by Lucy Smoke
I had meant for that to be a rhetorical question, but Lizzie—being Lizzie—fired back right away. "Who leaves college mid-semester?"
I sighed and finished closing up the last of my boxes. I hadn't brought much with me to begin with. As it was, this box was merely school supplies I had ended up getting after moving in. Less than a month in college and already, I was leaving again. At one time, that might have depressed me, but now...well, I had other things I could do, and those things made me happy. Happiness was what mattered.
I pushed the box to the side and sat on the bed I had only slept in a handful of times. "I won't forget you," I said.
Lizzie bit her lip. I had hit the nail on the head. "You promise?" she asked.
Nodding, I reached forward and took her hands in mine. "I promise."
Her eyes watered, but she pulled her hands away and dashed away the tears hanging on her lashes before they could fall. "I mean, of course, you won't forget me. It's a little hard to forget someone so freaking awesome." She waved her hands in the air and avoided my gaze as I moved off the bed to reach for the box on the floor and hefted it up in my arms. “Plus, you have my number, right?”
I smiled and nodded. The door opened, and Bellamy stood there in one of his paint shirts and a pair of whitewashed jeans. "Need some help, Sweetheart?" he reached for the box and took it without further delay.
"Thanks, I'll be right down," I replied.
He nodded, flicking a glance at Lizzie and then headed back into the hall. I let the door close behind him once more.
"So..." Lizzie began with a wicked smirk, "you're really dating them, then? That's how it is?"
I laughed. Leave it to Lizzie to just put things out there like that. Even Erika hadn't asked yet and she had seen me kiss more than one of them right in front of her. Then again, Erika, while thankful for our help, wasn’t exactly in the mood or right state to evaluate anyone’s life right now. Even her parents had agreed that being away from them right now wasn’t a good decision. To my knowledge, she was moving up north to live with her grandparents until her parents could sell their house and move as well. I smiled sadly as I smoothed a hand over the end of the bare mattress.
“Hmmm?” Lizzie twisted her head to the side and looked at me, her smirk widening. Finally, she gave up on a response and scoffed. “Ugh. I hate you,” she said without passion, sitting up straight. “Five guys, huh? Just like the fast food place.”
I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. She was right. There was no denying it now; I was in a relationship with Knix, Bellamy, Marv, and Texas—my Iris boys. As for Grayson, well, he was no longer on the outskirts, though, of course I knew she included him. He and Marv had seemed to work out their major issues. They were slow—like obese turtle slow—on building any sort of friendship after being enemies for so long.
"Yeah, I guess that's how it is," I said, turning to face her.
Lizzie's lips quirked, the corners of her mouth tight and sadness crossed over her eyes again. "I'm going to miss you so much," she said. "I mean, I know we didn't spend a whole lot of time together, but you were a cool roommate and it's gonna suck if they stick me with someone who has stinky feet."
I laughed again, shaking my head. "Like I said, I'm sure you'll survive."
Lizzie shook her head harshly. "No, I can't. I won't." Turning and throwing herself upon the soft comforter covering her bed, she moaned dramatically while squeezing her eyes closed. "I'm dying. I can’t live without you.”
"Yeah, sure." I didn't even attempt to contain my sarcasm. Grayson was rubbing off on me.
Lizzie peeked her eyes open. Huffing out a breath, she sat up again. "Are you sure I can't convince you to stay?" she asked.
I nodded. "Positive." I looked around the room—half of which was now empty—cleared away of all the things the guys and Clarissa had thought I would need in my short time here.
"What are you going to do?" she asked, straightening. "What about Kelsey? Did you say goodbye to her?"
I looked at the door. "Yeah, I caught her on my way up. She was heading to class. We said our goodbyes."
Lizzie deflated again. "Oh."
"I'm heading back to Charleston," I divulged. "I think I'm ready to start living the life I want."
I felt her eyes assessing me. "You know what you want then?"
"I want them," I said. "And right now, they want me too. That's good enough for now. We'll figure everything else as we come to it. Plus, I want to see my mom again."
