Lacey's POV

"Hey Lacey. What are you reading?"

The sudden voice pulled me out of the story I was in and back to reality. I glanced up from the book in my hands and blinked a few times as the brightness of the sun was dazzling my eyes. It was one of these warm spring days, the kind you were waiting for all winter. During free period, I had taken my blue fuzzy blanket outside with me and settled down on the school campus with a sandwich and a book, ready to fully enjoy the warm rays of sun on my skin. And I had, until the peaceful harmony had been interrupted by Sean Gaston, who was basically a dark cloud on a sunny day. At least for me.

Slowly closing my book, I looked up at him and his incredible amount of muscle mass. He was tall and strong, and at times, he seemed almost intimidating. He was one of the jocks and pretty popular with a lot of the girls at this school. When he walked past them, they begin giggling and whispering in such an obnoxious way that even I noticed it. It wasn't like I couldn't see why they liked him. He was certainly handsome, with his green eyes, his sand blond hair and, well, the muscles. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't the brightest and his interests were so far from my own, that he wasn't my type. Unfortunately for me, I seemed to be exactly his. And he wasn't one of the boys who took no for an answer. He had an oversized ego to feed. Maybe he even thought I enjoyed him chasing after me. Truth was that I absolutely didn't, and I had tried to make that clear to him many times.

"Shakespeare,"I replied briefly, watching as he took another step towards me before sitting down on my blanket. My right hand reached to grasp a strand of my long, brown hair and I began nervously twirling it between my fingers. I felt completely uncomfortable that he was so close to me. He, on the other hand, didn't seem to care or mind at all.

"Uh. Well, I prefer my beer in liquid form," he responded, a wide smile appearing on his face. "What is Shakesbeer about?"

I slightly bit my lip and looked down at the book in my hands. "Shakespeare is the author, not the title."

"Well, there are far more interesting things in this world than books, Lacey."

I didn't like how his face was now even closer to mine or how he suddenly took the book from me. Scooting away from him a little, I looked up at again. "Can I have that back, please?" My gaze went over to the book that was now in his hand. He furrowed his eyebrows at me and held it up, so I couldn't reach it.

"If you go on a date with me, beautiful Lacey."

Before I could tell him that that wasn't going to happen, someone else did. "Give the book back, Gaston. You wouldn't be able to read it if you tried."

Neither of us had noticed that Gold had walked up to us and was now standing behind Gaston with an emotionless expression on his face. Upon being interrupted during what he would probably call 'flirting', Gaston put my book on the blanket and turned around, looking up at Robert Gold. Gaston might have been stupid, but he wasn't stupid enough to not recognize a direct insult like this. Anger burning in his eyes, he got up. He was taller than the other boy and even though Gold wasn't physically weak, Gaston had a lot more muscles.

I didn't realize that I was holding my breath when the two of them looked at each other. It was like watching two equally strong predators circle each other, just waiting for a chance to jump forward and attack. Gaston might have more muscle mass, but Gold was more popular, which in a way made him 'untouchable'. A lot of students feared and respected him and even though Gaston might have denied it, he had a fair amount of same fear and respect in him as well. And that was probably why, after a good minute of silently glaring at Gold, he averted his eyes and just walked away with his head held high, acting as if he had better things to do anyway.

Gold smirked and sat down on the blanket next to me just like Gaston had minutes before. I eyed him suspiciously, but didn't say anything. I didn't feel comfortable with either of them next to me. From what I had seen, they were both rude assholes who didn't waste a moment thinking about anyone's feelings. They walked through the school with their egos bigger than anything else, thinking they owned the place.

"Care about going on a date with me?" he broke the silence between us and my eyes widened a bit. I'm not sure what I had expected him to say, but it wasn't this. It took me a moment to actually process his question. We had never really talked before. A day ago I had literally run into him in the hallways and he had treated me like I was some annoying bug. And now he was interested in going out with me? People often called me naïve and it was true, but I wasn't completely foolish. If Gold wanted to date me, it wasn't because he honestly wanted to get to know me. I truly doubted that there was anything remotely 'honest' about this boy.

"No."

He didn't seem too surprised by my answer. Judging from his expression, he had already expected me to say something like this, which made me further wonder why he had even bothered to ask. The smile on his face grew slightly bigger and he leaned forward to me. "And why not, dearie?" The amused tone in his voice made it even harder for me to believe that he was serious about anything here.

"Because I don't care about you and how could I? I have seen how you treated Regina at that party. You made clear to everyone that you just used her while she truly liked you. That night you didn't just break up with her in front of everyone. You humiliated her. You took her heart and you crushed it." I wasn't sure where my sudden outburst was coming from. I hadn't known until now how much watching the whole cruel scene that evening had bugged me. And now that he had asked me why I would never go out with him, why I could never like him, I suddenly had a chance to tell him what kind of a terrible human being he was. "Because you are rude, heartless and selfish."

I was surprised about my own words. Did I even have a right to tell him all that when I barely knew him? But I had seen him around people and there had never been a good moment, never. I lowered my gaze and waited for his reaction, waited for him to defend himself and tell me that I was wrong. Or yell at me, something like that. What I didn't expect was an amused chuckle. "You're a smart girl, dearie."

I brought my eyes up to his again, giving him an unbelieving look. I couldn't find a flicker of hurt caused by anything I had said and it both confused and shocked me how someone could be so cold and unaffected. He was probably the most ruthless boy I had ever met.

