by Ella Fields
“But you admit to having a tantrum, right?”
I counted backward from ten, then turned around. “I’m not being a brat about this. You deliberately interfered with my life, my feelings, and my self-esteem.”
He looked like he was about to roll his eyes, then caught himself. “If it walks like a brat, talks like a brat, and is still carrying on like a brat …” His gaze fell on me, blank and callous. “Then it’s probably a brat.”
Fuck this. “Okay, bye Dash. Window is that way.” I grabbed my phone, then the door, and shut it behind me, annoyed beyond reason that I had to leave my own room.
Byron had been texting me since our date, but I had no new messages today. I’d contemplated texting him, but I didn’t want to come across as too eager.
Dash remained in my room, or left, I didn’t know. I plonked down onto the couch and unlocked my phone. When I went to open a new message to Byron, I frowned as I discovered some marked as read from him that I hadn’t read yet.
Byron: What kind of flowers do you like?
Byron: Ok, so that was probably random. But I’m excited to see you tomorrow.
Rage engulfed me when I realized what Dash had done.
He’d opened my messages and read through them all. There was nothing too embarrassing said between us, but that didn’t matter. He’d taken this stupid game a step further and snooped.
Thankfully, he hadn’t responded.
Me: Sorry, Daphne and Willa were over. I love sunflowers, and I’m excited too. :D
Byron: Sunflowers, huh? What were you guys up to?
After texting back and forth for a while, I finally returned to my room. It was empty, and the window was closed.
Peggy
The giant ivy-covered gates of Magnolia Cove Preparatory were opened.
The two acres on which the castle-like structure sat upon a cliff face was a glowing green, the summer heat no match for the top-of-the-line irrigation system and the landscapers kept on payroll by the school.
The gray wood and stone building, which was larger than most mansions in the area, was draped in moss and serpentine whorls of greenery, disguising the age and dressing it in classic beauty.
The hedges were trimmed, the lampposts polished, and the parking lot almost full as Mom’s car crept closer to the drop-off zone.
At least when I rode with Dash, no one snickered at Mom’s small, ordinary SUV.
“Let them be shallow dicks,” Mom said, giving the stink eye to a few onlookers as we pulled up. “I’ve driven cars even their fat trust funds couldn’t afford to buy. It’s only money on wheels.”
“Love you, Mom.” I blew her a kiss, which she caught and pocketed, then I dragged my backpack from the back seat and shut the door.
Daphne was waiting by the fountain, tapping away on her phone as Reese Dillon tried to talk to her. Daphne’s light green blouse was tight over her chest, and her plaid skirt barely hit mid-thigh. She wore her black socks to her knees like most girls and finished off the ensemble with black heels. Me? Well, I just threw my blouse, skirt, and shin-high socks on, then did my best to lace my boots while I was still fast asleep most mornings.
This morning, I had every intention of getting up early to do my hair and makeup, but I’d hit snooze on my alarm and passed back out. I’d managed a quick brush through my hair and an application of mascara in the car on the way here, though.
“Thank God,” Daphne said beneath her breath, grabbing my hand and pocketing her phone. “Bye, Reese.”
I waved at Reese, who stared after us with his hands in his pockets. “Reese is nice.”
“I don’t want nice. Nice is boring.”
“Nice is underrated, trust me,” I said, tugging my skirt down when I felt the breeze kiss my thighs.
“Dash is apparently one hell of a hookup, so don’t judge before you try.”
I feigned ignorance even as my stomach dipped. “Ew.” My nose wrinkled as we neared the steps. “I haven’t been awake long enough for that.”
Willa joined us as we walked inside, wearing her uniform much the same as Daphne did but with black ballet flats instead of heels.
“Well, I hope you’re awake enough for that,” she said, gesturing to the small crowd of guys from the lacrosse team who just happened to be standing halfway down the hall and looking right at us.
My eyes grew wide at the sight of them. “Um.”
“Um is right,” Willa said between her almost closed lips.
“Are those sunflowers?” Daphne asked a little too loudly.
My eyes grew bigger with each step we took toward our lockers.
Three weeks ago, we’d picked up our new schedules and IDs. After comparing them over the summer, we found out we only had a few classes together each day, but thankfully, our lockers weren’t too far apart.
And Byron was standing directly in front of mine.
His friends drifted away, jeering and sending suggestive looks as they moved on down the hall.
“I’ll see you in third period,” Daphne said, dragging Willa with her to their lockers.
That left me alone with the giant sunflowers and the giant holding them. “So, wow.”
So, wow? Jesus.
Byron’s chin dipped as he smiled, endearing and confident at the same time. “So maybe not totally random.” He stepped forward, handing them to me. “For you.”
I took them, finding a small card attached that read, just give me a heads-up before you sneeze.
A laugh sputtered from me, disbelief staining the sound and my cheeks. “Thank you. They’re beautiful.”
“You didn’t need the flowers to look like an ass nugget. Those tap shoes you call loafers already do the job just fine.” I turned, mouth agape, to find Dash leaning against my locker. “A word, Freckles?”
Fear and mortification joined forces, and I struggled to say anything.
