Paradox (Unearthly Paradox) (3 page)

“Shit.” I turned around and got back in my car. I had no idea where any other doctors were, and I knew without a doubt that my father would be checking to make sure I had gone to school that day.

I drove back to school, the whole way trying to think of a way to get out of the rest of my classes. By the time I arrived, I’d come up empty.

No students were outside, which meant the bell had already rung. I pulled out my schedule—P.E.
Great.
And I wasn’t even dressed for it.

When I got to the gym, there was no one there. I turned to leave and came face to face with the most gorgeous guy I’d ever seen. He was at least one and a half feet taller than me with dark-brown hair, a golden tan, and a body to die for. He was wearing board shorts and a T-shirt, both of which left very little to the imagination.

Actually, my imagination was going crazy, but that wasn’t what sucked the air from my lungs. He was my black-eyed boy—only his eyes were brown. He said something, but I was too transfixed with his eyes to hear anything that came out of his mouth.

His lips curled up at the edges. “You didn’t hear a word I just said, did you?”

I shook my thoughts away, trying desperately to concentrate on what he was saying. “Um… you scared the shit out of me.” It came out as more of a question than an accusation.

He looked at me as if I’d been smoking something. “You’re new here, right?”

I nodded, attempting to pull myself together. “Um, yeah. I just started here this week.”

He leaned against the brick wall next to the door. “Well, if you’re looking for your class, they’re already down at the beach.” When I frowned, he added, “They do beach sports on Thursdays.”

“Great.” I looked at my watch. I was already ten minutes late. “What beach?”

“Broadbeach.” He pushed off the wall. “I’ll take you there if you’d like.”

I stepped back. “No.”

He narrowed his eyes at me, and I was sure they turned black for a moment. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Without thinking it through, I took a couple of steps closer to get a better look at his eyes. “You were there, weren’t you?”

Stepping back, he said, “I’ll see you around,” then turned and walked away, leaving me standing there, looking like the crazy person I was sure I was becoming.

When I found the beach where my class was, I laughed at what they were doing—or rather, not doing. I’d never heard of a school that had beach strolling as a sport, but the Gold Coast Grammar sure as hell did. Then I realized only some students were walking the beach. The others were out on their boards, riding the waves. I had to admire them, but I didn’t think I’d ever join them.

The teacher smiled when he saw me and came over. “As you can see, I’m pretty relaxed about what you can do out here. Do you surf?”

I laughed. “No. I’m definitely not a surfer.”

“Right.” He looked away, probably trying to keep an eye on the students. “Well, then go for a walk or something. Just be back here in an hour.” He trudged back to the shoreline, where he yelled at some boys on their boards to keep out of the flagged area.

I turned to my right and saw one of the girls who’d tried to steamroll me in the classroom, so I headed the other way. When I reached the rocks, I sat down and stared out at the sea. My house wasn’t that far away, and I wished I could run home, leaving behind all the psychotic people I’d met since arriving at the Coast. I’d never heard of such a huge group of people being so mean, especially when I hadn’t given anyone a reason to hate me.

“Hi.” The soft voice came from behind me.

I turned around to find a pretty, blond-haired, small-framed girl standing on the rock above me. “Hi.”

“Mind if I join you?” she asked timidly.

Thinking of how horrible every person I’d met since moving to the Coast had been, I thought about telling her to fuck off, but something about her made me think twice. She looked broken. And I didn’t mean in the sense of some batshit crazy chick that needed to be in a mental institute. The look in her eyes almost mirrored my own feelings. “Sure,” I finally said.

She stepped down on the rock next to me then jumped onto the sand and sat. “I’m Lilly.”

“Zara.”

“Zara,” she said under her breath.

I expected her to say something else, but she remained silent. Wasn’t it her job to ask the new girl questions, not the other way around? I was about to ask her how long she’d been at the school when two of the girls who had set me up to be raped climbed down the rocks about twenty metres away from us. They didn’t look in our direction, but I wasn’t as relieved by that as I thought I should be. Something had changed inside me. I wasn’t afraid of them, but I didn’t know why. I looked at Lilly. Her face had gone white as… well, a lily. I bit my lip to keep from laughing at my stupid analogy. Her eyes were fixed on the girls, and I realised that was how I should’ve been as well. But I wasn’t. And for some reason, she was.