"But I guess that's something we have in common then. You don't care about me and I don't care about you. But I can do something for you and you can do something for me." His words were calm and his gaze never left mine. I pursed my lips a little as I looked back at him. I doubted that I wanted anything to do with him, no matter what he was going to suggest.

"I know that Gaston has been bothering you for months now and I seriously doubt that you like him. I can protect you from him."

He was paying attention to what was going on around him, I had to give him that. It was probably part of the 'how' he had even managed to become so popular. Sure, he was rich, but he was also smart and not a jock. On top of that, he was rude and a complete loner. The popular people were usually quite the opposite, they surrounded themselves with as many friends as they could, real or not. It was a big factor of why everyone respected him so much. He wasn't your typical 'popular' school boy. He was different, but when it came to being an ass, he seemed to be just like everyone else.

And yes, Gaston was pushy and sometimes he scared me a bit. He was still patient with me, but he was the type of boy who was determined to eventually get what he wanted. I could see that and it worried me a little. I certainly didn't want to ever run into him when we were alone. I didn't trust that he wouldn't try to do something I didn't agree on. Yet, I was too proud and good to agree to helping Gold for protection in return. If he didn't care about me, it wasn't that hard to guess why he really wanted to go out with me: to further humiliate Regina. I wasn't sure why he hated her so much or what he was trying to achieve by kicking her when she was already on the ground, but I didn't agree with it. And I wasn't going to play any part in it just because I might have been a bit scared of Gaston.

"Gaston is my problem and I'll deal with him myself." I paused, then added: "You want a 'fake' relationship with me to get back at Regina? Why?"

Once again, his lips curved into a smile. "You are absolutely right, dearie." Then, he shrugged and chuckled. "It's all for power."

"Why does power mean so much to you?"

"Because if you have it, no one can hurt you." A flicker of something went through his eyes, but before I could figure out what it was, it was gone. "You become 'untouchable'." He grinned widely and I found myself shaking my head.

"I am not going to help you hurt Regina more than you already have."

"Regina isn't the 'victim' here, dearie. She's just as cold and manipulative as I am."

"Maybe," I said hesitantly and picked up my book to stuff it into my purse. "But I want nothing to do with your power play or whatever it is you are doing."

And with that being said, the conversation was over for me. Gold was smart enough to see that he didn't have a chance to get me to cooperate with him. He stood up and turned around. "You might change your mind soon," he commented, before he walked away. I didn't think much of it. Gold seemed like the type of person who just needed to have the last word. And I let him.

The following two days went by without any major occurrences. I came to the conclusion that Gold had given up trying to get me to play a part in whatever plans he had. I didn't even think about it much anymore, I had borrow a new book from the library and the story had already completely caught me. I was so entangled in the fantasy world of the book I was reading when I got home after school that I didn't even notice my dad's car in the driveway.

I got suspicious when the front door wasn't locked like it usually was when I came home from school. My father worked as kitchen Chef in a hotel and never got off until late at night, which was why I always had to remember to bring my key. Had he forgotten to lock the door when he left?

With a bad feeling in my stomach, I opened the door and walked into our house. Seconds later, I heard a sound coming from the kitchen. "Daddy?" I hurried over to the table he was sitting at, in front of him a shot glass and a bottle of Vodka. The initial feeling that something was wrong only intensified at the sight of him. He looked … devastated. It reminded me of how he was after mom died and back then I hoped I would never see him like that again. It was, of course, nothing more than wishful thinking on my part.

"What happened?" I asked softly while taking the Vodka away from him and putting it back on the shelf. He didn't protest and when I turned around to look at him, he was still in the exact same position, staring at the opposite wall.

"I got fired."

"What?" My eyes widened in shock upon hearing these news. I honestly couldn't imagine what could have possibly gone wrong, as I had always known my father to be an excellent Chef who didn't allow room for any mistakes.

"That hotel gala the other night – the food from our kitchen was..." He paused, playing with the empty shot glass on the table in front of him. "Something was wrong with the entree soup and the guests complained."

I bit my lip and sat down next to him. He still wouldn't look at me. "We might lose the house, Lacey."

I swallowed hard, mainly because of the sorrowful tone in my father's voice. We had been in debt before, but with his job at the hotel, we had always managed to keep our heads above water. Him getting fired was about the worst thing that could have happened to us right now.

Still, there was something about the whole story that irked me. I couldn't put my finger on what exactly it was that had all my inner alarm clocks going off at the same time. I furrowed my eyebrows and ran a hand through my hair. "Don't worry, daddy. We'll figure something out." I paused and stared at the ceiling. "How did you not notice that the soup tasted weird?"

To my understanding, the Chef always made sure the food tasted alright before okay-ing it to be taken out to the guests.

"I don't know." My father buried his head in his hands and sighed. "I don't know what happened. The soup tasted fine to me, but when they brought it back in, it was bitter."

"Like someone had messed with it after your okay?" My eyes widened, but he shook his head. "Why would anyone do that?"

"To get you fired." All of a sudden, I had a lump in my throat that wouldn't go away. I got up from my seat, because I couldn't sit still anymore.

"You're creating drama where there is none, Lacey," I heard my father's voice. He must have noticed all the color leaving my cheeks. But was I really being paranoid? The hotel was owned by Robert Gold's father.