by Elle Thorpe
“Banjo, did you officially get to meet Meredith and Owen at the wake? I don’t think you did, right? Meredith is my best friend.”
Meredith leaned in and kissed his cheek. “Good to see you.”
Owen stuck his hand out to Banjo. “Owen Waller,” he introduced himself.
Banjo looked down at Owen’s hand and then back up at his smiling face. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone move so slowly. He glanced at me, and only then did he take Owen’s hand.
Owen eyebrows furrowed, and their handshake was as limp as a wet noodle. Banjo didn’t even bother to give his name.
“What are you guys doing down here?” I asked, trying to break the odd tension between the two guys.
“Nothing much,” Meredith replied. “Just felt like lapping up the last few days of warm weather. What about you two?”
Flashes of what Banjo and I had done in that cave danced behind my eyes.
Meredith’s gaze trained on me like a laser beam.
I blushed. Dammit. She knew me too well. It was like she could see right inside my head.
“Okay.” She laughed. “Apparently that’s a conversation for later tonight. Call me? I haven’t seen you all week.”
“We missed you at Jamie’s party last night,” Owen added. He glanced over at Banjo, his face full of disdain. “I guess you had better things to do.”
I frowned. “Not better. Just had a school thing I couldn’t get out of.”
Owen brightened a little at that. Banjo scowled.
Okay. The vibe between them was uncomfortable, and I wanted to send Owen on his way so I could have the real Banjo back. This growly, scowling version was kind of hot, but I liked it better when he was smiling and joking around. Not to mention kissing me and…well, kissing all parts of me. When Banjo slung his arm around my shoulders in a possessive manner, his gaze never leaving Owen’s, I didn’t stop him. He kissed the top of my head, and Meredith’s eyes nearly popped out. But it was Owen’s disgust that got to me. It was time to wrap this up.
“We’re on our way out. I’ll call you tonight, okay, Mer?”
“You’d better. Actually, we need to discuss your birthday, too. I have ideas.”
“I bet you do,” I groaned.
“Don’t ruin my fun with your birthday-hating attitude, Lacey Knight. You are going to have the most amazing eighteenth birthday party anyone has ever seen. Second only to my own. Of course.”
I snorted on a laugh. “Of course. I’ll see you two later.”
I gave Meredith another hug but sidestepped Owen, giving him a wave instead. I grabbed Banjo’s hand and led him back to our stuff. Banjo knelt and started packing our stuff into his backpack, along with his wet towel, while I pulled my clothes back on.
“Your birthday is soon?” he asked.
“October fifth.”
He glanced up. “No shit? So is mine.”
“Birthday twins.”
“Guess so.” His smile didn’t really meet his eyes, though.
I sighed. “Spill it. What’s wrong? You look like you’ve been sucking lemons.” Instead of pussy, I added silently in my head. Oh my God. What was wrong with me? I’d had a taste and now I had sex on the brain.
“Who’s the guy?” Banjo asked.
I shrugged. “No one interesting. Just a guy I know from my old school.”
“You went to a girls’ school.”
I squatted in the sand so we were eye height. “Did you think that meant I never had anything to do with boys at all? We went to lots of Edgely parties.”
“Did you have a thing with him?”
I squinted. “A thing?”
“Did you kiss him? Let him touch you?”
I grinned. “The way you just touched me?” There I went again. But audience be damned, I leaned in and kissed him because he was cute when his eyes were glowing green. “Jealous much?”
“Yes,” he grumped.
“You weren’t jealous about me going out with Rafe last night.”
“That’s different. It’s Rafe.”
The tone in his voice caught my attention. “Did Rafe tell you what happened between us?”
He nodded.
“So you know we kissed? And you’re okay with it? How is that any different to me kissing Owen? Not that I did kiss Owen,” I rushed to clarify. “I haven’t. I’m not interested in him like that.”
