by Sarwah Creed
“Hey there.” He came closer to me, obviously enjoying my moment of brain-dead silliness.
“Hi.” I didn’t sigh it out like a schoolgirl talking to her crush. Oh no, I did even worse and clasped my hands underneath my chin as I gazed up at him in sudden adoration, until I caught myself. I wasn’t an idiot, I knew Trent was a snake, that he would use me up and throw me away, but I couldn’t help it.
He was so…cute.
“You ok?” He inched even closer as the line moved up and I backed away, feeling like a deer caught in headlights all of a sudden.
“It’d be great if people weren’t putting rats in my bag and you guys weren’t sending me a variety of invitations listing different places to be tomorrow night.” The words slipped out, mainly because I was only half aware that I had a brain. He’d stepped closer when I back up, and now I could smell his cologne, see that his blue eyes were flecked with dark blue and silver streaks, feel the heat coming off of his body. He was so close I could push my face up to his and kiss him. If I wanted to.
“Rats in your bag? Variety of invitations? What are you talking about?” He stepped back this time and broke the spell he’d cast over me.
I felt my cheeks start to burn as heat flooded into them and I realized I’d told him more than I intended to. “Yeah, here’s the other invitation.”
I pulled the paper out of a pocket in my bag and handed it to him. He scanned the invitation with those incredible eyes of his and then looked up at me. “We didn’t send you this.”
“Oh? Then who did?” I looked at him quizzically, but he didn’t know any more than I did.
“I don’t know. Here comes James with Claire and Sarah. Hey, girls, did you send this to Vicki?” he asked as they came up to us. “You better tell me if you did. Oh, and the rats, did you put dead rats in her bag?”
“Eww! No!” Claire exclaimed loudly her face twisted in disgust. “As if I’d touch a live rat, much less a dead one. And no, I didn’t send that invite either, it’s a done deal now.”
She choked, “She’s the last one standing!”
Trent turned to Sarah, his left eyebrow up in question.
“No, I have better things to do than chase down rats to kill and put in some new girl’s bag. I also don’t have time to write up fake invitations. I have a life, you know?” She flipped her hair behind her shoulder and glared at me, her eyes full of malice. “I’d guess it was the other girl, what’s her name, Sapphire? Emerald? Something like that.”
“Ruby,” I answered her and turned to look around the cafeteria. Trent saw her before me and stalked over to drag her by the arm to the little group we’d formed in the line.
“Now, Ruby, do you know anything about this?” Trent asked her sweetly, his eyes watchful for any signs that would give her away.
“No, it wasn’t me.” She shook her head in the negative, but she wouldn’t look at him.
“Someone has been sending Vicki messages, dead messages, in the form of dead rats and then she got this. Now, these two,” Trent paused to point his thumb at Claire and Sarah, “didn’t send these nasty messages, which leaves someone that has something to gain by running Vicki off, or sending her to the wrong place. Goldie’s out, so that leaves you, my dear.”
“It wasn’t,” she started to say, but then her eyes filled with tears and she tried to pull away. “She doesn’t deserve it, but I do, okay? Fine, I did it all, but all’s fair in love and war, right?”
I stared at her, surprised by the sudden change in her. She’d gone from sniveling to angry in the flash of an eye. I saw her jerk away from Trent’s hand on her coat and she stumbled back a little.
“Ruby, I think you know that disqualifies you, don’t you?” Trent said it softly, but she heard. I knew she did by the way she went stiff.
“No, no, you can’t do that to me, you just can’t! What you’ve people done to me is far worse. I need to win. I need to stop all this. You know I do. I need to win.”
Then it was as if she had a lightbulb moment as she blurted, “After what Goldie did, you’re going to disqualify me?”
“You’ve basically done the same thing Goldie did, Ruby. You’re out.” Trent turned away from her then and looked at me. “Which means you are the last, Vicki. You are the chosen one.”
