by Callie Rose
Overwhelmed and feeling almost high from our kiss, I leaned back on the couch as the door burst open.
“Where the fuck is she?” Mason snarled.
“You mean Tal? She’s right there.” Elijah gestured to me. Then he grunted. “Adena? I have no idea.”
Mason’s sharp emerald gaze landed on me, and he reached the couch in a few long strides. Cole and Finn were only a half-second behind him, and they all gathered in front of me, shoulder to shoulder, staring down with intense expressions.
I held up a hand in front of my face, not liking to be the object of such close scrutiny. “Jesus, stop staring. They’re just some scrapes and bruises. I’m fine.”
“What the fuck happened?”
Mason’s voice was calm and cool now, his eyes dangerously calm.
“I… I was heading back to the dorm after Chemistry. After class let out, I got a call from my grandma. We were arguing about something, so I got a little distracted, I guess. I wasn’t really paying attention, and about a minute after I hung up, Adena and four other girls came at me.”
“Came at you? What did they do?”
He hadn’t touched me like Elijah had—in fact, all three of these Princes were just standing over me, arms crossed like some kind of private security force. I knew it was probably because they were worried, but I sort of preferred Elijah’s bedside manner, honestly.
“Adena hit me with her book. Twice. Then they kicked and punched me.”
The words felt like sandpaper coming out, and I dropped my gaze to the couch.
I’d mentioned during our truth or dare game that I hadn’t liked my dad much, but I’d carefully avoided going into more detail, and describing Adena’s attack on me made me feel weak and vulnerable. Like I’d failed, somehow. Like I was still the scared little girl cowering in the corner of the kitchen.
I wanted to pretend I’d left my old life behind in Sand Valley, but the truth was, parts of it still clung to me like fucking toilet paper on a shoe, trailing after me and reminding me constantly of the mistakes I’d made. Of the person I’d been in Idaho.
“Fucking hell. With her book? No wonder you look like you got stuck in a ring with a pro boxer. That fucking cunt.” Finn shook his head, brown eyes narrowing.
Mason’s lips pressed together. “I told her to cut that shit out. I told her. What the hell does she think she’s playing at?”
“I’ll report her,” I said, sitting up straighter. “I don’t care if she’s Oak Park royalty too, she can’t just get away with this.”
“Don’t worry about it, Legs.” Cole shook his head, his gaze cool. “We’ll take care of it.”
“No!” I moved to stand, but Finn put a hand on me, stopping me. So I shook my head vehemently from where I sat. “No. Don’t. I’ll handle it; I’ll go through the proper channels. I’ll tell the dean, even if he won’t do shit. Just don’t… do what you do.”
I didn’t want them to try to bring her down for me. For one thing, I could fight my own battles, and I needed to remember that. To remind myself of that. For another, if they went after her with their own brand of vigilante justice, I had a strong feeling she wouldn’t back down. The war would just escalate on both sides, and now that I knew what she was capable of, I didn’t want to send us down that path.
Not unless it became a last resort.
Mason stared at me for several long, silent moments. His elegant brows were drawn together, and his nostrils flared as he breathed. After what felt like an eternity, he nodded.
“Fine. Tell the dean.”
I nodded with relief.
It was better this way. I’d handle her myself and leave the Princes out of it.
Although… if I was honest with myself, part of me wanted to sic them on her, to let them loose like bloodhounds on the hunt, and I wondered when I’d gotten so vicious.
Was it from hanging out with these four all semester?
Or had it always been in me somewhere?
Chapter 25
The admins of Oak Park were fucking useless.
At least they were in regards to controlling their student population, which I figured had to account for at least eighty percent of their job description.
But with a student body as rich, powerful, and spoiled as these were, it was hardly a surprise that the administrators, despite technically wielding authority over all of us, were hesitant to ever use it.
I reported the attack to Dean Levy, and he sat with his hands steepled under his chin, nodding his head with a concerned expression while I told him what’d happened. He asked questions about the details—where I was, who all was there, who started it—and listened intently to my answers.
But as soon as I left his office, it was like he developed a massive case of amnesia. As if everything I’d told him had slid in one ear and out the other, reframed in his mind to something that could easily be swept back under the rug.
Two days later, an email bulletin was sent out to all the students at Oak Park reiterating the zero-tolerance policy for bullying.
Whoop-de-fucking-doo.
I was pretty sure everybody either read the email and mocked it, or took one look at the subject line and just straight up deleted it. If Levy seriously thought that was going to stop Adena from attacking me again, the man needed to get out of the education system, because he clearly knew nothing about teenagers.
And thanks to a favor her parents called in, Adena didn’t even get punished. I heard through the grapevine that she’d been called to the dean’s office for a lecture… but as soon as she walked out his door, Dean Levy forgot about her too.
I could practically picture him with his hands in his ears, eyes scrunched shut, blurting loud noises to blot out the rest of the world.
That was how it felt most of the time, and it was why I hadn’t gone to him last semester, even when things were really bad.
He didn’t want to deal with it.
Maybe it was because he wanted to believe the hype about his academy, its reputation for being one of the best in the country.
