by J Bree
I think Lips is avoiding me too because it’s just too easy to go days without seeing her.
It fucking kills me.
I’m going to have to spend the summer in New York with my parents just to get some space and figure out how the fuck to get through the next two years without moping and pining after this girl like a fucking pathetic asshole. No one is going to win in this situation. Not Harley if he gets her, because he’ll have to deal with knowing how much Ash and I want her, not either of us having to give her up, and not Avery who’s going to have to deal with the fallout.
I definitely start drinking more than I should after classes each day again.
I’m fucking itching for a beer when my phone pings during the class before lunch. It’s Harley in the group message.
We’re eating together at the dining hall today. Lips needs backup so be there.
Well, there goes my carefully laid plans of avoiding her, but there’s no way I’m going to leave her without backup for… whatever the hell she has going on. I could just go eat in my room and blow them off, I’m sure she’ll be fine with just the others, but the idea of letting her down like that has my skin crawling.
I have to accept that, until I figure out how to cut her out from where she’s burrowed under my skin, this girl fucking owns me.
I meet Avery at her class because I’m the closest and I’d promised to grab her, then we head over to the dining hall together.
She’s busy on her phone but I can’t help but ask, “Do you know what this is about?”
She smirks at me without looking up from the screen. “Of course I do.”
I huff at her and glare down a freshman who looks like he’s going to jostle her to get past. The little fucker shits himself and takes off in the opposite direction. “Well, what the fuck is going on? If someone is coming after her then we need to know about it.”
She raises an eyebrow at me. “And why do you need to know about it, Morrison? Anything you need to tell me?”
Fuck. I seal my lips shut and try to get my face to show her nothing. Nothing. I think for a second that I’ve managed to fool her, but then she smirks again and says, “Pathetic, the lot of you. And I won’t tell you a goddamn thing, if Lips wants you to know the details then she’ll tell you herself.”
I grit my teeth and shake my head at her. “There’s too many fucking secrets. We’re going to drown in them.”
Avery shrugs as I push the doors open to the dining hall, murmuring quietly so only I can hear her, “We’ll talk when you idiot boys figure your shit out.”
Fuck. I grimace and Avery cackles at me like my misery is so fucking amazing to her, that I can’t help but sneer back at her. “Maybe you should have this little chat with your cousin, he’s the one holding up the fucking line.”
Then I walk to the table where the others are waiting for us. There’s food already there for us that presumably Ash grabbed, because it’s all of the shit we usually eat and I can’t imagine Harley grabbing me pizza. He would’ve been too busy making eyes at Lips but being too much of a fucking pussy to just ask her out.
There’s a part of me who knows it’s not that easy, but there’s a larger part of me that doesn’t give a fuck. I don’t give a fuck that Lips is honestly the hardest, most difficult girl to approach and talk to about this shit. I don’t care that if I were Harley I’d be tiptoeing the fuck around her too just so I didn’t fuck shit up.
I don’t care because I’m still too jealous to be reasonable.
Avery slips into the empty chair between Lips and Ash, and immediately the girls start whispering to each other. Ash eyes them off but the cold look on his face means he’s just as clueless as I am about what the fuck is going on.
We all dig into our food without talking about the giant elephant in the room, though we’re all sneaking glances at Lips like she’s so fucking fascinating, as she ignores her own plate of food. Well. She is and we always do that, but normally we’re a little more discreet about it because we don’t want to piss each other off.
Knowing there’s a potential threat means all bets are off.
We’re nearly finished when the door flings open with such force that it bounces off the wall.
Fuck.
I don’t even have to look up to know that it’s Joey storming over toward us, and Harley immediately picks up a knife like he’s going to slit his cousin’s throat right here in the dining hall with the entire school watching.
I’m not sure even Avery could cover that mess up.
Lips doesn’t look up or react at all, a sure sign that this is all following some plan she has, but Avery hisses at her, “Fuck, here he comes. He looks fucking murderous, Lips. He looks like Father does right before he backhands me, fuck.”
Lips glances at her, the sharp edge in her eyes softening for just a second before she finally picks up her fork and starts in on her food. Avery follows her lead even with the slight tremble in her fingers, and Lips murmurs quietly, “Remember what I said. He's effectively neutered. Don't engage with him.”
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
I glance at Harley but he’s staring back at me like I’ll have some answers in this mess.
Are we ever going to be in on this shit? Are we ever going to know what the fuck is going on around us or are Lips and Avery just going to set fire to our shit whenever the mood strikes them and we’ll just constantly be sitting around looking like fucking dickheads?
Ash snarls at Lips, clearly just as pissed as Harley and I are about being left in the dark about this shit, “What the fuck does that even mean?”
There’s no time for Lips to reply though because Joey arrives, slamming his palms onto the table in front of her so hard everything on the table rattles.
Silence falls over the dining hall.
The freshmen sitting around us start scrambling to get their shit together and flee, not that I blame them. He really is a fucking monster, and he’s proved over and over again just how little he gives a fuck about assaulting and maiming people. He’s lost his shit, his eyes are manic as they dart around each of us and there’s no doubt that he’s in withdrawal. I’ve only seen him this bad once before and he almost killed two juniors in a fit of rage.
