Guard the Heart

Chapter Two

Once, Connor Hayes had been her everything.

He was everything she needed at the time: the perfect boyfriend, a great conversationalist, and an even better jokester. She knew of him before they started dating; Connor wasn't quite a jock, but he was definitely considered one of the more popular guys at school. Everyone loved him. Everyone. At parties, he would be at the center and maintain its life. In class, he'd be the teacher's best friend. Outside of school, he could make you feel like the greatest person to walk the earth just with a few simple words.

She first met him personally a time ago, when Kim's best friend, Savannah, had been dating Connor's best friend, Asher. Asher invited the two girls to sit at their lunch table, which Savannah agreed to eagerly. Normally, Kim would've been anxious about sitting down at a table full of strangers, but saying no would've meant being left behind, and she refused to let that happen.

So she sat at the table, right beside Savannah, and ignored the stares of the kids nearby. Savannah became engrossed in the table's conversation—small talk had always been one of her strongpoints—and Kim was left to eat her lunch in silence. Then, she noticed Connor smiling at her. As if it had happened yesterday, she remembered him asking for her name. One word led to the next, and then she began looking forward to their conversations at lunch.

After that, sitting at their table wasn't bad—not as long as he was there. He constantly invited her into the conversation, always included her in their plans, always spoke to her with all the focus he could center on her. He allowed her to push herself out of her own shell and break the edges, so much that when Asher asked her once if she found Connor attractive, she'd had the nerve to kiss Connor on his cheek and flash Asher a cheeky smile.

It all blew up after that. Savannah invited her to come to a beachside party—all the rage with Thornville High kids—and by the end of it, her lips ended up on Connor's. It had been the greatest thing to ever happen to her, especially since she had liked him for a long time. Her life seemed to revolve around Connor, so much that she ignored all the warnings, "He moves from girls pretty quickly. You should be careful." She brushed them off as if they were feathers tickling her shoulders.

It wasn't until someone posted a photo on Twitter of another girl in Connor's lap that she realized how true all the warnings were. And she wished she had listened. An angry phone call later, then the boy she'd fallen so damn hard for was out of her life, for the better.

Now...he was back, and she didn't know how to handle it. This hadn't been in her plans.

Kim tried not to slam the front door the way she had done to her own car door, and slipped inside her house. Her dad was seated at the kitchen table, drinking from an old coffee mug and staring up at the TV. She didn't care much to see what exactly he was watching.

"Hey, Kim," her dad greeted. "How was work?"

"I'd rather not talk about it." She was still in her uniform; she needed to change. She always hated staying in her bathing suit for longer than necessary.

"Bad day?" His eyes met hers as he shifted his gaze, his brows rising on his forehead. "Anyone giving you trouble?"

The idea of telling her dad about Connor was almost laughable. He hadn't minded him when they dated, but after the blow up of their break up, he knew speaking of it was the equivalent to walking on thin ice. Instead, she chuckled under her breath. "No," she said. "It's fine. Just tough. Don't worry about it, though. I'll get used to it."

His lips formed a straight line. Even as he was trying to seem nonchalant about it, Kim could see the concern etched into the lines on his face that had come with aging and stress, and she couldn't afford to worry him anymore than he already did on a daily basis.