I’ve got news for you, Dean Levy. The academics may be great, but the people are shit.
Well…
Maybe not all of them.
The guys closed ranks even tighter around me since the attack. Since the dean hadn’t really done shit, I sort of feared that they’d take matters into their own hands and go after Adena themselves. I caught them all gathered in an empty hallway one day after class, their heads bent close together as they discussed something, and even though Finn reassured me it wasn’t about Adena, I wasn’t sure I believed that.
Finals were looming on the horizon, and I hated that in addition to studying my ass off, I was constantly looking over my shoulder now too.
A week after the attack, when my bruises were fading to greens and yellows that were more easily covered up by makeup, I got another call from Jacqueline in the middle of the day.
I answered as I trekked across campus to the gym building. I could’ve let it go to voicemail, but then I’d have to call her back later—and right now, I had the built in excuse of not having long to talk before my next class.
“Hello?”
“Talia.” Her voice was cool. We’d now had three discussions about my plans to pursue dance after graduating, and I could tell she got more pissed off every time.
Well, that makes two of us.
“Hi, Jacqueline. What do you want?”
My tone was too blunt, probably, but I didn’t feel like playing her polite mind games today.
“I want to know why I just received a message from the dean of Oak Park about you getting into some kind of physical altercation.”
My steps slowed. Fuck. Of course, the one step Dean Levy would take was to tell my grandparents.
“Um… It was nothing. Some girls just jumped me because—”
“I thought I told you to stay out of trouble.”
I stopped walking entirely, holding the phone away from my face and staring
at it like it was some kind of alien. Then I finally blurted, “I was trying to! I didn’t go after them. I just told you, they jumped me—”
“And I had to get a call from the dean about it, urging me to make sure you stay focused on school and don’t engage with those girls anymore.”
“Engage with them? I was minding my own fucking business and—”
“Talia. Language.”
I moved toward the gym building again, irritation simmering in my veins. “Right.”
“I’m sorry, Talia. But just because you’re angry at your grandfather and me right now, that doesn’t make it acceptable for you to act out at school. I need you to do better. Try harder.” Her voice softened a little, and she sighed. “I’m worried about you going down the same path your mother did. She started out as the victim too, but by the end—before she left—she was lashing out at everyone and everything. Sleeping around. Getting into fights. Drinking and doing drugs. Making poor choices over and over again. I hope you understand I’m just trying to keep you from doing the same.”
Squeezing my eyes shut for a moment, I let out a breath. “Yeah. I get it. My mom was a screw-up and my dad was an alcoholic, so odds are good I’ll turn out the same way.”
“Talia.” She clucked her tongue. “That’s not what I’m saying at all. You are a Hildebrand, and that means somethi—”
“Right. I’m a Hildebrand.” Useless anger thickened my voice, and I didn’t care if she heard it. “I’ll try to be better at it. Wouldn’t want to embarrass the family.”
“Tal—”
“I gotta go or I’ll be late for class.”
Without waiting for an answer, I ended the call, fingers twitching to throw the phone on the ground.
What the fuck? How is it my fault I got attacked?
I had a hard time focusing on dance practice, even though it was normally my perfect escape when things were getting me down.
Instead, Finn and I sat against the wall watching funny animal videos and epic fail clips for most of the hour, and I actually felt a little better by the time I headed for my next class.
But Jacqueline’s voice kept echoing in my head, and every time it did, my anger returned full force.
That was why she’d called me today, of all days? To yell at me for something that wasn’t my fault?
I hit the books hard in the evening, memorizing a long list of authors and dates for English Lit, then I slipped on some comfy shorts and a tank and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth.
When I heard a knock on the door, I scrunched up my face, glancing at my reflection in the mirror. It was after ten, and with everyone in full finals panic mode, Prentice Hall had been like a ghost town when I’d gotten back earlier. Everyone was either holed up studying or off-campus, practicing avoidance.
“Yeah?” I called as I walked toward the door, then opened it without waiting for an answer.
Mason, Finn, Elijah, and Cole were all gathered in the hallway, and I blinked at them in surprise. They’d only been to my dorm a few times, including last week after Adena had hit me.
“Um… hey, guys. What’s up?”
Mason raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been holding out on us, little dancer.”
“What?”
“Did you really think we wouldn’t find out?”
My gut twisted as I realized what he was talking about. “Oh. It’s not a big deal. That’s why I didn’t say anything. It’s never really been a big deal.”
“Yeah, that’s not helping your case, Legs.” Finn smirked. “Now put some shoes on. We’re going out.”
I hesitated for another few heartbeats, shifting from one foot to the other.
“Or we can carry you out,” Cole deadpanned, and I scoffed.
“You wouldn’t.”
His blank expression split into a feral smile, and he cocked his head. “Wanna find out?”
Sort of, actually.
But I relented, grabbing a pair of sneakers from beside the door and throwing on a black hoodie over my tank. The guys had changed out of their uniforms into street clothes, and they were all wearing dark colors too.
They hustled me out the door and across campus, and we all piled into Mason’s car. All four of the Princes had cars, but for some reason when we all went somewhere together, it was always in Mason’s dark red convertible.
