The Bad Boy Is My Best Friend

Asteria Goldburn realized her uniform didn’t fit when she couldn’t pull the zipper all the way up the morning of the first day of senior year. She stood in front of her full-length mirror, finger hooked around the stubborn metal tab at the back of her skirt, willing it to climb up and stay up so that she wouldn’t be any later than she was for school. Eventually, after a couple more minutes of twisting around and on the verge of bursting into tears, she was finally able to get the zip to stay where it belonged. That however, didn’t solve all of her problems. Every year, Blackwell Academy sent out measurement forms before the summer so that students could get new uniforms for the upcoming school year. And every year, Asteria had filled them out without much thought. She had mostly stayed the same size for as long as she could remember so it had all been a matter of copy-and-pasting her measurements. Except this summer, apparently, her body had finally decided to catch up. Puberty ha

Asteria looked down to deliver the news, only to find that Damian was already fast asleep. She couldn’t find it in herself to be properly surprised. His breathing had deepened into the slow, even rhythm of someone who hadn’t slept properly in days. Jet lag, the hangover, and whatever other chaos he’d stirred up in England had finally caught up with him. Evidently, he needed all the sleep he could get. But while it was a good thing for him that he was asleep, it made things a bit more difficult for her. Damian was a heavy sleeper in every sense of the phrase. Waking him up was always a nightmare, and she’d always found it much easier to just let him sleep. And he was also incredibly heavy. She was stuck right there until he decided to wake up. There was also the matter of what she had to say to him. It had been with her for the most of the summer, and it wasn’t the kind of information she wanted to deliver via phone call or text. It needed to be in person. The only problem was th

The first week of school had dragged on with the usual mix of classes, dramatic reunions, and Asteria’s growing anxiety about the secret she still hadn’t told Damian. The issue was that she barely got any alone time with him since school started. As a star player of the school’s football team and Blackwell Academy’s most eligible bachelor, Damian was rarely ever alone. It wasn’t the kind of conversation she wanted to have with other people around. And whenever he was, it wasn’t the time for that kind of conversation. By the time Friday rolled around, word had spread about a party being held to celebrate the end of the first week of school. Granted, it wasn’t something significant that was worth celebrating but they were teenagers, and they would take any chance they got to throw and/or attend a party. The party was going to be held at Christopher Neil’s house. Chris was the wide receiver for the Wolves, Blackwell Academy’s football team. And he was a pretty decent player until a sk