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"Maybe not, but I did anyway."
"Jesus," I moan, scrubbing my hand down my face and across my rough jaw. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"
"Not a chance, my friend. Not a chance."
I push from the headboard and scoot across the bed. "It had better be a really fucking good party."
"It will be. I've got no doubt."
I pull my shirt over my head and drop it into the laundry basket before dragging on a clean, black v-neck t-shirt and shoving my feet into my sneakers.
"If it's lame, I'm leaving," I warn Alex as I follow him out of my dorm room and toward the parking lot.
We walk past my BMW, and I come to a stop at the passenger side of his gunmetal grey Porsche. The second the lock beeps, I pull the door open and drop down, the new car smell assaulting my senses almost immediately.
"Where is it, anyway?" I ask as he backs out of his space and shoots down the road, leading us away from Gravestone U’s campus.
"Just you wait and see."
I sit in silence as Imagine Dragons blasts through his speakers, thankfully stopping us from having a conversation. The sun is beginning to set behind the trees, casting everything in an eerie orange hue. It's about right for this town.
I always thought my hometown, Sterling Bay, was an odd place with all the money and privilege. I didn't appreciate just how normal it actually was until I was shipped here to live with my estranged uncle.
From the second I stepped foot in Gravestone, it was obvious I wasn't welcome. It almost felt like everyone already knew who I was, despite the fact that I'd never met any of them before in my life—including my uncle, Marcus.
The whole thing was crazy, but I know I only have myself to blame.
Senior year, my life was spiraling and I lost control. I thought I had it all. I thought I was untouchable. Sadly, I learned the hard way just how much of a lie that was.
With one bad decision, I lost everything.
I let out a sigh which Alex hears over Yungblud playing through the sound system, and he turns it down.
"You wanna talk about it?"
"When have I ever wanted to talk about it?"
I've been in Gravestone almost a year, and not once have I said a word about how I found myself here. I have no idea what Alex thinks about the whole thing. He knows where I came from, but that's about it. He must know I did something bad, seeing as my whole reason for attending James Jagger’s wedding with Uncle Marcus a few months ago was so I could apologize to Remi Tanner, my childhood best friend.
My heart twists as I think about her. When we were kids, Remi was my everything. My best friend, the girl I thought I was destined to spend the rest of my life with. Our fathers had the money and the power, and we'd have made the perfect couple as we took the reins from our parents and their places in Sterling Bay. But much like everything else in my life, I took her for granted and fucked it all up.
I'd never met anyone else like her. Anyone who's been able to see past the mask I pull on and accept me for who I really am.
But just like my parents, I pushed her too hard as well.
I don't blame her. How I treated Remi after her life imploded was unforgivable. But this time away has taught me a lot of things. It’s allowed me to see all of my mistakes, and I knew as soon as I overheard Uncle Marcus talking about James' wedding that I needed to be there to at least try to put things right.
I guess I should have been prepared for her to turn her back on me and refuse to hear anything I had to say. It's the least I deserved.
It still fucking stung, though.
My nails dig into the denim covering my thighs as my mouth waters for some alcohol, or something stronger. I shake my head. I promised myself I was done with all that shit. Vowed I was going to put the drugs, the excessive drinking, and the need to lose myself in anything or anyone I could get my hands on, behind me.
I've been offered the chance at a new life here, I need to grab onto it with both hands, not completely fuck it up like my old life. But I’m not going to lie, it isn’t easy. This town freaks me the fuck out.
"What the hell is this place?" I ask as Alex pulls up to a set of massive black wrought iron gates lined with gold spears.
"This…" he says, gesturing to the vast space before us as the gates begin to open. There's a wide road disappearing over a hill in the distance, with nothing to see but trees and the ominous shadows they create with the low sun burning through them. "This is Cade Kingsley's domain."