“I don’t know. It just is. Rafe is…different.” Banjo ran his hands through his hair and stared out at the ocean, deliberately not meeting my eyes.
“Can I ask you something?” I sat beside him again, nestling into his side. I was relieved when he relaxed a little and put his arm over my shoulders.
He glanced down at me. “I have an idea what you’re going to ask, and I’m going to let you ask it. Because it’s you. And something about you makes me want to tell you all my secrets.”
“Do you like Rafe? As…you know. More than just a friend?”
He bit his lip, and I reached up, brushing my fingers over it. “Safe space, Banjo. No judgement zone.”
His gaze flicked over my face, studying my expression, and for once, I was glad I was easy to read. It helped when you were trying to convince someone to share a secret.
“Yeah, sometimes I think I do. I don’t know. I’m not gay. If I were, I’d just say it. I don’t want you thinking you’ve been some sort of beard for me. Because dammit, Lacey, I’d go down on you all day long if you let me. And I’m so fucking attracted to you, I’d do you right here on this beach. Screw all these people.”
“Sshh, I know. I know. But maybe you’d do that with Rafe, too?”
He snorted on a laugh. “I don’t know. I haven’t a clue how he’d feel about that. It’s not something we’ve ever discussed. Maybe, whatever it is I feel sometimes when I’m around him is completely one-sided. But to answer your question, no, the idea of getting dirty with Rafe doesn’t weird me out.”
“It’s kind of hot, actually,” I admitted.
Banjo rounded on me, kissing me so hard he pushed me back in the sand. “You’re perfect, you know that? I can’t believe I just admitted all that to you and your only reaction was to say that it was hot.”
“Want to know what it’s like to kiss him? I could tell you,” I teased.
Banjo groaned and pressed his body into mine. “How ’bout we just go back to my place and stop talking about Rafe? I’m sure there’s better things our mouths could be doing.”
He didn’t need to tell me twice. I was up and out of the sand before he was.
20
Lacey
On Monday morning, I parked my car in the student lot, beside a familiar dark-green sedan. I hadn’t heard from Banjo yesterday, and I’d found myself missing him. Which was ridiculous, considering how we’d spent all day Saturday together. We’d gone back to his place after the beach and made out some more, until it started getting dark, and I started worrying that Augie might walk in and bust us again. Banjo had asked me to stay over, but staying over would have inevitably led to sex. And despite how brazen we’d been at the beach, I didn’t want to lose my virginity with salt and sand drying in my hair and a constant worry Augie would appear. Plus, Selina would have had kittens.
I’d been too chicken to call Banjo yesterday, even though I’d wanted to. But I didn’t want to seem too eager either.
My ‘play it cool’ plan went out the window when I saw his car before school. I grabbed my books from the passenger seat and practically skipped to Banjo’s car, hoping he was still inside, getting one last cigarette in before going into school.
The window rolled down as I approached. I bent over, huge smile pulling at my face. “Hey, handsome.”
“Good morning to you, too, princess.”
I jumped back.
Augie raised an eyebrow. “Not the brother you were hoping for, I guess, judging by that reaction.”
Not even remotely the right brother. Something about Augie set off alarm bells in my head. And when he calle
d me princess, it was nothing like when Banjo did it. Hell, it wasn’t even like when Colt said it. When Augie called me princess, it was with barely concealed malice.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “I figured Banjo borrowed your car.”
“Not today. Just dropped him off since I had some errands to run here.”
“Errands, meaning you had some drugs to sell to high school kids?”
Augie’s eyes narrowed. “Why? Looking to score, princess?”
“No. Thank you.” It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him to quit calling me that, but I knew it would only encourage him. I started to walk away but then I remembered something I needed to ask him. Reluctantly, I turned back.
“Banjo’s birthday is coming up.”
Augie pulled a cigarette from somewhere in the car and sparked his lighter before answering me. “Yeah. So?”
“It’s his eighteenth. Are you planning anything?”
