“…I’m the only one who gets to treat you like that, Pearce. You are mine, and I do not take too kindly to those who want to share in what’s mine…” ****************************************************************** Anthony Pearce and Blake Lindell have been locked in a feud for as long as they can remember. The spark that ignited their rivalry? Well, that depends on which side of the clay you ask. You’d think their parents’ constant meddling or the time they spend together on the basketball court would help smooth things over, but nope—this relationship remains stubbornly unshaped. Everything changes, though, when Blake is forced to ditch the court and take up pottery—Anthony’s territory, where he’s the undisputed “King of Clay.” Now, tasked with the mission of getting Blake up to speed before graduation, Anthony has to spend even more time in close quarters with his rival. Will they be able to sculpt their fractured friendship back into a masterpiece, or is their bond too cracked and brittle to repair? And when a buried secret surfaces about the rumor that shattered Anthony’s ninth-grade year, will it soften their hardened hearts or leave them shattered beyond the kiln’s fix? One thing’s for sure—things are about to get messy.
View MoreBLAKE'S POV
“I should take what class?” I asked Mrs. Sanders, my guidance counselor, in shock. Her hand was outstretched and in it was my new class schedule.
“Pottery class, Blake. It’ll be good for you.”
I stared at her in disbelief, waiting for her to laugh and tell me she was just joking and that I’ll take Home-Ec or something. She did not.
“You don’t have that many options, Blake.”
“What about AP English?” I asked dumbly.
“First of all, pass regular English first before thinking of getting into a more challenging class. Secondly, even if you are doing well in English, which you aren’t, the AP classes are already full.”
“What about Phys-Ed? It’s an elective. I didn’t do it before, I can take that instead. You can’t tell me that it’s full,” I quickly added. She sighed and leaned in, taking on a serious tone.
“I have decided that the best option for you now is pottery class. You need an elective to compensate for the gap caused by your…termination from the basketball team.”
I had almost forgotten that I was kicked off the team. I just told myself that the only reason I was being given a new class schedule is because Mrs. Sanders thought it would be a good idea to have my classes rearranged. Hearing her say it out loud brought me back to reality and caused a heavy cloud of rage to settle over me.
That damn bastard Anthony Pearce! He was the reason I was in that mess to begin with. If he hadn’t been such a son of a bitch, I wouldn’t have done what I did and gotten kicked off the team. And now, here was Mrs. Sanders sending me right back to him without a second thought. I wondered what the hell she was thinking.
“You do know I got kicked off because of the incident with Pearce, right? And you do know that he’s in the pottery class, right?” I asked just to make sure she knew what she was doing. She settled back in her chair and sighed again, running her hand through her hair but managing to not mess it up.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea for you to be close to Anthony. Maybe you can resolve your animosity with one another.” I gave a derisive laugh. The thought of resolving anything between Anthony and I was comic and downright impossible.
“I was on the basketball team with him for four years. We’ve been in the same class for almost ten. If being in proximity with him could fix our animosity, I wouldn’t have to be taking a class for eight-year-olds.” My tone was harsher than I intended, but she had to understand just how messed up her logic was.
“Take your class schedule and try to make the most of it,” she said with finality. Sighing in defeat, I snatched the piece of paper from her and stormed out of her office. Just as I got to the hallway, I came face to face with Anthony Pearce. He had a smug smile on his face as he saw the class schedule in my hand.
“You want a Glasgow smile, Pearce? It’ll save you the stress from having to move your facial muscles all the time.”
“Ah, you’re snippy. It’s a good thing you’re taking pottery. It’ll help with the overall tension and anger issues. You’ll need to get your emotions in check especially on days when I’ll be playing basketball with the rest of the team and you’ll be forced to sit on the bleachers and watch.” I felt the onset of my rage and I squeezed my fists in an act to control myself. My schedule crumpled with the pressure of my fingers on it.
“You want another slingshot over your neck, Pearce?” I asked, gritting my teeth. He stared at the cast on his right arm and frowned, but his frown quickly disappeared and is replaced with a sinister grin.
“I promise you, Lindell, the next time we fight you’ll be the one in a freaking sling.” He walked away after that and I smiled to myself. Not my finest moment and most definitely not something to be bragging about to people other than my friends, but I was happy that I managed to break a couple of his bones. It did seem like a good reason to be kicked off the team.
