Broken Fairytales Series Box Set (Broken Fairytales, Buried Castles, Shattered Crowns)

by Monica Alexander

  “It’s inevitable, baby,” she said, shaking her head and shrugging. “Now, that’s the first thing. Second, I want you to have Leo come and stay with you after the funeral. You’ll need family around.”

  I shook my head. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Zackary Jonathan Easton, I am your mother, and even though I am dying, I still know what is best for you. You got that?”

  I nodded and couldn’t help the small smile that surfaced. Even on her deathbed, my mom could still put me in my place. I’d venture to guess she’d still be putting me in my place long after she was gone too. That thought made my heavy heart just a little lighter.

  “Now I know you like your tattoos, and you’re all about symbolism, but please, do not get some tacky tattoo with my name or a picture of my face or a heart that says ‘MOM’, okay? If you want to do something significant, choose a different option.”

  “Well, I was going to get an ‘M’ on each ass cheek, so when I bent over it was a tribute to you, but I guess that idea’s out.”

  She laughed out loud, and it was the best sound I’d heard in weeks. “Aww, thank you, sweetie. I appreciate you making a joke at a time like this. I really do.”

  “Anything else?” I asked, knowing she wasn’t nearly done with her list, but I would sit here all day and listen to her demands, and by God if I wouldn’t do every last thing she told me to do.

  “Of course,” she said, and shot me that coy, motherly look of hers.

  Chapter Three

  Emily

  “Wow, Emily, um, it’s good to see you,” Brynn Meyer said, appraising me from her perch at the front of the chapter room.

  She was flanked on one side by our Vice President, Tori Masters, and the Rush Chair, Dylan Pierce. On her other side, sat our New Member Educator, Jordan Nash, and the Rush Co-Chair, Brittany Cummings. They all wore equally dissatisfied looks on their faces, and I wondered what on earth I could have done wrong.

  My dress was pale blue with little white flowers. It was short, but had an A-line skirt and long, flowy sleeves. I’d paired it with neutral heeled sandals and a few pieces of Tiffany jewelry, along with my Gamma Pi pin. I didn’t think I could have looked more appropriate. This definitely wasn’t my first rodeo, and I knew better than anyone else how these girls thought. They were all my pledge sisters.

  “Something wrong?” I asked, unable to hide the snark in my voice.

  “Um, Em, what is that?” Tori asked, as she touched her nose with her index finger. I could tell she was trying not to be rude, but with the look on her face, she wasn’t really succeeding. She let her hand drop and fingered the pearls she always wore around her neck.

  Our house was known for being more conservative than some of the others, and many of the girls favored pearls when they dressed up. I’d never caught onto that trend, but I still knew how to look tasteful and represent the house.

  “Oh,” I said, as I self-consciously touched my piercing. “I pierced my nose.”

  I’d put in a diamond stud my mom had given me when I was leaving to come back to school. I knew she was trying to appeal to me, knowing how upset I was over Zack. It was a nice gesture considering her initial reaction to my piercing. I figured the diamond would be more appropriate for Rush, but apparently I’d been wrong.

  “Classy,” Brynn said, and the sarcasm was apparent in her tone, but I wasn’t surprised.

  We’d been friends since we were pledges up until the middle of last year when she just decided she didn’t like me anymore. It wasn’t the first time she made a rude comment to my face, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes at her.

  “Does it come out?” Dylan asked nastily.

  God she was such bitch. I’d never really gotten along with her, mostly because she and Rachel didn’t get along, but also because she wasn’t a very nice person when it came down to it. She and Brynn had gotten close over the past year.

  “No,” I said, my voice full of mock disappointment. “It’s actually welded to my skin.”

  I could see that Dylan took me seriously for about a half of a second before her face twisted into a nasty smirk. “Take it out for the week, okay?”

  On the other side of the table, I saw Jordan fighting the urge to laugh, a twisted smirk on her face.

  “Sure thing,” I said, holding back the eye-roll that I very much wanted to show these girls.

