by Ella Fields
“That doesn’t mean you can’t do what you want.”
“Says you who will probably need to go pre-law or major in business finance.” She winced, hurrying to add, “Sorry.”
I grinned. “Don’t be.”
She stared up at me, searching my gaze.
I knew what Renee was waiting for—what I was waiting for, too—but I couldn’t bring myself to say it yet, to do it yet. Our mothers might be social pariahs, but they’d made a habit of knowing our whereabouts and being home when we were since we’d walked out on the patio over six months ago.
“Our parents leave for Beijing next Friday,” I said.
“They do. How’d you get out of going?”
“I said we’ve got an assignment due on Monday.”
“Me too,” Renee said, then rolled her eyes. “Because we do.”
“I know, but what they don’t know is that we’ll be doing that assignment together.”
Her brows narrowed. “We will, will we?”
“Uh-huh.”
A light tapping resounded on the door. “Yo! Callum, open up.”
Mike’s voice had me flopping back to the bed.
“It’s open,” Renee told him.
A pause before the door opened. “Oh, hey Renee.”
Renee propped herself up on her elbows. “Hi.”
Mike stalked across the room to the couch, sinking into it with a loud sigh.
“Man, that shit was brutal. We’re going to get our asses chewed out on Monday.”
“Didn’t feel like partying tonight?” I asked, trying not to grit my teeth.
“Nope, Slade’s house is a mess. No one wants to hang out there while his parents are renovating. Nowhere to chill.” He grabbed an issue of Sports Illustrated from the side table and started flipping through it.
I scowled at the ceiling, counting backward from five before I could look at him again.
“Couldn’t do that at your place?” I asked. Okay, so the counting didn’t work.
Renee whacked me playfully, and I grabbed her hand, nipping her fingers.
“Mom’s spent most of today throwing my dad’s shit out onto the front lawn, so I didn’t really wanna go home.”
Fuck.
“I’m sorry,” Renee said.
Mike shrugged. “His own fault. Secretaries are not for banging.”
“Cliché, too,” Renee added.
Mike gave her a soft smile. “That’s what I said.”
“She’s leaving him?” I asked.
“Oh, no,” Mike said, flipping a page and staring at it as he said, “she owns the house, the cars, and earns more than he does. She’s kicking him out.”
Renee whistled. “Good for her.” She quickly added, “But I’m sorry. That must suck.”
“It’s fine. It is what it is. My dad’s soft, and he’s let her walk all over him for most of their marriage. It was bound to happen eventually.”
I didn’t dare say that I pictured Mike someday ending up in a similar marriage. As soon as the guy got a girlfriend, he was their slave, masseuse, and lover all rolled into one. He knew it, and still, he let them lead him around on a leash until they were done with him.
“You’re welcome to stay here. Plenty of spare rooms.”
He closed the magazine, sinking back into the couch as he tossed it onto the table. “Thanks. I might do that.”
“We’ve got plans next weekend, though.” Renee elbowed me with a glare. “What?” I asked her. “We do. I’m not letting anything mess with them.”
Mike was staring at Renee as her face reddened. “God, Callum. Could you be any crasser?”
“Absolutely.”
Mike laughed, but the sound broke off when I sank my tongue into Renee’s gaping mouth.
She laughed, shoving me away and sitting up to right her hair.
“You know your mom’s sitting down the hall pretending to read a book in the window seat, right?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, I know.”
Renee snickered, then climbed off the bed. “I’m going to go ask her what she’s reading, then head home. Later, Mike.”
“Later, Renee,” he said, watching her hips sway as she continued righting her hair on the way out the door.
I tossed a remote control at Mike’s head, just missing it as he ducked. “Quit staring.”
“What?” He shook his head. “I’m not.”
I gestured for him to toss the remote back, switching on the TV when he did. “It’s obvious. No need to make it worse.”
