The Rebel: A Student Teacher Romance (Haven Grace Prep Book 3), page 1
The Rebel
Kelsey Clayton
Copyright © 2020 by Kelsey Clayton
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Image by Michelle Lancaster
Editing by Librum Artis
To Melissa
My favorite little eggplant.
Thank you for being such an amazing friend.
I love you.
Contents
Warning
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
The Enemy
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Kelsey Clayton
Warning
This book deals with very sensitive topics that may be triggering for some readers. If you’re looking for a sweet, feel-good romance, this may not be for you.
1
TESSA
The pain that pierces through my head is the equivalent of being hit with a truck—not that I know what that feels like, but it sounds comparable. You’d think I would learn by now about drinking to the point where I don’t remember my own damn name. However, that’s clearly not the case. My agonizing hangover is proof of that.
I pull a sweatshirt over my head, hoping it’ll help shield me from the light peeking through the blinds. No luck. The only thing I can think of that might save me from this misery is a steaming hot cup of coffee. Taking a couple of Tylenol from my en suite bathroom, I swallow them down and head for the kitchen.
“I don’t know where she is, to be honest.” My father’s voice echoes out into the hall. Ugh. I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to see him today, or at least not until I got some caffeine in me. “One thing I can tell you, though, is she’s going to have to answer to me as soon as she gets home.”
As I turn the corner, the sight of my dad sitting at the island with my Uncle Dominic catches me off guard. He rarely comes over, let alone at ass o’clock on a Sunday morning. Still, I smile politely and try to hide how gross I feel.
“Good morning,” I tell them.
Both their heads turn to me, and my father seems genuinely surprised.
“I’ll be damned.” He focuses back on my uncle. “Hell must have frozen over if we’ve reached a day where Tessa came home and Delaney is the one who stayed out all night.”
“Delaney didn’t come home?”
Shaking his head, they both stare me down. “You don’t happen to know where she is, do you?”
“No.” Not that I would tell you if I did. “She probably slept over Savannah’s or something.”
Thankfully, my dad lives under a rock. Being too stuck up on his high horse, he has refused to have any kind of conversation with Mrs. Hayworth. If he had, he would know that Sav—Delaney’s best friend—has been living right across the street with Mrs. Hayworth and her son, Savannah’s boyfriend, Grayson. Instead, he’s too absorbed in his own little world to acknowledge anyone else.
“Perhaps. If you talk to her, tell her to get her ass home.” His tone is light but I can sense the threat lingering in his words. “And I better not find out she’s hanging around that scumbag again.”
I roll my eyes, knowing that nothing I say about Knox Vaughn, or anyone from that side of town, will get through to him. Even my own boyfriend isn’t allowed at our house because he doesn’t drive a Porsche and his name doesn’t hold a social standing fit for a king. Although, that doesn’t stop Easton from sneaking in my window late at night. What daddy dearest doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
Uncle Dom clears his throat and stands up. “Well, I came here hoping to take my two favorite nieces out to breakfast, but I can’t exactly do that when one of them is missing.”
“I’m telling Ainsley,” I singsong.
He chuckles. “I bet you will, you little shit.”
My uncle and I have always had a good relationship. He’s the only relative I have that doesn’t treat me like I’m still seven years old and still playing with dolls. It’s something I respect about him. He treats me like the grown-up I’m in the process of becoming.
“Oh well. More food for me.” Plastering a playful smile on my face, I turn to leave the room. “Let me just get dressed and then we can go.”
It only takes a few minutes for me to change my clothes and throw my hair up into a messy bun. Some girls might cringe at the thought of leaving the house without looking like they just left a photo shoot, but I’ve never been like that. Sure, I like to get dolled up occasionally. Who doesn’t? I just don’t feel like I need to put on makeup in order to be seen in public.
By the time I get back downstairs, Uncle Dom is waiting by the front door, exchanging hushed words with my dad. As soon as they see me, the conversation dies immediately, and they brush it off like they aren’t hiding anything. Typical.
“Ready to go?” my uncle asks, and I nod.
Just as I’m about to walk out the door, my father calls my name. “If you hear from your sister, tell her I want her home, pronto. I mean it, Tess.”
I don’t justify that with an answer. Delaney, my twin sister and literal other half, has been my best friend since birth. Meanwhile, my father has basically made it his mission to ruin my life. There isn’t any possible situation where I would take his side over hers. If I manage to get in touch with her, the only thing I’ll be doing is giving her the heads-up to stay away until he doesn’t have a stick up his ass.
“So, where are we going?”