Great.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” he spits at her, and I pick a knife up as well. I guess Harley isn’t the only person going down for Joey’s murder today.
Lips doesn’t look worried, not for a second.
Instead, she slowly sets down her own knife and fork, crossing her arms over her chest like she has all the time in the world. She looks him up and down slowly before she speaks, her words even and calm and utterly fucking cutthroat.
“Let me tell you how this is going to go from here onwards, Joseph. You will not speak to me, your siblings, your cousin, or Morrison. You will not speak about us. You won't plot, or scheme, or belittle. You will not raise a hand. You’re going to pretend we don't exist. If you come across one of us in the halls you will avert your gaze and walk the fuck away. Am I clear?”
Oh, she’s about to die.
Ash tenses, ready to jump up and throw himself at Joey the second his brother flies at her and kills the little Mounty girl except…
He doesn’t.
Joseph Beaumont Jr. just stands there, his chest heaving like he’s about to fucking scream or puke or something, and even though his eyes are darting around the room like he’s looking for an exit, he doesn’t so much as flinch in her direction.
What the fuck is happening here?
“The Jackal sends his regards,” Lips says in that same even tone like this is all so fucking boring to her, and then she picks her fork back up and digs back into her food.
My eyes meet Ash’s but he’s still sitting there, shocked but ready to act the second Joey does. Avery is like a statue, barely breathing, but after another beat she picks up her cutlery again and follows the Mounty’s lead.
The whole room is silent.
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Then Joey roars and turns on his heel, shoving a couple of juniors on his way out and whispers start up all around us.
“What the fuck just happened?” The words fall out of me, and Lips blinks up at me, glancing around the table at each of us like she’s shocked we’re showing her so much interest… as though she hasn’t just achieved the impossible right here in the fucking dining hall. Avery looks smugly around at us as well, grinning at Lips like she’s in love with her.
That makes four of us.
Lips pulls herself up a little straighter and then just lays out the facts. “Joey likes three things. I couldn't touch his money—that will take more time than we have. I couldn't kill him without risking Ash. That left his addiction.”
I can barely believe the words coming out of her mouth. “Holy shit. You cut him off. You cut him off?!”
“There isn’t a dealer in the state that will sell to him now,” she says as she looks me dead in the eye like some fucking badass Mounty kid we’ve all been underestimating, and I fall completely over the fucking ledge in love with her.
How the fuck am I going to survive seeing her with Harley every fucking day and knowing how badly I want her?
“How the fuck does a Mounty have that much pull?” Harley says, just as incredulous as I am, and she smirks back at him.
We all watch as puzzle pieces click together in his head.“Fuck. You used a favor.”
A favor.
It’s as though they’re speaking another language, one only the two of them and maybe Avery know, and for once I find myself ready to hulk out and flip the fucking table in a rage. Usually I leave that shit to Arbour and his pissy moods.
Lips nods at Harley slowly and when he sighs like the whole world is riding on his shoulders, she murmurs to him quietly, “I used one to save you. One to get Senior out of the way until graduation. Now I've used another to cut Joey off. I don't regret it and I'd do it again. We’re all getting out of this alive, even if I have to call in every favor I have. That's why I have them.”
Holy shit.
We haven’t just underestimated her. We’ve been chasing her around thinking she needs our protection while she’s been using secret connections to dig us all out of the shit we’ve been buried in, slowly but surely drowning in.
The look on Ash’s face says everything.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ash
After the Mounty’s stunt in the dining hall, I’m expecting Senior or Joey to retaliate immediately. I’m expecting a phone call or visit from Senior, a knock at the door at 3 in the morning from Joey ready to make me bleed for what Lips did, but… nothing.
Not a single word from any of them.
It goes beyond not being able to believe it, it worries me because there’s no way it can be true. There’s no way Lips actually managed to find something that would stop Joey from going to Senior and bringing his wrath down on us all.
But she did.
I give up all pretenses of trying to stay away from her.
I start following Blaise to their room for their study sessions and the second Harley catches wind of it, he comes along too. Avery watches us all like a hawk, like she’s waiting for a fucking orgy to start on the floor, but Lips just accepts us all crashing there like it’s perfectly reasonable for us all to be studying together.
I get nothing done around her.
Well, mostly because I can’t concentrate with Harley glaring daggers at me and Blaise moping in my general direction because he’s a spoiled brat who can’t handle having to share her. The real problem here is that it finally occurs to me that Lips is utterly oblivious to us all.
She doesn’t have a fucking clue of what’s going on.
Harley glues himself to her side, telling Blaise and I that he’s worried about Joey’s retaliation but we both know exactly what his game plan is. When he insists on sitting next to her and she questions him about it, there’s no way around it. She might be the smartest person in our grade, she might have all of the street smarts the Bay could ever offer her, but she has no fucking clue about how badly the three of us want her.