The first class I had for the day went by slowly. Safe to say that I was extremely happy that I didn’t get to be in AP English. If regular English was like hell, I wondered what that would feel like. When I got to my locker after class, I saw my friends, Dante and Luke, already gathered there.
“I was just telling Luke about the hottie in freshman year.” I opened my locker and made a disgruntled sound at the back of my throat.
“Pedophile much, Dante?” I asked while shoving my English textbook in and taking out History.
“I don’t turn eighteen until next month. It’s totally within the scope of the law.” He was grinning like a fool and I couldn’t help but smile. We started walking towards the next class that we had together.
“I’m telling you this girl is hot. Like she-pushed-Susan-off-the-hotness-chart hot.”
“Oh yeah? Does she have big boobs? Is that what makes her so hot?” Everyone knew that Dante’s description of a hot girl was one whose breasts were like soccer balls. Luke snickered and patted Dante’s shoulders.
We had just gotten around the corner leading to class when Dante stopped us eagerly.
“There! There she is. What the hell is she doing with Anthony Pearce?” The disappointment in his tone could not be missed. I looked over at where he pointed and spotted Anthony with truly the most beautiful girl I had ever laid eyes on. Dante wasn’t just talking about her breasts.
She and Anthony seemed to have been having an amusing conversation because she threw her head backward and laughed. The sound echoed through the halls and I relished in how wonderful it sounded. When he touched her hair in some kind of flirty way with his good hand, I frowned.
“What the hell?” I heard Luke say. “Isn’t Anthony like, gay? Why the hell is he flirting with that pretty freshman?”
I peered closely at them then and realized that she looked oddly familiar. A smile crept up my face when I recognized her, just as she leaned in and hugged Anthony.
The bell went off as Dante started moaning about how she had terrible taste in guys for being with a ‘geek’ like Anthony.
“I’m skipping History today guys. See you later.” I bobbed and weaved through the emerging crowd of students and managed to get to the Clay Room as it was so commonly called. Just as I suspected, Anthony was there, setting down his bag by the pottery wheel.
“I see you’ve transitioned from being gay to engaging in incest.” Anthony spun around so fast at the sound of my voice, he almost lost his balance. I felt like messing with him today; it seemed fitting since he was the reason my dream of dominating the basketball team during my last year in high school was now impossible.
“Don’t be disgusting, Lindell. Not everyone’s like you, you know.”
I frowned at his jibe. He was referring to the time I accidently kissed my cousin back in ninth grade. Let’s just say a dark room mixed with a concussion didn’t go well together.
“I got to say, Crystal does look hot this year. It looks like that summer holiday she took to Florida with her friends really paid off.” I smiled suggestively which made his entire being shake with rage. Taking swift angry strides towards me, he stopped a couple inches away from me, his neck craned upwards to get a better look in my eyes.
“Talk about my sister like that again and I’ll beat the shit out of you.” I almost laughed at how it sounded. For one, he couldn’t even wipe his butt properly with that broken hand.
I took a step forward, looked down at him and peered into his blue eyes, my smile never leaving my face. Without missing a beat, I grabbed his right shoulder and pressed down on it really hard, eliciting a pained cry from him.
“No, you wouldn’t,” I said and laughed. His breathing became raged but he didn’t make a move to attack.
“And I can talk about Crystal however way I want. She’s hot and I like hot girls.” I could only imagine the negative energy that was welling up within him. To be in a state of utter uselessness must have been frustrating for him. I, however, was enjoying it.
“If I remember correctly, which I do, she has a thing for me, right? God, it would be so great if she comes to my party this Friday. You’re not invited by the way.”
I saw his left arm muscle flex and his fist crumpled up in fury. His lips were pursed and his eyes were a darker shade of blue. It was just a matter of time before he exploded and I got to punch him again. I didn’t want to be the one to start the fight again. If he did it, I could just claim self-defense.“We will so have a good time then. I believe she’s a virgin, right Pearce?” That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
In one sweeping movement, Anthony was directly in front of me. But the strides he took were too long and he realized too late that he was extremely too close to make any move. Before either of us could stop our collision, Anthony rammed straight into me, sending us both to the floor. The impact was intense and instead of his fist to collide with my lips as was the original plan, his lips did.