“Dashiell, forgive me. I’ll be sure to remember your flowers next time.”
I blinked at that, and Dash’s jaw worked, eyes hard on Byron. “Flowers aren’t the way to my heart, Woods. And they sure as shit aren’t the way to hers.” His lips curled, and his teeth flashed. “But then again, you’ve known her five minutes. So what would you really know at all?”
“Dash,” I hissed.
“How about that word now?”
I shook my head, words evading me.
“I think she’s made it pretty clear she doesn’t want to talk to you. So why don’t you go and burden someone else with your gloomy presence?”
Seeing Dash was about to lunge, I turned to Byron and laid a hand on his chest to keep Dash, who was breathing heavily at my back, from getting suspended on the first day. “Let me put some things away, and I’ll catch up with you at lunch?”
Byron was staring over my head, but with a tap on his granite chest, he lowered his gaze. After a nod, then a quick, calculated peck to my forehead, he was swaggering down the hall.
I opened my locker and my bag, trying to stuff notebooks inside and the flowers on top. All the while, Dash just watched me.
“Kayla doesn’t exactly look thrilled today, does she?”
I hadn’t looked, and I didn’t think I wanted to now. “Dash, seriously.”
“What?” He pushed me aside then squashed the flowers in enough to shut the door.
“You squished them.”
“Who gives a rat’s ass? They’re weeds anyway.”
“I like them.”
“You like a lot of things you probably shouldn’t.” He eyed me a moment. “Only now, you’re picking those things over me.”
He started strolling down the hall to where Lars, Jackson, and Raven were hanging outside the boy’s bathrooms.
Guilt sliced deep, and I called after him. “Dash, wait.”
He stopped, his shirt half-untucked and his pants sitting too low on his hips, as he fiddled with his collar, raising it higher.
“This is ridiculous,” I said once I’d stopped in front of him. “Why c
an’t you just say you’re sorry?”
“Because I did nothing wrong.”
I met his hard stare with one of my own. “Interfering with my life isn’t wrong?”
He stepped forward, growling low into my face. “Not when it’s only ever been to protect you.”
My lashes dipped as he skirted around me to join his friends.
His words sat there, hovering like a ghost as I squeezed my books close to my chest and headed for class.
Kayla’s gaze felt like a flatiron had seared into the back of my head during biology that morning.
“She seems pissed,” I said, not needing to look across the cafeteria to know she was still glaring at me, gossiping and hashing false truths about me.
Daphne dragged a fry through her puddle of ketchup. “He totally claimed you in front of the whole school by bringing you those flowers.” The fact Daphne was sitting with us and not with Kayla and her pep squad probably didn’t help.
“I didn’t think she’d be this mad.”
“She cheated on him,” Willa said. “Like she has any right to be mad that he’s moving on.”
I didn’t think that mattered much to Kayla.
I almost squealed when Byron fell into the seat next to me, tearing a chunk out of his wrap. “Hey.”
“Hi,” I said, trying not to laugh when he attempted to smile around his chewing.
“Your girl is mad,” Daphne said.
Byron frowned, glancing over to the cheerleaders’ table. He lifted a shoulder. “She’ll get over it.”
Daphne’s pursed lips said she thought otherwise.
That, combined with the way he didn’t dispute the words your girl, had the sandwich I’d just eaten threatening to make a reverse trip.
Byron finished chewing before saying, “Wade’s hosting another party this Friday night. A return to school, fuck senior year thing.”
Willa raised a brow. “What’s his problem with senior year?”
Byron looked at her as if she was crazy, then shook his head. “Hey, think you can ask Jack to bring some green?”
Willa’s hazel eyes darkened at the mention of her stepbrother. “Why don’t you ask him?”
“Because Dash isn’t exactly my biggest fan right now, which means neither is the rest of his stoner crew.”
The way he’d said stoner crew itched at my skin. Granted, they got high a lot, but I still didn’t agree with the name.
Daphne arched a brow but otherwise kept eating her fries.
Willa sighed. “Sure.”
With a slap on the table, Byron stood. “Sweet, thanks.” I thought he was just going to leave, and I was kind of hoping he did, seeing as I knew eyes were watching us, but then he grabbed my chin and bent over. “Think about coming to the party. I’ll call you tonight?”
I nodded, braced for a kiss and fearing it, but it never came.
I exhaled my relief, then took a long sip from my water bottle.
“He was totally about to kiss you,” Willa said with excited eyes.
Daphne smirked. “Yeah, if you hadn’t looked like a deer caught in headlights.”
Scowling, I stole a fry from her plate.
“So are we going to Wade’s again?” Willa tapped her nails on the table.
Daphne nodded, wrapping her red lips around her straw.
I glanced around the cafeteria but couldn’t see any sign of Dash or his friends. They were probably outside or sneaking a cigarette in one of the deserted classrooms.
I had English with him before lunch, and though he’d taken his usual seat next to me, like he did whenever we shared the same class, he hadn’t said a word.
Still, going to the party was another way to hang out with Byron. Convincing my mom to let me go was going to be tough, though. “Mom probably won’t let me go again. Not so soon.”
Willa and Daphne both groaned. “Tell her you’re staying at my place, duh.”
