Rewrite the Stars

by Rose, Charleigh

  After Kat got me nice and buzzed, she made me promise to perform with the Vixens at least once this summer. I agreed, and then we spent the next hour showing each other different dances we’ve choreographed—her for the Vixens, and me for my pom team and the underclassman’s dance class that I taught as a senior. Hanging out with Kat is good for the soul. I’d forgotten how much I missed having a real friend. Same goes for Miles.

  I was mid-split when I realized I’d lost track of time. When Miles and Kat learned where I was heading, they insisted on tagging along, and I was thankful because I was tipsy as hell and not ready to end the night.

  I look over to Kat who’s on the other side of me, eyes wide with fascination as she watches them circle the cage, and I wonder if that’s the same face I wear when I look at Sebastian. “Do they ever crash?” she asks, leaning close so I can hear her over the noise.

  “Not that I’ve seen.” And I hope I never do.

  Miles snakes an arm over my shoulder, bringing his mouth close to my ear. “Heads-up. Satan has entered the building. I repeat, Satan has entered the building.” I roll my eyes, casually glancing around. Then I see her, sitting next to Elliot in her skintight, red halter top and black skinny jeans, looking every bit the lead Vixen. I suddenly feel extremely underdressed in my T-shirt and jeans. And what’s she doing with Elliot? If she thinks she can use him to get closer to Sebastian, she doesn’t know him as well as I thought.

  Suddenly, the audience claps and cheers as the show ends, bringing my attention back to the globe. The guys ride down the ramp, taking off their helmets. When I make eye contact with Sebastian, he’s staring at me with a look I can’t decipher.

  “Ooh, Daddy’s angry,” Miles teases, snatching his arm back from around my shoulders.

  “Maybe you’ll get a spanking.” Kat’s eyebrows wiggle suggestively.

  “Stop.” I laugh, standing to make my way toward Sebastian before the crowd of fangirls gets to him. “I’ll be right back.”

  I shoulder through the crowd, and Sebastian jerks his chin for me to meet him behind the rope that surrounds the cage, acting as a barrier between them and the audience. I duck underneath, coming to a stop in front of him as he unzips his leather jacket before shrugging it off his broad shoulders. His hair and skin are slick with sweat, and I bite my lip, taking him in. Before he even says a word, liquid courage in the form of margaritas has me fisting the front of his shirt and pushing up onto my toes to press my lips to his.

  Sebastian makes a surprised sound in the back of his throat, but he doesn’t pull away. He snakes one hand around my waist, his hand coming down to palm my ass as his tongue pushes into my mouth to dance with mine. It’s the first time that we’ve ever done anything like this in public. I don’t even know where we stand after last night, but he looked too good to resist.

  “Hi,” I say innocently, unable to keep the stupid smile off my face. Sebastian peers down at me, assessing.

  “New friends?” he asks, flicking his chin toward where Miles and Kat sit, his hand still gripping my ass.

  “Mhm. And I really like these ones, so don’t be a dick.”

  His forehead wrinkles. “Don’t be a dick?”

  “Please?” I add, jutting out my bottom lip.

  “As long as that fuck keeps his hands off you,” he says, referring to Miles.

  “He’s not like that.” Miles loves to flirt, but he’s harmless.

  “I know who he is. Kat’s one of the good ones, too,” he says.

  “Are you implying that Miles also falls into that category?”

  “He was until he got you drunk,” he grumbles, probably tasting the tequila on my tongue.

  I roll my eyes. “That was Kat’s idea.”

  “I have to finish up here,” he says, releasing my butt to drag his hand through his sweaty hair. For some reason, I love it when he comes out of the globe all dirty and glistening. “Meet me back at the bunkhouse in an hour.”

  “Don’t shower.” I turn away from Sebastian’s heated gaze, only to find Selina on the other side of the rope, waiting for her turn. I fight the urge to glare at her in warning or flash her a taunting smirk, instead looking right past her, like she doesn’t exist, knowing that for girls like Selina, being irrelevant is a fate far worse than anything else.

