Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 131789 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131789 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
I lift my tumbler to my lips. “What grade are you in?”
I can see the inclination to lie before one of them loses her nerve and spits it out. “We’re sophomores.”
Silas shoots me a warning stare, signaling to abort.
“How do you know Lawson?” I ask suspiciously.
The girls look at each other and giggle in that mystical secret girl language. “From the city.”
For fuck’s sake. Lawson’s already been here. Not that we haven’t crossed paths before, so to speak, but I just can’t get into it once I know he’s already been with them.
“He does know everyone,” I answer. “Silas isn’t normally this talkative, by the way. I’m sorry he’s monopolizing the conversation.”
He flicks me off with a sarcastic grin.
Silas technically has a girlfriend, but she isn’t here, and I’ve never been convinced those two are remotely compatible. They’re more like two married people who’ve been together so long that breaking up seems like more effort than it’s worth.
“How was your summer?” Silas reluctantly asks as an icebreaker when I nudge him. He can hate me now, but the guy needs to relax.
“I was obsessed with the summer Olympics,” one of the chicks says. “Like I spent six straight hours watching Korean archery and whatever. It’s addictive.”
“Hey, you know Silas here is a swimmer?” I tell her. “Show her your abs, bro.”
“Stop,” he chides me.
Her eyes go wide. “Oh, seriously? Swimmers are so hot.”
I feel him groaning in his head. I almost expect him to push me into the deep end. But I catch a hot little brunette in a black bikini watching me from across the pool and zone out of the conversation until Silas pulls me away to pretend to refill our drinks at the keg.
“That was fucking brutal,” he moans, scrubbing a hand over his close-cropped hair. “Do me a favor? Stop doing me favors.”
“Oh, come on. Just a little kibble to take the edge off. You don’t have to bang her. What’s a BJ between strangers?”
“Dude, seriously, get a hobby.”
“Where’s Gabe when we need him? You wouldn’t be such a buzzkill if he were here.” I speak without thinking, only to instantly regret it. I don’t need the reminder that life’s been total shit since Gabe was sent away. He and I had never gone this long without talking, and it’s fucking surreal that he’s not here right now. The two of us have been tight since kindergarten.
“Still haven’t heard from him?” Silas tips his head to study me.
“Nope. I texted his dad last week and got a reply a couple days ago basically telling me to piss off and lose his number.”
“I don’t get it.” Silas has made attempts to contact Gabe as well, never getting any further than the rest of us. “Granted, Mr. Ciprian was never your biggest fan. But it’s still messed up he won’t even tell us where Gabe is. What happened to him. Like, he could have been hit by a bus for all we know. There one day, gone the next.”
There’s a loud, wet smack that pierces my eardrums so loudly I flinch. It’s Jesse Bushwell doing a bellyflop off the roof of the pool house. There’s stunned silence when his body just kind of floats there for a second. Then an eruption of cheers when his head pops up and he throws his arms in the air in triumph, his stomach looking like a porn star’s ass in a spanking video.
“We do know he’s at least alive, right?”
I glance back at Silas, nodding. “I managed to get a hold of his brother over the summer but even Lucas doesn’t know where they shipped Gabe off to. He hasn’t been home.”
“I mean, I care about the guy, too.” Silas doesn’t come about his tone of judgmental disapproval on purpose. He can’t help having an overdeveloped sense of morality. “Not to sound glib, but the drug dealing was bound to catch up to him.”
We’re interrupted again, this time when someone turns up the music coming from the in-ground audio system. It was loud before. Now it’s deafening. A moment later, Lawson makes a reappearance, wearing nothing but a pair of swim trunks and a cocky grin. The Sear sisters are nowhere to be found, but no worries—our buddy isn’t alone for half a second before some chick sidles up to him. Another half-second and she’s running her manicured fingernails all over his bare chest. I swear, dude’s got game even when he’s not playing.
Silas follows my gaze and shakes his head when we see the girl hold out her palm to offer Lawson whatever party favor she’s enjoying. Gray eyes gleaming, he drags a hand through his messy hair, shoving it away from his forehead before he pops the tiny pill under his tongue and slings a muscular arm around the girl’s waist. The guy just hooked up with two other chicks and is already on his third, and it’s barely past midnight. Fuckboy doesn’t begin to describe Lawson Kent.