When I met Lizzie's gaze once more, a wide smile had overtaken her face. "You did it, didn't you?" she asked conspiratorially.
My eyes widened. "Wha—"
"Oh, no. Don't even!" She laughed, bouncing off the bed. Lizzie stopped in front of me and held out her hand. "Phone."
I blinked but reached into my pocket and retrieved it anyway. She yanked it from my hand and started typing away. "Um...what are you doing?" I asked. "I already have your number."
"I know," she said, her fingers flying over the screen. "I'm just adding you to all my social media now."
"Okay." I waited for a minute or two for her to elaborate. When she didn’t, I tilted my head to the side and finally asked, "Why?" Lizzie moved away, her fingers still clicking against the pad of my cellphone. “Lizzie?” She stepped back, her eyes glued to the screen.
“Almost done,” she answered.
I waited for another minute or two. “Okay, seriously. What are you doing?” I asked
Her eyes met mine and she flipped the phone around, handing it back. "So, I have every avenue open to me. You could always block my phone number, but now I'm everywhere. Your Instagram. Facebook. Twitter."
"I don't have half of those," I reminded her.
With another wicked grin, she flipped her hair again. "Now you do," she sing-songed.
I lifted one brow. "Is this your way of stalking me?"
"It's internet stalking," she said. "It's totally acceptable in today's society. Even encouraged. Girls do it to guys they intend to date all the time. Look it up, it's a thing."
I shook my head and raised my free hand as I slipped my phone back into my pocket. "No, that's not necessary. I believe you."
Lizzie sobered. "I know you promised you wouldn't forget me," she said. "I'm going to hold you to that. Keep in contact, Harlow. You're a good person, I can feel it, and having good people in my life is what everyone needs."
I sniffed, feeling my own eyes burn. Opening my arms, I wrapped them around her and she smiled, snuggling closer. I wasn't very tall, but I was still an inch or so taller than her and it made me feel like I was holding a beloved stuffed animal.
"I'll keep in touch," I promised.
When we pulled apart, she punched me lightly in the shoulder. "You better, or I'll track you down."
Chuckling, I headed for the door. "Of that, I have no doubt."
"Fear me, for I am small," she called after me as I headed into the hall.
I turned in my keys and filled out a small cleaning survey for the front office, letting them know the dorm didn’t sustain any damages in the time I had stayed there, before heading outside to meet up with the guys. Bellamy was on the roof of the SUV, tying down my last box. Knix directed from below.
"Ready to go, Sunshine?" Marv asked, leaning down to peck me lightly on the mouth.
Now that it was kind of, sort of, official between us all, he and the others had taken to kissing me whenever the need struck. And it struck quite often between all of them. The only one who hadn't touched me since everything had ended with H. B. Holdings was Grayson. In fact, speaking of the Devil, I glanced around, looking for his tall frame.
"Where's Grayson?" I asked. Marv didn't even tense now when I said his name, though his lips did curl downward.
"He's dealing with something," Marv answered.
I frowned at the vagueness but figured that he probably didn't know much more. Maybe that was the reason for his disapproving look. I didn't want to push if it would unleash unplea
santness, so I just decided to let it be.
"Shotgun!" I called, sprinting away from his side suddenly and bounding around the car. Bellamy jumped down from the back as I opened the front passenger door and got in.
"Damn it, Monkey Princess!" Texas whined on the lawn. "I do not want to be squished between these two boneheads all the way back."
"You can only have one nickname," I reminded him.
When he came around the side, determined to get to me and pull me from my sanctuary, I slammed down all the locks.
"Shit! Did you just lock us out?" Texas glared at me from outside the door.
I just grinned wickedly.
"Little Bit." Knix's deep voice shivered along my spine as he called from the driver's side door. "Come on."
"I called shotgun," I said.
He nodded. "And you can keep it. Texas can ride in the back."
"But the back is all full of her stuff!" Texas complained loudly.