I shouldn’t, I really fucking shouldn’t, but I text Avery about it.
How exactly does Lips not see Harley panting after her?
My sister looks up at me from the other side of the table, a tray of sushi in front of her and a math book open to whatever it is that she’s cramming for. No one else notices that we’re texting each other, because Lips is busy explaining something to Blaise and Harley is glaring at him like he’s asked her for a strip tease and not just help with geometry.
Just Harley? I was under the impression you’re all panting after her pathetically. I’ve never helped you with your conquests before and I’m not starting now.
My eyes narrow in her direction but she just smirks at me, smug as ever until I put my phone down and get back to my own studying.
This is not going to end well.
No one give Lips any coffee, she’s cut off.
The text makes absolutely no sense because coffee isn’t some illicit fucking substance, but when I meet Harley at the door to the chapel he looks pissed as fuck.
“What’s eating your ass?”
He huffs at me and pushes the doors open, leading the way to the front row of pews and snarling at the students there until they scamper off. I sit down and look out over the crowd but Joey is nowhere to be seen.
“Lips is a fucking wreck. You saw the text right? She’s jittering around the place like she’s on crack, because she’s that nervous about this shit. Why the hell would they make the performance mandatory? It’s choir for fuck’s sake.”
Lips, Blaise, and Avery finally arrive together just as the performances are due to start. Lips is wedged between the other two, Blaise’s arm slung over her shoulders as he leans in to whisper to her and Avery’s arm is threaded through hers.
Lips looks like she’s going to puke.
I don’t like that at all.
“She’s fucking terrified of doing this, don’t be a dick about it,” Harley snaps, and I turn to snap back at him but his eyes are still on the stage, like he’s plotting out how to start a fire and get her out of having to do this.
I’m dying to hear her sing.
Avery always gets this awed look on her face whenever Blaise mentions Lips’s voice, and her overall smugness tells me we’re in for a show, so as much as I don’t like seeing her so fucking jittery… I’m not going to lie and say I’m not looking forward to seeing what she’s got in store for us.
When the choir teacher walks out and starts off on her speech about what the students will be doing, I zone out, only focusing again when Avery’s name is called first and she walks confidently onstage. She sings beautifully, nothing show-stopping or flashy, but she only ever did choir to keep an eye on Blaise. The moment she’s done there’s a decent applause from the audience, most of the students too fucking terrified of her not to clap, and she prances off of the stage like a pro to sit with us.
The next girl is out of tune, and Harley keeps snickering under his breath at her because she’s swaying and gyrating like she’s the best fucking thing since sliced bread. At one point she dry humps the microphone stand and winks at Harley who stares her down like she’s diseased, which, if the rumors are to be believed, is accurate.
Blaise cheats and sings a Vanth song, not exactly giving it his all but still sounding good enough to have half the female population fucking swooning. I swear you can hear them all dripping for him and the applause is full of squealing girls as he steps down from the stage.
I smirk at him when he takes his seat, nudging Harley with his elbow and picking a fight with him right off the bat. Avery leans in close to me, whispering in my ear, “Lips is better.”
I don’t see how that’s possible so I’m assuming she’s just stirring shit with me. Harley and Blaise mutter amongst themselves through the rest of the performances and Avery spends the whole time on her phone, looking t
hrough security camera footage of what exactly Joey has been up to in the last week, which is both disgusting and typical.
A lot of alcohol and girls stupid enough to fuck him because even with his reputation, the Beaumont name is a draw for them.
After an hour, Lips’ name is finally called out and she walks out onto the stage, her legs still unsteady but her face a blank, carefully controlled mask once again. She fidgets with her ears for a second and takes a deep, deep breath.
“What was that?” I murmur, and Avery sighs a little at me.
“Earplugs. She can’t sing without them.”
I frown, but then the song starts and she opens her mouth and nothing else exists to me anymore, nothing but the sound of her voice and, fuck me, the Mounty can sing. She sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before, the hauntingly melodic tones of her voice send shivers down my spine and if it wasn’t already perfectly clear to me before… I am ruined for this girl.
I am fucked.
She stares out at the colored glass, tears starting up in her eyes, but she sings like an angel through it all like a fucking trooper.
There’s a stunned silence that falls over the chapel when the final notes of the song come to an end and then the entire room erupts. Lips obviously can’t really hear it, or she’s in too much of a trance after singing, because she doesn’t smile or blush or acknowledge it in any way as she stumbles over to the steps. When she pulls the earplugs out, she finally cracks a weak-looking smile and chuckles at Avery’s overly enthusiastic cheering.
She looks so unsteady as she wobbles over to us, her eyes darting around at each of us but I can’t think of a single thing to say to her… other than how fucking badly I want her in my bed tonight.
Avery tucks her into her side and whispers to her, the blush spreading over her cheeks entirely too tempting, and I have to pry my eyes away from her.
Lips lets out a breath and settles into her seat, wedged in-between Avery and Harley, and we watch as a guy with a cello walks out onto the stage. It's only quiet for a second before Blaise and Harley start fighting, the beginning of the end.