by Elle Thorpe
“Excuse me, sir. I understand why Rafe would do the speech. He’s probably top of our class, right?”
Principal Simmons nodded. “Top of his junior year. Just like you were at Providence.”
I smiled stiffly. “Right. But why are you asking me, then? Isn’t there a student body president or someone better qualified for this role? I’ve only been a student at this school for a week.”
Rafe threw a bored look in my direction. “He wants you because you’re one of them, not one of us.”
“Rafe!” Principal Simmons’ gaze was steely. His expression held a distinct warning. It softened when he turned in my direction, though I doubted the sincerity.
I was pretty sure Rafe had nailed it on the head.
“I’ll give you extra credit for it,” Principal Simmons stated.
I shook my head. “There’s no need for that. I’ll do it.” I didn’t exactly need his extra credit. But keeping the principal on my good side was more important than losing a single Friday night of my life. Plus, I’d bet it would be my music class on the chopping block if the school didn’t get enough funding. It was the only subject I enjoyed. “Will other teachers be going?” I asked.
The principal nodded vigorously. “Oh yes. All the nonessential class teachers will be there to discuss their programs with our donors. All the arts teachers and the sports coaches.”
Of course the football coach would be there. Searching Mr. Tontine on Instagram and Facebook and numerous other social media sites had led Meredith and I to a dead end. But a dinner, where hopefully he’d be drinking, would be a better place to meet him and perhaps gently prod him over his whereabouts the night of the fire. If I could cross him off my list of suspects, that was one less person to worry about.
I still hadn’t worked out a way of crossing Rafe off my list, but perhaps something would come up during the dinner. There was no downside here that I could see.
I pasted on a smile for Simmons. “I can’t wait.”
15
Lacey
We had music class last period, and Banjo was already in his seat, the one next to my desk, when I got there. His eyes flared.
My heart skipped a beat. I had to admit, when I’d gotten dressed for school that morning, I’d done so with impressing him on my mind. A soft pink tee clung to my curves, and my skirt was shorter than normal. It was stupid and shallow, I knew that. But I’d wanted to show him I could fit in here with him, and his friends. Not Colt, obviously. I was never going to fit in with him and I had no desire to. But Rafe I was still on the fence about. And I was sure Banjo had other friends, though I’d yet to really see evidence of that. The three of them seemed thick as thieves, and though the rest of the school appeared to be in awe of them, they didn’t really have a large circle of friends. Acquaintances, sure. The entire football team for one. But whenever I caught a glimpse of them in the cafeteria or between classes, it was always the three of them. With the occasional addition of Gillian, hanging all over Colt like he was a washing line.
I took my seat next to Banjo and breathed in his coconut scent. “Hi,” I said quietly.
“Hi, to you, too. You look different.”
Without even glancing in his direction, I felt the way his eyes drank me in. “Do I?”
“You look…fuckable.”
Heat rose in my cheeks, but I lowered my voice so even I barely heard it. “I didn’t look fuckable on the weekend?”
He bit his lip, gaze hot. “Oh, you did. Trust me. I’ve been thinking about exactly how fuckable you looked ever since you got out of my car.”
A small smile crept across my face.
“I just like this outfit better than the uptight stuff you were wearing last week. Though truthfully, I would have taken you in that, too.”
My face was on fire now, and I peered around at the kids either side of us, but no one seemed to be paying us any attention.
“Pink looks good on you, Lacey. I like making you blush. Want to come over after school and I’ll make you blush some more?”
“To your house?” For some reason, I was surprised he was inviting me into his personal space so quickly.
He shrugged. “Sure, why not? We need to start working on our assignment, right?”
I smiled at him. “When you say assignment…”
His grin turned devilish.
Until Colt walked in. Then the smile fell right off Banjo’s face. He straightened up and lifted a hand, holding it out for Colt to shake or bump or whatever the hell it was guys at this school did. Colt slapped Banjo’s hand, but his eyes were on me. Suddenly all I could see was the way I’d left him on Saturday night. Gillian wrapped around his torso. His body pumping into hers. The slow, sensual roll of his hips that did weird things to my insides.
