Glass Pieces of My Heart

Chapter 1

Love is like glass. But when it’s not received, it hurts in your heart. Like you’ve been stabbed. Just like glass. Especially when you think you’ll never love, but you do. You always think it’s worth the price. Beautiful at first, but when broken, you step on it, and the pain flows out. Broken glass. That’s what love always ends up like.

“I need you to help me.” I looked up quickly.

“Huh?” I asked. The guy was looking at me with a pleading look. Choppy, light blond hair and cool brown eyes. What the…Why was the most popular guy who hated me, also whom I hated, talking to me, and even asking me to do something for him?

“You must have the wrong person, Jay Evercross.” I went back to reading.

“Please, Avery. I need your help.” Okay, he didn’t have the wrong person.

I closed my book and slipped it into my backpack, standing up. “Why? I hate you, you hate me. Things are better that way.”

Jay was turning red now. “You’re already making this hard enough. Please…”

I sighed, and being the nice person I was, if even to the coldest playboy in my school, I said, “What?”

“I want you to help me make Jennifer jealous.”

“My sister?” I was so shocked. “Are you shitting me?”

“I didn’t know the smarty of the school used curse words.”

“That isn’t going to make me help you.”

“Okay, I’m sorry.” He sighed, running a hand through his already messy gold hair. “I just really like her. But I don’t think she has any reaction to me.”

“My sister?” I knew I was being repetitive. So what? The most popular guy in school was interested in my freaking sister. “You’re right, though. She isn’t interested in cocky boys,” I said to make up for my retardness in my response.

“Yeah, but I know I like her. A lot,” Jay begged.

“How do I know she won’t be another played ex-girlfriend?” I rolled my eyes.

“Because I have pictures of her all over my room.” Jay looked so embarrassed, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“You do, huh?”

“Yes.”

“Fine. I’ll help you. How, though?”

“Pretend to be my girlfriend.”

“You cannot be serious. That’s like the most classic thing ever, and it never works. Either the pretender falls in love with the guy, or the guy gets beat up by a guy who has a crush on the pretender.”

“Well, you’re not gonna fall in love with me, right?” I shook my head. That was a definite no. “And, no offense, but I seriously doubt a guy has a crush on you, seeing as you’re always holed up in the library.”

“You never know. Jennifer’s always holed up in the library. Yet you have a crush on her.” I shrugged.

“Is that a yes?” He stared at me hopefully, looking like a puppy.

I sighed. “Yes.”

“Sweet!” I glared at him.

“But know one thing. If you hurt my little sister like you hurt your previous hook ups, then I will hunt you down and murder you. Also, if your idiot friends try to beat me up again, or diss me, I’m telling them about the pictures on the wall thing.”

He backed away, raising his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay. I get that you’re really protective of your lil sis. I guess I would be too. I swear I won’t hurt her like I hurt my previous hook ups, and my friends won’t beat you up again,” he said, copying my words.

“Good. So how do we start?”

His eyes rolled up to the ceiling, and he looked sheepish. “I don’t know.”

“What? You asked me into this whole thing, and now you say ‘I don’t know’?”

“I’m sorry! I’ve just never done this before, ‘cause I’ve never like someone so much before.” He was blushing again.

“Stop blushing every time you confess you like Jennie. It’s not good, and it’s embarrassing. You’re doing it again,” I said, watching his face heat up while smirking.

“God, this is hard!" he moaned in exasperation.

I snickered. “I’ll just bring you up when I’m talking to Jennie. Then, I’ll see her reaction, and we’ll figure things out from there, ‘kay?”

“Yeah, that’s cool with me.”

“Alright. See you later.” I gathered up my backpack and pens, and made my way outside. The bell had already rung; I’d just been studying in the library before. I thought about Jay’s confessions. I guessed a guy like him could like a girl like Jennie. She was pretty with short brown hair and curious gray eyes. She got good grades, but that didn’t keep her from having a social life. We actually looked pretty much alike, since there was only a year’s difference between us. However, I was more reserved. Sure, I had my friends. But not as many. I didn’t feel jealous; I was glad my little sister could get people to like her so much.

I was so wrapped up in speculations about how well a couple Jennie and Jay would be that I didn’t notice the road in front of me. Suddenly, I was pulled to the side.

“Watch where you go, seriously!” I happened to glance up and notice a gigantic metal pole displaying the scoreboard used in football. It was also right in my path, and I was about to slam into it. Oh. Also, there was a cute boy standing behind me, shaking his head in annoyance.

“I didn’t ask for you to pull me out of the way,” I snapped. I knew this guy. He was Damien Ridgefield, the guy all the girls called “cute and hot at the same time.” He tied with Jay Evercross in looks with his wavy dark brown hair and heartbreaking green eyes. If you thought Jay was a jerk, Damien was an all-out bastard, but everyone loved him for it, mostly because he excelled majorly in basketball and track, and not to mention was a skater. Jay was the captain of the football team and he tried hard in school to keep his place. Like Damien, he also skated in the parks nearby.

