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The Fixes
The Fixes Read online
DEDICATION
For Shan,
who took me to the wild side
and brought me back safe
CONTENTS
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Chapter 134
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
Chapter 137
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141
Chapter 142
Chapter 143
Chapter 144
Chapter 145
Chapter 146
Chapter 147
Chapter 148
Chapter 149
Chapter 150
Chapter 151
Chapter 152
Chapter 153
Chapter 154
Chapter 155
Chapter 156
Chapter 157
Chapter 158
Chapter 159
Chapter 160
Chapter 161
Chapter 162
Chapter 163
Chapter 164
Chapter 165
Chapter 166
Chapter 167
Chapter 168
Chapter 169
Chapter 170
Chapter 171
Chapter 172
Chapter 173
Chapter 174
Chapter 175
Chapter 176
Chapter 177
Chapter 178
Chapter 179
Chapter 180
Chapter 181
Chapter 182
Chapter 183
Chapter 184
Chapter 185
Chapter 186
Chapter 187
Chapter 188
Chapter 189
Chapter 190
Chapter 191
Chapter 192
Chapter 193
Chapter 194
Chapter 195
Chapter 196
Chapter 197
Chapter 198
Chapter 199
Chapter 200
Chapter 201
Chapter 202
Chapter 203
Chapter 204
Chapter 205
Chapter 206
Chapter 207
Chapter 208
Chapter 209
Chapter 210
Chapter 211
Chapter 212
Chapter 213
Chapter 214
Chapter 215
Chapter 216
Chapter 217
Chapter 218
Chapter 219
Chapter 220
Chapter 221
Chapter 222
Chapter 223
Chapter 224
Chapter 225
Chapter 226
Chapter 227
Chapter 228
Chapter 229
Chapter 230
Chapter 231
Chapter 232
Chapter 233
Chapter 234
Chapter 235
Chapter 236
Chapter 237
Chapter 238
Chapter 239
Chapter 240
Chapter 241
Chapter 242
Chapter 243
Chapter 244
Chapter 245
Chapter 246
Chapter 247
Chapter 248
Chapter 249
Chapter 250
Chapter 251
Chapter 252
Chapter 253
Chapter 254
Chapter 255
Chapter 256
Chapter 257
Chapter 258
Chapter 259
Chapter 260
Chapter 261
Chapter 262
Chapter 263
Chapter 264
Chapter 265
Chapter 266
Chapter 267
Chapter 268
Chapter 269
Chapter 270
Chapter 271
Chapter 272
Chapter 273
Chapter 274
Chapter 275
Chapter 276
Chapter 277
Chapter 278
Chapter 279
/> Chapter 280
Chapter 281
Chapter 282
Chapter 283
Chapter 284
Chapter 285
Chapter 286
Chapter 287
Chapter 288
Chapter 289
Chapter 290
Chapter 291
Chapter 292
Chapter 293
Chapter 294
Chapter 295
Chapter 296
Chapter 297
Chapter 298
Chapter 299
Chapter 300
Chapter 301
Chapter 302
Chapter 303
Chapter 304
Chapter 305
Chapter 306
Chapter 307
Chapter 308
Chapter 309
Chapter 310
Chapter 311
Chapter 312
Chapter 313
Chapter 314
Chapter 315
Chapter 316
Chapter 317
Chapter 318
Chapter 319
Chapter 320
Chapter 321
Chapter 322
Chapter 323
Chapter 324
Chapter 325
Chapter 326
Chapter 327
Chapter 328
Chapter 329
Chapter 330
Chapter 331
Chapter 332
Chapter 333
Chapter 334
Chapter 335
Chapter 336
Chapter 337
Chapter 338
Chapter 339
Chapter 340
Chapter 341
Chapter 342
Chapter 343
Chapter 344
Chapter 345
Chapter 346
Chapter 347
Chapter 348
Chapter 349
Chapter 350
Chapter 351
Chapter 352
Chapter 353
Chapter 354
Chapter 355
Chapter 356
Chapter 357
Chapter 358
Chapter 359
Chapter 360
Chapter 361
Chapter 362
Chapter 363
Chapter 364
Chapter 365
Acknowledgments
Back Ads
About the Author
Books by Owen Matthews
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
1.