The stares, casual yet too longing, and the smiles, shy but given to her too often. I saw it. And I wasn’t fucking around the subject anymore.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about.” Cold, honest words of which he didn’t deny.
“She’s beautiful, Cal, but I’m …”
“You’re what?” I said, the picture of nonchalance as I flicked through the channels with my arm folded behind my head. But he’d be an idiot to think I wouldn’t lose my mind if he so much as made a move—one wrong move or word in her direction.
“I’m a guy who likes girls, and I can’t help but notice them. Seriously, there’s nothing more to it.”
“Good,” I acquiesced, hoping he meant it.
Our parents left early Friday morning, but despite Callum’s pouting and tempting touches, I insisted we go to school.
“Nothing like a call from the truancy officer to spoil all our fun,” I’d murmured into his ear outside history that morning.
He’d cursed quietly, then gave me a rough kiss before storming down the hall to his own class.
“What’s the smug smile for?” Hilda asked as I took a seat beside her.
I opened my book and scribbled today’s date at the top of the page. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, right.”
Mrs. Hill shut the door, placing her coffee down on her desk to rummage through her briefcase.
Hilda grumbled, “Is she ever on time?”
“Probably not,” I said.
Hilda’s gaze burned into my profile. “We’re going to Tyson’s tonight. You’re coming, right?”
I frowned at her. “Um, no.”
“Yeesh, no need to be rude about it.”
I shook my head. “I’m not. No one invited me, so I made other plans.”
“As if those other plans wouldn’t come first anyway,” she muttered beneath her breath.
I heard the words loud and clear.
Yes, Callum took up a lot of my free time, but I’d still made every drama get-together and rehearsal. It was becoming obvious that no matter what I did, Hilda would still find reasons to be pissed with me when she felt like it.
I bit my tongue all through class, but my rage became something I no longer wanted to hold inside me anymore.
“You know what?” I asked Hilda as we were walking out of class. “What’s the real problem here? Because I know me not going to Tyson’s to watch them play some stupid video game isn’t it.”
Hilda’s eyes widened slightly. “I just want to spend time with you. Is that too much to ask?”
“It’s not, and if that were the problem, I’d understand. But I know it’s not.”
We stopped in the corridor, Hilda fidgeting with her notebook. “Forget it.”
“Why? It’s clear something is bothering you—oh.”
A pink tinge colored her cheeks as she stared at the ground. “I’ll see you later.”
“Hilda, wait.” She stopped. “How long have you liked him?”
She looked around, horrified, before stepping closer to me. “Shhh, what the hell? I don’t.”
“It’s okay if you do.”
She laughed, the sound bitter as her cheeks reddened further. “No, it’s not. And I don’t. He’s a snobby jock and not someone I’d ever be interested in. No offense.”
“Well, it sure seems like our relationship bothers you,” I whispered, tryin
g to gentle my tone.
Hilda rolled her eyes. “Whatever. If that’s what you need to tell yourself, go right ahead.”
I chewed my lip as she walked away.
“I think my friend has a crush on you.”
“The Asian one?” Callum asked, parking his Lexus in the garage once it opened.
“How’d you know?”
We got out, Callum opening my door for me and keeping my hand in his once it closed.
“She’s always staring at us, much like someone else I know,” he grumbled that last part.
“That’s …” I stopped. “What? Who?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Callum smiled that crooked smile that made my limbs liquefy. “You’re hard not to like, Mouse.”
“Yeah, I’m ridiculously charming.”
Walking inside, he tossed his keys on the table in the laundry room, then continued through to the kitchen. “I wouldn’t say charming,” he mused. “Soda?”
“No thanks.”
Backing me into the counter, he swept my hair aside, his hand gripping my neck gently as his thumb brushed over my pulse. “I’d say sassy, intelligent, funny, beautiful, and the property of Callum Welsh.”
Laughing, I poked his dimple. “I’m no one’s property.”
“You’re here, aren’t you?” Raspy, daring words.