  “Okay, Emily, show us your outfit for Tuesday,” Brynn commanded, and I could tell she was bored. As I left the room to change, I could hear her whisper to Tori and could just make out the words ‘tacky’ and ‘so not cute’.

  Well she could so kiss my ass.

  Fighting the urge to go back in there and smack Brynn across her perfect, unblemished skin, I fisted my hands at my sides and headed toward the bathroom to change into my Tuesday outfit. Rush Week could seriously not end quick enough.

  “Hey Em?” Brittany called, coming out of the chapter room behind me.

  “Yeah?”

  She reached out and hugged me. “I just wanted to say hi since I didn’t get a chance to with Brynn and Dylan attacking you. Did you have a nice summer?”

  I forced a smile on my face as I lied. “I did, yeah. Thanks for asking.”

  She smiled. “Good, because you seemed a little down when you walked in, and I just wanted to be sure everything was okay with you.”

  She was being sweet, and I appreciated that. I needed a friend in that moment.

  “No, I’m great. Everything’s great,” I said, keeping the smile on my face. I wasn’t about to unload on Brittany in the hallway.

  “I’m glad. It’s good to see you. Let’s catch up,” she said, and I nodded. “Oh, by the way, I like your nose ring. I think it’s really fun.”

  With that she turned and walked back into the chapter room, and I was happy to know at least one person was on my side.

  ***

  “You about ready?” Rachel asked, as I was fighting to put my nose ring back in place. Three days of doing this and it hurt like hell.

  I was already in a bad mood, and this was making it worse, but at least I wasn’t crying. That was a bonus, I guess. Having just endured three hours of banter about which girls we would invite back to the third round of Rush, I was pissed off. Not only had a girl I’d really liked not been chosen because she wasn’t ‘Gamma Pi’ material, but some of my sisters had known how much I liked her and intentionally sabotaged the vote.

  The rule is that any girl who’d met a rushee could vote on her. Well that would be fine if we all played fair, but unfortunately we didn’t. Five of my sisters had spent two seconds talking to this girl just so they could vote no on her. It took everything in me not to storm out of the meeting or at least stand up and say something, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good. I’d been a part of the house for long enough to know how things worked.

  I ended up just maintaining my silence for the rest of the night, voting when I had to, but not weighing in on any of the girls. It didn’t matter anyway. My opinion was obviously worthless to them. Then I realized that I was a hypocrite, and I suddenly understood what Rachel had been telling me when she’d said I was a mean girl. In years past, I’d been right there beside Brynn and Dylan, fighting against girls who didn’t ‘fit the mold’, and I hadn’t thought anything of it.

  It was suddenly apparent to me how much I’d changed over the summer.

  “Done,” I said, standing back and smiling in triumph.

  “Beautiful,” Rachel said, kissing me on the cheek.

  “Where are we going by the way? Not a Rush Party, I hope. I can’t handle another one of those.”

  In addition to it being Rush Week for the sororities, the frats were also looking for new pledges, so they were hosting parties each night. The two nights prior, I’d been a good sister and had joined some of my friends to make the rounds at some of the houses. Of course I’d bailed once they’d gotten to the Sig Ep house. I wasn’t about to run into Ben for the first time at a party at which he’d like
ly be drunker than shit with freshman girls hanging all over him – that is unless he was still seeing Ashleigh Ballast, and she’d be all over him. No thanks. I planned to avoid him until I had to see him.

  Rachel laughed. “Um, no. Sorry, I’m not doing the frat guy thing. Not since I found a real man.”

  “Thanks, baby,” Chase said, coming up behind her, his arms snaking around her waist as he kissed her neck. She twisted in his arms and started kissing him, which was still hard for me to watch.

  “Chase, don’t you have to go back to school?” I asked, trying to sound annoyed.

  “Aww, Em, you love having your big brother here. Don’t deny it.” With that, he released Rachel and pulled me into a bear hug, squeezing the breath out of me.

  “Okay, okay,” I said, as he set me on my feet. “I do like having you here. I’m not going to lie, but come on with the PDA already. Girl with a broken heart here. Besides, since when are you my ‘big’ brother, huh?”