A wave of excitement washed over me as I stared up into his eyes. Now that he wasn’t glaring at me with pure hatred, but with a charm that made my heart flutter, I felt…attraction. He was hot and another thought came into my head as I stared up into his face. Maybe he could help me get information about my real father from Mr. Hawk.
I didn’t know how, but maybe he could.
“Great!” I finally thought to say to him. A crash behind him distracted me and we all turned to see what had happened.
Ruby had thrown a chair across the room as she made a hasty exit. She tripped as she came to a knot of students, and crawled out of the room, utterly humiliated. For a moment, my heartstrings wanted to tug me out of the door and to help her up, but I glanced at Trent and knew she’d earned this humiliation.
I gave him a weak smile and turned to order more food. A hamburger, some fries, and an orange were all I needed to end the afternoon. It was all I could think to order as my mind replayed the look on her face mixed with flashes of Trent’s face smiling down at me like I was the most luscious girl he’d ever seen.
I went to an empty table and sat down. The whole thing had blown me away, much like it had yesterday when Goldie was eliminated. The fact that they reinforced their power by making sure everyone knew that they were the only ones that could bully others, that they held the power, made me see that the Hawk brothers were quite powerful young men. It might just be high school, but I had a feeling that when they made it to the university level, they’d accrue that same amount of power.
“Wear something pretty, Vicki,” Trent stopped to whisper to me before he laughed softly and walked to their usual table.
His voice in my ear had startled me, but I hadn’t moved. I was too stunned to do anything more than nod my head as he walked away. Something pretty. Right!
Chapter Thirty
I walked to the gym with butterflies in my tummy and sweaty palms. The entire day had gone by in a blur and now I was going to meet my fate. Something told me that this night would change my entire life. I checked my phone and saw it was ten minutes to midnight.
I ducked in and went straight to the girls’ bathroom. It was empty, thankfully, and I checked my makeup in the mirror. I wasn’t used to putting it on but thankfully the Internet was nearly entirely consumed by young people and adults insisting they were the only ones that could teach us all how to do our makeup. I’d followed one of the less layered on looks and highlighted what I could with color to make myself look…prettier.
I’d curled my long dark hair and it now cascaded down my back over a light blue dress that I’d found in a second-hand shop with Mom last summer and I was happy that the material was stretchy so that I could still fit into it. I’d packed it in my bag, not knowing if I’d need it. It was more like a satiny suit than a dress, with a hem that came down to my knees and long sleeves. Perfect for this chilly night.
I could hear a low hum outside and went to the door to listen. It was almost like everyone out there was humming a song, a song I didn’t know. It made me curious and I finally left the haven of the bathroom to walk out to the dark gym. There was a stage at the far end, not very big, but enough for a small collection of people to sit comfortably.
There was a spotlight on the twin Hawk brothers, with candles spread out along the edge to cast a warm glow over the space. They stood there in black suits that must have been tailored because they fit the boys perfectly. I felt my heart begin to race as I walked through the empty basketball court and down toward the stage.
Everyone else was already here. Why had I been told to arrive at midnight then?
“Ah, there she is.” Trent walked up to a microphone and spoke. “Our initiate,
the girl that will be ours for a year. Our final year. She is the final girl in this year’s ritual, she above all the rest showed honor and dedication. She alone stood out amongst the crop of new girls that came to us. She is our final girl, for the final time.”
The gym erupted with cheers and applause from the darkness and I looked around in awe. I couldn’t see any of the other students, but I could hear them as they responded to Trent. He’d said I showed honor and dedication, which, I suppose I had. I’d just mainly been myself, I’d tried to make friends, and keep them. The other two girls hadn’t, but I had, and now here I was.
“Come up here, Vicki Harris, let the crowd see you.”
I walked up to the stage and looked around. Sarah came up to me, then Claire. They both wore thin tiaras on their heads that winked in the candlelight. Each took off their tiara and placed it on my head. With slight smiles, they walked away, off the stage, and into the crowd.