  I don’t take two steps before I hear Sebastian shout my name. I turn back, looking at him expectantly.

  “Be safe.”

  I nod, warmth radiating through me. Sebastian doesn’t care about anyone, but he seems to care about me.

  Kat and Miles are practically jumping up and down when I get back to them. “Masterful,” Miles praises, giving me a golf clap.

  “I shouldn’t have enjoyed that nearly as much as I did,” Kat admits, laughing. “I’m hungry. Let’s go get some funnel cake.”

  Half an hour later, we’re hanging outside Kat’s trailer that she shares with a few of the other girls, listening to music and having drinks. I stopped drinking, not wanting to get sloppy drunk right before I meet up with Sebastian.

  Miles is in the middle of lip syncing Orgy’s “Blue Monday” when Selina saunters up. The mood noticeably shifts, but no one says anything. She finds Colette, one of the Vixens, and the two of them make conversation a short distance away from us. Kat tosses me a look, shrugging her shoulders. Honestly, as long as I’m not her target, I don’t care that she’s here. This is her territory.

  “I need water,” I announce, standing up from the folding chair. I make my way over to the cooler, digging around the melted ice in search of a water bottle, but all I can find are sodas and beer.

  “You do know that it’s never going to happen between Sebastian and you, right?” Selina says by way of greeting.

  I blow out a breath, shutting the cooler lid and shaking the icy water off my hand. “Hello, Selina. Nice to see you, too.”

  “He doesn’t want a relationship,” she says, closing in on my personal space. “He wants to fuck dirty then go about his business. Little girls looking for fairy tales aren’t capable of that.”

  “Oh, he knows exactly what I’m capable of.” I toss her a smile, seeing her mouth snap shut before I walk back toward Miles and Kat. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Kat stands, hugging me, and Miles follows suit.

  I make my way through the dark maze of trailers, wishing I brought my phone to provide some light. I walk in the general direction of where I know the bunkhouse is, figuring I’ll run into it eventually. It’s still relatively early. Most of the carnival workers are just getting off work, ready to party until the sun comes up.

  Selina’s words play over in my head, and even though I know, realistically, that it was her insecurity talking, I don’t doubt the validity of her claims. Sebastian has made it more than clear that he’s not looking for a relationship. That’s not the part that’s bothering me, though. I’d be stupid to want a relationship with him. I’m only here for the summer, and the guy’s a nomad. Not exactly boyfriend material. It’s the dirty fucking, love ’em and leave ’em thing. I don’t want to be that girl, pining over a boy who took what he wanted until something better came along.

  Lost in thought, I realize I have no idea where I am. Loud music and laughter bounce off the trees, making it next to impossible to tell which direction it’s coming from and I spin around, trying to pinpoint the sound. Finally, I come up to a small cargo trailer and let out a relieved breath. I must be back on the right track.

  But my relief is short-lived, because someone comes up behind me, shoving me inside the trailer. I try to run back out, my heart hammering in my chest as the door slides down, slamming shut.

  No no no no no.

  “What are you doing?” I scream, pounding on the door, crouching down, trying to slide it back up. I hear a click, like a deadbolt locking into place, and my panic level skyrockets. I feel around the walls of the trailer, knowing there’s usually another door in these things, uncaring of the tiny splinters of wood that stick into my palms. I find the do
or, thank God, my hand pulling at the latch, but it’s locked, too. “Fuck!”

  I kick the door, yelling until my voice gets hoarse, but no one hears me over the music. Taking a deep breath, I try to calm myself down. “There’s no reason to panic,” I say out loud, pacing back and forth. “Sebastian will come looking for me. Worst-case scenario, I have to stay in here until morning. It’s not the end of the world.”

  I repeat the words in my head, still working on taking calming breaths, and it’s working until something crawls across the top of my foot. I scream, shaking my foot before running to the other side of the trailer.

  Why didn’t I bring my phone?

