Our Broken Pasts [Editing] | #Wattys2017

Chapter Two

Hailey

All through the rest of the day, I watched my back, expecting Will or a bunch of his cronies to come up to me and make me regret talking back to him this morning. But none did. Honestly, I was amazed. Talking back to the school's bad boy was not something you got away with.

Finally, I decided to put it out of my mind. The likes of him wasn't worth my worry.

The rest of the day passed pretty quickly, and before I knew it another first day of school was over. It was everything I had expected - with the exception of running into Will Williams and having a sort-of conversation with him.

When I got home, I was greeted with silence. My mom wouldn't be home until five, and my two oldest brothers were away at school. Amazingly, I had the house to myself for the next couple of hours.

Fifteen minutes later, snuggled in front of the TV watching White House Down, I heard a knock on the door. I got up and looked through the peephole, to find none other than Will Williams staring cockily back at the door, as if he knew I was there looking.

Fudgesicles.

Don't open the door, Hailey.

If you don't he'll just stay there.

Unfortunately, I knew that this was true. What Will Williams wanted, Will Williams got.

Reluctantly, I opened the door.

"Hello, Hailey. So nice to see you again." Sarcasm dripped from his words. The charming smile that reduced girls to giggling fits was plastered on his face as he looked down at me.

"What do you want, Williams?"

"Oh, nothing. But -" he bent down to my ear, warm breath skimming over my face. The smell of laundry detergent and deodorant was intoxicating. Like summer and clothes drying on the line in a salty ocean breeze. "- watch your back, Martin." He turned and left just as abruptly as he'd come, flashing a devilish grin back at me as he backed out of my driveway.

Lord have mercy.

What had I gotten myself into?

Will

I wouldn't be following through on that little threat I made to Hailey. One look at her pretty green eyes as I walked away and I was totally sunk. They were so full of defiance and tiny twinges of fear. She was the very definition of a firecracker. They were going off in her eyes.

God, she's beautiful.

Whoa, boy.

I barely knew her. How had she gotten under my skin so fast? I didn't know.

But I knew that I wanted to see her again.