Augie let out a laugh that was laced with sarcasm. “Like what? High tea, with cupcakes and sandwiches cut into tiny triangles? Some sort of debut into society?”
I stared at him. “Like a party, asshole.”
“Ooh, she’s mouthy. In more ways than one.”
Fuck him. “Forget it. I don’t know why I bothered asking. I was just trying to be polite since you’re the only family he has. I’ll take care of it myself.”
I stormed away, grinding my teeth in unison with Augie’s laughter.
“You do that. We all know what you’re doing.”
That stopped me in my tracks. Because as far as I knew, nobody but Meredith and Selina knew what I was doing here. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Slumming it with the poor kids. Ticking something off your bucket list, maybe. But then what? My dumb-ass brother is following you around like some pussy-whipped moron. And you’re looking at him with come-get-me eyes. Maybe you think he’s even falling for you. But I know him. Right now, he’s probably thinking about how you’re gonna save him from his miserable small-town life. How you’ll be the one to pull him from this piece-of-shit town. Well, good. I hope he uses you to get as far as he can. Because we all know that as soon as you get tired of slumming it, you’re going to go running straight back to Providence and those stuck-up pricks from Edgely Academy.”
Anger burned in my gut, and my mind whirled, trying to make sense of everything Augie was saying. I tried to sort fact from fiction, but it all blurred into one, until tears pricked the backs of my eyes.
Augie’s smile widened.
I wouldn’t let him get to me. Without a word, I whirled on my heel and strode toward the school. Augie’s laughter followed me.
“Bye bye for now, princess.”
The black cloud of Augie’s taunts hung over me all day. I was grateful Banjo and I didn’t have any classes together apart from music, and I was seriously considering skipping it, just to avoid talking to him about what had happened that morning. I sat in the back of my history class, stabbing a pencil into my notebook while I contemplated Augie’s comments.
The intercom crackled to life right in the middle of Mr. Sliden’s blow-by-blow account of the Battle of the Somme.
“All football players will be required in the gym for the rest of the day. We’ll be conducting a team briefing ahead of this weekend’s game.”
Beside me, Tate Masters high-fived another football player whose name I’d forgotten, though I recognized his face. Meredith and I had determined he’d been at the bonfire party and crossed him off the suspect list.
“All right, all right, settle down. I know we’re all excited to see our boys play this weekend, but right now, we still have three minutes left of class…”
It was a losing battle. The class had erupted into excited chatter about this weekend’s game, and the football team were already gathering their things, completely ignoring the teacher’s pleas.
“Sorry, sir,” Tate called as he sailed out the door. “Coach will have our hides if we’re late.”
Mr. Sliden just watched Tate go with a small shake of his head. The Untouchables were out in full force today, so it seemed.
Mr. Sliden gave up on his lesson and shooed the rest of us out the door as soon as the bell rang. Through the glass windows, the football team streamed toward the gym, and I decided that it wasn’t worth risking a detention for skipping a class Banjo wouldn’t be at anyway. Thank you, football.
So I followed the swarm of seniors to the cafeteria and joined the line. I scanned the crowd idly while I waited, my gaze jumping from one table to the next. I spotted Gillian, sitting with her minions. No sign of Colt, though.
“Looking for me?”
I stiffened. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Or in my case, think of him. I knew who it was instantly. And he was entirely too close. The back of my neck prickled with awareness, and if I hadn’t already had my nose practically pressed against the T-shirt of the boy in front of me, I would have taken a large step forward.
“I don’t particularly like looking at you, Colt. So no.” I tried to make the words sound as bored as possible, but I heard the tiny wobble in my voice. Dammit! What was it about this guy that messed with my head? With anyone else, I was quick-witted and ready with a comeback. With him, my tongue felt too big for my mouth. And somehow, despite being a big guy, he always managed to catch me by surprise.
“Lies,” he said quietly.
I didn’t answer him.
