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“His games bore me.”
One of the (many) oldest tales of Hades Hollow is that of the scorned lover, Jezebel, and the love of her lost pirate, Timothy. It is said that Jezebel haunts the waters of Hades Hollow and despises young people because Timothy went swimming with his dick. She was eighteen when her throat was slit, and she was shoved off the very same cliff I just jumped off. It’s said that on the night of your eighteenth birthday, if you want to continue to swim in our waters, you have to take the jump to stop Jezebel from pulling you under.
I know there is no truth to it, or there’d be a shit ton of people who would be dead after swimming here, especially those who don’t know the rules. For one, I am still seventeen. I’ve yet to be sucked under by Jezebel’s tentacles, if she was an octopus. In my head, she is. There are so many stories that haunt this town… you just have to decide which one you believe the most…
“Well…shots?” Cooper holds up tiny plastic shot cups to his cheeks, flashing a toothy smile that usually gets him whatever the hell he wants.
I snatch one from him, sinking it before he can ask me if I’m okay again. I love Cooper. He is tentative when I want him to be and hard when I need him to be, but he is Cooper. So wrapped up in his need to be the main character of every room he often forgets about the rest of us. Even in a town as small as Hades Hollow. With a population of something around four thousand, everyone knows everyone. There is one small high school, an elementary school, and a beach that stretches from one side of the town to the other. A large cliff face curves the end of the town, right opposite The Landing, which sits in the middle of the ocean like a small island. It’s almost like a rite of passage for new kids to swim into the cove and get stuck there until the next low tide. Nothing serious, since it’s an enclosed little beach, but at certain times of night and with the history of Jezebel’s Cove? No. Hard pass.
Music plays around us, and I look aimlessly around our group. It has thinned out since I swam up to shore. Cooper’s saddled up near Dani, and opposite her is one of her other friends, Jessica, and beside Jessica is her boyfriend, Neil. They seem lost in boring conversations about the latest episode of some CW show when movement catches my eye over Neil’s shoulder. The flickering from the flames only makes the shadows harder to see, so I squint my eyes and tilt my head to see if I can make out what it is.
“You hear me?” Cooper asks, tapping my shoulder with his lightly. “The house sold.”
“Huh.” I bring the rim of my cup to my lips, letting the bubbles sit before swallowing a large gulp. “And they’re moving in now?”
Cooper chuckles, wiping the sand off his pants when he stands. He offers me a hand, and I look between his face and his gesture. “What do you say, Shi? Keen for some fun?”
“What?” I lean to the side, placing my cup down on the sand beside me.
“Oh, come on! Please can we just relax?” Dani whines beside me, but I ignore her.
“I haven’t been in that house in years, Cooper.”
He shrugs, tugging on the tie around his shorts and tightening them. “Then let’s see it before whoever rich motherfucker it was that bought it—”
“—and brave…” Jessica adds.
“—will most likely tear it down. Come on…”
I narrow my eyes on his lips when he pouts. “Fine!” I pick up my cup, shoving my phone into my bikini beneath the shirt. “But only because I have to always make sure you don’t get yourself killed.” I start following him as he makes his way between a circle of partygoers.
“Shi!” Ruin calls out from the ocean, and I pause, turning to see him paddling up to shore with the full moon now lighting up the dark sky like a beacon. He picks his board up and stabs it into the sand, shaking the water out of his hair as he picks up his pace to me. Ruin is all abs and nice arms, but not enough to drown out the fact that he’s a complete dick.
…and that I maybe use his as a toy.
He wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me into his chest while bringing his lips down to the curve of my collarbone. He kisses me lightly, and I smirk before hooking my arm around his neck. “Forgive me for making you jump again?”
“Shut up.” I lean back, pushing against his chest until we’re eye level. Leaning up, I graze my lips over his as his hands skim over my curved ass and down, squeezing the fat on my behind as he pulls me into him.
“Where you going?” he asks, his eyes flying over my shoulder. No doubt to Cooper, who has stopped to wait.
Ruin is in college, but he comes home every weekend to spend time with his mom, since his dad is also a douche. Most girls pine after him during the best of times, but since he left for college, it’s only gotten worse.
“Cooper wanted to see inside The Manor since it sold, and we probably won’t get another chance.”
Ruin’s jaw jumps as his mouth turns flat. “Ah, I don’t think that’s a good idea, Shi.”
I ignore him, turning back to Cooper, who’s waving his hands to hurry up. Ruin just wants a piece of ass, and this is getting in the way of that for him.
“Oh, come on…” I tease, reaching for his hand and pulling him closer.
Ruin has always been that boy at school. You know, the one everyone wants to be with, whether it be friends or something more. He never has a short list of girls and guys lining up to sleep with him either, and although he’s conventionally handsome, sporty, smart, and all the things high school and college girls look for in a boy, there is one thing that stands out when it comes to Ruin—it’s his uncanny ability to not noticeanything.Much like Cooper. There is one undeniable stick-out when it comes to my best friend, Cooper Quinn, and that is his cousin, Dion. Being the first cousin to the most famous rock star of our generation has its perks, obviously. Like for one, clout. Cooper has never let an opportunity pass him whenever it would arise. He is a ho, just like Ruin.
“Don’t you want to see who bought the most haunted and talked about abandoned manor right here on the beach?”
“Shiloh, it’s been empty for longer than we have been alive. Let’s just”—he catches my wrist, pulling me closer into him—“go get a drink and chill with our friends.” He runs the tip of his finger down the side of my face, his blue eyes searching mine. “We don’t want to be out here. This is high school shit. Let the high schoolers do it.”
I go to turn around to tell Cooper that I’m not coming, but he already has his middle finger up at me as he walks back past Ruin and me.