“Where are we going?” I asked, settling into the front passenger seat.
It struck me how much our relationship had changed that I now trusted these guys enough to let them abscond with me from campus in the middle of the night to an unknown destination.
“You’ll see,” Elijah promised.
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I know. But I was sort of hoping for some kind of hint before we get there.”
“Now where’s the fun in that?” Mason grinned as we drove through the gates before hooking a left on the street.
Wherever we were going, it didn’t take us long to get there. We drove for about thirty minutes, moving farther and farther from the lights of the area surrounding Roseland. When Mason finally pulled into a small, dimly lit parking lot, I heard waves crashing on a nearby beach as he turned off the engine.
The moon was full, its blue-white light reflecting off the waves in front of us as Finn opened my door for me and we all piled out of the car. As we left the parking lots, grass turned to sand under my feet, and we walked about forty yards until we reached the shoreline. It was dim, but the moon gave enough light to see by.
I glanced around at the four guys. “What is this? What are we doing here?”
Elijah grinned, pulling a small box from behind his back and opening it.
A single cupcake with an unlit candle sat inside.
Cole dug his lighter from his pocket, flicked it open, and lit the wick.
“Happy birthday, Legs,” Mason murmured, watching me carefully.
“I can’t believe you didn’t fucking tell us,” Finn grumbled.
“I…”
My mouth opened and closed, but I couldn’t find the words. I hadn’t told anyone it was my birthday. I’d thought maybe Jacqueline would remember, but she either hadn’t, or I’d hung up on her before she could get around to tacking a birthday wish onto the end of her lecture.
I hadn’t really celebrated my birthday since I was ten years old. The first few years after mom died, dad had tried to keep up appearances and traditions, but he’d eventually abandoned them all.
“How did you know?” I whispered.
Mason just shot me a mysterious smile, and then the four of them launched into an uneven rendition of “Happy Birthday”. The only one who sang on key was Elijah, and he looked like it physically pained him to hear the others butcher the notes. But when they were done, I applauded anyway, because the gesture meant so much more than they could ever know.
Then I took a deep breath and blew out the candle. A little trail of smoke wafted into the air from the still-glowing wick, and I grinned.
Maybe this year, my wish would come true.
“All right.” Finn plucked the cupcake out of the box and handed it to me as Mason produced a bottle of tequila from behind his back. “Let’s get this birthday party started!”
We all did a round of shots from the bottle, and as the second round started, I licked at the frosting on the cupcake. Sugary sweetness exploded on my tongue, and I sighed contentedly, chasing it down with another swig of tequila.
“Do you guys want some?” I held the little cake out after taking a bite.
“Nah.” Finn waved a hand, his dimples popping as he grinned at me. “But eat fast if you don’t want it to get wet.”
“What? Why would it get we—?”
Before I could finish that sentence, he darted toward me, scooping me up in his arms in a fireman’s carry and running toward the water. I shrieked as he kicked off his shoes and waded into the surf. He was wearing low-slung board shorts, and when the water reached his waist, he suddenly loosened his grip like he was going to drop me.<
br />
I yelped, wrapping my arms tighter around his neck. I still had the cupcake in my hand, and as I flailed in panic, I smeared frosting over his jaw and neck.
He grimaced, tightening his grip on me. Then he arched an eyebrow. “You know I’m gonna make you lick that off later, right?”
Heat pooled in my belly, and I was suddenly aware of how close he was holding me, of how much of our bodies were touching.
“Want a bite now?” I asked, holding the cupcake closer to his face.
He turned and bit into it, growling like a wolf, and I laughed, the sound ringing out over the whoosh of the cascading waves. We polished it off together, sharing bites back and forth.
“Come on. Bring her back, asshole,” Elijah called. “Not all of us like to shrink our dicks in ice-cold water.”
“Some of us can’t afford to,” Finn whispered to me, jerking his head back toward the guys on shore, and I giggled again. I could already feel the two shots of tequila in my system, warming me from the inside out, making me feel happy and invincible.
Finn turned and carried me back to shore, setting me gently on my feet. The other three had already passed the bottle again, so we both took a quick sip to catch up.
Then, feeling reckless and bold, I stood on tiptoes and licked up the side of Finn’s neck to his jaw, collecting the bit of frosting I’d smeared there. I tasted the sweetness of sugar and vanilla, but also something that was all Finn, and I felt his body tense as I dragged my tongue over his skin one more time.
When I pulled away, a blush crept up my cheeks at what I’d just done. But he grinned, his amber eyes shining in the darkness.
“I like you when you’re wild, Legs.”
“Yeah?”
“Fuck yes.”
“Speaking of wild.” Mason sat down, taking a long drag from the joint Cole had rolled and holding it for a few seconds before releasing his breath. “It’s your birthday. What do you want to do to celebrate?”
I plopped down onto the sand next to him, gazing out at the water. “This. Just this. It’s perfect.”
There was a chill in the wind, but since it was mid-May, warmth still lingered in the air. We sat on the beach, passing the bottle of tequila, talking, and laughing. I took off my shoes and dug my toes into the sand, burrowing my feet deep in the dark, wet grains.