  I SIT ON THE COUCH in the bunkhouse, downing a bottle of water as I wait for Evan to get back. Kissing her in front of everyone was a bad idea, but when she walked up like she owned the place and everything in it—including me—I couldn’t deny her. I don’t know who I thought we were fooling anyway. Lathan’s black eye serves as a prime example. After eating Evan’s pussy, I went in search of Lathan. Once I found him, I hurled my fist into his face for trying to strong-arm her into leaving. You don’t punch your cousin and best friend over a girl you don’t give a fuck about.

  After a minor scuffle, we sat down outside to clear the air. Eros and Tres were there, too, so we had an impromptu family meeting.

  “No one gives a fuck if you like the chick,” Lathan said. “We had a deal. We all upheld our end of the deal because you insisted on it.”

  “What exactly have I done?” I demanded. “Did I ask her to marry me? Did I knock her up? Because that was the agreement. An agreement we made when we were fucking twelve,” I point out. And it wasn’t just me. We all agreed. After watching my mom become a shell of herself, I knew I never wanted to leave anyone else behind.

  Lathan worked his jaw back and forth, losing patience. “It’s different with her. I can practically see it happening. And if you get to find something good in this fucked-up mess, then…” he trailed off, but I heard his unspoken question. Then why can’t we?

  I almost argued that he fucked around more than all of us with a new girl in every city, but then it clicked. Lathan had felt something for someone but didn’t act on it. And clearly, he was taking it out on Evan.

  “Well, if the whole thing’s off, I’m going after Kat,” Eros announced, adding some levity to the conversation. We left it at that, neither one of us wanting to delve any deeper than we just had, agreeing, essentially, to mind our own business. We all knew what was at stake. There wasn’t a need to police each other.

  “Your girl watches some weird shit,” Eros says, scrolling through Evan’s laptop, bringing me back to the present.

  I slap the screen shut, smirking to myself when I remember how I caught her watching porn.

  “Where is she, anyway?”

  “That’s a good question.” She’s an hour late. Probably had too much to drink and lost track of time, if I had to guess. “She was supposed to meet me here. She was with Kat earlier.”

  “Let’s go find our girl.”

  When we get to Kat’s, there’s a handful of people hanging around, but Kat and Evan are nowhere to be found. I see Miles sitting on top of a cooler with a girl on his lap and make my way over to him.

  “You see Evan?”

  His eyebrows bunch together. “She left a long time ago.”

  Eros and I share a look. “What about Kat?” he asks Miles.

  “She went to sleep a few minutes ago,” he says, hooking his thumb toward the trailer behind him. Fuck. My gut twists. Evan wouldn’t go anywhere else.

  “Nobody sleeps, nobody leaves until we find her,” I shout loud enough for everyone to hear. She can’t be far. We’re in a wooded area off the lot that doesn’t lead anywhere.

  “I’ll go wake Kat,” Miles says, looking worried as he stands, sliding the girl off his lap.

  “I’ll go grab the flashlights.” Eros runs in the direction of our trailer.

  Kat walks out wrapped in a blanket, looking dazed and concerned. “She never made it back?”

  “What happened before she left?” I ask, ignoring her pointless question. Obviously, she didn’t or I wouldn’t be here. “Was she drunk?”

  “No,” she says resolutely. “She quit drinking before your show—” Her eyes widen before narrowing. “Selina.”

  “Explain.”

  “Selina cornered her, spewing her usual bullshit, but Evan looked like she was handling herself just fine.”

  “Then what happened?” I press.

  “Nothing.” She shrugs, helpless. “She left to find you. But Selina was pissed.”

  Selina’s not here anymore, and a quick look into her trailer tells me she’s not there either. No telling where she went. Eros comes back with flashlights, handing me one, and we split up, searching the area. I take the path I think she’d take, calling her name.

  “Evan!” I shout, my feet crunching over sticks and pine needles. The longer it takes to find her, the deeper the pit in my stomach grows. I rack my brain for any explanation as to what might’ve happened, coming up short.

  “Evan!” I yell again. This time, I think I hear a faint voice call back. I freeze, shining my light in the direction it came. “Evan! Can you hear me?”

