by Emily Lowry
The crowd laughed. The band played. And Trey sang.
19
Hailey
“Don’t see many people with spirit like you,” Lucy said. During Trey’s performance — which went well — Lucy pulled me back to the booth. “You’ve done more for that stray’s career than he’s ever done for himself. And I admire that.”
There was a but coming.
“But it takes more than one song on stage with a group of pros to convince me to book him,” Lucy said.
“But he’s good.”
“Good ain’t enough,” Lucy said. “Hasn’t been for a long time. Don’t know if it ever was. Good’s what you say about your friend who sings a song at a campfire. Good’s a penny in a puddle. You can find good anywhere. But good with real drive, real ambition? That’s what I need.”
Darn. I’d hoped that getting Trey on stage — even for one song — would be enough for Lucy to see how talented he was. Unfortunately, we needed more. But what?
“So how do I get him on stage?”
“You must really like this boy,” Lucy said.
I blushed. Did I like Trey? If I did, it was news to me. But if I didn’t, then why was I blushing? And why couldn’t I stop thinking about the shivers that ran down my back when he whispered in my ear?
Lucy, seeing my predicament, laughed. “Don’t worry. The stray’s got a soft spot for you, too, I can tell. Can’t say he’s ever brought someone here who wasn’t part of his band.”
As impossible as it seemed that I could have an actual crush on Trey Carter, it seemed equally impossible that he could have any kind of positive feeling towards me.
“You want that boy to play on my stage? Get him in front of a crowd. And not just a high school crowd. A real crowd. Adults. A full set, too. You can’t just storm my stage for a single song and call it a day. If he can prove himself there, I’ll see what I can do,” Lucy said.
“Deal.”
She tipped back the dregs of her drink and stood. “And sweetheart? You be careful around him. Boy cuts like rusted barbed wire.”
What did that mean?
20
Trey
My head was buzzing as I drove home, the roar of the crowd still ringing in my ears. For the first time in my life, I had played at Prohibition. I’d played at THE place to play in Evermore.
And I’d killed it.
Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration. The band was talented, and the crowd loved our jazzy version of Hound Dog.
Did I really sing Elvis on stage?
Even when Hailey explained the deal she made with Lucy during my performance, I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face. I’d sung on stage. In front of a real crowd. I’d made them laugh with a quip. If this wasn’t the best night of my life, it was close.
And I owed it all to the bubblegum girl sitting in the passenger seat. I’d expected her to enter Prohibition and wilt, to fade into the background, to keep quiet. Instead, she had emerged from the bathroom looking ridiculously hot, charged the dance floor, almost beat Lucy in a dance-off, rushed the stage, got me onto the stage, and brokered a deal with one of Evermore’s titans.
I thought Hailey Danielson was the type of girl to crack under pressure.
But I was wrong.
Pressure only made her better.
She found Hound Dog on Spotify, connected it to my van’s radio, and we sang together the entire way home, at the top of our lungs. By the time we reached her house, our voices were hoarse and we were both laughing.
I pulled up at the end of her driveway, following her orders. I don’t think either of us wanted to risk a run in with her parents, what with me dropping her home at 2am on a school night.
I grinned at her. Her eyes were sparkling. “Thank you. For real.”
She smiled mischievously. “Trey Carter is grateful for help? For MY help? I need to alert the authorities.” She rolled down her window. “Did you hear that, Evermore? Trey Carter said thank you. Trey freaking— HEY!”
I playfully pulled her back into the van and tried to roll up the window while she kept sticking her head out and half-shouting, half-laughing.
“Shhhhh... you’ll wake the whole neighborhood!” With a firm tug, I got her all the way inside, and she fell backwards into me, my arms wrapping around her in a bear hug.
The bare skin of her stomach was warm and soft. Her hair smelled faintly of vanilla. She tilted her head back and looked at me, laughter in her eyes, and I had an almost overwhelming urge to lean forward and kiss her.
“None of that,” I said, fighting the urge with everything in me, and letting her go. “Can’t have anyone thinking I’ve gone soft.”
She looked at me, a grin flitting on her face.
Did she know what I was just thinking about?
“Your secret is safe with me,” she said. Without another word, she pulled on her parka and hopped out of the van.
“Hailey, wait.”
“Yeah?”
“The song? The adjustment you made?”
“What about it?”
“It works,” I said. “You were right.”
She smiled, winked. “Of course I was right.”
I laughed and watched as she slipped through the gate.
Well, Hailey Danielson. There’s a lot more to you than I thought.
21
Hailey
It was a gloomy, grey afternoon. The last bell had rung, and I was hurrying across Evermore’s campus, headed to the Athletics building for cheer practice. As I ran through the hallways, I kept catching glimpses of the world outside. Gloomy, grey, bleak. But, I supposed, everything felt bleak compared to the incredible energy I had experienced at Prohibition.
Since my impromptu late-night outing with Trey last week, I hadn’t been able to get Prohibition out of my mind. When I went to sleep, I dreamed about it. When I woke up, I longed to fall asleep so I could be there again. I had felt more alive in one night at Prohibition than I had during three years of high school. Maybe more alive than I had ever felt in my entire life.