“Take a photo, princess. It’ll last longer,” Gillian snapped, coming up behind Colt and putting her hand into the back pocket of his jeans.
Colt raised an eyebrow in my direction. “Oh, Lacey likes to watch. Don’t you?”
A choking sound came from the back of my throat. I knew exactly what Colt was talking about. Gillian let out a cackle of a laugh. Had he told her? I was certain she hadn’t seen me, she was so busy riding Colt’s dick. Did it matter if he had? It shouldn’t. I didn’t give a shit what Gillian thought of me. And no one else had seen me out there. I’d deny it if he called me on it. Because no way was I going to admit that watching Colt screw someone else had stopped me in my tracks and held me mesmerized, wondering what it would be like to be with him like that.
The two of them took their seats, and Banjo leaned again. “What did he mean by that?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Does it matter? He’s an asshole.”
Banjo teeth bit into his bottom lip. “Actually, there’s something you should know. Colt lives right next door to me.”
“You’re serious?”
Banjo nodded. “That’s why we’re so tight. We’ve lived in each other’s pockets since we were kids.”
“That’s…nice.” For them. “Perhaps I shouldn’t come over tonight then? Colt is the last person I want to see outside of school.”
Banjo’s eyebrows furrowed. “Yeah, I was just thinking that. Colt…I can’t tell him about us. It’ll just make him worse. If he knows what we did, he’d use it against you.” He glanced over his shoulder, then gave my hand a quick squeeze. “But I want to see you, Lacey. Out of school. Out of a cramped back seat. We could go somewhere else? Your place?”
I shook my head. “My aunt…”
“Wouldn’t approve?”
Fuck. It was the truth, but I hated it. Banjo didn’t need me to say it. It was written all over my face.
Banjo swore low under his breath. “She wouldn’t let you date me?”
I shook my head slowly. “I don’t know. Maybe she’d surprise me. But I don’t want to put you in a shitty situation like that. Where I just spring it on her and she’s rude to you. You don’t deserve that. Just give me some time. Let’s just hang out. See what this is. And if it’s something, I’ll talk to my aunt.”
He sat back and ran his hands through his shaggy blond hair. “And I’ll talk to Colt.”
I glanced over at him, right as Miss Halten called the class to attention.
I lowered my voice to barely a whisper. “So tonight…”
Banjo thought that over for a second. “Tonight you’re coming to my house. Even if I have to sneak you in through the back door.”
Just before darkness fell that evening, I found myself parked on a side street in the middle of the worst area of Saint View. Around me, identical houses all stood in a row, each one in a state of disrepair. One had broken steps, the wood so old and rotted someone’s foot had gone right through the boards. Most had peeling and flaked paint. Rusted shells of cars seemed a popular lawn decoration, and a firepit had cheap plastic chairs circling it, beer bottles scattered on the grass in between.
Bringing my car here had been a very bad idea. I pushed the
locks down as a group of young guys passed by on the other side of the road, all four of them staring at me and my car like the abnormality we were. I pulled my thin black scarf up over my hair and turned away, like that would somehow protect me from them.
I jumped a mile when there was a tap on my window. My heart immediately went into double-time, until I realized it was Banjo. “Shit,” I said, rolling down the window. “You scared the hell out of me.”
“Did you think I was a car jacker?”
I cringed. “Maybe?”
He leaned through the window and popped the lock on my door before opening for me. “Don’t stress. See that guy over there?”
He pointed to the nearest derelict house. A huge white guy with arms like tree trunks and decorated with crude black tattoos stepped out of the shadows.
“Yeah, I see him.” Now. I certainly hadn’t a minute ago. Had he been there the entire time? Just watching me? My fingers trembled. The guy was scary with a capital S.