Uncle Dom buckles his seatbelt and pulls out onto the road. “To a place called The Underground.”
My brows furrow. “The Underground? That doesn’t sound like a restaurant.”
“Nothing gets by you, does it?”
A heavy feeling settles in the pit of my stomach. Something isn’t right. I don’t know what kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde shit he’s pulling, but my uncle went from the loving man I’ve known all my life to someone completely different in a matter of seconds.
“You know, I’m actually not feeling so hot. Maybe we can do breakfast some other time.”
He laughs, with the look on his face displaying how sinister he really is. “Silly girl. We’re not going to breakfast. Your sister and her boyfriend are hiding from me, and I bet you’re just the thing I need to lure them out.”
Panic sets in and I go to open the door, but it’s safety locked. “Let me out of the car.”
“Not going to happen, darling.”
I turn, kicking at the window to try and break it. Yet still, it doesn’t budge. It was like this car was made to withstand some sort of onslaught.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
My head whips around to face him, and I narrow my eyes to slits. “Fuck you.”
Again, he lets out a humored laugh. “Suit yourself.”
He turns his focus to the rearview mirror and nods subtly. I don’t get a chance to see what he’s looking at, however, before two arms come from behind and firmly hold a cloth over my mouth. It only takes a few seconds until everything goes black.
I gasp for air as I wake from my terrifying dream. The familiarity of my room does very little to calm me down. All the events replay in my head like a horror movie I can’t seem to escape from. None of it may be happening right now, but the scars are very real.
Knowing the last thing I want to do is be alone right now, I get up and head across the hall, quietly slipping into my sister’s room. As soon as I’m next to the bed, Delaney scoots over and pulls back the covers for me.
“Another nightmare?” she questions tiredly.
I sigh and cuddle up next to her. “Yeah.”
The best part about having a twin sister is how connected we are. She doesn’t say anything else, simply because she understands I don’t want to talk about it. That day is something she and I have both tried to leave as far in the past as possible, but as the age old saying goes: some things are easier said than done.
I WAKE IN THE morning to the sound of my sister quietly moving around her room. She takes stacks of clothes from her drawers and places them into her suitcase, reminding me she’s leaving tomorrow. The irony that I should be doing the same isn’t lost on me. Unfortunately, I made some idiotic choices last year and now I’m required to repeat half of my senior year. I guess that’s karma’s doing, and man is she a bitch.
“Can’t you take me with you? Hide me in your
She chuckles, walking to the side of the bed to sit beside me. “You know I would if I could.”
The two of us learned early in life to rely on each other. When our parents would argue. When our sister tried bossing us around and then lied to get us in trouble when we didn’t let her. When our best friend showed up at school after vanishing for years, only to act like she had no idea who we were. It’s always been her and me—the one constant thing I knew I could count on.
“What am I going to do without you?” I murmur sadly.
“The same thing you always do—make dad want to rip his hair out and laugh as you do it.”
I laugh, partly because it makes me sound like a maniac and partly because it’s true. It’s no secret that I’m the menace of the family. Delaney and our older sister Ainsley have always been the ones destined for greatness, but me? I’ve made it a game to see how many times I can get on my father’s shit list. I know they say to love your family and all that nonsense, but whoever said that never had a dad like mine.
My phone vibrates on the nightstand, and my heart sinks when I see the name. Easton—my boyfriend, at least for now, anyway. In a few days, he’ll be leaving for college like everyone else, and I’ll be stuck here. We’ve both been avoiding the inevitable conversation, but it looks like time has run out. I take the device into my hand and swipe it open, seeing exactly what I thought I would.
Easton: We need to talk.
We need to talk. Four words every girl loves to hear. Lucky for me, I’ve always looked at this relationship exactly for what it is—something to pass the time. Don’t get me wrong, Easton has helped me through a lot, but it would be naive of me to think we have any chance of making long distance work. I’m better than letting some high school fling turn into me being cheated on for months.
Tessa: The lake. One hour.
Delaney watches as I drop my phone into my lap and run my hands over my face. The comforting touch she places on my back tells me she’s here if I need her, but this is something I have to do on my own. Besides, as of tomorrow, I won’t have my sister to lean on for emotional support anymore. Sink or swim, bitch.
“Are we still on for the club tonight?” I ask, getting up from the bed.
“Yeah. I think Sav said she wants to leave around nine.”
I nod and head toward the door, only to be stopped.
“Tess?” Laney calls, causing me to glance back at her. “I love you.”
A small grin spreads across my face. “I love you, too.”