“How long have you been at this school?” I asked.

She looked back at me, her face still pale. “Um… six months, I think.”

I cocked my head toward Emily and Amy. “Who are they?”

She looked down at her bare feet digging their way into the sand. “Someone you don’t want to know.”

I wanted to ask her what made her so afraid of the girls, but if what I thought was the reason was indeed the reason, I didn’t think it was something she would divulge to a complete stranger. I opted for another approach. “So they’re the bitches, eh?”

“Something like that.” Lilly tried to put on a smile, but it wouldn’t have fooled anyone, especially not me. She put her hands on her knees, probably trying to stop them from shaking. “So when did you start here?”

“This is my first week. And I’m from Sydney, in case you were wondering.”

She nodded then looked back down the beach at the two girls that she so clearly feared.

The teacher blew his whistle. “Okay, everyone, time to head back to school.”

Lilly stood. “Time to go.”

When we got up to the road, I expected a bus or something, but no, everyone had to walk back. I thought about leaving Lilly to walk with the others so I didn’t have to worry about an uncomfortable silent trip back to school, but the fear in her eyes made me pause. God, what was wrong with me? When did I become such a bitch? I knew the answer to that question, but I refused to let the incident—
incident?
—change the person I was.

I grabbed her arm, and she flinched ever so slightly. “Want to ride with me?”

“You’ve got your own car?” she asked in surprise.

“Ahh, yeah.” I led her away from the group. I couldn’t be bothered with telling the teacher, and he clearly wouldn’t notice us missing anyway. “Why are you so surprised?”

“It’s just… not many people around here drive cars yet.”

“Yeah, I did notice that.”

When we got to my car, I stopped but Lilly continued on.

“We’re here,” I said.

She turned around, and the second she saw my car, her eyes practically bulged out of their sockets. “This is yours?”

“Yep. And your reaction is the reason why I didn’t want to drive it to school.” I used the remote to unlock the doors.

“I can’t believe this is your car,” she said with a gleam in her eye.

She jumped into the passenger seat. I guessed she was a car lover.

I got in. “It’s my father’s pity money. Actually, that’s a lie. My father doesn’t pity anyone. He just wants to make sure I keep up appearances.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Like that, is it?”

I let out a strained laugh. “You have no idea.”

As I started to reverse out of the parking space, I glanced out the passenger-side window. Someone stood about fifty metres away. My heart raced. My black-eyed boy was leaning against a motorbike, watching me. I slammed on the brakes.

“Hey,” Lilly said, lurching forward against her seatbelt. She followed my gaze. “Ahh, you’re one of
those
girls.”

“You know him?”

She laughed, finally starting to loosen up. “Everyone knows Jett. Or at least, everyone knows
of
him, and countless girls wish they knew him.”

I looked back at him. His gaze was still steady on me, just like the day at the canal. “He goes to our school, right?”

She shook her head. “Not anymore. I think he graduated last year… or maybe it was the year before.”

“But I just saw him at school,” I murmured.

She pulled her eyebrows together in confusion. “I don’t know why he would be there. Maybe it was someone else you saw.”

“Maybe. “As if I could confuse those eyes for someone else’s. I didn’t want to sit there gawking like a crazy bitch anymore, so I put the car into drive and pulled out onto the street. Looking in my review mirror, I saw him hop on his bike and speed away.

As we passed the class walking back, Lilly turned to me. “So how are you liking the Coast?”

I laughed, garnering a curious look from her. “Let’s just say I’ve never met so many…”

“Horrible, mean, bitchy people?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Exactly.”

“Well, just so you know, we’re not all like that.”

She looked as if she should be one of the popular kids with her blond hair, blue eyes, tiny frame and killer smile—when she did.

“They did something to you, didn’t they?” I asked.

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Direct, aren’t we?”

