by Zara Rivas
"Sloane?" I heard a shocked voice say close by, and Xavier halted his attention to my neck in favor of looking up to see who interrupted. I shook my head slightly and looked over his shoulder at a stunned Torrance.
"Shit," I muttered, pushing him away from me and straightening my dress. "Yeah, Torrance, what's up?"
"I just—uh, can you find a ride home? My brother's in trouble again, I have to—I have to go and…" she trailed off. She'd driven us all to the party, and she was nervously tossing her car keys back and forth between her hands. Torrance hardly ever showed nerves, but apparently seeing me in a compromising situation with Sinclair had set off her weirdness alarm.
"Yeah," I said, waving my hand, "it's fine. Yeah, I'll find a ride."
"Okay," she said, relieved, and turned quickly to go. I shifted and noticed Sinclair still standing next to me, with an expression that spelled trouble on his face.
"What?" I snapped, exasperated.
"Oh, nothing. Just thinking about how you said you'd never kiss me again." He straightened out his shirt, pulling down the hem from where I'd pushed it moments earlier.
"Don't let it go to your head. Temporary insanity," I quipped, quickly searching the adjoining room for Avery. If I needed a ride, she did too. I was definitely ready for this party to be over. I walked away from Sinclair, and this time he didn't follow me, for which I was thankful.
I snagged another drink on my way to find Avery, just to calm my nerves. I didn't see her for a good half hour, so I made small talk with a few people. By the time I caught up to her, she was just as inebriated as I was and twice as ready to go home. Since Henson just lived a few blocks from me, Christian offered to walk us over to my place to make sure neither of us passed out in a gutter. I said a good-natured "fuck you, Sommers" and he laughed and took us home. I crawled gratefully into my nice warm bed, not having a particular fondness for freezing January days, and drifted off to sleep. Avery went home with Christian, so I knew I wouldn't have to worry about her.
I groaned and rolled over, burying my face in my pillow. Something crackled and pushed against my forehead, and a crease appeared between my eyebrows. I reached up and felt around, finding a post-it note attached to my forehead.
Elleson says no work today, their nephew Jake is home for the week picking up the slack.
Tylenol's on your desk.
—Nic
See this? This was why I loved my brother. Now I had the entire day to myself to recover from a mild headache and do whatever I wanted.
Dominic found me in the attic at around noon, music permeating the room and the sunlight illuminating my studio. He'd let me turn it into my personal space after I told him I was serious about my art and wanted someplace all to myself to work on it. The attic was a large space, roughly the same size as our formal living room, and very bright due to the windows spanning the walls. Not very practical for insulation purposes, but I loved the way the room felt like it was floating. A stereo sat on the pale wood floor near the wall behind the stool I used, within easy reach. Canvas leaned against the walls, and some were stacked on the floor in a corner.
All kinds of supplies littered the floor, which I'd covered with a white sheet to protect.
He returned my smile when he stepped through the doorway, and stepped gingerly around all my belongings while he made his way over to me.
"Gotten over your hangover, I see."
"It was mild," I shrugged.
"Tyler gave you plenty of water, then?" Dominic hung around with me sometimes, so he knew who my friends were. And of course, I always told him stories about my exploits. Dominic looked out for me, but he accepted that there were things I needed to decide for myself.
I laughed lightly. "Yeah, Tyler gave me plenty of water. He came up with some new drink for me, too. It's sharp. Tastes like pomegranates."
"Sounds good." He rubbed the stubble along his jaw with one hand, looking exhausted. The back of my neck prickled; Dominic only did that particular gesture when he was upset or frustrated with something. The only thing I knew guaranteed that kind of stress in him was a person. Or rather, two people. Our parents.
"Dominic," I said slowly, "what's wrong?"
He shrugged and huffed out a sigh, not meeting my eyes. I stood up from my stool but didn't go to him, instead remaining still, the brush in my hand dangling listlessly.
"Logan called." I felt weightless for a second, like the floor dropped out from under me and I wasn't prepared. Logan was our father. Not that either of us gave him the satisfaction of calling him that, but biologically speaking, he was it.
"What did he want?" I asked flatly.
"Dinner here, apparently."
"No, Dominic, I—"
"And he's holding some sort of function," he continued, acting as though he wanted to get everything out of the way before we talked it over.
"A function." The flat tone didn't disappear, only increased with this statement.
"Probably some bullshit dinner."
I nodded. In my experience, wealthy families around here liked to hold dinners and parties to impress each other with their opulence.
"When?" I asked, resigned. "Wait—is he bringing Daphne?" Daphne, my baby sister. She'd object to hearing me call her that, considering she's fifteen, but it's true. She lived with my father, wherever he happened to be.
"A few weeks. He didn't specify."
I sighed. "Any chance I can get out of this unnoticed?"
"He specifically requested that we be here."
