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prologue
BELLE
FIVE YEARS AGO
“I don’t know about this,”I mutter to myself in the mirror. The dress I’m wearing hugs all my curves and leaves little to the imagination.
“You look hot, babe! Kai’s pants are going to fall right off!”
“Jesus hell, Willa! Have you ever heard of knocking?” I exclaim while pressing my hand to my rapidly beating heart.
“You mean like the way you want to knock boots with Kai?” Willa says, snickering to herself.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say, turning back to the mirror just in time to see my entire face turn red. I’ve been in love with Malikai Irons for as long as I can remember. He’s two years older than me and one of our best friends. So he’s off limits, no matter how much I want him. That doesn’t stop Willa from teasing me about it.
“Yes, I do. You marry Kai, and I’ll marry Ezra. Bestfriends married to super-hot twins. I see no flaw in this plan,” Willa says with her signature smirk.
“Except the part where neither of them is interested in us, and Cal would kill both me and Kai. Possibly you just for fun,” I say, returning her smirk.
Willa rolls her eyes before plopping herself down on my bed. “Callahan can try, but he’d never succeed. I can take his prickly ass any day.”
I scoff while fixing my hair. It’s usually curly, but I straightened it for tonight. The dark brown of my hair, mixed with the black of my dress and the paleness of my skin, makes me look like a witch, and I kind of love it. I add a smokey eye to make my dark blue eyes pop and some deep red lipstick to finish the look.
“You and my brother fight more than anyone I know. He’s not even prickly,” I say, turning to look at Willa. I frown when I notice what she’s wearing. “We match.”
“No. I’m blonde, Bellamy,” she says in complete seriousness.
“Willa! We’re wearing the same dress!” I complain. It’s not the first time this has happened. We have similar taste in clothes, but I told her what I was planning to wear to the party tonight ahead of time.
“No, we aren’t. Mine has a slit in the leg and yours doesn’t,” she says, gesturing to the slit in her dress.
I sigh, not willing to continue this argument. “At least tell me you brought different shoes.”
“Nope. Fuck-me-heels or nothing,” she says, shimmying her shoulders as she heads for my bedroom door.
“Willa, we’re going to a party in the woods. Heels are a bad idea,” I try.
“Maybe I can get Ezra to carry me,” she says with a wink. I roll my eyes again. She doesn’t have a thing for Ezra. The five of us — Willa, Cal, Kai, Ezra, and me — have been friends since we were kids. We grew up in the same neighborhood and our parents are all close. Willa is just trying to be a good friend by pretending so that my crush on Kai isn’t as awkward. Sometimes I love her for it, right now it’s annoying me.
“You two are going to be late for your own graduation party,” Cal says from the couch where he’s been waiting for us. My brother is tall, with hair just as dark as mine, but his eyes are dark brown like our dad’s.
“It’s not our graduation party, Cal. You of all people know that.” I argue. Cal, along with Kai and Ezra, graduated from high school two years ago. Willa and I just graduated yesterday. Every year, the returning college kids throw a party for the graduating seniors. It’s always in the woods and usually broken up by the police after a few hours, but it’s fun while it lasts.
“It’s for graduating seniors. That’s you. Hence, your party.” Cal stands and walks to the front door, gesturing for us to follow him.
“Where are the hot twins?” Willa asks Cal.
“Probably there already,” Cal grumbles before getting into the driver’s seat of his beat-up truck. I slide into the middle seat between Willa and Cal.
We formed a band a few years ago called Shattered Halo. It was just for fun, and we still play together when the guys are home from college. Willa plays the drums, and Cal is the lead singer. They disagree on almost everything, causing the once fun band practice to be more of a nightmare. Kai playsthe guitar while Ezra plays bass. I play anything with keys. Piano, keyboard, synthesizer. Things like that.
“Ezra remembered my keyboard, right?” I ask Cal. We practice in the Irons’ garage, so I needed Ezra to bring it for me. We’re playing at the party tonight, and I’m nervous. We’ve never played in front of anyone other than our parents before. But Cal thought it would be a good opportunity and open more doors for us. His passion is music. Same goes for the twins. Willa loves music, but she loves attention more. I love writing music and singing. My voice isn’t as good as Cal’s or even Kai’s, but I enjoy adding what I can for vocals.
“Yes, Belle. For the thousandth time, Ezra has your keyboard. He probably already set it up too,” Cal says with a sigh. He’s nervous too. I can tell because he didn’t comment on how tight and short my dress is. Usually he would try to make me go change into something that covered me from neck to ankles.
The moment we pull into the clearing and park next to the other cars, I’m pushing Willa out the door so I can get to our instruments. The need to go over the sheet music and check the set list is overwhelming any excitement I had about being here tonight.
I don’t even register any of the people I pass as I make my way to the instruments under a canopy of trees. My keyboard is off to the left side, already set up with my sheet music, like my brother suggested would be the case. Willa’s drums are at the back and Kai’s guitar along with Ezra’s bass are to the right of Cal’s mic.