  Chase just grinned at me. “Since always. I was born three minutes before you.”

  “Yeah, you’re so much older,” I said, punching him lightly on his arm. “Come on, let’s go.”

  ***

  “Keep it down, okay guys?” I said, chastising Chase and Rachel who were making out as they closed the door to her room. I knew what would happen once they were alone, I just didn’t want to think about it.

  “No guarantees,” Rachel called out before she started giggling. Hopefully that was the last I’d hear from her that night.

  It had actually been a tolerable night, and I was looking forward to crashing hard. Thankfully I didn’t have to be at the sorority house until ten o’clock, so I could sleep in. I pulled out my cell phone and stared at it. Pushing the ‘Contacts’ button, I scrolled down to the Es and stared at Zack’s name, willing him to call me, but I knew he wouldn’t. I half-considered calling him for a moment, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. He didn’t want to talk to me anymore. He didn’t want to know me.

  Apparently feeling the need to torture myself just a little bit more, I fired up my laptop and got on the Internet. I went to the Liar’s Edge website. Liar’s Edge was the band Zack had fronted for three and a half years. They’d broken up a while back, and their website hadn’t been updated in a year and a half, but I still checked it pretty regularly. I’m not sure what I was looking for, but each time I went on, I always ended up on the page that had the pictures of the band. There were a few shots of the guys on stage and a few of them goofing off backstage, and then there were some individual shots that looked more posed.

  Even though it made my heart ache, I clicked through them all, feeling a little squeeze when I came to one of Zack and his cousin, Leo, the Liar’s Edge bassist. They were both laughing at something, and Zack looked so happy. There were a few times I’d seen that look on his face but not many. But the picture that really jarred my emotions was one of him sitting alone against a brick wall, his guitar in hand and his head down as he played an unknown song. His brown hair fell into his eyes, partially obscuring his face, and he looked so natural. It was a pose I’d seen him in more times than I could count, but to make matters worse, he was wearing the Duke sweatshirt that I now owned.

  Taking a deep breath, I clicked out of the window and shut my laptop.

  Involuntarily, I reached for Zack’s sweatshirt, that I’d draped over the back of my desk chair, and pulled it over my head, instantly feeling the smallest bit of comfort from having something of his so close to me. I could still, just barely, make out the smells that reminded me of him – the beach, his clove cigarettes and something that was just Zack.

  A sudden knock on the French doors leading to my balcony startled me so much I nearly dropped my laptop on the floor. I could see the silhouette of a man outside the door, and my heart started to pound out of my chest. Then I rationalized that a rapist or a murderer probably wouldn’t knock, and my stupid broken heart leapt at the irrational idea that it was Zack. Knowing I was insane, I quickly dismissed that thought.

  Cautiously walking over to the doors, I pulled the curtain aside and sighed. I should have known.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked curtly, opening the door so Ben could come inside.

  “Emily!” he said, and it was obvious he was drunk when he practically fell through the doors. “Hey baby.”

  I stumbled backward as he fell against me, his arms wrapping around me and pulling me to his chest.

  “Ben, what are you doing here?” I said, as I attempted to extricate myself from his grasp. He reeked of alcohol.

  He pulled back to look at me. “I missed you,” he said, looking broken all of a sudden. “Didn’t you miss me?”

  I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t have to because he answered his own question.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head and looking like someone had shot his dog. “You didn’t miss me. If you missed me, you would have come by the house to see me. I waited for you, but you didn’t show up. I looked for you when Taryn and Lindsay and Brittany stopped by the party, but you weren’t with them.” Ben shook his head at me. “You were probably with your new boyfriend. You didn’t want to see me.”

  At his mention of my new boyfriend, my heart squeezed, and I knew the tears could start at any moment. Why did he have to bring up Zack? Why?

  “Ben,” I said, comprehending just how drunk he really was. “Did you drive here?”

  The girl in me who had loved him for so long was concerned that he’d put himself in harm’s way for me. I didn’t want to know how he’d scaled my balcony on the second floor, but he didn’t seem to be hurt or bleeding.