This is a story about a boy’s first crush, and how it blew up in his face.
And all of its explosive consequences.
(You know what? Forget it.)
2.
Let’s start over.
Let me tell you why E set off that bomb.
3.
It’s the first day of summer vacation. School’s out. School’s over. Everyone in Capilano is at the beach, on a boat, or up in the mountains on a lake somewhere. Everyone except Eric Connelly.
Eric Connelly is in a hurry. Eric doesn’t notice that it’s a beautiful day. Eric sure as hell doesn’t have any plans to go to the beach. Eric is running late.
(Give him a minute.)
Eric’s the kid parking his mom’s Mercedes G-Wagen in the near-empty sprawl of the Cap High parking lot. He’s the tall, blandly handsome kid climbing out onto the sun-scorched pavement, checking the time on that fancy Omega diving watch and swearing. Walking—fast—across the lot to the school, wondering how he’s going to make it to his new internship on time.
Eric’s the hero of this story. And Eric has places to be.
4.
On a normal day, Cap High is a microcosm of Capilano itself. The building is beautiful, all steel and glass and reclaimed timber. It looks right at home amid Capilano’s towering mountains and endless beaches. And it’s populated by the best of the best. The elite.
Film directors’ kids. Hedge fund managers’ offspring. The broods of rock stars, Fortune 500 CEOs, real-estate moguls, athletes, and white-collar criminals. They all call Capilano home.
On a normal day, you couldn’t throw a stone around here without hitting, like, four or five Birkin bags. The school parking lot practically screams for a valet. The kids at Cap High are glamorous and gorgeous and they DGAF.
(They’re better than you, and they know it.)
(And honestly, so do you.)
Today, though, the halls are empty. It’s only Eric Connelly, hurrying toward the office. And if you’re thinking our hero looks a little out of place amid these glamorous surroundings, you’re not entirely wrong.
See, Eric never fit in at Cap. Four years in the place and even now, his senior year finished, he still feels like an alien walking these halls. Sure, he has the Mercedes and the flashy Swiss timepiece. He dresses like the crowd, and his parents have money. He’s your typical Cap kid, a poster boy for the school—
(in fact, he’s Student of the Year)
—but Eric’s different. If you look close, you can see it. It’s the sweat on his face as he hurries down the hall. It’s the way he keeps checking that Omega. It’s the way he looks worried, like the world doesn’t revolve around him, like he’s actually late and that actually matters.
People don’t hurry in Capilano. They don’t get worried. They pay people to worry for them, and if they’re late, the world waits. It’s not cool to be stressed, and Eric’s stressed all the time.
Ergo, he’s not really of Capilano.
You know?
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
Q:Why is Eric stressed?
A:Eric is stressed because he’s late for the VERY PRESTIGIOUS internship he landed at his dad’s old law office. He forgot to put gas in the G-Wagen this morning, and now he has to swing by Cap High to pick up his Student of the Year plaque—
(they spelled his name wrong the first time)
—but he got caught in beach traffic getting over here, and he has to be at his internship in, like, fifteen minutes, and it’s all the way on the other side of Capilano.
Q:Why does a rich kid care about some stupid internship? It’s the first day of summer.
A:Right. And for normal people, summer means vacation. Parties, beaches, regrettable hookups. Two glorious months of freedom before college starts. For Eric, summer = work. Eric’s headed to law school. Gotta pad those extracurriculars to make sure he gets in.
Q:This guy sounds like a nerd.
A:That’s not a question.
Q:Okay, why are you making me read about some dork who can’t have any fun?
A:I promise you, Eric’s going to have fun. He just doesn’t know it yet.