Knix sighed. "Backseat," he said.
I snickered at Texas' expression.
"I will so get you back," he said, eyeballing me as I hit the locks and he opened the back door.
I looked forward to seeing him try.
Epilogue
Grayson
"If she's everything you say she is, the best thing for you to do is to leave." Marv's words echoed in my mind. Leave. That's all I ever wanted to do. She had gotten her time with me. Marv was right. Now was my time. Today was the last day I'd ever set foot in her venomous presence again.
Unlike four years before, I drove my own car up the long driveway straight to the front doors of the mansion. I had spent the last three years sequestered here when I wasn't at school or doing something for her. Why else would I have chosen to sign up for the football team every year? The practice was year-round. At least, for me it was. I used any excuse I could to get out of this prison.
I took the steps two at a time, steeling myself as I threw open the front doors. An antique butler, probably older than the floors themselves—newly remodeled—rushed up to me out of nowhere. "Master Caruso, you're home. We weren't expecting you so soon."
I waved him away. "I'm not staying. Where is Teddi?" If he, or any of the other servants she required around her twenty-four hours a day, thought it was odd that I would call my mother by her first name, they never said so.
The old man bowed his snow-white head. "She's in the study with a guest, sir, but she asked not to be—Master Caruso!" he cried out when he realized that I was already heading in that direction. "Master Caruso! Stop!"
Perhaps it was my urgency, but I wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. I was meeting with Marv and Knix as soon as they returned to Charleston with Harlow. I found the room I was looking for and in the split second it took for me to reach for the handles, I realized that my mother’s voice wasn’t the only one inside. The study room doors hit the walls with a loud bang and the man standing over my mother, laid out on the desk, scrambled up. I gritted my teeth as I glared at the man.
For her part, Teddi didn't even flinch. Then again, that might have been because of her regular Botox appointments. I used to think it was those very chemicals that made it so that she couldn't feel anything, until I got older and learned better.
"What the fuck!" the gray-haired, foul-mouthed geezer cursed.
"Get out," I said coldly, standing to the side of the doors as the butler gaped openly before squeaking and turning to rush away on his spindly little legs. Chances were he would be fired by the end of the day—one of many casualties in Teddi's empire of servants. The old man would be better off.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" the old man puffed up his chest and stuffed his now-limp dick back into his pants.
I glared at my mother as she huffed out a very put-upon sigh and sat up, straightening her wrap dress so that it appropriately covered her body. I swear I vomited a little in my mouth.
"I'm her son, jackass. Now, get the fuck out before I kick you out." I pointed to the open doorway.
Teddi showed no emotion—not that she really could—as the man whipped his head around to look at her. "I thought you were in your twenties."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, asshole. They all think that."
The man huffed and, with a red face, finally made his way out of the study. Teddi looked at me with a bored expression and waited until the front door slammed shut. She puffed out another breath. "Well, that went well," she said. "I hope you're happy. That was my next trip to Bali, I hope you understand—"
"Fuck Bali and fuck you," I snapped.
She waved her hand at me, unconcerned as she moved to sit on one of the lounges. Crossing her legs, one over the other at the knee, she nodded towards the decanters against the opposite wall. "Pour me a drink."
"I'm not your fucking servant," I said. "I only came by to tell you that I'm moving out. I'm done with you."
She didn't say anything for several minutes. Then, with a sly smile, Teddi uncrossed her legs and stood up. As she approached me slowly, tapping her long, sharp nails against her side, an uncomfortable tingle raced up my spine.
"Grayson, darling," she said quietly, reaching up and taking my chin in her delicate hand. I had never hit a woman before, but I wanted to now. A bad feeling sank like boulders to the pit of my stomach. "Why are you so cruel to your mother?"
I jerked my chin away, breaking her grasp. Her hand fell to her side "Your goddamn alimony ran out and this is what you resort to?" I sneered. "Fucking strangers in the study? Yeah, you're the fucking mother of the year. You've known this was coming for a long time. If you had any leverage, you would have used it against me by now. As it stands, you have nothing." I hissed the last word, enjoying the feel of it on my tongue. I turned away but stopped when the most chilling sound hit my ears. She was laughing. Theodora Vandersen-Caruso did not laugh. At least, not like this.