Leaning up, I dragged my lips over his jaw. “I’m here because I want to be, not because I belong to you.”
Callum stilled, a long breath whooshing out of him. “Are we about to fight, beautiful? Because you know how that always ends.”
I shivered but stood my ground. “I belong with you, not to you.”
“Sassy indeed,” he murmured, pressing his lips to my forehead. He inhaled deeply, then his arms were lifting me onto the counter. “I had planned a romantic dinner. Maybe a movie, you know, the typical shit.”
“Fuck typical shit. Take me upstairs.”
With a low chuckle, he ravaged my mouth with his, doing as he was told.
The gilded staircase passed by in a blur, Callum’s muscles flexing as he carried me the whole way up them, then down the hall to his room.
He released me, immediately unbuttoning my blouse as I reached for the fly of his pants.
Clothes off, we stumbled back to his bed, and he climbed over me, his lips and tongue everywhere, his large hands squeezing my breasts. “God-fucking-damn it, I want you so bad.”
“Have me then.”
“Let me play, first.”
He wriggled down my body, lips leaving a tingling trail in their wake and causing my hips to shoot up off the bed when he kissed me there. “Fingers,” I breathed out. “Need your fingers.”
He inserted one, slowly rotating it as his tongue sucked and circled. The crown molding warped and shifted above me as I tried desperately to keep my eyes open.
“So sweet,” he rasped. “You’re coming, aren’t you?”
My thighs quivered, stomach clenching as he inserted another finger. I grabbed fistfuls of his hair, grinding myself into his face without a trace of shame. We’d done it enough times that he was used to giving me what I wanted as I took what I needed.
Callum removed his fingers, trailing them over my stomach and swirling wetness around my nipples before taking the hardened peaks into his mouth. “You want to taste yourself, don’t you?”
Still trembling, I didn’t answer, just licked my lips, which made him grin before tucking his fingers into my mouth. I sucked, watching his pupils dilate and his broad, smooth shoulders bunch. Wrapping my tongue around them, I grabbed his wrist, slowly tugging his fingers from my mouth as he groaned.
“On your back,” I said.
“No, I want inside you, need inside you.”
I pushed him down to the bed, wrapping my hand around his long thick girth and rubbing my tongue over the head. “Jesus. You evil wench.”
“You say the sweetest things.” I laughed around his cock, then bobbed down, taking as much of him into my mouth as I could. He jerked, making me gag before he rolled me off him to my back.
As he rubbed himself over me, his eyes shuttered. “So fucking wet.”
I grinned, arching my back. “You did that.”
His answering grin knocked the breath from my lungs, his hips rotating. My hands raced up his arms, nails scraping his back as I pulled his chest to mine.
“Are you sure you want to do this now?” He nipped my neck, nudging his nose over my hammering pulse.
“Are you kidding?” I asked. “We’ve been skirting around this for months. Put it in me already.”
He fell on top of me, roaring a laugh into my ear. The sound—deep, melodious and smile inducing—made me laugh, too.
When his chuckles subsided, he whispered, “I love you.”
It was a big deal for him to admit something I already knew, so I let myself soak it in, rays of warmth cascading over me and causing tears to invade. “I love you, too.”
My hands, which were on his back, felt his long exhale beneath them as his breath stirred my hair. Rising on a forearm, he nestled a hand between us. “Condom?” I asked.
“You’re on the pill. I’ve seen the pack in your bathroom.”
Now was not the time to scold him for his self-absorbed tendencies. I chose to be honest instead. “There’s going to be blood.”
His eyes, a shade darker than their usual chocolate, flared as he leaned in to press his lips to mine, his thick length nudging, then gently pushing inside. “Good.”
Callum righted my crown after leading me to the center of the dance floor.
Purple, green, and yellow streamers hung from the cavernous auditorium, spilling from the roof in loops and trickling waves. Balloons of the same color interrupted the waterfall of color, bunched together in corners and over doorways. The lights were dim, but not enough that I couldn’t make out the smirk that hadn’t left his face.