“Sorry,” I said, turning into the school’s parking lot. “Bad habit.”

I thought she was going to ignore my question, but she paused after opening the car door. “A word of advice: don’t ever trust those girls. And never think they’re your friends.”

I wasn’t sure if I was able to hide the knowing look that tried to cross my face, but she didn’t ask me anything about it, so I was probably safe. We got out of the car and walked toward the classroom.

“So where are you from?” I asked. “I mean, before you moved here?”

Her nerves returned the minute we were back at school. “I moved here from Melbourne. My parents split. Mum got custody, and she wanted to move as far away from my dad as she could just to piss him off.”

“Only you suffer in the process?”

She nodded, and I had to wonder what it would be like to actually want to be around my father.

The house was empty when I got home, but the silence didn’t bother me. I liked to be alone because that meant I didn’t need to put up with my father and his incessant need to talk about himself or about how I wasn’t living up to his expectations.
Screw his expectations.
I didn’t want to become some heartless prick that had no real friends and got off on having his minions chasing after him.

I dumped my bag on the dining table and went into the kitchen to grab an Up&Go and a chocolate bar then jogged up the stairs to my bedroom. After I changed out of my school uniform into a pair of shorts and singlet, I opened the doors to my balcony and stepped outside. I didn’t have any furniture there yet, but that was something I definitely would have to buy.

I looked down at the beach and felt guilty as I watched a couple jog along the shore toward Surfers Paradise. I hadn’t done any exercise since the move, and I was afraid I would start getting a bit frumpy if I left it much longer. But that would have to wait for another day. I really couldn’t be bothered going for a run, but I did want to get my feet in the sand.

I went downstairs and stepped outside. The warmth of the afternoon sun was behind me as I walked down the back patio steps and onto the sand dunes. I stuck my straw in my drink as I sat down in the sand. Staring out at the water, I sucked down the coffee-flavoured breakfast drink.

A few kids from my school were surfing the breaks. I’d seen them around but hadn’t spoken to them. That was one sport I wasn’t going to get into any time soon.

My breath caught in my throat as I spotted my black-eyed boy coming out of the water. He carried a board under his arm. Okay, so I might just have to take up surfing, or at least become
very
interested in watching.

From where I was sitting, nothing about him looked unusual. But I was probably the one who looked like a freak with my mouth wide open. I was practically drooling as he walked up the beach. His shorts hung off his hips, revealing that sexy V that only came with countless hours of working out and watching what he ate.

I looked down at the chocolate bar in my hand. I definitely needed to ditch the cellulite-in-a-wrapper things and get my ass out there to work it off. Tomorrow. I shoved the rest of the chocolate into my mouth and tucked the wrapper in my pocket.

Jett dropped his surfboard and picked up his towel. Considering I was only twenty metres away, he had to have known that I was staring at him, but he never once looked in my direction. Typical guy. Couldn’t keep his eyes off a girl, and then the moment she showed a little bit of interest… I choked on a laugh. A little bit of interest? God, I had to wipe the drool from my chin.

My phone went off in my pocket. I checked the screen. It was my reminder to study. I didn’t even know why I bothered. Thanks to my dad making me move at the start of exams, I had pretty much no chance in hell of passing with grades good enough to get into university. If I didn’t pass, he would make sure I got in anyway. As he liked to say, “Money talks.” But I didn’t want him to pay. I wanted to be able to do things on my own, live my own life.

I wondered what life would’ve been like if my mum hadn’t died when I was born. Had my father always been an asshole, or was the greed just a way of coping with her death? He couldn’t control her passing away, so maybe he needed to do something where he was in control. He made the decisions at work, and nothing went down without his permission.

Getting up, I took a last wistful look at Jett’s gorgeous body then headed back up to the house to study.

I pulled my tablet out of my school bag and ran up the stairs to my room. I sat down at my desk and checked my email. My math teacher had sent a practise exam, and my art teacher had posted some homework for next class.
Art?
No other art teacher I’d ever known had asked us to do a sketch to bring to our next class after everyone had already handed in their final project.