Banjo took my fingers and squeezed them. “He’s a friend. He’ll keep an eye on your car. No one will touch it while it’s parked here. You don’t even need to lock it.”
I made sure the windows were all up and that I hadn’t left anything of value on the front seat, then hit the central locking button. “All the same, I think I’ll lock. it. Just for shits and giggles.”
Banjo slung an arm around me and steered me toward a bicycle that lay abandoned on the cracked footpath. I stopped and stared at it. Then at him.
“You rode? How far is your house?” I asked.
“A couple of blocks, why?”
“Oh, okay. So we can walk then.”
“We could…” Banjo winked at me as he picked the bike up off the ground. “Or you could jump on the handlebars and we’ll get there twice as quick.”
I snorted on a laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”
He slung one leg over the seat of his bike and patted the handlebars. “Jump on.”
“How?”
“Have you never done this before?”
“No! Why would I have?”
Banjo looked puzzled. “You rich kids are weird. Didn’t you ever ride your bikes around the neighborhood, just for fun?”
I couldn’t remember a time where I had ever done that. Uncle Lawson had taught me to ride a bike when I’d been six, but I couldn’t remember riding one much after that time. “No, I guess not.”
“Then you’re in for a treat.”
Before I knew what was happening, Banjo had his fingers digging into my hips and then my butt was planted on the handlebars. I squealed. And slipped straight off.
Banjo cracked up laughing. “That’s not what was supposed to happen.”
I shoved him in the shoulder. “Well, you gave me no warning. Do it again.”
His fingers grasped my hips again, and I grinned at his touch. But I wouldn’t let it distract me. I was determined to prove to him I wasn’t some hopeless rich kid. I could ride on his handlebars, dammit. How hard could it be?
This time, I managed to balance there, even if it was with white knuckles.
“Hey, you’re doing it. Now, hold on, and I’ll get us back to my place in minutes.”
I grit my teeth as Banjo pushed off and pedaled down the sidewalk. I squealed like a kid when he wobbled slightly, but he just laughed and pedaled faster. I thought that would be worse, but it somehow wasn’t. The cooling evening air whipped through my hair, and a bubble of happiness burst inside me. My laugh surprised me.
“I can’t remember the last time I rode a bike!” I yelled back to him over the air rushing past us.
“Sounds like you might be enjoying it!”
I nodded, then squealed when the movement wobbled the bike. My arms ached, but it was worth it. Banjo peddled hard and fast, and we cruised down a hill that took my breath away.
Yet somehow, I wasn’t scared. At any moment, we could have hit a pothole and gone tumbling. Neither of us had a helmet on, and I could only imagine the scrapes and bruises or even broken bones we’d suffer if we came off at this sort of speed. But Banjo hooted and hollered behind me, and that gave me confidence. He wasn’t scared. And when I was with him, neither was I.
“Left turn!” he yelled, and I leaned with him. He diverted off the path and into a patch of trees.
The bike bumped along, and I yelped, ass bouncing on the unforgiving metal of the handlebars. “No padded seat, remember!”
But then we were stopping, and I slid from the handlebars. “Ow,” I complained, rubbing my backside. “Could have warned me about the off-roading.”
He dropped the bike and came around to stand in front of me. His arms snaked around my waist, then dipped lower, his hands cupping my butt cheeks. “I just wanted an excuse to make sure your ass was okay. Is it?”
I shoved him away, but the truth was, I liked having his hands there. Though I probably would have a bruise tomorrow.
“You protest, but you liked that, didn’t you?”
“Maybe.”
“Good. Because now we have to go work on our assignment. And that probably won’t be fun at all. Neither will sneaking past Colt. That’s his house just there.”
We were at the back fence of a row of two-story houses. Banjo grabbed my hand and let himself in the back gate of the house next to the one he’d pointed out as Colt’s.
“Is he home?” I whispered.
“Yeah, Gillian’s car was out the front when I left. So hopefully they’re up there, too busy having sex to notice what we’re doing down here.”