“Stop it,” I hissed, batting his hand away.
He planted it on my hip. “You had to have known it’d be us.”
“We might be vain, but even that’s a little too conceited, Callum.”
A broad shoulder tilted. “Perhaps, but I saw it coming.”
I hadn’t, not by a long shot.
“Smile,” he teased. “You know you want to.” Lips skipped over my cheek to my ear. “We both know that inside, you’re secretly thrilled to have that plastic crown on your beautiful head.”
Laughter spilled out of me, my arms clutching his neck tightly. Pulling away, he peered down at me beneath hooded eyes. “There she is.”
Him, the music, laughter, chatter, and joy filling the room all sank inside. My blood, my very bones sighing as I stared up at him. “I love you.”
His head lowered to press his mouth to mine. “And I you, so fucking much.”
My mouth held his hostage as he tried to pull back. I wouldn’t let him and ignored the catcalls and whistling from nearby. Nothing else existed for me. Nothing but him, his hands tight on my waist, the warmth from his body, the heat from his tongue—nothing else.
The night grasped time in its fist, hurtling it forward in a flash of dancing, kissing, more laughter, and delicious finger foods.
Hilda was standing by the doors as I grappled with the overzealous silver tulle of my gown, bunching it in my hands as my stomach threatened to bust the ties of the bodice. Too much food, not enough room to breathe.
Worth it, I told myself.
“Hey,” I said, a little out of breath. “Having fun?”
We hadn’t spoken much in the weeks since our spat after class. But with only a few months remaining of our senior year and the mood that wrapped tight around me, tighter than the Versace gown I was wearing, I realized I didn’t want those months to pull us further apart.
We’d never been super close, but she was one of my only friends. And I missed her.
“I guess.” Hilda’s eyes scanned the crown sitting atop my head. “Congrats.”
The word was dry, and it stu
ng. “Thanks.” I smiled even as that sting resonated sharply in my chest. “You look beautiful,” I said.
And she did, swathed in loose, silken green fabric that set her midnight hair aglow. The sharp lines of her heart-shaped face an elegant contrast to her whole ensemble. But those eyes, lined with false lashes and filled with unnamed emotion—they were all fire.
“Thank you,” she said, the words carrying quietly beneath the sound of the music and people behind us in the auditorium.
“Party at Frenchies!” Tyson yelled, pumping his arms in the air, his tie flying over his shoulder and landing on the confetti marred floor as he walked out into the night.
Hilda rolled her eyes, straightening from her perch against the door. “I suppose you’ll be going to that party.”
“There’s another one?” I asked.
Hilda shrugged, glancing over my shoulder and swallowing. “It doesn’t matter. Have a good night.”
“Hilda.” I caught her hand outside, the wind scooping up my hair for my lips to catch. I removed my hold on Hilda’s hand, plucking the hair away. “I don’t know exactly what I did, but I’m … I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. Life happens.”
“It does.” I frowned. “But I miss my friend.”
Her laugh was a sour, beautiful sound. “Well, color me surprised.”
“What—”
“You shouldn’t waste time missing something you didn’t have in the first place.”
At my look of confusion, Hilda continued, “You’re just like all of them. Maybe not wholly, but when it counts, where it counts, you’re just like them.”
My hackles raised, shoulders pinned back. “I’m not following. Like who?”
“The rest of the brats at this stupid school.”
My hand released its hold on my dress, nails scoring into my palms. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Says the girl dating the linebacker and all-round American asshole.”
“Look,” I said, my heart racing and my cheeks warming. “If my being with him upsets you …”
Hilda’s brows crinkled. “Oh, come on.” She stepped backward, a hand at her stomach as she laughed loud and clear into the faces of those moving around us. “God, you think,” she said, sniffing and swiping beneath her eyes. “You seriously still think I’m into your boyfriend? How self-absorbed are you?”