Excerpt of Blackmail Boyfriend by Chris Cannon

I turned into the Greenbrier High school parking lot with a singular mission: figure out a way to keep my brothers from chasing off every guy who seemed interested in me. Telling them to mind their own business hadn’t worked. What I needed was a guy who wouldn’t let my brothers intimidate him. A guy who was confident enough to stand up to them. At this point I didn’t even care if I liked the guy, he just needed to prove I was datable. Maybe I should put an ad online. Honor student seeks overly self- confident young man for fake relationship. Terms negotiable.

But that might bring the weirdos out of the woodwork, and I wasn’t that desperate…yet.

I parked my yellow Volkswagen Bug and I’d barely stepped out of the car when my best friend Jane descended on me.

“Tell me it’s true,” Jane demanded.

“What are you talking about?”

She jumped up and down in her brown, furry Uggs. “Everyone’s talking about it, Haley. It’s so exciting.”

I placed one hand on her shoulder to make her stand still. Merry-go-rounds make me sick. Watching her bounce after I had scarfed down a glazed doughnut on the drive to school wasn’t a good idea. “Everyone’s talking about what?”

“Bryce Colton is telling everyone you hooked up after the bonfire Friday night.”

“What?” Everyone in the parking lot turned and stared. Okay, maybe I said that a little loud. I hooked my arm through Jane’s and steered her toward the sidewalk. “I went to the bonfire with you. Do you remember seeing me naked with Bryce Colton?”

She pouted and kicked a rock off the sidewalk. “I thought maybe you went back after you dropped me off.”

“Why do you sound disappointed?”

“It would be nice if one of us had a sex life.”

I laughed so hard I snorted. That’s one of the reasons I’m best friends with Jane. I never know what she’s going to say.

“Sorry to disappoint you. My life is as boring as ever.”

She tugged me toward the main entrance of the school. “That’s not true. You’re the talk of the school.”

And that’s when I noticed my fellow students whispering and pointing. “Crap, do you think my brothers have heard?”

Jane took off at a run, dragging me with her.

Clutching my backpack, I concentrated on keeping up with her. “What are you doing?”

“We have to find Bryce before your brothers kill him.”

Why the sudden interest in Bryce’s safety? Better question, why would he start a rumor about me? He was a gorgeous, popular, country-club golden boy known for organizing the Golf-a-thon charity event to help raise money for cancer research since his freshman year.

As Jane pulled me down the math hall, I allowed a fantasy to spin in my head. Bryce started the rumor due to his overwhelming crush on me. Yeah. Right. I’d been secretly lusting after him since sophomore year, just like every other female in a fifty-mile radius. Not that I’d admit it. It’s not like we had anything in common. He was a year older, and we didn’t run in the same social circles.

I geeked out with the honor students while he hung with the high-class jocks who lettered in tennis and golf. He lived in one of the new McMansions down the road from the country club. My dad owned the landscaping company the country club hired to mow the grass. In short, he existed on a different plane than a mere mortal like me.

Rationally, I knew I should be angry about the rumor that made it sound like my name and number would soon be scrawled on the boys’ bathroom wall. My reputation, not that I had much of one, was at stake. But as pathetic as it might sound, thanks to my brothers’ interference in my social life, this was the most exciting moment of my junior year, so far.

We slowed down as we rounded the corner into the biology hall. Bryce stood lounging in front of his locker, wearing a crisp white shirt and khakis. I felt underdressed in the Levi’s and the black Talk Nerdy to Me sweatshirt I’d thrown on this morning.

With his blond hair, broad shoulders, and perpetual tan, Bryce looked like a California underwear model. Not that I’d thought about him in his underwear.

Much.

He was talking with his friend Nathan. Where Bryce had the whole tan, blond, hazel-eyed thing going on, Nathan was fair with dark hair and dark eyes. They looked like opposite sides of the same coin. A really hot, totally unreachable coin that a collector would keep in a special locked case, which normal girls like myself were not allowed to touch.

Bryce glanced up as we came to a stop in front of him. It was probably the first time he’d noticed me. I was cute, but he tended to date girls with boobs bigger than my head.

Trying to look angry rather than curious, I did the hands-on-my-hips maneuver, which told my brothers I meant business. For extra emphasis, I threw in a glare. “Why are you telling people we hooked up after the bonfire?”