I froze, not knowing how to react to it. His lips were weirdly soft and my heart was in overdrive. Realizing that he wasn’t making a move to stand up, I pushed him away from me, getting up with lightning speed. When he stood up too, I saw that his face was beet red and his eyes were diverting everywhere but me.
Before I could say anything, I heard a loud bang from behind me. Turning around, I saw Anderson, Anthony’s best friend, staring at the both of us with his eyes and mouth wide opened. The silence in the room was deafening and the tension was as thick as a bar of soap.
I opened my mouth to speak, to deny whatever thoughts he had conjured up but closed it back, my blood running cold the moment my eyes came in contact with it.
Resting in-between his hands was his video camera, the red light on indicating that it was recording something. With the kind of luck I had, I figured he caught us on video too.
Shit!
ANTHONY’S POVI woke up to the sound of a very loud bang.Startled, I sat up straight, my heart pounding like it wanted out of my rib cage. It took me a while to register what was going on but when I finally did, I couldn’t stop the grin that spread across my face like a virus.Blake was holding up a popper with his arms spread out, his hair a giant nest, messier than anything I’ve ever seen it be before. His smile was just as wide as mine and his tired eyes crinkled with so much joy as he looked at me.The room was decorated with purple and white streamers, balloons and confetti. A couple of my photos were hung from the ceiling using a thin streamer like string.“What’s all this?” I asked. “How did you manage to do all this??”“It’s boyfriend magic,” was his reply before he almost stopped my heart by winking at me and blowing me a kiss. Hearing Blake refer to himself as my boyfriend made me a certain kind of happy that I’ve never been before till then. I looked away from him, bl
ANTHONY’S POV“This is what? My third hoodie?” Blake asked, pointing at the gigantic white hoodie with BL boldly written in black letters across it. “I am taking notes of all my hoodies you’re with. You are going to pay for them one way or the other.”“Can I pay in kind?” I asked flirtatiously while taking an obvious glance at his lips. His eyes darkened and he bit his bottom lip.“I mean...that doesn’t sound like such a terrible idea.”We shared a kiss then, but I broke it off to quickly put on his hoodie so he wouldn’t see how turned on I was by it.We were in the bedroom that he usually stayed in while on holiday with his grandparents. He had taken out two pairs of sweatpants and two different coloured hoodies from his little collection of clothes in his wardrobe, and asides the oversized cardigan my mom got him two years ago, he didn’t have any other clothes in there.“Blake, sweetie...”“Oh, I like that,” Blake said and gave me a quick kiss on my lips. “Call me that again.”He l
BLAKE’S POVTony’s eyes were rounded like saucers and he looked so goddamn adorable in that moment, I couldn’t think straight. I never knew a day would come when I’d want another guy as much as I wanted him.“You...want to take a shower with me?” His voice was low, almost inaudible and squeaky.“Yeah. Don't you wanna take one with me?” He looked a little frightened but I want to believe it was a good kind of frightened.“You want us...to be naked together?” The expression on his face was priceless. It was so red from embarrassment I almost felt bad for him. I could tell how much he was struggling from the way he tried not to let it show that he was indeed embarrassed by the idea of the two of us being naked and wet together. God, I loved him so much.“I believe that’s how showers work, Tony,” I responded, not even bothering to conceal my amusement. He pouted and then hid his face behind his palms. “Don't make fun of me, Blake.”I proceeded to drop multiple kisses on the back of his ha
ANTHONY’S POV“Where the hell are we going to sleep tonight?” I asked Blake. We were in his mother’s car now, chased back in from how cold outside was. We didn’t carry coats or anything that could keep us remotely warm. I had never been this cold in my entire life.Blake turned to look at the back seat. “Looks pretty comfortable to me.”“Blake...” I started in a warning tone. I liked the car, but there was no way I was going to sleep in it. He smiled, a goofy grin and ruffled my hair.“I’m kidding. My grandparent’s cabin is a couple minutes away from here. Luckily for us, I am their favourite grandchild and so they told me the password to it.”He put the car in gear and a couple seconds later we were leaving the beach and on our merry way to his grandparents’ cabin.It was rare for me to feel as happy as I did then and I was scared to let myself feel that happy because I kept having this feeling that it would all be taken away from me. The last time I felt like this – this happy and f