Even better, I knew what I needed to do to make Trey successful. It wouldn’t be easy, but I was confident I could get him in front of a crowd.
I changed and took my place in the gym next to Lauren Cowley, a fellow junior in my English class. She smiled and fell into a flurry of easy chatter.
“Hey Hails, how’s your Wuthering Heights project coming? I can’t believe you have to work with Trey freaking Carter for it.”
I felt my hackles rise immediately. I was… defensive?
Lauren blabbered on before I could answer. “What’s he like, anyway? He’s, like, so hot, but like, scary. You know?”
“He’s terrifying,” I said. “A real monster.”
Lauren raised her eyebrows, unsure if I was being sarcastic. “Can you ditch him?”
“Thought about it.”
Thankfully, she talked about her own project and let the Trey thing go. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Until way too recently, I had fostered far too many misconceptions about Trey Carter myself.
But being paired with Trey for this project had been the best thing to happen to me all year. I liked him. Liked his company. Liked the way my stomach flipped when he fixed me with that dark stare.
He made me feel something new and exciting.
And I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
Cheer practice ran late. Our pyramid was a disaster today. I needed to get my head in the game, but Prohibition and Trey were occupying the front row seats in my brain, making it difficult to focus on anything else.
I stumbled landing a simple back handspring, and it took me two tries to hit my heel stretch on our pyramid — earning me multiple death glares from Madison.
What kind of captain was I?
I was relieved when Coach Garcia finally called it a day and I could slink back to the locker room.
“Hailey!” Madi cornered me, throwing her arms around me in a hug.
I braced, wa
iting for it.
“Where have you been lately, girl? I’ve barely seen you since Adam dumped you.”
Touché.
I smiled at my frenemy nervously. She may have been my fellow cheerleader for three years, but I didn’t trust Madison Albright one bit. “Just busy. How’s it going with Jeb?”
Madi was dating a famous YouTube star, Jebediah Moose, but I knew all too well that before she had started seeing Jeb, Trey Carter had slighted her.
Which made me the enemy.
You did not reject Madison Albright, no matter who you were.
“He’s the best,” Madison said. She smiled, but her eyes didn’t. “We’re starting to make videos together to try to merge our followers. Maybe we do a double date soon? Me and Jeb, you and Trey?”
“Trey and I aren’t dating.”
“Oh?” She cocked an eyebrow. “Thought I heard a little whisper. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I felt so sorry for you when Adam told everyone to stay away. Like, who does that?”
Liar. I’d seen the Click blast. Madi was in the front row, clapping.
“Boys will be boys,” I said. “I’ve moved on. It’s all okay now.”
“Sure.” She gave me another hug. “But if you ever need anything — anything at all — you know you can talk to me, right?”
“Absolutely,” I lied. That would be like a mouse going to a cat for advice on what to eat for supper.
Eager to shake Madi off, I didn’t bother to change, stuffing my clothes in my gym bag and pulling my parka on straight over my cheer uniform. Anything to get out of there.
As I walked towards the Athletic building’s exit, the lights were turning off, and all the classrooms were locked. I hadn’t driven to school today. My house was only about a 20-minute walk away, and now that it was warming up, I quite enjoyed it. Besides, Mom and Patrick would be out tonight, they always went to the Country Club on Wednesdays. Why hurry to get back to an empty house and takeout?
Darkness fell as I walked. My bare legs stung in the cold — it may be warming up, but it wasn’t quite spring yet. I was about halfway home when the sky opened. There was one drop of rain, then a second, then a thousand.
Great. I ran.
Within three breaths it was pouring down in sheets, drenching everything. It was late February, way too early for a rainstorm. Or so I thought.
The rain seeped through my clothes, chilling me. I picked up my pace. My boots splashed through deep puddles. Cars drove past, their tires dipping into puddles, spraying me with dirty sludge. As if I wasn’t uncomfortable enough. And the worst part was that the only thing I had to look forward to was a microwave dinner. Like that would be enough to warm me up. I ran faster, dreaming of a hot shower.
Brakes squealed as a van pulled up beside me. The passenger window rolled down.
Oh no.
“You look terrible.” Trey was leaning across his van, a big grin on his face. “Get in.”
“My knight in shining armor,” I said, climbing into the van. I tried not to think about my wet cheer uniform or the fact that I had a river of mascara running down my face. “Don’t suppose you have a towel?”
“As a matter of fact,” Trey said, reaching into the back and producing a white towel.
I took it with some hesitation. “Follow-up question — why do you have a towel in your van?”
“I like to drive around during rainstorms and save women in distress.” Trey laughed. “Come on — you should know this. Moisture, humidity. Very very bad for instruments. Plus, DeAndre has a tendency to spill things.”
“Good enough,” I said. I didn’t love using a van towel to dry off, but it smelled clean. Even better, it smelled kind of like Trey.
Stop it, Hailey.
“Have you been to Prohibition again?”
“Nah, got to be careful — don’t want Lucy to get sick of me.”
“Yeah, it probably doesn’t take much,” I teased.