  He shook his head. “Noah dropped me off. I told him I wanted to go to my girl’s house, and he drove me. He’s good friend.”

  Ben slumped down onto my window seat and gazed at me in what he probably thought was an adoring way. He looked sort of psychotic to me. And he didn’t have a car here. Awesome.

  His eyes suddenly squinted as if he was trying to focus. “Why are you wearing a Duke sweatshirt?” he asked, leaning over so much that he almost fell off the window seat.

  “I’m not,” I said, quickly pulling the sweatshirt off and tossing it in the corner.

  “Okay,” he said and let his head fall back against the wall. It sort of bounced a few times as if he didn’t have much control over his neck muscles, and I cringed involuntarily.

  “Ben, I thought you were seeing Ashleigh,” I said, realizing the words were harder to get out than I’d thought they would be. After all, I was completely over him.

  Ben waved his hand in dismissal. “Pshah,” he said, and I wasn’t exactly sure what that was supposed to mean. “She only wanted me for my body, and honestly, she wasn’t that great in bed. We are no longer engaging in sexual activity.”

  I had to put my hand over my mouth to stifle a laugh. When he’d said that last part, he’d adopted an affected accent that sounded almost British. For some reason, it was funny, but I was probably just exhausted and frankly still a little buzzed.

  Recovering from my giggling fit, I looked over at Ben. His eyes had closed. “I just want my Emily back,” he mumbled. “I love her, and I want her back. It’s all I want.”

  Okay, that really wasn’t funny.

  Grudgingly, I stood up from my bed, opened the door and walked over to Rachel’s room. I hated to do it, but I wasn’t exactly in a position to drive, and Ben couldn’t stay at our apartment. Listening for sounds of things I didn’t want to hear, I stood outside her door. All I could hear was talking. I assumed it was safe and knocked.

  “Ye-es,” she said, dragging out the word.

  “I need Chase for a minute,” I said, resting my head against the door jam.

  A few seconds later my brother came to the door wearing just his boxers. “What can I do for you?”

  I sighed. “There’s a passed out Ben in my room, and I need you to drive him home,” I said, and added, “please,” when I saw the look on his face.

  “
How did Ben get into your room?” Rachel called from the bed. I could barely make out her shape in the dark room. I could tell by her tone that she assumed I’d booty-called him.

  Thanks for the vote of confidence, BF.

  Okay, so I guess Rachel had a right to assume that. I’d been vacillating about my break up with Ben just a few days earlier, but it was a momentary, emotional lapse in judgment fueled by the fact that I hated being alone and missed Zack like crazy. I did not want to get back together with Ben.

  “He climbed up the balcony,” I sighed, “and no, we did not hook up, but he is extremely drunk and is sans car, so unless you want him to spend the night on the couch, we need to drive him back to his apartment.”

  “I’ve got it,” Chase said, as he started pulling on clothes. “But you owe me one, Em.”

  “I know,” I said, grateful my brother was such a good guy. “Thanks Chase.”

  Chapter Four

  Zack

  I was numb. There was no other way to describe what I was feeling. I was completely numb.

  Not bothering to change out of the suit I’d bought just for today and would probably end up burning so I wouldn’t have to look at it again, I grabbed the bottle of Jack Daniels I’d purchased a few weeks back and headed out to the porch. Slinking down to the floor, I opened the bottle and took a long pull, willing it to work its way into my system as quickly as possible. I was surprised when the alcohol didn’t burn like I’d expected, but then again, I wasn’t really feeling anything at the moment, so why should I feel that?

  “Zack?” my cousin called from behind me as he dragged his suitcase into the house.

  I didn’t answer him. I just took another swig from the bottle, closed my eyes and leaned back against the house.

  “Zack, what are you doing, man?” Leo asked, as he stepped outside. He tried to pull the bottle from my hand.

  “Fuck off, Leo,” I said, pulling away from him.

  “Fuck you,” he said in return, obviously unconcerned about hurting my feelings. I mean why should he be concerned? I’d just buried my mother. I was obviously having a great day.