See, Jay needed to work to earn his popularity. Damien did not. And that was why I hated him too, but mostly because he was an arrogant asshole. How peachy.

“Okay, well thank you, and I’m gonna go now.”

“Nah, I think I’ll come with you. To make sure you don’t run into any poles again.” I was shocked for the second time today. What was with all the popular people suddenly being civil? But I knew Damien had some ulterior motive, just like Jay when he cornered me in the library. Nobody who had girls swooning over him would follow me voluntarily unless they had something to get out of me.

“Fine.” I started walking out the field gates. My house was only a few blocks away, so I didn’t need a fancy Audi like other rich brats in my school.

“So…I heard Jay Evercross assaulted you today in the library?” His hands were in the pockets of his jeans and his statement would’ve sounded casual, only a bit curious, but I saw the slight grimace. It was common knowledge Jay and Damien hated each other. Our high school was freakin’ Hate Central. I didn’t even know why I was talking to Damien, but I did do it partly because I felt good I wasn’t obeying all of Jay’s preferences.

“Even in the gossip mill here runs fast,” I said, “and it’ll be all over school by tomorrow, I doubt that anyone has heard yet of something that happened five minutes ago. You were probably stalking either Jay or me. Seeing as you're always trying to best Jay at everything and find something about him that'll ruin his rep, it was probably the former.”

“You didn’t answer the question.” Damien's face was impassive. There didn't seem to be any reaction to what I just said.

“I wouldn’t call it assaulting. He just had a question.”

“Of course. Because Jay Evercross goes directly to the most invisible girl in the school whenever he has a question,” Damien said sarcastically.

“I’m not invisible,” I said miserably. “I have my friends.”

“Sure, you have friends. But no one other than them sees you. To others, you’re just another nerd wandering the hallways.”

“Dude, go away. I don’t need you battering down my self-confidence. God,” I muttered, stuffing my hands into my jacket pocket. I was dressed comfortably. My best friend, Erika, always complained about my style.

“What is it with your obsession with t-shirts and jeans, Avery? Let loose! I never see you wearing skinny jeans, tank tops, or shorts. Nothing that shows your curves. I will take you shopping and give you a total makeover someday,” Erika had sworn. Luckily, weeks passed and she didn’t do anything, so I relaxed from the thought that she’d jump on me when I wasn’t looking and coat my face with blush and mascara.

Not that I couldn’t afford it. My parents were loaded, just like everyone else in my flipping school. My mom was a plastic surgeon, and my dad was a CEO. Wasn't that just dandy? Of course they had to ship me off to a city that was as rich as they were.

I was rambling off in my head again. I twisted my attention back to Damien. He was staring at me. Probably waiting for an answer from me.

I tugged a strand of my brown hair until it fell to the ground. The pain in my head died away in a second. That was my habit whenever I was daydreaming or nervous. I was going to end up bald soon. I saw my house.

“Nice talkin’ to ya, but I’ve gotta run. See you!” I waved meekly at Damien, readying myself to sprint to my house. I probably didn’t have a chance. He grabbed my arm and held on tight. Yup, I didn't have a chance. I caught a glimpse of his varsity ring, the gold shining in the sun.

“Nice try, but you’re not going anywhere until you’ve answered the question.” Damien kept his hand on my elbow.

I knew I couldn’t sell Jay out. That would just be cruel, plus his buddies would probably hunt me down and tear me up.

“Nothing. He wanted to ask me a favor.” That was close enough to the truth, and I hoped it would be enough to satisfy Damien’s “raging curiosity”.

“Obviously, I’m not buying the bullshit you’re selling. I’ll be back.” Damien gave me a steady glare and then turned around, slouching off.

Gah. The retard. I entered my house. Jennie was sitting on the couch, her math test on one side of the coffee table and a cell phone on the other.

“Who was that? I heard you talking to someone.” She looked up, but kept a hand on her cell phone.

“Eh, no one. Just Damien, the idiot basketball captain.”

“Oh, him?” Jennie smiled. “He’s cute. And hot, too.”

I groaned. “God, what is with you people?”

“What? Don’t you think he’s attractive too?”

“Sure, why not?” I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t forget that I had a job to do. “Anyways, you know Jay Evercross?”

Jennie kept her eyes on her cell phone. No trace of lovesickness fleeted over her features. Damn. It looked like I’d have to do this whole girlfriend charade thing after all. Hell, Jennie was more interested in Damien than she was in Jay.

“Yeah, what about him?”

“What would you say if he said he liked you?”

“Um…Don’t you hate this guy? Why are you asking my reaction if he liked me?”

“I don’t know. I was just wondering.”

“Ooh, are you interested in him?”

“Maybe,” I said mysteriously, when in reality I was getting pissed at Jennie’s smirk, like she knew everything about her older sister and that she thought she was going to be in a relationship soon.

Yeah, right. A fake one.