“Vicki, we usually pick two girls, one for me and one for James.” Trent pointed at his brother, and I glanced at him. James was the strong, silent type, and it didn’t surprise me when he just nodded at me. “But this year, it seems we’re going to have to share you.”
I felt my eyebrows go up at that. Share me? What the fuck?
“You see, your protection comes at a price. As our queen you will be our girlfriend, our one and only. Can you handle that?” Trent watched me from his place at the microphone.
I could barely take in what he’d said. Their girlfriend? Both of them?
I could feel something warm start in my lower abdomen that blossomed out to other parts of me as I stared at the boys. Both of them. Now that was something to write home about. Wouldn’t the girls die with envy when I told them. I started to tilt my head but the two tiaras on top of it started to slide off. I put them back in place, feeling a little silly with them both on, and stepped forward.
I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d got myself into, but I was curious. I’d heard girls talk about stuff like this, read books about girls that were shared quite happily by two or more men, but I’d never considered that it might happen to me. The idea didn’t scare me, it excited me.
“I think I can, Trent.” I held my hand out to take the one he offered me, and the crowd cheered even louder this time.
“Then it’s time we finish the ritual, alone.” Trent winked at me, and that heat spread even further out, down between my thighs and up to the untouched buds of my breasts. Holy fuck. What was the rest of the ritual? It couldn’t be, could it?
James came up to me, brushed a finger down my face as his blue eyes, exactly the same as Trent’s, studied me. His eyelids narrowed as he took me in, and then came back to mine. “You’ll do. I could fuck you three times a day and still need to fuck you at the end of the night.”
My lips parted and my eyes went wide, but I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t think of what to say. But I knew now, instinctively, that I’d be losing my virginity tonight.
I hadn’t even told Ava and Teresa about this ritual, but now, I wanted to call both of them, to tell them what I’d lucked into. Not only would I be left alone for the rest of the year, a thought that flooded my veins with relief, but I’d also be having sex with these two all year? I’d have the hottest, most wanted boys as my boyfriends? Now that was lucky.
I followed James and Trent out of the gym as soft lights came on and dance music started to play. I guessed there was an after-party, but from the way Trent tugged me out of the doors, I knew we wouldn’t attending.
He had other plans for me. They lead me out into the darkness and to another small building I’d noted, but never inspected. Trent slid a key into the door, and I could see it was a small apartment. The teachers lived in buildings that looked like small houses dotted around the back of the academy property. This must have been for single teachers in previous years. Or something like that, I didn’t know, did I?
“Are you alright with our terms, Vicki?” Trent turned to me to ask as James switched a light on.
I looked around and saw rich brown furniture and black carpet. It was obvious they were living here, by the two glasses left on the bar near the kitchen area.
“For real now. You will be fucking both of us tonight, just to be clear. If you don’t want that, then you can leave.”
He stopped talking, walked over to the fridge, took out two bottles of water, and came back to me. I wanted to say no, to tell them both to fuck off, that the idea was crazy, but I also wanted to say yes. A year of peace, after the last few weeks of hell, would be incredible. But I’d have to fuck them, be their girlfriend they said. Would I really be their girlfriend, or just their sex slave?
“I would like to stay, Trent.” I smiled at him and then looked at James. He didn’t seem to be as interested, but I remembered what he’d said. He could fuck me three times a day then fuck me all over again at night. That was a lot of fucking for one person, but I was new to sex, maybe it was possible? Just not this first night.
I took the bottle of water he offered me and took a swig of it before I sat down on the couch. “What now?”
I took the tiara’s off of my head and waited. I didn’t know what to expect. Would they come to me at the same time and just…start? Would we work up to it after a brief chance to talk to each other, to get to know each other? Or would they just take me to a bedroom, and one would undress me and have their way with me, only to leave to let the other one have a go?
