Well, shit.
“You know, when I first walked into the cafeteria and Ilaria waved me over, I thought you were the innocent one, but I think I was wrong.”
Arizona laughs, her wicked tone filling my room. “So very wrong, girl. Now let’s go and teach Tanner Morgan a lesson.”
Within two seconds, Arizona and I are standing out on the manicured lawn, staring up at the overgrown tree between the two big houses. “Okay,” Arizona says, swallowing the lump in her throat. “I exaggerated. Maybe I’m not as wild as I think I am.”
I shake my head, trying to figure out the best path up the tree. “I think we can do it,” I tell her, pointing out my trail. “If we find a step or something to boost us up, we can get to that low branch, step up to the next, then go to the right, and assuming that’s not actually as high as it looks from down here, we should be able to swing up to that top branch and reach the second story roof.”
“That’s all we gotta do, huh?”
“Yeah,” I say, my mouth going dry. “You wanna go first?”
“Fuck, no, girl. This is all you.”
A nervous laugh rumbles through my chest as I step toward the tree, looking directly up, wondering how the hell I’m going to make this work.
“Here,” Arizona says, dashing across the yard to grab a large rock. She bends down to try and hoist it up and groans, her cheeks blowing out. “Fuck, that’s heavy,” she says, giving up and rolling it instead. She pushes it right to the base of the trunk and I test its stability, knowing damn well that the slightest wobble could send me crashing and burning in a big way.
“You good?” she asks as I step up, holding her hand up toward my back in case I fall.
Hoisting myself up, I grip the lowest branch and pull, feeling like a damn queen for even attempting this. There’s still a long way before I reach Tanner’s bedroom window, and I'm not entirely sure I'll make it. “I’m good,” I call down to her, pretty damn pleased with myself. “You sure Tanner’s got football practice? Like, he’s not just going to show up, is he?”
“Certain,” she laughs.
I crouch down on the thick branch and catch her hand as she steps up onto the rock below me and help pull her up until she’s safely beside me. We straighten up, looking up at our next step and when her eyes meet mine, we each grin like fucking idiots. “Oh, we so got this,” she says.
I muffle my laugh, all too aware that while Tanner and his family aren’t home, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have other neighbors who are probably just as snoopy as the rest of us.
Arizona and I fly up the tree, the dash to the top a lot easier than we anticipated, and before we know it, we’re clutching onto the side of his second story roof and shuffling across the tiles to his bedroom window.
Dropping to my knees, I slip my fingers through the small crack and jimmy it open, both of us laughing like hyenas as it slides open with ease.
The nerves have completely faded away, and I’m left with nothing but the thrill of being one step closer to revenge. We slip inside his bedroom, and I’m immediately hit with that same manly scent that captivated me at the end of history class. It’s intoxicating and makes my heart thrum a little faster.
“Well, well,” Arizona says, her feet dropping to the plush carpet beside mine. “I never thought I’d step foot in the devil’s lair.”
She doesn’t waste time breaking free and exploring just as I do. “Tell me more about him,” I say. “What’s there to know about the star of the school?”
“Uhhhh, not much,” she says, distracted by his bedside table, which surprise, surprise, is filled with condoms. “He has a younger sister, Addison, but she goes by Addie. She was supposed to be a junior at Bradford this year, but she wasn’t there today. No one has really seen her for a few weeks and the rumor going around school was that she got a late acceptance into some big-time performing arts school.”
“No way,” I say, moving through the room, scanning over the framed pictures, and taking in the books on his desk, each of them focusing on football.
“Yeah, she’s talented, just like her brother.”
“What else?”
“Umm, I don’t know. He’s pretty much been the popular football star since the start of high school. He’s got his crew—the Bradford Bastards—him, his best friend, Riley, the twins Logan and Jax, who are also his cousins, and then Hudson Bellamy. He’s kinda the black sheep of the group, but he just kinda fits in. I don’t doubt that all five of them will have colleges fighting for them come the end of the season.”
“Oh, really? I ask. “They’re that good?”
“Hell yeah, just you wait until the first game. It’s insane.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to make me go to that shit.”
“School spirit, baby!” she sings. “Besides, you kinda have to go. It’s practically social suicide to not attend.”
Dread sinks heavily into my gut. The last thing I want to spend my time doing is sitting in a packed grandstand watching the school assholes strut around the field, pretending to be gods while allowing the rest of the school to treat them as such. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tanner literally had girls falling at his feet.
His room is big, much bigger than it appears looking in from across the yard. He’s got the typical rich kid bedroom, almost mirroring the room that I just moved into, only instead of whites and soft pink hues on the bedsheets, they’re gray. His room is tidy and put together and I just know this is the kind of man who puts his laundry away as soon as it’s done.
But unlike my room, there isn’t a full-length pedestal mirror waiting for me to destroy.
While Arizona busily makes herself at home, getting a feel for Tanner Morgan, I move toward his bed. Hoisting myself up, I stand by the headboard, gripping onto it to keep myself steady as I dip my hand into my skirt pocket and pull out the lipstick that has haunted me all day.
My stare lingers on the wall over his bed. It’s practically screaming blank canvas, and it would only be the neighborly thing to do to help him with a little bit of art. What can I say? I’m a neighborly kind of girl, so I uncap the lipstick and get to work.
Arizona gapes as she watches me, and I try not to grin like an idiot. This is more thrilling than it has the right to be. I just hope the lipstick doesn’t stain the wall, though it shouldn’t. It’s not like I can afford the good shit.
When I’m done, I cap the lipstick and leave it balanced right in the center of his headboard just as he had done when putting it on my desk. Arizona offers me her hand and I jump down before the two of us stand at the end of his bed, admiring the priceless artwork scrawled across the wall.
KEEP IT. IT’LL LOOK BETTER ON A BITCH LIKE YOU.
“You’re dead,” Arizona laughs. “You know that, right?”
Moving toward his window, I glance back over my shoulder and grin at her. “I know. I can’t wait.” And with that, we climb out, leaving his room just how we found it, minus one exquisite new artwork.
Arizona hands me a mimosa and we make our way out the backdoor into the warm sun. The pool glistens, almost daring me to dive in, and I have to take a moment to appreciate just how fortunate I am. I mean, sure, I don’t exactly want to be here, and I don’t exactly like the company I have to keep, but there’s no denying that this new home comes with certain advantages that I simply would never have been able to obtain in Hope Falls.