Her brow quirked up. "That’s nice? That’s all you have to say? Calli, come on. It’s Zach."

What do you want me to say?

Zachary Messiah was in my past, where he belonged. It didn’t matter that my heart beat a little harder or my body stirred to life at the mention of his name. It was just anger. The deep sense of betrayal I still felt over the boy who had promised me the world and then pulled the rug out from under me and watched me fall like it was nothing.

Like I was nothing.

So yeah, that’s all I had. As far I was concerned, Zach Messiah could rot in Hell.

I thought you might be more... I don’t know... intrigued? She cast me a wary glance.

Zach hasn’t been a part of my life for almost two years. Dammit. The fact I remembered that pissed me off.

I know. Her expression softened. I just thought... it doesn’t matter.

Don’t tell me you’re still rooting for us? God, she was such a hopeless romantic.

But you guys were so good together.

Yeah, until he became Mr. Popular and decided to play with the cool kids.

Instead of the odd girl with a chip on her shoulder. The girl who preferred to take photos than star in them.

I’d always had a strange fascination with photography, seeing life through a lens. Kids still teased me about it now. But not Zach. He’d said it made me interesting.

He’d said our hopes and dreams and passions made us special.

He’d said I was special.

Until one day, I wasn’t.

I still don’t know what happened. I was in tenth grade and Zach was a junior, and we had the entire world at our feet.

And then everything changed. 

Just like that, Zach cast me aside like I was nothing, and he flourished while I sank into the shadows. 

Then junior year rolled around, and Zach and his family were gone. 

I’d later found out he’d earned enough credits to graduate early and had gone off to college to play ball.

I hadn’t seen or heard from him since. 

Zachary Messiah was just another person in a long line of guys who had abandoned me.

So no, I wasn’t intrigued that he would be at the annual Devil’s Night party.

Not even a little bit.

I never was a very good liar.

Oh look, it’s Clickope. Tilly enunciated each syllable, smirking while her friends—aka, the Clones—snickered, as I walked past their table in the cafeteria.

That was lame when we were in eighth grade, I said dryly. Now it’s just pathetic.

Oh, I’m sorry. She clutched her chest and feigned surprise. I have a whole plethora of insults; would you like to hear another?

Plethora? I quipped. "Has