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Now, if I were to describe my brother and his friends, Talon was the aggressive one, Hunter was the serious one, and Lars was the flirty one. Though girls had always thrown themselves at the trio of guys, Lars had usually gone out of his way to catch them, whereas Talon and Hunter hadn’t been so obvious. Plus, a lot of girls had tried to befriend me as a way to get to my brother, so Talon had never trusted females much before Kenzlee had come into his life.
“Hey, Edie.” I turned to see Calliope Fairfield walking my way. “You excited about senior year?”
While Calliope and I weren’t exactly friends, we’d always been friendly. She was lower-middle class like I was, so like me, she had spent the past few years padding her resume to up her chances at scholarships and college acceptances. A very pretty girl, she was a couple of inches taller than my own five-foot-one, and she had red hair, green eyes, and a very nice figure. She was also very popular, not having just one group of friends. I could also appreciate how she had never tried to talk to me about Talon. Even if she had been interested in him, she hadn’t ever spoken to me about it.
“Yeah, I am,” I answered as I shut my locker.
Her nose scrunched up a bit. “I bet it feels a bit weird without your brother here, huh?”
I nodded. “A bit,” I admitted. “Still, I’m lucky that he’s just a phone call away.”
Calliope arched a brow. “You also have Lars Finley if you ever find yourself in a pinch.”
I chuckled. “The last thing that Lars Finley is going to want to do is spend his senior year at Lakeside babysitting me.” Calliope eyed me like she wasn’t quite sure if she believed me. “I know that I can ask him for help if I need something, but I finally have some breathing room now that Talon’s not here, so I plan on taking advantage of that.”
Calliope’s eyes gleamed. “Does that mean that there might be some parties in your future?”
“Hopefully,” I answered, shrugging a shoulder.
The girl smiled wide. “It’s about time.”
Unfamiliar panic began to set in. “Well, I mean, I’m still going to be in drama and help with tutoring, but if I find myself with some extra time on my hands, we’ll see.”
“Well, I plan to party my ass off, so if you ever want to check one out, we can go together,” she offered, and it was really sweet of her since we weren’t really friends. “Besides, you’ll need someone to help warn you of which guys are creeps and which ones aren’t.”
I scowled. “Why would I need to know that?”
Her green eyes widened. “Oh, c’mon, Edie. Seriously?”
“What?” I asked, confused.
“You’ve been the talk of the town all summer,” she said, surprising me.
“What are you talking about?”
“All the guys that have been too scared to ask you out because of Talon are now ready to take their shot with you,” she answered, surprising me further.
“That’s ridiculous,” I finally muttered.
“C’mon, Edie,” she said softly. “Surely, you own a mirror.”
While I’d taken after my mother, and while I had always believed that she was pretty, I hadn’t ever really given much thought to my looks because I’d been too focused on school.
“Yeah, well…baby steps,” I grimaced, and Calliope just laughed.
~
Lars~
It was my senior year at Lakeside High, and though things were different this year, I couldn’t lie and say that I still wasn’t excited about this final step before moving on to the next phase of my life. Thanks to Kenzlee, I was going to be able to go to college, and this school year couldn’t be over fast enough for me.
Like most towns, there was a ‘rich’ side to Lakeside, but the working stiffs of this town definitely outnumbered the people with money. Most of the citizens of this town worked regular jobs, stressed over bills, and did their best to keep their children out of prison. Lakeside turned out more juvenile delinquents than college hopefuls, and I had always blamed it on the fact that there was no lake in the goddamn town.
Growing up, my parents, Henry and Viola Finley, had done their best by me and my brother, Hunter. Dad was an insurance adjuster, and Mom worked as a secretary for a car dealership, and while we hadn’t been swimming in money, we’d been raised well, and it was something that I’d never lost sight of. Considering that I’d had to grow up watching Talon stretch himself thin to take care of his mother and sister, I made sure to never take my parents for granted.
Now, just like my best friend, Talon, and his sister, Edie, were Irish twins, so were me and Hunter. My brother wasn’t even a year older than me, and we’d grown up super close because of it. Now, if I had to describe us, I’d say that Hunter was way too serious for his age, and I wasn’t serious enough. Though I wasn’t a complete douchebag, I liked to party, and I definitely liked girls. Where Talon and Hunter had always been discrete about their dates, if a girl wanted to blow me in public, I had no problem letting her.
Women were fucking incredible.