I glared at Daphne, at how easily she expected me to lie, but as the day dragged on, and I’d thought about it some more, all the reasons why I shouldn’t fell away.
Until I couldn’t see how the lie wouldn’t work.
Dash
Fucking cocky Prince Charming wannabe.
If it wouldn’t put me in an even worse position with Peggy, I would have introduced his balls to his stomach, and my fist would have made pancake batter out of his nose by now.
Church meowed, and I ran my fingers over his head when he plopped down next to me on the couch. I’d wanted to dunk myself straight in the pool when I’d arrived home, but after walking out there and hearing my mother’s moans, I’d stalked right back inside and slammed the door.
I’d been so distracted, held hostage by rage, I hadn’t even seen Emanuel’s old Chevy parked off to the side of our long drive.
A message came through on my phone, and I exited out of the game I was playing to read it.
Freckles: Come over?
The petty part of me—which let’s face it, was a lot of me—wanted to tell her to fuck off. But my desperation to have things return to normal won out, and I leaned forward to snatch my keys off the table.
Church protested as I got up and pocketed my phone right as Mother Dearest’s heels clacked over the floor. “How was your first day?”
“Not as good as yours.”
Her cheeks turned crimson, her mouth hanging open.
I made haste for the door before she could say anything else.
Peggy’s window was already open, a sign that maybe she was up for negotiations. My spirits lifted as my body did, and I rolled inside onto her bed. “Ready to grovel?”
Peggy set her homework down, already out of her school clothes and wearing one of her preferred super-long men’s T-shirts. Most of the shit she wore was from the thrift store, but I didn’t like the idea of her wearing some strange dude’s old clothes, so every Christmas, I bought her some new men’s XL T-shirts.
I tried to keep my eyes off her thighs as she took a seat on the bed. Tried. I got points for that, because fuck if I could. Why did it feel like it was the first time I’d seen them? Had they always had that tiny dip between them?
She quickly stuffed a pillow over her lap and attempted to fix the craptastic job she’d done of putting her hair into a messy bun. There wasn’t enough of it anymore, so ringlets sprang free, caressing the elegant slant of her neck and dusting the slim curves of her face.
“I owe you nothing. But I’m willing to put this aside on one condition.”
“One?” Shucking off my boots, I peered up into her face, getting comfy on my side of the bed.
“You don’t interfere with my life anymore.”
“You’re my best friend. Are you saying I’m not supposed to care?”
She blew a wayward curl from her lips. “I’m saying you need to quit being a controlling dick.”
I slapped a hand over my chest. “Well, I’ll be. This isn’t exactly the apology I was hoping for.”
“You’ll be hoping for a while if that’s what you’re expecting.”
We scowled at each other, but I could feel my face grow lax as I watched her lashes open and close and studied the tiny bow to her upper lip.
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
“Can we play now?” I asked.
In answer, she grabbed a controller and handed it to me.
The next morning, I picked Peggy up for school, satisfied that things were back to normal in that regard, yet something was still irking me.
It was like having an itch I couldn’t find. As I watched her scroll through the music on my phone, then stroll down the hall to meet up with the douchebag extraordinaire, I found myself in a constant state of tension.
“Her tits sure bounced like they were real,” Raven was saying when I joined them at my locker. “Nice handfuls too.”
“Who cares if they’re real or not? They’re fucking insane.” Lars stuffed a handful of Cheetos into his mouth, then dusted his hand off on his trousers.
Jackson messed around with his tie. “She’s still got one hell of a lady boner for Woods, though.”
“Damn right. She’s probably thinking about him when she fucks you,” I tacked on.
Raven flipped me off. “Good morning to you too, shithead.”
“We hitting Wade’s again this Friday?” Jackson asked. “Get this. Willa said the team wants me to score them some green.”
I barked a laugh. “As if.”
“That’s what I said. Fuckers can do their own dirty work.”
The bell rang, and I plucked my notebook out, slamming the locker closed to find Byron all up in Peggy’s face.
Rave snuck in a low taunt. “Those fists of yours clench any harder, you’ll burst out of your clothes. Hulk style, baby.”
I went to punch him, and he chuckled, dodging as he slipped into the dispersing crowd.
“No flowers today, Prince Charming?” I asked as I sidled up nice and close to Peggy.
Peggy spun, shoving me back a step. “Quit, Dash.”
I righted my messed up shirt, making sure it was messed up just how I liked it. “Just saying. No need to get all bent out of shape over it.”
Byron’s grin needed to be wiped off his smug face. Yeah, he thought he had me pegged, but he didn’t know shit. He had no idea.
Peggy muttered a goodbye to Byron, then joined me as we headed to class. “Would it kill you to be nice?”
“I’m not sure, but I kind of like being alive, so it’s best we don’t tempt fate, right?”
Peggy tried to smother her laugh, but it snuck out, and I bumped her shoulder. She bumped me back, hard, and I chuckled as I side-stepped to catch myself.
“We still need to finish the last season of Game of Thrones,” she reminded me as we took a seat in the back of the room.
I grinned, some of the tension easing away. “After school.”
Peggy
I walked back to my locker between classes and froze.