With that, I go to get ready for my unavoidable breakup.
AS SOON AS I pull into the parking lot, Easton can hear me coming. That’s the thing about having a jet-black Lamborghini Aventador—it’s a bit noticeable. As much as I love this car, it was a birthday present from my parents. Sometimes, that makes it feel more like a ball and chain than a luxury.
“You look good,” he tells me as soon as I climb out of the car.
I smirk. “Don’t I always?”
The tension between us is so thick I could choke on it. It’s like we both know exactly where this is heading but neither of us want to be the one to say it. I run my fingers through my long brown hair and look him up and down. There are a lot of things that attracted me to Easton in the first place, the main being his tendency to not give a single fuck about authority. His brunette locks are brushed away from his face, and his matching brown eyes are an aching reminder of all the time I spent staring into them. I walk around to the front and sit on the hood of my car.
“So, when do you leave?”
He looks down at the ground and lightly kicks a rock. “The day after tomorrow.”
I press my lips into a thin line, nodding. “That’s cool.”
The two of us don’t say a word as we look out at the water and hope for something to offset the awkwardness. If I’m being honest, the silence is excruciating. I take a deep breath. Since he clearly doesn’t have the balls to do it, I’m going to have to.
“So, it was fun, right?”
His brows furrow. “What?”
“This.” I gesture between the two of us. “We had a good time while it lasted.”
As soon as he realizes what I’m saying, he exhales. “We’re breaking up.”
“Easton, don’t act like you didn’t see it coming. You and I both knew what this was.” I hop off the car and wrap my arms around him. “No hard feelings.”
He kisses the top of my head, releasing me as soon as I move to back away and walk to the driver’s side.
“Are you ever going to settle down?” he calls out. “Let someone make an honest woman out of you?”
The question almost catches me by surprise. Almost. I bite my lip to suppress my grin. “What’s the fun in that?”
I can hear him chuckle as I get in and shut the door. The engine roars to life before I back out of the space. With one last soft smile at Easton, I drive out of there, never looking back. It isn’t that I don’t care about him. He helped me get through some pretty rough times. But I’ve made it a rule not to let anyone get close enough to hurt me. It’s the best way I know to stay unbroken. The single tear that slides down my cheek is the only one I’ll allow myself to shed.
THE CLUB IS PULSING with energy as the music vibrates through the walls and the floor. I slide my fake ID back into my wallet and wait for my sister and friends to do the same. Knox, Delaney’s troublemaker boyfriend, wraps his arms around her from behind, making her smile. The two of them were the most unexpected couple, being as my sister was practically a nun before she met him, but they work in the best possible way.
“All right, bitches,” Grayson says in his best valley-girl voice. “Someone come with me to get a beer. I’m ready to get shwastey.”
We all laugh as Knox smacks him in the stomach. “Remind me again why I’m friends with you?”
Gray falls into Knox’s arms. “Because I’m your soulmate and you love me.”
“Aye, watch it.” Delaney levels him with a single look.
He stands up and raises his hands in surrender. “Uh-oh. Looks like I made your little Bambi mad.”
Savannah rolls her eyes. “You’re not even drunk yet, and I’m already wanting to take your ass home.”
“Ooh,” he coos, bouncing his eyebrows. “For some hanky panky?”
As Grayson goes in to kiss Sav, she stops him with her hand on his forehead. “Call it hanky panky one more time.”
Knox chuckles and grabs Gray by the arm. “All right, let’s get you that drink before you make Savannah realize how much better she is than you.”
As they walk away, Delaney and Savannah watch them, looking so loved up it almost makes me sick. I’m happy for them, of course, but I just don’t understand how you could feel that much for someone. To let them in like that—giving them the ability to destroy you at the snap of their fingers—it just doesn’t seem worth it to me.
“Is he drunk already?” Lennon questions.
Sav shakes her head. “Nope, high. Knox thought it would be hilarious to convince Gray to smoke a blunt with him before we left.”
“I mean,” Delaney tilts her head side to side, “it is pretty entertaining.”
“No,” I interject. “Entertaining is the fact that you got Knox to agree to follow you across the country.”
Her eyes widen and she looks around quickly. “Shh, not so loud! He’s like a scared animal. One wrong move and he’ll run for the hills.”
I don’t know what’s more amusing—the fact that she referred to the guy who literally took a bullet for her as a scared animal or that she honestly believes he would allow her to move thousands of miles away without him by her side. I personally witnessed the change in Knox as he fell in love with my sister, and there isn’t a damn thing in this world that could keep him from her.