BLAKE’S POV I kept driving, not knowing exactly where I was headed, but knowing I was going to take Tony away from everything and everyone that could possibly hurt him. He was sitting so still and so quiet and his face was turned towards the window so he was staring out at the blackness surrounding us through the tinted glass. I wanted to reach out to him, to hold him and assure him that I was on his side and that I didn’t hate him or think any less of him, but I couldn’t. Once again, I was consumed by fear, fear of how he would receive me; whether he would feel pleased enough to take my hand in his without beating himself up so much for whatever happened and what Crystal said to him. Fear of what it would mean for me to take his hand in this situation. We drove on in silence for a long time. About forty minutes later, I pulled up to the snow-covered beach and parked my car there. I really felt the silence then and it burned my heart. “Tony,” I called softly. He stiffened but didn’
ANTHONY’S POVI don't know whose car I used but I found myself pulling up my drive way as if I had teleported there. I couldn’t remember how I got in the car and drove all the home but I did.My mind was completely blank, but at the same time it was filled with spiralling thoughts.My letter was found.Everyone knew I was in love with Blake, my little sister’s boyfriend.Blake knew I loved him even before we became friends again.Who the hell found my letter and taped it back together?Did that person know any more secrets of mine?“Tony!” The sharp, reproachful tone of my mother brought me back to reality that I so badly wanted no part of. I had somehow managed to get out of the car and walk up the little path that led to the front door.“Oh my God, Tony, what happened to you?” Her tone switched from reproachful to caring and worried in the blink of an eye. I had no idea how I looked, but I was sure it was not good since she was looking at me like a precious dragon egg that had crack
BLAKE’S POVThe moment I stepped into Crane Hall with my midnight blue tuxedo looking like the most handsome man on earth, while heads turned and whispers followed, I knew I had made the biggest royal fuck-up of the century!It occurred to me while Claire was yelling at the sales girl yesterday who didn’t get my pants size right that I was forgetting something. It was only now, after I had popped a gum ball in my mouth, kissed the daylights out of Anthony right before Claire, Dante and Luke arrived and ridden in the limo my friends rented that I remembered what it was: I had a girlfriend and she was not aware that I was going to show up tonight.“Oh my God! Babe!”Months earlier, I would have loved this greeting. It would have upset me greatly if she hadn’t approached me like this and kissed me so passionately that I forgot we were in the presence of others. I would have most especially loved it if she had done it in front of Tony just to piss him off even more. Now, I couldn’t wait f
ANTHONY’S POVIf my heart had the ability to detach itself from my veins and arteries and pop right out of my rib cage, I’m sure it would have done so by now from how hard and fast it was beating.As Claire and I raced towards the Lindells garage, the only structure in their once glorious mansion that seemed to be still intact, I couldn’t help but smile so much and be so pleased with myself – and of course Anderson – for coming up with such a brilliant idea!“Blaakkkeeee!!!” Claire sang as she banged on the garage door. I wanted to tell her to quiet down but then remembered my parents weren’t home, so I joined her in her madness. He opened up a few seconds later, looking at the both of us with wide eyes and a startled expression.“Okay, Claire I understand cause she’s crazy, but you? Wanna alert my parents all the way in Sterling Hotel that I’m not suffering and dying alone in solitude like they wanted?”We ignored him and pushed passed him into the cozy garage. His garage bedroom was
BLAKE’S POV“Hey.”Words could not express how happy I was to see him.The garage door closed softly behind him and I was hugging him in record time, enjoying the warmth his cold body brought me.Right after I hospitalized Gary, the school called my parents. My father had to return back to the country while my mother, contrary to how I thought she would react to my behaviour, ended up fussing over me. Gary’s father was highly infuriated by my actions and he wanted to send me to jail, but then my mother called my grandfather, who was by all right more powerful and influential than the mayor, so I was suspended from school, banned from the dance and was under house arrest by my father who came to that agreement with Kieran Mitchel, Gary’s father.That was three days ago. Three days without talking to anyone or seeing anyone because my phone, laptop, tablet and game system were confiscated. Three days without being able to peep through my window to look at Anthony because my bedroom was
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