I gazed up at the house again. “Which bedroom is his?” I asked. Then bit my lip. I shouldn’t have asked that. It had slipped out without me even really thinking about it.
But Banjo answered easily. “Very top one. His bedroom is in the attic.”
Banjo tugged my hand, and then we were running across his backyard, giggling like two naughty kids who were about to get caught. Right as we hit the back porch, I took one last look up at Colt’s tiny bedroom window. But it was empty. I supposed it would be if he and Gillian were in bed together, like Banjo assumed they would be.
I pushed Colt out of my mind and followed Banjo through his unlocked back door. As soon as we were inside, he guided me toward the living room.
“Wow,” I said, allowing myself to be towed along.
“Not what you were expecting?”
I squinted at him. “Truthfully? When you said it was just you and your brother, I kind of expected it to be a pigsty. Beer cans, pizza boxes, funky smells…”
“You’re surprised we know where the trash can is?”
The place was sparkling clean. Nothing was particularly new, but everything had a place, and the room, though small, smelled fresh. Like windows were opened daily. It was obvious Banjo and his brother knew their way around a mop and a bottle of disinfectant. It didn’t look like the drug den I’d kind of been expecting.
“It’s great,” I said.
Banjo flopped down on the couch, the springs squeaking beneath him. I sat beside him, twisting so we were facing each other.
For a long moment, we just stared. His dirty-blond hair fell over his forehead, carelessly shoved to one side. Around his neck he had his wooden bead necklace, and now that it wasn’t dark, I noticed the freckles across the bridge of his nose.
“You’re staring at me, Lacey.”
I smiled. “You’re staring at me, too.”
“Because you’re beautiful. I feel like I’m always staring at you, even though I know I shouldn’t be.”
My insides went gooey. “You’re a sweet-talker.”
He shook his head. “I mean it.”
I believed him. I felt beautiful with his gaze drifting over me like it was right now. His eyes drank me in, until the expression there changed from playful to something hotter.
“We’ve got until December to do that assignment…” I mused out loud.
Banjo grinned. “Exactly what I was thinking. Get over here.”
H
e didn’t need to tell me twice. I straddled his lap, bringing my hands up to cup his face. Our lips hovered a few inches from each other. “You’re really cute, you know that?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Cute?”
“Mmm-hmm,” I murmured, gaze dropping to his lips. “Cute.”
He grinned, his white teeth sparkling, then brought one hand to the back of my head and pulled me down. “Not as cute as you, princess.”
I didn’t even mind that name when it fell from his lips. From Colt and even Rafe, it sounded harsh. From Banjo, it sounded like a pet name. His lips pressed to mine, and I forgot all about anything but him.
Our kisses turned sensual, dragging out, driving me mad. Ever so slowly, my hips ground over his lap, like they had a mind of their own. Slow, rocking movements that brought the center of me directly against his dick, hard beneath his shorts. It only served to build the growing need inside me. It was as if no time had passed between Saturday night and now. Except now I had more clothes on.
That was rapidly becoming a problem I wanted to fix.
“Is your brother home?” I asked between kisses.
Banjo’s lips were slightly swollen and shiny from my lip gloss. Without even waiting for him to answer, I leaned in and kissed him again. His lips were a magnet I couldn’t seem to drag myself away from. I just wanted to keep going back for more.
Banjo groaned and flipped me down on my back, the cushions breaking my fall. He reared over me. “He’s not home. Shouldn’t be back for a while. We’ve got time…”
I grabbed his shirt. “How much time?”
“Time to do our assignment?” He chuckled at himself.
I shook my head. “Wrong answer.”
“Time to do what I wanted to do Saturday night?”
“What was that?”
I had no idea why I kept asking him stupid questions when I could just be getting him naked. I vowed to keep my babbling to myself and dragged his shirt over his head.
He chuckled. “Here I am, trying to be a gentleman, and—”
“Here I am trying to make it hard for you?” I supplied, a teasing question in my voice.
