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It didn’t help that Georgia was just as bad as her mother. Or that it looked like Carolina was quickly turning into the two airheads that I was forced to share a roof with. By the end of the second week living with my father—whom I rarely saw—and his family, I was ready to say screw it. I could live with the guilt of not getting to know Scott Montez and the family he’d turned his back on me for. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to feel guilty at all.
Well, not too much anyway. The only guilt I would feel was from letting my mother down.
Damn it.
Thinking of my mother was the only reason I was able to get through each day. I missed her so much at times it was all I could do not to break down and cry as I lay in my bed every night. Talking to Angie, Caleb and Carter each night helped some, and I was sure if it weren’t for my new friendship with Lucy Thornton that I would be lost in my own heartbreakingly endless grief.
What had my mom been thinking when she had come up with the idea that I would be better off in California with Scott rather than with the three people who were the only real family I’d ever known? Had she not understood that I would grieve for her? That I would feel lost and alone and that shipping me off to my biological father the instant she was in the ground would destroy me?
Maybe she hadn’t thought of that at all, but I sure as hell wondered about it every night as I tried not to cry myself to sleep.
Today was Saturday and for the most part I’d avoided leaving my room as much as possible. It was better for everyone if I stayed in my bedroom. Every time I saw Jillian we ended up arguing and I was past caring if I hurt anyone’s feelings in this house. Two days after arriving, I’d finally had enough of letting the three chicks that I now shared a house that was more prison than home with, run over me.
Georgia only had herself to blame for the pink food coloring I’d put into her shampoo and conditioner. Carolina shouldn’t have been quick to follow in her big sister’s footsteps because I hadn’t played favorites with them. The younger girl’s expensive shampoo and conditioner had been subjected to the same thing. The week-long grounding I’d gotten for turning Jillian’s daughters’ hair pink was well worth every second of home confinement. I’d had something to smile about at least each time I’d caught sight of that ugly pink color for the two days the food coloring had stuck around. The two hadn’t stopped washing their hair until the pink was all gone. Now SoCal was in a drought.
I probably wouldn’t have even done anything to my two step-bitches if they had just left Lucy alone. Instead they had badmouthed her one too many times for my liking and I never let someone talk shit about my friends. Lucy and her family were the only shining lights to the otherwise dimness that my life was living with my father and step-monster. Without them, I was sure I would have lost my sanity already.
Thankfully my punishment was finally over, and I was getting cabin fever from having locked myself in my room for so long. So I’d texted Lucy and gotten a little surprise when she’d called me back and told me to get ready. She was taking me to First Bass, one of California’s hottest new clubs. My new best friend had VIP access to a place where normal people had to wait weeks to get on the actual official waiting list, and she was finally going to use it.
Knowing the owner handled the age requirement to get in, I guessed, because I was sure that places like First Bass didn’t normally let seventeen-year-olds inside. So there I was, dressed up—well, as much as I dressed up anyway—in jeans, one of my old rocker T-shirts and flip flops. I didn’t even touch my wild collection of new makeup Jillian kept adding to.
With my hair flowing down my back I stood with Lucy at the bar as we waited for the yummy-looking bartender to grab our drinks. If Marcus, Lucy’s bodyguard and shadow, hadn’t been there I would have flashed my fake ID—a present from Angie on my last birthday. I wanted a beer more than the ginger ale that Nate was currently pouring for us.
As soon as the guy returned, flirting like mad with my drop-dead gorgeous friend and offering his number, I took my drink and glanced around for somewhere to sit. With her own drink in hand, Lucy turned to follow my gaze. I’d seen more than one face that I recognized from various tabloids and movies that I’d actually liked over the years, but nowhere to sit. The place was amazing, the music kickass, but I was kind of bored.
“Lucy!”
My eyes instantly connected with an older chick in a dress that was almost indecent and heels that I figured she wasn’t used to wearing from the way she was stumbling. Her long dark hair was hanging almost limply in a tangle around her shoulders and her makeup was smeared around her eyes. Still I could tell that this chick was beautiful despite all those things that suggested she was both slutty and perhaps bordering on skank.
Then she got closer and I realized it was probably more than not knowing how to walk in those deathtrap heels that was making her stagger all over the place. Her eyes were dilated in a way that clearly told me she had something worse than alcohol in her system. She had a glass of champagne in her hand, but the way she kept stumbling and staggering, the contents kept spilling over the rim of the delicate glass she was holding.
Long, thin arms wrapped around Lucy, and I was assaulted by the smell of her hair. Gross, but it only confirmed for me that whoever this chick was, she was flying as high as the clouds right then.
“Damn, babe, you look hot,” the newcomer told Lucy as she pulled back to run her eyes appreciatively over Lucy’s curves. When Lucy didn’t look like she was going to respond, her friend took a sip of her drink. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here. Harris has been in a bad mood. For weeks now he’s been unbearable. Did you two have a fight?”
The skin around Lucy’s eyes tightened with displeasure. “I haven’t seen him to have fought with him, Jenna.” The chick stumbled again and if Lucy hadn’t reached out to catch her, she would have knocked the three men down who were passing and followed after them. “Let’s sit down before you fall.” Lucy glanced at me, but my eyes were still on our new addition. “Do you see a free couch or something?”
Jenna’s blue-gray eyes widened when she finally spotted me. “Wow, who’s this?” She stuck out a hand that noticeably shook. “Hi. I’m Jenna.”
I wasn’t about to touch this chick. Not because I suspected she was a lesbian. I had no problem with that. No, it was that she looked kind of dirty and smelled bad. Gross.
“This is Kin,” Lucy said, introducing us as if I hadn’t just snubbed the older girl.
“Like Barbie and Ken?” Jenna asked with a snort of amusement as Lucy wrapped her arm around the chick’s waist and half-carried her to a couch that had just become free across the room.
By the time we reached it I noticed Marcus had narrowed his eyes on Jenna. Lucy dropped her down onto the couch and Jenna didn’t bother to close her legs, letting the world see that she was definitely wearing underwear under the barely there dress she’d squeezed herself into. Jenna drained the last of her drink and slouched down.
“Wow, she’s a real barrel of laughs.” I took a sip of my ginger ale. “Are we going to have to babysit all night?”
“No way,” Lucy assured me with a new coolness to her tone that I hadn’t heard before. Her dark eyes were narrowed as she watch
ed Jenna for a few moments, then she lifted her head to look for Marcus.
The distance he’d offered us for privacy disappeared and he was suddenly standing right beside us. “Problems?” his deep voice said. He could already see what was going on, but wanted to know what Lucy needed him to do.
“Yeah. As soon as I get Harris over here to deal with her, we’re leaving.”
Good. I hadn’t really been having fun, even if we had just arrived. I felt kind of like an imposter being up in the VIP lounge with so many famous celebrities. This wasn’t nearly as much fun as I had originally thought it would be. I was out of my element there and just wanted to disappear. I’d been to clubs before with Caleb and Angie—mostly Caleb. He’d let me use my fake ID and would watch out for me to make sure I didn’t have more than I could handle.