Q:You just said he’s rich. Can’t he buy his way into law school?
A:Good question. If Eric were anyone else at Cap High, the answer would be yes. But Eric isn’t anyone else. Eric’s a Connelly, and Eric’s dad believes Connelly men work for what they get. He’s riding Eric hard to get into Stanford. Hence the internship. Hence Eric’s nerd-like countenance.
Q:What happens at the end?
A:You really want to know? Eric kills the love of his life and goes to jail. His family disowns him. The end.
Q:Great. And what’s Eric’s hero’s journey?
A:Uh, what? You’re totally trying to crib for some essay or something, aren’t you? Just read the book, dude. It’s not even that long.
5.
Anyway.
The point is, Eric’s stressed. Partially because he’s late for the VERY PRESTIGIOUS internship, and partially because he’s afraid his dad will find out he was late on his first day, and that would be VERY BAD for everyone.
But we’re not going to talk about Eric’s dad yet.
(You’ll hear plenty about him soon enough.)
This book is fundamentally a love story, and love stories need two things:
1.A love interest.
2.A cheesy meet
cute.
Lucky for us, we’re about to get both.
6.
Eric’s footsteps echo down the hall. He passes his old locker, the lunchroom, the computer lab. He makes it to the front of the school, the administration office. There are two people already inside the office when Eric walks in. One is Mrs. Adams, the secretary. The other is Jordan Grant.
Jordan Grant is Harrison Grant’s only child. And that makes him **IMPORTANT**.
7.
Jordan Grant was is a senior at Cap High.
(We’ll get to that.)
He’s pretty well Eric’s opposite in every respect. I mean, he looks like an Abercrombie model—tall, built, perpetually tanned—but it’s not like Eric’s ugly. It’s more than that. It’s more the way Jordan carries himself. It’s the way Jordan looks like he’s never had a care in the world.
Jordan’s dad is Harrison Grant, one of the most IMPORTANT people in Capilano. He used to be a development executive at Lionsgate, but he quit recently to start his own company. He just sold a TV series about baby geniuses, and Cap High rumor is that he walked away from the deal with, like, low eight figures.
Whatever the truth is, Harrison Grant is obscenely rich. And Jordan Grant is his only kid.
Something else you should know: This last year was Jordan’s first year in Capilano. He was living in L.A. with his mom before the school year started. He moved up here with his dad. Nobody at Cap High’s really sure what the deal is. Eric heard a rumor Jordan punched out, like, Wiz Khalifa, and that’s why he had to get out of town—but nobody’s been able to corroborate.
Whatever, though. Jordan’s up here now. And since his dad is rich and powerful and important, and Jordan looks like an Abercrombie model and even pops up now and then on TMZ and Defamer, well, he pretty much became king of the school the moment he walked through the front doors.
And Jordan lives like a king. His Instagram is like a magazine spread: Jordan on a speedboat with a couple of smoking-hot Cap High girls. Jordan at some movie premiere with Chris Pine. Jordan skydiving. Surfing. Jordan with his shirt off.
(Jordan has a six-pack, obvi.)
If Cap High is full of A-listers, Jordan Grant is A-double-plus. He does what he wants, when he wants, with whoever he wants—guy or girl—like he’s some kind of god who doesn’t give a shit about ordinary people’s rules.
Jordan Grant is the Man.
(He’s also going to be the Love Interest for the purposes of this narrative.)
8.
Does that scare you? The Jordan thing? Did you pick up this book thinking it was going to be all fast cars and hot chicks and explosions?
I’m sorry.
If it’s any consolation, the Jordan thing scares Eric, too. Eric’s still not sure he’s entirely on board with this whole “liking boys” situation. It kind of crept up on him. It’s not something he was planning.
Yeah. It scares Eric . . . a lot.
9.
Jordan Grant is sitting on a bench in the secretary’s office while Mrs. Adams talks on the phone.
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