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No Prince Charming
© KES
Chapter One
It was one of those days that Ava Williamson hated more than anything. High school felt so below her sometimes, and today was definitely one of those days.
“Did you hear about Jake Long?” a cheerleader asked her friend.
“I heard that he…” her friend supplied eagerly. Ava pushed past them, trying to get to her locker. It was just after second period and the school—perhaps even the entire world—could not stop talking about Jake Long’s new tattoo. She hadn’t seen it and didn’t care to, but she couldn’t get over the fact that they were so concerned about a tattoo. Not a lot of students had them, but no one made any fuss over the ones who did.
“Did you hear about Jake Long’s new tattoo?” Aubrie Hatch appeared at Ava’s side. “Because I’ve heard it sparkles. It shines. It’s holographic.”
“I heard that if he flexes his beautiful bicep, it actually moves,” Ava said dryly, sighing in relief as she finally reached her locker.
“I heard it’s not on his bicep. It’s on his thirty-six pack stomach,” Aubrie challenged. “And if he tightens his muscles, it becomes an exact replica of the Mona Lisa.”
Ava eyed her friend for a moment before bursting into laughter. “No really,” Aubrie said solemnly, “I actually heard that.”
Ava grinned, “I think it’s worse that our imaginations couldn’t even stretch that far.”
“Agreed,” Aubrie nodded, walking with Ava to AP History. Ava and Aubrie met their freshmen year of high school, being the only freshmen to be placed in AP English, and had every AP class together since then. They were best friends, but not in the ‘tell each other everything’ kind of way. They had a sort of unspoken understanding that some secrets were better left unsaid. That was perhaps why their friendship was so strong—they didn’t have to know everything about each other to feel close.
Ava and Aubrie dropped into their seats in the front corner of the classroom. “How’s your paper coming?” Ava asked, glancing up at the board to scan over the agenda for the day.
“Done,” Aubrie said brightly. “You know me.”
Ava shook her head, “Yeah.”
It wasn’t a particularly important conversation, but it wasn’t one Ava necessarily wanted interrupted. Especially by him.
“Ladies,” he nodded at them, lowering into his chair behind Ava.
She was content with that being the end of the conversation, but Aubrie couldn’t resist. “How’s your tattoo?” she asked.
Ava sent a withering glance in her friend’s direction. It was the second day in a row Jake Long had acknowledged she existed and it made her uncomfortable, like he wanted something.
Regardless, when Jake rolled up the sleeve on his left arm, Ava turned around to sneak a peek. Drawn on the inside of his wrist in an old English script was one word—veritas.
“What’s it mean?” Aubrie asked.
“Truth,” Ava said. “It’s Latin.” Jake raised his eyes to meet hers, the surprise barely evident. “It looks like permanent marker.”
Jake’s eyes gleamed and he broke into a grin rather unlike him. Ava found herself thinking how much better he looked when he smiled. “It is,” he said, rolling his sleeve back down as a group entered the classroom. Their eyes bulged at Jake, and they stared at him so hard that it seemed they were trying to see through his clothes to the tattoo below.
“They’re undressing me with their eyes,” Jake leaned forward to whisper in Ava’s ear.
“You’re enjoying this,” Ava realized. Of course he is, she thought. He was creating all this drama for his own amusement.
He didn’t respond immediately, but he didn’t move away either. “Don’t forget to breathe, Williamson,” he said. Ava could hear the smirk in his voice as she let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding. “Can you feel them looking at you?”
Ava scoffed, “I think they’re looking for the Mona Lisa.”
Jake chuckled, “That one is my favorite.” He paused, “But they’re definitely looking at you.”
“Great,” Ava muttered, “What do you want, Jake?”
“You’ll find out,” he said lowly before sinking back in his chair.
Ava carefully ignored Aubrie’s curious glances, grateful that class was starting. The truth was that she could feel everyone looking at her and she found herself appalled at the idea. Jake Long had said a couple of words to her and they were going to gossip about it for the rest of the week.
She sighed as she entered the cafeteria, feeling more than a few pairs of eyes on her. She headed towards a circular table in the middle of the room where her boyfriend and the rest of the football team sat. She didn’t always sit with him, but currently thought she would be safer with him than anyone else.
Kevin grinned as she dropped ungracefully into the open chair next to him. He pressed a chaste kiss to her lips before teasing, “I heard that Jake Long had his way with you in the middle of AP History today.”
Ava shook her head in disbelief. All Jake had done was talk to her and the rumor mill had turned it into a classroom tryst. She almost couldn’t believe it.
Aubrie dropped down next to Ava, her lunch tray filled with salad. She offered Kevin a sympathetic glance—he and Ava had been dating for nearly six months and she was still sometimes oblivious to his mannerisms. He might have sounded like he was teasing before, but he wanted reassurance that there really wasn’t anything going on between his girlfriend and Jake. “He just talked to her,” Aubrie explained. “You know how this place is.”
