So I read Chain Reaction...it was EPIC! Loved it, especially the EPILOGUE! EEEE! XD

Love Simone Elkeles. I totally cried at the end of the book, when It was done and dusted. Love the family bromance between the Fuentes Bros and the PANTY DISCUS SCENE was my favourite (one of my favourites, I also loveeed the scene where Mrs. Peterson answers Nikki's phone for her bikini wax appointment-classic!) Luis was such an intriguing character! Awesome end to an awesome series and I will deffo be reading the book over and over and over...:)

The epilogue has left me with some ideas for new fanfictions, and some awesome reviewers such as x2xJOJOx2x and teamdimitri14xoxo have offered me excellent suggestions which are already springing ideas in my head!

Jared

"Go away!" I hiss, lifting up the thin cloth of the hospital duvet and throwing it over my head. "I'm mortally wounded!"

Beck's laugh makes my head throb. Is it too much to ask that people stop visiting every fucking minute of the day? Now, I know I should be grateful that I'm so majestically popular and shit, but really? Not even one second to myself?

Apparently not. Damn my wretched irresistibleness.

"Man, get that shitty rag offofyah head and show me some style, playa. You're a fucking hero." I hear Ham's voice ring through the small ward, and grimace. I know this, because people from school have been coming to visit all night, sending flowers and candy. Don't they know that right now the only thing that'd appease me- truly make me happy- is Isa Fuentes on a platter?

Okay, that sounds wrong. My brain is sending messed up thoughts, because now I can't help but think of Isa lying there on a plate of lettuce, wearing nothing but a bra and panties and it's turning me on like nobodies fucking business.

Beck snorts. "Well, I see someone's not so mortally wounded after all, to come play peekaboo with the sheets." Yes. I'm getting a hard on thinking of some girl as dinner. I'm just hungry.

And messed up. I can barely remember what happened the night before, but the sound of a gun echoes through my head. And a face...his face. Rachel, Steve and Sam had come to visit, too, Rachel's face was ashen with worry, and they- as well as the doctors and nurses- wanted to know what had happened.

So, I told them we were victims of a shoot and run. Everyone seems to believe the story that I ran in on Harry's bleeding form, and defended him from a drunken brawl involving rifles. The Police are on Hyper alert, and I haven't told them otherwise. Telling them would mean getting more people involved in this Gang business.

Rachel didn't seem to buy the story- I could tell the suspicious glaze of her features- but she complied to my pathetic excuse of hunger with a warning glare, and a promise that she'd be back in an hour with lunch. After that I hadn't really had much time to think over what had truly happened and what the consequences are for me now.

I also haven't caught any sight of Harry, but when I asked the nurse, she told me he was resting.

Backstabbing bastard.

"Leave me alone." I say, to my friends, once and for all.

The sheet is ripped off me, and I groan as Ham and Beck's grinning faces appear in my vision. "Fuck, I want to strangle you two." I hiss, from between my clenched teeth.

"There's the cheerful Jared we know and love." Ham chimes, grinning like the Cheshire cat. "We're here as your lackeys, dude."

"My what?"

"You lackeys." Ham says, slowly. "You know. Buff you up a bit. Make you look tougher than you are. Now, if you just lift that arm up of yours, so I can get to the bullet wound, tug a few stitches and leave a scar to attract the birds. Yah dig?"

I elbow him away from me, but I'm grinning too. "Fuck off, man. I got enough scars without the need of artificial ones. Besides, you'd probably infect me."

Beck laughs and claps me on the shoulder. "True that. I hear he doesn't wash his hands after shitting. You don't want those fingers near your heroic man-wound-"

There's a knock at the door, interrupting us, and Isa walks in a moment later. I almost blink twice, just to make sure I'm seeing her properly.

I know I called her yesterday when I was injured, and I don't want to get into the details of why, just yet. Of why, out of all the people to call, her number was the one I dialled. I guess I should smile, or say thanks or something, for her saving my life, but God knows what that would trigger her bomb.

Everyone is silent. I realise this and cough. "Uh..." I give Ham and Beck an awkward look. Beck nods and pulls Ham with him towards the door. Ham turns around once, behind Isa's back and winks.

I ignore him.

"Hey." Isa says, giving me a small smile. "You feeling alright."

"Me?" I say. As if she's fucking talking to anyone else. I sound like an idiot. "Yeah. Thanks to, ah, you."

Isa nods, slowly. "Yeah, you owe me."

I raise an eyebrows. Well, so much for the bomb trigger. Isa is a girl full of unexpected surprises. "Tactful, sweetheart."

Isa struts towards me and leans over until her face is right up against mine. "I'm not your sweetheart."

"You are ever since you saved my sorry ass."

Isa leans back. "I saved my boyfriend. Your sorry ass was an extra."

I cough, hiding my amused bark of laughter and turn my head away from her. "What do you want from me? A little one on one action once I'm better to repay your debt?" Perfect time to jump in and try to win the bet against Ham. "Maybe a quickie behind the school walls?"

Isa smiles, her full pink lips curving upwards into a perfect arch. "A quickie? With me? Sure that'd be enough?"

This girl knows how to play, alright. "How 'bout you come with me to Prom? Next week?" She laughs, genuinely, this time.

"A week? You think you'd be all patched up by a week? And that I'd be one of the millions of girls you're asking to the Prom? Wow, arrogance is a layer beneath you isn't it?"

It's my turn to lean in. "If I'm fine within a week, you come to Prom with me. And afterwards, you have sex with me."

The words come out in a rush, so quick and sudden, I don't have time to think them through. Once they're out, though, there's no taking them back. And there's no time in this life for regrets. Because now that I know I've got Chrys' gang after my ass, I'll be lucky if I get in without a scratch.

Or survive.

She starts to speak, but I interrupt. "No, don't mention those girls I asked to the Prom. They were to get you jealous. And it worked. You got jealous and now you're gonna say yes, because you want me."

Isa looks take aback. "No." She says, quickly. "Jared...are you...feeling okay?" She presses a cool hand against my forehead. "You're not running a fever are— Argh!"

I grab her arm and pull her on top of me. "Is. It. A. deal?" I whisper in her ear. "Or are you a chicken. Too chicken to handle me?"

Isa swallows. I watch her throat undulate, resist the urge to follow the movement with my lips, tongue and teeth. "Sex?"

"Sex."

"And if you're not fine?" I don't take Isa's cautious question as a penny on my side of the court. Isa is inquisitive.

But she can't resist a dare. Everyone knows her big brothers were the biggest daredevils of the school. She'll take it.

I'll heal.

And within a week, her coveted body will be mine. And so will the money.

There's a brief flash of something in my chest as I think of the videotape, but I squash it down and swallow down my reservations. I have no feelings for this girl. Feelings and I do not go well together.

"I will be."

Isa blinks and swallows. "I have a boyfriend."

I shrug. "Desire, babe. It's not lessened by right or wrong."

"I don't want you."

I smile and lean back against the headboard, crossing my arms beneath my head. "Oh yes you do. One night. One experiment. It's not like you're a virgin." I choke back the bile that rises in my throat at the thought of her expense, her violation.

But I have to...I have to do it, because money is money. And it'll do my already poor family good, getting money. I'm not turning into a gigolo. Just once. Just this once.

And I'm not going to deny that I don't want her. God, my body aches for her, I have fucking wet fantasies about her.

She's strong. She'll get over it.

Isa sighs, deeply. "No." She says it softly. And before I can say anything else, she turns around on her heel and walks away out of the room, leaving me staring after her.