I turned back. Teddi gave mild chuckles or vaporous giggles. She did not laugh. It was disturbing to hear, but even more disturbing to watch. There were actual, real, tears in her eyes. "Oh, Grayson," she wiped them away with a delicate hand, "you're so amusing."
I stared at her as she moved away, heading towards the decanter. Taking a crystal glass from the rack, she lifted and poured the brandy that always seemed to be there. No matter how much we drank from it—and for me, that had been quite a lot while I stayed here full time during the school year—it always seemed to refill. The servants more than likely kept our glasses well stocked. The drunker my mother was, the easier she was to handle sometimes. For hours, she would just lay about, staring at the ceiling as she drank absently in silence.
Now, however, she was anything but absent as she turned back to me and lifted the glass to her lips. When Teddi lowered the crystal to the stand again, a noticeable red lipstick smear lined the glass where her lips had been. "You seem to think that you have a say in what you do next," she started. "I've let you go out and have your fun, darling, but truly did you think it would be like that forever?"
I shook my head. "There's nothing you can do to stop me."
Taking her glass and refilling it before she returned to the lounge, Teddi watched me with her beautiful—albeit deadly—eyes. She was like a snake, gorgeous even when coiled and ready to strike. "Face it, Grayson, you're the last of the Vandersen line. Your brother was a disappointment."
"He—" I started, but she cut me off.
"Oh, I know," she snapped, "you put him in rehab and look where that got you."
I swallowed. How could she have known? Her eyes lit up as she tilted her head and took a long sip from her glass. "That surprises you," she stated. "Did you really think I wouldn't keep tabs on you?"
"You've got someone watching me?" I snapped, fury rising.
She rolled her eyes. "Of course. He's quite good too. Very attentive. Perhaps one of the best I've had yet..." Her finger circled the rim of her glass. She smiled my way. "It doesn't hurt that he's good at his job, too."
My lips curled
back in disgust, but she kept talking. "And when he told me you had met a girl, I knew it would only be a matter of time."
There it was. The bad feeling. The rocks in my stomach. Her eyes met mine and her lips pulled back once more in a predatory way. "She's a young and beautiful girl, Grayson. I see why you like her." Teddi's eyes turned to the table between the lounges, as did mine. There she flipped open a plain manila folder and, with a shove, pictures rained down over the floor. Pictures of Harlow. Harlow in high school. Harlow getting into my old mustang. Harlow when she worked at the diner. Harlow in a beautiful lavender dress, standing amidst cops as Knix and Marv led her down a street. Harlow sitting in a hospital room. Harlow walking across the campus we had just left. Harlow with her hair blowing back from her face as she sat in the passenger seat of a dark SUV next to...I couldn't make out who she was with this time, but it didn't matter. The message was sent and received.
"You're threatening someone you don't even know?" I bent down and picked up the picture of Harlow I had never seen before. She was gorgeous. Her hair swept into a messy bun with just a few tendrils of light brown hair falling around her face. Her neck looked long and slender as she walked along the sidewalk with Knix at her side. I had no clue when this had been taken or where they had been heading, but the red sundress she wore looked stunning as it cinched around her waist and flowed around her legs—legs that I wanted around me as I drove my fingers into her hair and kissed the shit out of her.
I knew things were complicated. She wasn't exactly available, but neither were things set in stone. She was dating four guys. I just wanted a piece of her. I understood their need to have some part of her. She was an amazing girl—a woman, really. She was soft as well as strong. Mouthy. Loving. And warm. So goddamn warm. I needed some warmth in my life.
I lifted my eyes to Teddi's. "As you can see," she said, taking another long sip, "I've been keeping tabs on more than just you, darling."
I clenched the photo in my fist. "What. Do. You. Want?"
