Kayla is a smart, focused, top-mark student in her last two senior years of high school in a private facility for rich kids in Florida. All she wants is to get accepted to Harvard and graduate with top marks to follow the career she has set for herself. Her entire life is about becoming an independent and successful vet. She has micro-managed it and planned it to the tiniest detail. Leaving no room for a social life or living her teen years like her peers.

This year has had its ups and downs, with her stepbrother of almost ten years coming to live under the same roof after being raised apart after their parents married. The chaos and drama his appearance has brought, since he despises not only his father but Kayla's mother too, has made home tense. He's a rude, defiant, and arrogant pain in her ass who is hellbent on causing trouble and listens to no one.  

Dane is the polar opposite in every way - Vain, oversexed, a playboy who takes nothing seriously except booze, girls, and his motorbike while he rebels in every way against his father for ripping apart his family. Looking like a teen idol, acting like someone who doesn't need to take accountability for anything in his life, Kayla honestly cannot stand him. She sees a loser who will live on daddy's money and drink away his youth while sleeping with every girl in the county.

At 17, they have known one another most of their lives and never had any kind of friendly relationship. They have always been classmates but never friends and definitely not siblings. - but all that is about to change. 

A series of events pulls them closer, a forbidden and unexpected accidental kiss, and they plummet into confusion as feelings grow that neither expected. Slowly the walls come down between them, and they have far more in common than they ever imagined.

TEEN DRAMA

　　“I hope Dane made her cry… I would feel less shitty if he did.” I point out with a petty pout, knowing I’m being mean, but I can’t help it. He made me cry yesterday more than once for a stupidly long time. Admittedly the end result was my doing after he apologized, but it comes down to the same thing. Dane being the center of it. It’s easier to be mad at him than submit to feeling hopeless and hurt.


　　“Are you going to go see your dad for the holiday?” Elisa changes the subject, seemingly knowing we have nothing else to say about the Dane situation and sensing it’s not wise to stick to it. I feel calmer about it, even if seeing him will be another story entirely, but it doesn't mean it’s not a sore subject.


　　“Hmmm.” I avoid a straight answer, pick at my cold Taco, and push it around on my plate. Instant evasiveness and another sinking pit in my gut to remind me how shitty men are.


CHAPTER 55