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The other students’ attention wasn’t on me just because I was Shaw’s best friend. My dad was the bassist for Demon’s Wings. He’d been some kind of manwhore back in the day until Mom came along and tamed him. Ever since, she’d needed her own bodyguard to keep the idiots in their place because there were women out there still pissed she’d landed the one guy everyone thought was unobtainable. She was also the editor at one of the two magazines she owned.
And I was their princess. The daughter the world thought they would never have. I’d been their miracle, and everyone stopped to stare, no matter where I went. There were some nutjobs out there who even wanted to touch me because they thought I was magical and that holding my hand for a few minutes could help them conceive.
I wasn’t a gift from God or whatever else some people assumed. My mom went through hell and had the help of the world’s leading fertility specialist to help her and Dad get pregnant with me. I’d stopped asking to hear the stories years ago because she always got a haunted look in her eyes when she talked about it, making me wonder if she suffered from PTSD because of everything that had happened before I was born.
My brother was the true miracle. They weren’t even trying to get pregnant with him. She always said they didn’t want to be greedy. They got me, and that was enough for them. But Mason surprised the hell out of everyone three years later. There was no fertility specialist, no daily shots, no stressing over if the pregnancy test was going to be negative that month. Even her pregnancy with him was fairly uneventful, whereas hers with me had caused my parents to have nightmares for years.
Shaw glared at the group of girls standing closest that were gawking at us. “Take a picture, bitches. You can finger yourselves to it later.” She flipped them off and then linked her arm through mine as we walked to our shared locker.
It was technically mine, but there was no use in us having two separate lockers when we only needed one and mine was closer to our first class of the day.
“How pissed do you think Cannon would be if we stole his car and drive over to Malibu at lunch?” I asked her as I opened the locker and exchanged my AP English Lit book for my trig.
She snorted. “I don’t think there is a word in the English language for how mad he will be. But that never stopped us before.” She took out her chemistry book. “This is why I always carry my set of keys to his car.” She winked as she backed away. “Meet me outside after second period.”
Grinning, I waved and started down the hall to my class. Pulling out my phone, I texted Luca a kiss.
Chapter 2
Violet
As soon as the bell rang at the end of second period, I grabbed my t
hings and headed for the nearest exit. I got to the student parking lot without anyone stopping me, and I might have gotten into Cannon’s car with no one even noticing if it weren’t for my spotting a familiar dark ponytail about to disappear into a black car.
Arella turned, and our gazes locked. My cousin grinned. “You saw nothing.”
“Same to you, cuz,” I said with a wink.
“You going to Malibu?”
“No comment.”
She laughed and walked over to hug me. She was in the same grade as Shaw, so they were a year ahead of me, but I didn’t see Arella often in the halls. She didn’t take AP classes, and most of her friends were in the drama club with her.
“How is Uncle Drake?” I asked when we parted from our hug.
“Same,” she said with a sad twist of her lips. “And he and Mom are still forbidding us from telling Nevaeh. I feel so bad for keeping his illness from her.”
“I know. But it’s for the best,” I tried to soothe, but I felt just as guilty. I didn’t even talk to Nevaeh often, but I still felt bad for keeping the secret about her dad’s liver disease. My dad was his brother, and he’d gotten tested to see if he was a match as soon as Uncle Drake told him he needed a liver transplant. The results were good—better than good, actually—but I still hadn’t fully grasped what that would mean for Dad.
I hadn’t let myself think of what could go wrong. The “what-ifs” of complications. I couldn’t, or I would beg him not to go through with it. And I couldn’t do that to him or Uncle Drake. So, I tried not to think about it at all. I would let myself worry when the surgery actually happened. Until then, I would pretend nothing was wrong.
But I couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been for Arella and her three younger siblings. Seeing how sick their dad was every day, scared they could lose him before he could get the transplant that would save his life.
“Yo, Arella!” Her best friend, Palmer, yelled. “Let’s go.”
Arella rolled her blue-gray eyes, making me grin. “I’ll see you tonight?” she asked as she backed toward the car.
“You know it. I’ll be the one in the ‘Thornton’ jersey that smells like sweat and sexy beast.”
“Gross,” she laughed. “He’s my cousin. I don’t want to think about his scent being sexy, Vi.”
“Yeah, well, he’s not my cousin, and I think he smells divine.” I winked, and she snorted out another laugh. “I hope your mom doesn’t find out you skipped.”
“Girl, same to you with Uncle Shane.”
“Oh, please. I can handle my dad. Not so sure you can bat your lashes and pout, and Aunt Lana will go weak at the knees.”