A sardonic laugh bubbled out of my throat before I could stop it. "Of course he did."
"Sloane—"
"No, it's cool. I'm just going to go read or something."
Dominic knew I wasn't angry with him, so he jerked his head in a nod and watched me leave.
"I'm calling Blake and Finn," he called after me, and I turned and smiled at him—a real smile this time. Blake and Finn were our siblings. Blake was 24 and lived in the area, but he didn't live in the house like Dominic and me. Blake, the joker of the four Lexington children, somehow performed the miracle of making me smile whenever our parents were around. Age-wise, Finn was the closest to me—he would be, considering he was my twin. He was in his first year at the same university as Dominic due to skipping a grade ahead, but he wanted to escape the Lexington house so he lived on campus. I didn't blame him. I'd need them all, and I was grateful to Dominic for thinking of it.
I slumped onto my bed and stared at the wall, unenthusiastic. Logan would be here in a week. Shit.
I picked up my cell and realized I'd been ignoring it all morning, and I had insistent text messages from a few people. I clicked on Avery's and smiled slightly.
T says you and X were cozy last night. Details! ;)
I tapped out, Later, bigger shit going on. and my gloomy mood took over again.
Torrance texted me something about getting home safely and thanked me for finding Avery and I a new way to get home.
The last message was from Sinclair, and I almost didn't want to read it. The time stamp on it read 12:07 a.m., Saturday.
Stroke of midnight. Didn't know you had a thing for fairy tales.
Okay, so that was worth reading, despite my mixed feelings about landing myself in a compromising position with Sinclair twice.
I snapped my phone shut and stared at the floor for a second, thinking. I felt bad about leaving Dominic so dejected back there, so I padded down the stairs in search of him. He wasn't in his room; his door was open and the lights were off. I found him on the couch, watching some action flick. He saw me standing hesitantly on the stairs and smiled, patting the couch next to him. I crawled up onto it next to him, and he pulled me in close and we silently watched the movie.
oOoOo
Xavier, sensing his impending doom in a video game, grabbed a pillow off the couch he sat on and smacked Christian in the head with it. The split second's worth of distraction allowed Xavier to score an important hit, and Christian cursed when his on-
screen character died. Avery bit her lip to contain her laughter from where she sat on the floor. A chipper ringtone sounded, and Avery picked up her phone.
"Knew you couldn't stay away for more than a day," Avery said into the phone, teasing.
Christian picked a pillow off the couch and sent it flying at Xavier, who ducked and threw one of his own back. Avery ignored them, they weren't making enough noise to disrupt her phone call.
"What's going on?" Avery said, a crease appearing in between her eyebrows. She listened for a few seconds, and breathed out, "Oh, shit. What does he want?"
Christian picked up on Avery's tone and stopped the minute scuffle, holding up a finger for silence. Xavier looked over at her, inquisitive. She ignored both of them and continued listening.
"Are you going to need damage control?" Avery asked, outright frowning. Christian watched her closely, because Avery hardly ever frowned.
"Hot damn!" Avery squealed suddenly, a huge smile lighting up her countenance. "The whole gang will be here? Seriously? That is awesome! I haven't seen your brothers in ages."
She paused again. Christian had a suspicion about what Sloane was telling his girlfriend, but didn't fill Xavier in unless he was wrong.
"Alright honey, if you're sure. We'll be on our worst behavior, I promise," she said slyly. "Yeah…uh-huh, of course. Alright, well I'll see what I can do." Avery pushed a button on her phone and tossed it aside, eyes wide.
"What was that about?" Christian asked, curious.
"Sloane's father is coming to town."
"What the hell? He hasn't been around for years, right?"
Avery shook her head. "Not since…" She trailed off and Christian seemed to understand. He nodded and looked at Xavier.
"Who does she live with, then?" Xavier asked. "Her mom?"
"Her older brother Dominic," Avery explained. "It's kind of a long story."
He waited patiently for her to elaborate, but she shook her head hurriedly and said, "Oh no. I'm not violating the Code to tell you something that personal about Sloane."
"The Code?" he asked, amused. She nodded solemnly.
"Best friends code. Everyone has one, in one way or another."
"I see."
"When will the Lexingtons be in town?" Christian asked.
"They don't know yet. Her siblings will probably show up a couple of days before, just so they're not caught off guard." Avery shook her head. "I hope Mr. Lexington knows what he's getting himself into."
oOoOo
Monday, oh Monday, bane of my existence. It didn't help that on this particular Monday I had to deal with Avery and Torrance quizzing me about Xavier, but that I could handle. The part I couldn't handle was that everything went wrong. Everything.
I overslept that morning, my school uniform's skirt went missing, we had no quick breakfast food, my car keys weren't in the jar, for some reason the power went out in the middle of my shower and I smacked my wrist on the counter when I got out of the shower in the dark. I looked at the clock, realized I'd already missed most of first period, and made an immediate decision. Fuck it. Skipping class was good for everyone, in small doses.
