Bad Company (Seven Deadly Sins #1) ✅ Completed

Chapter Six: Persistency Feels Good

A few days later I was spraying down the now defunct hornet's nest from under my window when I heard someone calling my name. Turning off the hose I looked around and spotted Chase ambling over the sidewalk. He was headed right towards me.

He looked pretty good in neatly pressed cargo shorts, a fantastically white polo shirt, and expensive sneakers. His hair was still damp from his shower, and he had that freshly scrubbed look that only someone born and raised under plenty of wide open spaces seemed to possess.

Weren't people around here supposed to be less hot than what I was used to?

I, on the other hand, looked like I was single-handedly proving my Mid-western stereotype correct. I'd resurrected my old denim cut offs that had grown too short to wear as jeans but worked perfectly fine as shorts (even if they were a little too worn to be fashionable). My Mets t-shirt was so ridiculously faded you could only make out the T and S if squinted your eyes and looked real hard. And I was still wearing my ruined black converses because I loved them, white paint splashes and all.

I hadn't bothered to do anything with my hair after I washed it that morning except throw it up in a quick ponytail. It wasn't like I had anyone to impress. Aunt Celeste didn't care and Dante was avoiding me like an STD. I hadn't seen him since that day he slammed his bedroom door in my face the second time.

I was a little bummed that I didn't have him around to sneak quick peeks at (he really was stupidly good-looking). But I was also a little glad he wasn't around to glower in my general direction in case he caught me staring.

Dante's completely irrational dislike of me was something I didn't really want to deal with this morning. Thankfully, by the time I'd come downstairs he was already gone on some errand for Aunt Celeste. She'd been up since before sunrise (or so she claimed) and handed me a cup of bitter coffee that tasted better when she'd made it fresh the day before. At least she'd been decent enough to fix me some breakfast of dry toast and instant oatmeal. Both items came from the small kitchenette inside the cluttered back stock room. I wasn't about to complain though, it was more than my mom had fixed for me since grade school.

Quick on Chase's heels followed the most perfectly packaged couple I'd ever seen up close and personal. He was definitely good-looking in the typical jock fashion: big muscles and a face that I was pretty sure sent pom-poms flying. She was a cheerleading squad captain if ever there was one: blonde, leggy, and with skin that could put a ProActiv commercial to shame.

Just shoot me now I thought.

"Looks like you survived your first hornet nest massacre," Chased grinned as he came up beside me.

Good Lord, his teeth were so perfect. I instinctively ran my tongue over my own, wondering if I should stop being cheap and buy some whitening strips. Well, at least they were straight if not perfectly white.

Nodding, I looked at the remains of the hornet's nest. I'd felt kind of bad for killing them in their own home, but not so bad that I was going to take any chances. There were enough hornets in that nest to put me in the hospital. Or six feet under the way my luck ran.

"Yeah, I guess I did. So, what's up?" I asked carefully.

I hadn't forgotten the look he'd given me as I was leaving the hardware store the other day. I'd replayed it over and over in my brain all night. Aunt Celeste was mean, hateful, and cut to the quick. If that's how she treated family (as distant as we were), how crappy did she treat regular people? Gauging Chase's reaction from the day before, I was betting it was pretty terrible.

He shrugged easily. "Not too much. I was driving by and saw you out here, so I thought I'd stop and introduce you to some people."

He turned to Ken and Barbie as they reached us. "This dumb ox is Brady Matthews, captain of the football team. That's his girlfriend, Kara. Don't let them fool you, though. They're much dumber than they look."