No Prince Charming

© KES

Prologue

“What are you staring at?”

Being the first words he’d ever spoken to Ava Williamson, they weren’t exactly pleasant. She glanced up at him and smiled slightly. Even if his words were rude, it was more than most got. Most were treated as if they weren’t really there, as if their existence wasn’t enough for him to bother with. The few he had to converse with he talked at instead of to. Simply put, he was a cocky son of a bitch.

Most people found him intriguing instead of arrogant. Ava wasn’t one of those people. She found his attitude appalling.

That didn’t mean, though, that she hadn’t noticed him. He had a commanding presence. Even when she tried to ignore him, she found it difficult. Today hadn’t been any different. When the final bell rang, she hurried to the steps in the front of the building where she always waited after school. A few minutes later, he’d shown up. Inadvertently and perhaps inevitably, her eyes would always land on him, at least for a few seconds. He leaned against the building lazily, his eyes scanning the people in front of him, but he never really saw them. It was a picture perfect moment, Ava realized, longing for her camera. He stood under the Springbrook High School banner plastered on the building’s outer wall, the top of his amber head just reaching the ‘g’ in Springbrook. His arms were crossed over his chest; his piercing blue eyes were visible from feet away. But what captured Ava’s attention was how incredibly bored he looked—like everything that was going on around him was a waste of space and time.

Ava had this realization minutes ago, though. While she hadn’t forgotten he was there, she certainly hadn’t been staring at him.

“Him,” she answered his question, standing to greet her boyfriend Kevin Richter, who had just appeared.

She gathered her things quickly and they headed to his car together, fingers intertwined. “Jake Long is staring at you,” Kevin said as they got in his small sports coupe.

She met Jake’s eyes evenly. Holding his gaze for only a second, she turned back to her boyfriend. “Hmm,” she replied, “Let him.”