“I should’ve let you walk,” Trey grumbled. If you didn’t know Trey, you would have thought he was serious, a little grumpy. But the more I got to know him, the more I saw through the sarcastic mask. Even now, I could detect a hint of a smile at the corner of his lips. “Was just on my way to Main Street for our Wuthering Heights meet. Lucky I found you — you would’ve been late. And you know how important it is to me that you take this seriously.”
“Funny.”
The gate to my house — emblazoned with a panther, thanks to my over-enthusiastic but never around stepdad — swung open. Trey pulled up to the house. He drove up the driveway cautiously, almost like he was being watched.
“No one’s home,” I said. “You don’t have to be so careful.”
“I’m sure even the grass here is expensive,” Trey said, the van grinding to a halt outside the house. The rain was still pouring heavily. “Try not to drown on the way to your front door.”
“Why don’t you come in?” The words slipped from my mouth before I realized what I was saying.
22
Hailey
What was I doing? Did I really just tell Trey Carter that there was no one home — and then invite him inside? What was he going to think?
“But not like that. I meant just as friends.”
Way to make it a thousand times worse, Hailey.
Trey looked confused for a moment, then shrugged. “Wouldn’t be much of a gentleman if I didn’t walk the lady to her door at least.”
I laughed. “As if you’re a gentleman.”
“That’s a good point,” he said. “Why don’t you run inside and bring me an umbrella? Then you can walk me to the door.”
I rolled my eyes and got out of the van. I let out a soft shriek as the rain crashed down and I ran to the front door. Trey was right behind me, howling “hurry up!” as I punched in the code and the deadbolt turned. Trey and I slipped inside and I slammed the door behind us, locking it.
Two seconds in the rain had left him soaked. I looked at him, he looked at me, and we burst out laughing.
“This is so stupid,” Trey said. “It’s not supposed to rain in February.”
“Call it early spring?”
23
Trey
I’d never been inside a house like this one before. I knew Hailey was rich, but this — this was a whole extra level of wealthy. In the entryway alone, there were two staircases winding up either side to the second floor, and a crystal chandelier glittering from the ceiling. Every movement we made echoed. I imagined this was how rock stars lived, but there was something off. Something that didn’t feel right. How could a place so large, so luxurious, feel so empty?
I took off my muddy boots.
Hailey rolled her eyes. “I know, I know, Rich Girl, blah blah blah. It’s not my fault my mom married him.”
“No, no — it’s nice,” I ventured. She was clearly embarrassed; I didn’t want to make it worse.
“Liar.” Hailey laughed. “I’d give you the grand tour, but I really need to change.” She took off her coat and hung it in a closet. Under her jacket, her cheer uniform was soaked and hugged the curves of her body.
I cleared my throat and quickly looked away. “Uh, I’ll just wait here.”
“Sounds good.” Hailey hurried up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time.
Pull it together, Trey.
So, this was how the other half lived. I figured it would take her a couple minutes to change. That was more than enough time to poke around and get a feel for the place. The opening to the left of the entry led to an oversized dining room, which led to the biggest kitchen I had ever seen. Seriously. The island was the size of a king bed and had about 16 gas burners and a granite countertop. There were two ovens, each of a different size. How many people were they feeding?
I felt out of place.
The large, sterile house felt cold, unwelcoming. People like me didn’t belong here. I didn’t belong here. I returned to the entryway. Hailey still hadn’t come back downstairs, so I decided to see
what was in the room to the right. It was an office filled with sports memorabilia. There was a large desk in the center, and a fireplace in the room's corner. Trophies and framed photos of famous athletes lined the shelves.
Strangely, it felt vaguely like walking through a museum. Despite what I assumed was frequent housekeeping, there was a thin layer of dust on everything and the room smelled musty. It was like they never used it.
“My stepdad’s office.”
I jumped. I hadn’t heard Hailey come back down the stairs. She stood in front of me, barefoot and beautiful, a little smile playing on her lips. Gone was the wet cheerleading uniform and streaky makeup, replaced with pale grey pajama pants and a loose white sweater. Her damp, honey brown hair was twisted into a bun, loose tendrils framing her face, which looked softer, sweeter, without makeup.
I had a crazy urge to reach out, tuck her hair behind her ear.
Give your head a shake, Trey. Snap out of it.
“I was just looking.”
She laughed. “And I was just explaining. He’s never home, so he never uses it.”
“Is it just you and your mom and stepdad who live here?” I was curious. This immense mountain of bricks couldn’t be for three people only.
“Yeah. Most of the time. I have a stepbrother, Jacob — he’s a sophomore. He hangs out here sometimes, but he lives with his mom. Anyway, who cares about my family? Come on, it’s better downstairs.”
I followed her into the basement, which looked like a lounge. There was a wet bar, two pool tables, and a dartboard that still had a photo hanging from it. Before I could get a closer look, Hailey ripped the photo away.
“Never mind that,” she said.
“Was that—”
“Never mind, I said.” Her expression was serious. Hurt flashed in her eyes.
Zamos. That jerk. What had he done to her?