Flawed Perfection (Beautifully Flawed, #1)

Chapter One

My eyes opened at the sound of someone throwing a rock against my bedroom window. I shot up in bed and looked around the pitch black room lit only by the hot pink comforter as the sound hit again. Mom had to take my night light today of all days when there wasn't even a moon outside. There it was again, and it was definitely a rock. I slipped out of bed and went to the window. Adam was hanging in the tree next to my window, and in his hand was a glowing jar.

I glanced over my shoulder at my closed bedroom door, my ears straining to see if Mom or Dad heard the sound of the rock. My heart hammered in my chest as I lifted the window making sure it didn't squeak.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked, my voice a harsh whisper against the silence of the night.

"I heard your mom made you get rid of the night light," Adam replied, shoving the jar into my hands. I took it and narrowed my eyes at him as he swung in the window.

"Who told you that?" I asked with my cheeks burning. I was glad for the darkness for once—because Adam couldn't see how much his presence affected me.

"Bobby! Who else?"

"What a jerk!" I said. I watched as Adam shrugged and pulled two more jars from his backpack. "I couldn't fit them all in. I didn't realize how hard it was to climb a tree with one arm!"

"What's in these?" I asked as Adam set them on the ground, and the room began to dance with the light. Thankfully, my cheeks had returned to a regular hue, but as soon as his eyes rose to mine I felt the burn rising up, and I had to look away.

Adam was in my room in the middle of the night.

"Fireflies," he replied, and my eyes snapped back towards him watching as his thin lips turned into that crooked smile.

My jaw dropped as I took a step forward. "You put what in these?"

Adam's brow furrowed over his face.

"I spent an hour catching fireflies for you," he said, and I watched as his throat rose and fell as he swallowed. "Don't worry—I poked holes in the top."

He moved closer to me, so I could smell his cologne—the one I'd bought him for his sixteenth birthday a few days earlier. I tried to hide the deep breath I took of him as he moved my fingers across the metal top, so I could feel the holes he poked there. He smirked at me again with his fingers still over mine. I could feel the calluses from playing guitar; ones I'd felt a thousand times before as he leaned over me and tried his best to teach me how to strum.

"You know I'd never hurt your precious fairies, Riv."

I couldn't help but giggle. The heat rushed up to my face again, and it only worsened when I realized not only was Adam in my room, he snuck in to save me from the dark.

"Thank you," I said. "But how can I keep them?"

Adam shrugged. "I did think of that after I'd caught them."

He reached into his backpack and pulled out a butterfly with what looked like liquid in its abdomen. He went to the outlet by the bed and plugged it in.

"It goes off in the morning—so your mom will just think it's one of those scenty things you chicks love so much." He looked over his shoulder before sitting on my bed. "The real issue is what to do with the fireflies now."

My eyes moved from his to the window he came through. "Let them go?"

I watched Adam's eyes flash over mine, and I knew he was coming up with some devilish plan—one I'd go along with, like always. I never could say no to him or his brother, Bobby, for that matter. He turned and grabbed a few of the stuffed animals from the chair by the bed and stuck them under the sheets, so it looked like there was a body.