Kevin smiled gratefully, unconsciously looking over—along with everyone else—when Jake entered the cafeteria. He usually avoided eating inside if he could help it. “Long’s starting at you again,” he nudged his girlfriend. Ava groaned, raising her eyes to meet Jake’s. “Do you want me to get him to back off?” Kevin asked her.
She shook her head. “I think that’s what he wants. Forget about him.” She wrapped her hand around Kevin’s. She held Jake’s gaze for a second longer before turning all her attention to Kevin.
Jake swore he could hear the entire cafeteria turn around to see him come in. He smiled slightly, scanning the room without really looking for anyone.
He didn’t know he had been staring at Ava Williamson until he felt her eyes on him. She met his gaze evenly, her hazel eyes cold, but she looked weary. He could tell that all the attention she was receiving was already taking its toll on her. Before he could give much thought to it, she had turned away, focusing her attention on her dimwitted boyfriend.
Jake shook his head. He had really wanted to wave at her, to take the attention up a notch. He was just contemplating approaching her when he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder.
“I think she’s had enough today,” Jake’s cousin Ryan Long teased.
“Not even close,” Jake challenged, but he obediently followed his cousin through the burger line.
“I still don’t know what your problem is with her,” Ryan said.
Jake shook his head again. “No problem, man. I just enjoy torturing her.”
Ryan raised an eyebrow as fries were dumped on his tray. “I think you enjoy torturing yourself. The girl could care less.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to take it up a notch. Should we join them?” Jake paid for his food and started heading in the direction of Ava’s table. Ryan shook his head in disbelief, but followed Jake over.
One of the many perks of being Jake Long was that by the time he approached, there were suddenly two chairs open. He dropped into one next to Aubrie and smiled at her. He always felt that he had an ally in Aubrie.
Jake let the conversation continue around him before speaking up. “So Ava,” he began and everyone at the table stopped talking. Ava raised her eyes to acknowledge him for the first time since he sat down. “I was wondering if I could talk to you about the paper in history.” This, apparently, wasn’t scandalous enough for everyone to listen to, so most went back to their own conversations.
Ava, after a very obvious internal argument, acquiesced. “What about it?”
Jake stood up, gesturing that they talk in private. Ava scoffed, but followed him a few feet to an empty table. “What about it, Long?” Ava repeated, already sounding like she was running low on patience.
“I was thinking we should maybe write our paper together. Since we’re writing on such similar topics and all,” he said, leaning in close.
Much closer than necessary, Ava realized. “What are you writing on?”
“Uh,” Jake said. “The same thing you are.”
“Which is…?”
“Vietnam,” he said, sounding so damn self-assured that Ava felt her palm itching to slap him.
“Nice try,” Ava replied. “But I’m writing on Prohibition. I think we can safely say there’s no similarities there.”
“Well, technically, the war did cause the drinking age to be lo—“
“You’re unbelievable,” Ava hissed. “And you’re ridiculous to think that I’m going to play along in whatever game you’re trying to play here. That is what this is, isn’t it?” She didn’t wait for Jake’s response. “Get over yourself.”
Ava left Jake alone at the table without another word, going back to the empty chair next to Kevin. Jake didn’t rejoin the table, but Ava could feel his eyes on her the whole time.
When she stumbled into the journalism room that afternoon, she wanted nothing more than to take a look at her prints and figure out exactly which shots worked the best for each story. It was one of her favorite parts of being the editor of the school paper. She got the final say on a lot of what went in and no one questioned her decisions.
She was early, as always. The prints were already on her desk—Ryan Long was the primary photographer for the paper and always did an excellent job on developing. He was so different from his cousin—much warmer and welcoming. So she ignored mostly everyone as she thumbed through his work, already finding quite a few prints that she absolutely loved.
It took her a moment to register how quiet the room had become. When she looked up, she was only half-surprised to find Jake standing in the doorway, looking around as if he had always been there.
Ava looked to Ryan almost unconsciously. He didn’t meet her eyes—he was too busy trying to figure out what on earth Jake was up to. Ava was wondering the same thing.
“Are you lost, Long?” Ava asked dryly. She knew that the room full of about fifteen students was going to be acutely aware of the entire conversation, but it didn’t matter. They always seemed to know everything anyway.
Jake shook his head, raising his eyebrows as if he was surprised at Ava’s question. “Of course not. I decided I should look into some extra curricular activities to boost my college applications.”
Ava just shook her head, hoping that when she looked back at him, he wouldn’t be there. Sadly, Ms. Bennett, the instructor chose that exact moment to enter.
“Oh, good!” she said in her obnoxiously loud voice. “I hoped that you would show Mr. Long around today, Ava.”
Ava’s eyes rolled upwards, begging the heavens for some kind of divine intervention. As it happened, even the faculty at Springbrook High wasn’t above the gossip. Clearly Ms. Bennett thought this would be amusing somehow.
“Sure,” Ava replied cheerfully when she realized the entire classroom had been waiting for her response. Her cheerfulness went far enough to assure most of the students that she was being sincere. Only the smirk on Jake’s features indicated that he saw right through it.