  “I’m in here!” I hear her muffled scream just as my flashlight lands on a cargo trailer that isn’t hitched to a vehicle. I rush toward it, reaching for the handle, but it’s deadbolted shut.

  “Evan? Are you in there?”

  “Yes!”

  “Hang on. I’m going to get you out.”

  “Okay,” she says, and I can hear the relief in her voice. “Hurry, please.”

  Eros comes running when he hears the commotion. “Did you find her?”

  “She’s in here. Go find some bolt cutters.”

  With all the ride jocks and roustabouts around, finding a pair shouldn’t be hard. Kat, Miles, and some of the Vixens surround the trailer, varying degrees of concern plastered to their faces.

  “Whose trailer is this?” I ask, unable to keep the anger out of my voice. They all look to each other in question.

  Finally, Eros returns, bolt cutters in hand. I snatch them from him. Wasting no time, I position them around the lock, making sure to get the right leverage before I squeeze hard and twist. The lock snaps, clanging against the metal of the latch, and then I’m throwing the deadbolt to the ground and lifting the door.

  “Where is she?” Evan demands, charging out like a caged animal. I catch her by the waist, assessing for damage. Her hands and knees are dirty, but she seems to be fine otherwise.

  “Who? What happened?” I grab her jaw, forcing her to look up at me as I inspect her face.

  “I was walking back when out of nowhere, Selina pushed me in there,” she says, flinging her arm toward the cargo trailer.

  “Did you see her?” Eros asks.

  Evan hesitates. “It was too dark to tell. But who else could it have been?”

  Eros and I share a look. “Go get Lathan and Tres. I’ll meet you back at the bunkhouse.” He nods, already walking away, probably having the same idea. I look to Miles and Kat. “Find out whose trailer this is.”

  Miles steps in front of Evan, his face full of regret. “I should’ve walked you back.”

  Evan shakes her head. “It’s not like I was kidnapped.” She tries to laugh, but the sound is forced. “It’s just Selina being a bitch.”

  “Still.”

  “Come on.” I jerk my chin. I’m buzzing with adrenaline, almost disappointed that she thinks Selina’s the one who locked her in the trailer. Hurting females isn’t something I’m into, but clearly, verbal warnings aren’t doing any good. I reach down, lacing my fingers with hers. Evan looks up at me, her blonde hair glowing under the moonlight, her eyes softening at my touch.

  I lead her back to the bunkhouse, fighting the urge to lecture her about being safe, but the truth is…she didn’t do anything wrong. She should be able to walk around freely without someone fuc
king with her.

  “Where’s your phone?” I can’t help but ask.

  “I left it charging. I didn’t think I’d need it.” She looks down at her dirty shoes. “Obviously, I was wrong,” she says with a bitter laugh.

  “Keep it on you from now on.” I’m one to talk. I rarely use my phone. Rarely even look at it. Half the time, it’s sitting dead in a backpack somewhere on the trailer. But after tonight, that will be changing.

  When we come up to the trailer, Eros, Lathan, and Tres are all standing there waiting, arms crossed over their chests. “You okay?” Tres asks.

  “She’s fine,” Lathan answers for her. “She isn’t a porcelain doll.”

  Evan gives him a small smile at the compliment, something like a truce passing between them. Until this second, I thought Lathan could’ve been the one to shove her in there in an attempt to scare her off again.

  “Wait for me inside,” I say, earning a glare from Evan, but I suspect she’s too tired to argue, because she goes inside without a fight. As soon as the door snaps shut, I turn back to the guys.

  “We need to talk.”

  I STARTLE AWAKE AS I’M lifted from the couch into a warm, hard chest. I get a whiff of leather and tobacco and campfire, Sebastian’s signature scent. I try to calm my racing heart, sagging into him. After taking a shower and picking the splinters out of my hand, I crashed out on the couch—too tired to eavesdrop. Sebastian doesn’t say a word, just sets me down in his narrow bunk before sliding in behind me. He’s warm against my back, his arm banding around my waist. He holds me like he needs me. It’s such a stark contrast from his usual coldness, and I soak it up, reveling in the rare glimpses of the real him.