I decided to have some real breakfast, and whipped out some eggs and milk to make french toast. Dominic wandered slowly into the kitchen a few minutes later, peered into the skillet curiously, and made a sleepy noise of approval. I smiled and tossed the extra pieces of bread I'd had soaking into the pan for him.
"Cutting today?"
I nodded. He simply poured himself a glass of orange juice and didn't reprimand me. Dominic didn't usually dig into why I did things. The inquisitive path led to insanity with me, he often joked.
"Do you have classes today?"
"Yeah, at nine." He poured syrup into a measuring cup and stuck it in the microwave.
"Mind if I come?" I pushed the toast around the skilled and tapped some cinnamon over it. "I was thinking I'd go see Finn."
"That's fine." He walked out of the kitchen, and a small smile pulled at my lips. A sleepy Dominic never failed to amuse me. He came back in a few minutes later, scrolling through his contacts list on his cell phone.
"Oh, no," I said quickly, "you're not calling the school are you?"
"Yeah, calling you in sick."
I pulled his phone out of his hand and ignored his protests. "No no no. I don't want to be called in." I slid his phone into the back pocket of my jeans.
"But you're not going to school," he said calmly, as if I were acting slow.
"I know," I said brightly. "Which is why you're not calling me in."
He sighed. "Sloane, what are you playing at?"
"I'm skipping. No excuses involved," I said cheekily, and he shook his head. I scooped the toast out of the skillet and put it on two plates, waving a one in front of him before teasingly pulling it out of his reach.
"You are so weird. Give me the damn toast."
"You wouldn't have it any other way. Promise you won't call the school and I'll give you some of my fantastically delicious french toast." He complied and we both stood around the island munching down breakfast.
oOoOo
"Sloane!" Finn exclaimed, picking me up and spinning us around. I surprised him in his dorm room. His roommates who lived in the suite knew me; I visited more than once a week most of the time. The gas expenses were totally worth it, and he came home every once in a while to return the favor. Usually just to throw me into the pool.
"Finn!" I laughed, and he set me back on my feet. I threw him a slightly dizzy grin.
"What's the occasion? I hardly ever get morning visits from my baby sister." Finn pushed a lock of pitch-black hair out of his eyes. He had the signature Lexington looks, but he chose to dye his hair every once in a while. It looked good on him. He was lean like me, and only a couple of inches taller.
"Finn," I announced, suddenly businesslike. "It's an impulse day."
"Aaand it looks like I'm not going to class today."
"Absolutely right," I said, and looked around his dorm. "Geez Finn, I leave you alone for two seconds and a hurricane blows through your laundry."
He raised one shoulder in a half-shrug and gave the same half-smirk I possessed, which I'm sure broke a lot of girls' hearts.
Finn and I were a lot alike. From the time we were small children, we got into ridiculous amounts of trouble together and people soon learned we couldn't be stopped. Attempts to discipline us were simply met with scoffs and even more trouble coming their way, and everyone in our town got excited when they heard that the Lexington twins were cavorting around town together. When he went away for college I didn't know what to do with myself, but the frequent visits helped.
"Alright sis, what are we doing today?"
I told him, and the grin turned devious.
oOoOo
Xavier lounged around on his bed, not feeling like doing anything. He had a lot more friends at Carroway than he'd expected, transferring to the school midway through the year. The people at Carroway went out of their way to be friendly, probably out of curiosity for fresh meat. He'd known Christian from boarding school, of course, and Avery was definitely easy to get along with. Good thing too, he thought, because those two were hardly ever away from each other. When Avery avoided the topic of Sloane's rift with her father, she instead launched into wild stories about Sloane and her brothers.
Xavier picked up on the distration technique immediately, but the stories were hilarious nonetheless. Apparently when her twin had gone to Carroway with her, they'd kicked ass and taken names. Christian shrugged when Xavier asked why he hadn't mentioned that when recapping Sloane's ascent to the top of the hierarchy, and he'd shrugged. A closed look came over his face and Avery once again changed the subject.
He'd Xavier wasn't very interested in Sloane's personal drama; he just had an acute interest in getting her back for the time he spent chipping gum off his textbooks. Eventually he'd enlisted the help of the chuckling janitor when he walked by, and thankfully he'd seemed more equip
ped to deal with rock-hard gum than Xavier. Then again, he spent his life cleaning up after miscreants, no wonder. Xavier had most of his revenge worked out, he just had to execute the plan. Since Sloane wasn't at school at all that day, he'd had time to set a few things in motion.
"Mum says dinner's in five minutes," his older sister Emma said, walking into his room without knocking. She tossed a book onto his bed and glanced at him. "Something wrong?"
"Just tired."
"School going alright?"
"It's fine."
She rolled her eyes. "Well aren't you talkative today."
