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She huffs. “I’d never degrade myself that way.”
“Never?”
She drags on her cigarette and watches me from the corner of her eye. Then she smirks. “Maybe for the right man,” she says, tossing her hair back. “If he earned it.”
I remember saying those words to her, saying she’d have to earn the right to beg. I know she’s remembering it too, that she’s repeating my words back to me. It hits me with a jolt that she’s flirting with me. Queen Gloria Walton is flirting with me—and not hiding it. I want to believe it’s because I’m out of the doghouse now, and she’s in it, but there have been too many other instances this year when that wasn’t the case.
Tension crackles between us, the air charged, as if the whole world is waiting for what I say next.
Before I can say anything, though, Dixie comes marching out of the shadow and into the sunlight we’re sitting in. Her eyes flash with fury when she sees us sitting together, close now, thanks to me. Guilt stabs into me sharp and quick like when the dentist hits the root of a tooth. I scoot away from Lo, trying to clear my head of her intoxicating effect.
“What are you doing?” Dixie demands.
“Smoking,” Gloria says, flicking her cigarette butt at Dixie’s feet. “You going to get me expelled? Oh, wait, you already tried that.”
“Get your skank ass away from my boyfriend,” Dixie says. “You know he’s taken.”
I’ve seen a new side of Dixie since she decided to destroy Gloria. I don’t understand it. I’ve known Dixie a long time, and she’s always been a sweet girl. Suddenly she’s heartless and cruel, turning on her own friend in the most vicious manner. And sure, Gloria’s a petty bitch, but she never hurt Dixie. She’s nowhere close to innocent, but the truly heinous crimes were carried out by the Dolces themselves. None of them so much as touched a hair on Dixie’s head, though, Gloria included.
“So I’ve heard,” Gloria says, standing and picking up her bad. She slides it over her shoulder and lifts her chin, staring down my girlfriend. “Since you’ve mentioned it approximately every two minutes this entire year.”
“And yet, here you are,” Dixie says. “Alone with him.”
My clothes suddenly feel too tight, and this place feels too small, and I want to get in my truck and go somewhere, anywhere, else. Somewhere that my girlfriend isn’t suffocating me without even touching me; somewhere that the elites aren’t closing in. Dixie says they’re just waiting to welcome me until one of the kings they’ve obeyed for years comes back and gives them permission. But it feels less like wary, grudging acceptance and more like sharks circling in the water. Waiting for the first sign of weakness, the first trace of blood, before they strike.
“We were just smoking,” I say, making no effort to disguise my annoyance. I’m as irritated with myself as I am with Dixie. Why should I feel guilty for smoking a cigarette and lighting a cigarette for someone? I didn’t even give her one. We weren’t sharing a smoke, something that can be intimate under the right circumstances, which this definitely wasn’t.
“I see that,” Dixie says icily.
“Don’t worry,” Gloria says, stepping down from the bleachers. “I don’t fight over men. If he wanted to, he would.”
She looks over her shoulder at me, her eyes filled with an invitation wrapped in a dare.
I consider it for about half a second, until I remember she she’s still the snake she’s always been—and that my girlfriend is a new kind of snake. I hold Gloria’s gaze, lift my cigarette to my lips, and take a slow drag.
She turns and walks away, head held high, like she’s still the queen and I’m the pariah, like I didn’t just tell her I didn’t want her.
And it’s a good thing Dixie’s there yelling at me, or I might just go after her, wrap those long blonde strands around my hand, pull her under the bleachers, put her on her knees, and remind her how the tables have turned, that now I’m royalty and she bows at my feet, tells me how much she wants me, and what she’d do to have me—if I’d let her.
seventeen
3 YEARS AGO
Dixie Powell
“They said yes,” I cried breathlessly, grabbing onto Devlin’s Ferrari like it might try to leave me again. It idled at the curb outsidemyhouse. Puny little freshman Dixie Powell just got invited to the most exclusive party of the year. I didn’t even care that I had to chase down the car because I told them I was grounded before my parents changed their minds. I was getting to ride to the notorious Darling New Year’s Eve party with the princes of Faulkner!
They might as well have proclaimed me their princess. Even my cousin Dolly didn’t get picked up. This was a bigger statement than when they all gave Crystal Dolce their Darling Doll necklaces in front of the entire school. The first day back from holiday break—the first month—everyone would rehash the party over and over, even people who hadn’t been there. And they’d all know that I had. They’d look at me in wonder as I passed, whisper in awe that I arrived with the Darlings themselves.
“Go get dressed,” Devlin said. “And make it quick, we’ve got another stop to make.”
“I’ll go with,” Colt drawled from the back seat, grinning at me in a way that made my toes curl and my thighs quiver. His words on Homecoming night, when I gave myself to him, played back in my mind.
Come with me, baby…
Preston sighed and climbed out. “I’ll make sure this asshole doesn’t spend an hour fucking his dog.”
They followed me up the sidewalk. I bit back a smile and acted like it was no big deal that I was about to introduceColt Darlingto my parents.
