I was a liar.
I’d been lying this whole time, and tonight the lie would come crumbling down, and the result wouldn’t be pretty.
This was it.
Pretty faces that I knew from Midpark were everywhere. In the living room, dancing, in the hallway, making out, and probably quite a few of them upstairs, getting straight to business. I pulled Jaz and I to a stop near the grand staircase, where I saw two smirking faces standing, midway up.
Deetra and Chelsea, her two friends. The two girls who did anything she asked, no matter what that something was. They stood, leaning over the railing, just above us, sniggering to themselves. Jaz didn’t hear them, and neither did I, but unlike Jaz, I was aware of their presence. I knew why they were here.
I knew why everyone was here.
Humiliate the new girl. Break her down. Show her that she didn’t belong here with us, that she’d never be one of us. Maybe she wouldn’t. Midpark was full of pretty faces that hid equally pretty lies. My face was one of them. Jaz had it good, not being one of us, although I doubted she’d agree with me on that tonight.
I moved us to the side of the staircase, pushing Jaz’s back against the wall as I gave her a grin I knew she believed. “Jacket?” I asked as I took off mine. I folded mine over my arm as I offered to take hers. My eyes watched her heavily as she unzipped and shrugged off her leather jacket.
God, she really was beautiful. Her figure, every last part of her body was without a flaw. Her skin, her eyes, her hair. I wasn’t the type to get caught up in a girl’s looks like this, but with Jaz, it was impossible not to. She was literally the prettiest girl I’d ever seen, which made tonight suck even more.
If I had a choice…well, I never had a choice. It wasn’t my life to choose.
Holding both our jackets, I said, “I’ll go get us drinks. Be right back.” A part of me hated that she’d fallen for me so easily, the same part of me that hated myself for feeling something for her.
After all this time, you’d think I would know better by now. I, Archer Vega, could never be happy. I could never get what I want. I was stuck living a life I didn’t want, having friends I didn’t want—among other things—because…because of one person.
Jaz met my grin with one of her own, and my stomach hardened. “Okay,” she said, her voice smooth and soft, like velvet. I could seriously listen to her talk all day, every day, and never tire of it.
Once tonight’s events concluded, I doubted she’d ever want to talk to me again.
It was probably for the best, though. She was nothing but temptation to me, and I’d given in too easily. Tonight was about me just as much as it was about her. This was about us both, retribution for us both, for the wrong we’d committed by being together.
I knew better. I’d known better in the very beginning, and yet Jaz’s beautiful face tugged at my heart and my body, making me a slave to the emotions warring inside. Sleeping with her was…there were no words for it.
My heart was on the floor when I made my way through the hall to the kitchen. Some of these kids probably had no idea the truth of tonight, but others had to. She wouldn’t invite all of these people without telling them there was going to be a show.
I found her in the kitchen, two red cups near her on the counter. Her slim figure wore dark tights, strapped heels that she could walk in perfectly. She wore a tiny skirt and a low-cut top, showing off a lot of her cleavage. Her blonde hair was curled, hairspray holding the curls. Diamonds sat around her neck in a choker, and the moment her amber eyes laid on me, she smiled.
It was a smile that a lot of guys would fall for, but I wasn’t most guys. I knew what malice sat behind those lips, what devious thoughts laid in her brain. I knew better than most just how awful of a person Brittany Pots was.
I mean, this was her house, after all.
“There you are,” she purred, taking the jackets from me and setting them behind her. “I was worried you wouldn’t show.”
Liar. She knew I’d show. She knew I had no choice in this.
I said nothing, to which she simply chuckled. “Oh, don’t look so sad, Archer. I’m doing us both a favor. That bitch needs to know there are consequences for the things she does.” Her lips were curled into a grin as she reached for the two cups behind her. She handed them both to me.
We’d gone over the plan again and again.
This, tonight…things would change, and after tonight, Jaz would never want to look at me again, not that I blamed her for it.
Liars got what they deserved in this town, and for me? For me it was a broken heart.
Chapter Twenty-One – Jaz
I hung where Archer had guided me, not wanting to go anywhere without him. I didn’t know this house, didn’t really know these people. Truthfully, I’d only come here for him, so everyone else could fall off the face of the earth tonight and I wouldn’t care.
So many people. So much loud music. So much grinding and making out. And, if my nose didn’t deceive me, so much pot. Yeah, the air was definitely rank with something; it made my nose itch.
Glancing at the other girls’ clothes, I wasn’t overdressed, so I was thankful to go all out tonight. I knew my dress was nothing compared to their shiny clothes and diamond-studded jewelry, but if I had to compare us, I’d still say I looked the best.
Was it just confidence or arrogance? I didn’t know. Had to be careful, though. Didn’t want to be too self-assured and fly too close to the sun.
Archer returned with two red cups, and he handed me one, giving me a dimpled smile. I stared up into his eyes, watching as he took a sip of his cup first. That blue…I swore, I’d never seen such pretty blue eyes before. Their depths were unlike any other, so crisp and clear, warm and inviting. They were the kind of eyes you could stare at for hours, lose yourself in completely.
My eyes? The color of shit. You couldn’t compose sonnets about shit, but those beautiful baby blues? Oh, you could write whole novels about them.
I met his grin with my own, feeling giddy. It was impossible to not feel giddy while in his presence. Now that he was done being pointlessly jealous and back to his usual self, I couldn’t help but swoon. I took a sip of the drink after smelling it—didn’t smell too good, but I imagined it tasted better.
As the searing and powerful liquid fell down my throat, I found out I was wrong. So wrong. It burned going down, and I had to hold in a wince. Man, that stuff, whatever it was, tasted like shit…but it looked like Archer was downing it with no problems whatsoever.
Hmm. Maybe I was just a baby when it came to alcohol, having never drunk it before. It didn’t exactly taste good, the opposite, really, so I didn’t understand what the big deal was, but maybe I just had to drink more of it to get used to it. It seemed as good of logic as any at this point. Drinking was like America’s pastime.
My face must’ve given it away when I sipped from the cup again, because Archer said, “What’s wrong? Don’t like it?”
“No,” I choked. “It’s good.” My voice came out paper-thin, and it was more than obvious I thought the stuff in the cup tasted like shit.
The dimples on his cheeks deepened as he gestured to where the living room was, where most of the other bodies were, grinding against each other, basically having sex with their clothes on while in beat with the music.