“You’re still here, princess. Over two weeks now. I give you credit. I didn’t think you’d last one day with us here in the ghetto.”
I whirled on him and leveled him with a glare. “Why? Because some asshole with a God complex said I don’t belong? You think awfully highly of yourself, don’t you? I saw your little Instagram post about me. You can tell your girlfriend I don’t want whatever imaginary crown the two of you seem to think you have. You can keep it. But I’m not going anywhere. Not until I get what I came for.”
I cringed internally as the words poured from my mouth like I’d turned on a faucet. Dammit, Lacey. Shut the hell up.
Colt cocked his head to one side, eyes narrowing. “And what exactly did you come here for? A little wrong-side-of-the-tracks cock? You sick of all your pretty boys and their fancy cars, flashing around their daddy’s money? I can give you that.”
I shoved him away. “You’re disgusting.”
He laughed, and my breath hitched at the sound. “Say it like you mean it.”
I didn’t say anything. For the life of me, I tried. But my mouth refused to form the words.
His grin turned devilish, and dammit if it didn’t just make him all the more attractive. His intelligent eyes gleamed, like this little game of cat and mouse entertained him.
I spun back to face the line, startled to find it had progressed without me noticing. I stepped forward, but Colt wouldn’t give me an inch. If anything, he moved in closer, until his front pressed against my back. I stilled. Every muscle in my body froze at his touch. Alarm bells went off in my head, and yet, the rest of my body wanted to melt into him like a Goddamn ice cream on a summer day.
His fingers swept the back of my neck, brushing my hair aside. Like they had a mind of their own, my eyes closed.
Behind me, he shifted so his lips brushed my ear. “I’ll break you, princess. You and your ivory tower.”
A shiver rolled down my spine. But it wasn’t one of fear, despite the underlying threat in his words. No. Colt didn’t scare me.
What scared me was the fact I wasn’t scared at all. What scared me, was the fact his words did nothing but turn me on.
That was a bigger problem than Colt trying to run me out of school. That spoke volumes about how messed up my head was. This boy could threaten to break me, and all I wanted to do was find out how.
I needed air. And I couldn’t get that with Colt so close, stealing my oxygen.
I stepped out of line and took one step back so Colt and I were side by side. “Thing is, Colt,” I said quietly,
my voice as deadly as his was. “You can try, but I’m not breakable.”
I walked out of the cafeteria, knowing Colt’s eyes watched every step. I hoped like hell I wasn’t lying to myself, as well as to him.
21
Lacey
Something slammed into me from behind, and I hurtled toward the bathroom door. I got my hands up just in time to protect myself from a broken nose. The door swung in, and I caught myself on a tiled wall, three girls crowding in behind me. The distinct click of the door being locked echoed in the silence.
Gillian stood at the front of her pack of she-wolves, quite the alpha, with her shoulders thrown back, her teeth bared. I was surprised there wasn’t some sort of mangy dog drool dripping from the corner of her mouth. She certainly looked ready to tear me apart.
“How stupid are you, Lacey?” she snarled. “Truly, I really want to know.”
I narrowed my eyes. “While I’m super grateful you’re so concerned with my IQ, perhaps it should be yourself—and your minions—who you’re worried about? After all, you’re the ones who need to hold hands to go to the bathroom. If you’ll excuse me…” I went to move past them and was shoved back against the wall. I sighed, like I was completely bored, while my mind ticked over how to get out of here without getting my ass handed to me. I’d never been in any sort of fight before, but I wasn’t a wimp. I’d taken boxing classes at the gym once. It had never included more than choreographed kicking and punching routines on a bag. It had been a short-lived endeavor, with Meredith and I both admitting we hated it afterward. I’d never actually had to hit anyone. But I thought I could probably take Gillian, if I had to. I was taller and more solid than the tiny cheerleader. The problem here was Gillian wasn’t alone. “Just say what you want to say, and let’s be done with this? I’ve got things to do.”