My cheeks burned and I picked up the water again. I wasn’t thirsty, it was just an excuse not to talk to either one of them. I wasn’t sure what to do. I was a virgin, I’d only been kissed once, willingly, and I was nervous as fuck. I could see it in the way my hands shook when I put the almost empty bottle down on the counter that split the living room and kitchen into two areas.
“Do you want coffee or something else, Vicki? Something to nibble on?” James asked from the kitchen area when I went to sit down on the brown leather couch.
“Coffee maybe. If you want some,” I said and tried to keep my voice from shaking. I failed, miserably.
“Don’t be nervous, Vicki.” Trent sat down beside me and took my hand. “You’re a virgin, right?”
I nodded my head as those sympathetic blue eyes took me in. “I’m sorry, I’ve just never had a boyfriend. I don’t have any experience.”
A brief moment of triumph flashed across his face and I saw him exchange a look with his brother. Then, he schooled his face back into that sympathetic look and I relaxed. I felt better and when his fingers brushed at the place where my wrist met my hand I felt a bolt of electricity go through me.
“It’s not a problem, at all. I prefer it that way. We will teach you all the ways you can please a man, and all the ways a man can please you. It’s not just about us, you know?” Trent sat back as he spoke and pulled me back with him. “Come here.”
I did as instructed and leaned back against the couch. I looked into his eyes and took a deep, but shaky, breath. His fingers came up on both side of my face to gently rest along my jaw.
“You’re a beautiful girl, Vicki. One of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been all over the world.” He looked confused for a moment, like he’d only just thought about what he’d said, then decided he agreed with himself. “It’s hard to believe, but you are. So, sweet and beautiful. Untouched.”
I inhaled deep again, my eyes wide, before his lips came down to touch mine. Softly at first, he explored my mouth, explored my response, until he knew I wasn’t going to pull away. I forgot James was in the kitchen making us coffee as Trent’s tongue came out to tease my lips open.
This wasn’t an innocent kiss anymore, not once his tongue found mine and urged me to play along. I moaned as I followed his lead, something hot and aching pulsing inside of me. He sucked at my tongue as his hand came up to my waist, to pull me toward him. I twisted until my chest was against his on the couch, my nipples hard in my bra and aching as the fabric brushed against them, as
his heat came up against me.
I reached out to touch his well-muscled arm, fascinated with the idea that I was about to have sex with this guy. I didn’t love him, I barely knew him, but I was fascinated and needed to know far more about him, needed the pleasure his eyes, his lips, and body promised me.
His fingers came up to the zipper of the dress, and I wanted to beg him to slow down but to tell him to hurry up at the same time. I wanted everything and nothing, until his hands pushed the top of my dress down. Then he had my undivided attention. Would he like my breasts? They were enough to fill his hands, but not huge.
He pulled away, just enough to look down and see what I had to offer. “Mm, nice.”
He went back to kissing me then and I let him push the dress all the way off of me while his tongue entranced me. His fingers slipped into my bra and I completely lost track of why I should have said no. The sensation of his thumb as it flicked at my nipple was the most incredible thing I’d ever felt.
I heard someone clear their throat close to us and pulled away to find James looking down at me. “You started without me?”
“James, calm down. Remember I won the bet…” He growled as he put his hands on the back of my bra.
I watched raptly as his hands went behind me. He would be the first guy to suck my nipples. He would be the first to have my breasts pressed against his chest.
James would have to watch, and after, he could have his turn.
But only after.
“Bet?” I nervously whispered. “This is all part of a bet?”
I was confused, I thought that it was a ritual, now I was finding out that it was a bet. But I couldn’t speak as Trent’s hands drop, and he took my chin in his hand. I knew what was happening, I wasn’t that naïve, but I was still nervous. The idea that they’d had some kind of bet between them bothered me a little.
“Yes, pretty Vicki Harris. You have no idea what you do to us, what you’ve done to us since the first day you walked into our school.” Slowly James backed away as Trent’s lips whispered against mine.
