“You checking out my girl, old man? Because if you are, me and you gonna have a problem.”
He makes the mistake of trying to touch my hair, but I grab his wrist before he gets halfway. He squeals in pain when I twist and lock his thumb.
“Oww! Let me go, man!”
I lower my mouth to his ear. “Put some clothes on your girlfriend and get the fuck out of here.”
“Okay.” He grabs his hand and cowers away when I release him. “Come on, Skyler. This party’s shit, anyway.”
“The buff grandpa kicked Mike’s ass!” one of his buddies yells as I barge through the crowd.
Spotting two girls rummaging through cupboards in the kitchen, I press my back to the wall next to the doorway.
They’re both wearing the same yellow dress, and the blonde rolls her eyes at her friend.
“Remind me why I’m at a loser nobody’s house when I run Greek Life,” she says, pouting her puffy lips and looking down at her manicured nails. “I could be sipping champagne on a yacht right now.”
The brunette shrugs. “Apparently, this Harper Reeves chick has a rich dad. And rich dad means…” They both cackle like children. “Fancy alcohol!”
Right. These two bitches can leave the same way Mike did…
I pin my back against the wall again when I spot Harper walking in from the garden. Every girl in this house is flaunting their figure, but Harper is wearing a baggy white T-shirt and black sweatpants. She still looks better than everyone else in here…
“Oh my gosh!” she gasps when she spots the two girls. “Christina Fawkes! And Becca King! I can’t believe you both made it to my party.”
My heart sinks when the blonde turns her face away and gags.
They’re not your friends, kiddo.
Harper excitedly yanks open the cupboard while they pull faces behind her.
“Only the best for Christina and Becca!” Harper says, but the catty girls grab both bottles from her hands. “Oh. Yeah. Okay. Enjoy!”
With smiles as fake as their hair and eyelashes, it sickens me when they pat Harper’s head like a pet dog.
“Help yourself to…” The girls turn their backs on her and their smiles flatten as they march into the dining room. “Snacks.”
“Thanks, Heather!” I hear one of them shout.
Two frat boys block my line of sight, but I hear my best friend’s daughter yell, “It’s Harper! Enjoy the party!”
Now the kitchen is empty, so I sidestep into the lounge.
“I guess these bottles of Macallan make up for having to put up with that dork,” Becca whispers to her friend.
“Hey,” I say, blocking their path. “Where’s Harper?”
Christina frowns. “Harper?”
“Yes. The girl whose house you’re in and whose drink you’re stealing. Not a hard question.”
The blonde lays an open hand on my chest. “Forget Harper. Hang out with me. I know somewhere we can…talk.”
She licks her lips and tilts her head, but I swat her hand away.
“I think I’ll pass. Where’s Harper?”
The brunette nudges her friend before stepping closer and stroking my arm. “Wow. Someone works out. I like a nice dominant guy who can handle me. You think you can handle me?”
I raise an eyebrow.
“Oh, I get it,” she purrs, licking her lips. “The strong and silent type, huh? Christina and I are intogroupactivities. If you know what I mean,
Daddy.”
I shrug my arm away. “I think the whole world knows what you mean. And like I said to your catty friend here, I’ll pass. Where’s Harper?”
Christina curls her nose up in disgust. “You can’t tell me you’d pass up both of us for that Kk? She’s a nobody.”
“How can I put this?” I sigh, looking into the blonde girl’s green eyes. “I don’t like my women desperate, and she’s worth a million of you. And you need to bevery careful when you call people ‘skanks.’ Sometimes the skanks fight back…”
I barge between them.
“Harper!” I yell. “Has anyone seen Harper Reeves?”
“I think she went into the garden,” Becca says. “With some guy called…
Bryan something?”
My fingers wrap into a fist and my heart thumps in my ears.
“He really picked Harper over us?” I hear one of them say as I march away. “We’ll show her what happens to losers who upstage us.”
I’ll deal with them in a moment, I think as I lower the door handle and step out into a sea of drunken kids.
God help this Bryan prick when I find him…
NINE
Harper
This sums up my college life right here.
There are over three hundred people having fun downstairs, and I’m standing alone in my bedroom.
I told everyone to be here at nine o’clock, but most of them arrived at seven. That meant I hadn’t even got dressed yet, so I was still wearing my comfy house clothes.
Not that it matters. Most of the girls down there are superhot, and they’re all wearing such revealing dresses. Some girls even turned up in bikinis and jumped straight into my pool.
It must be amazing to feel that comfortable in your own body.
I know I’m not ugly. I’m probably a solid seven, but being surrounded by tens makes me feel more like a three.
It doesn’t help that none of the boys at college ever talk to me. Except Bryan. And that was just an epic disaster. Speaking of whom…
I pick up my phone and click open the text:
Hope you’re having a nice cock party, slut. Ticktock.
Great. Can’t even get one night of fun for myself without Bryan ruining it.
“Fuck you,” I hiss, switching off my phone. “You’re not spoiling my party.”
Tossing my phone on the bed, I pull open my wardrobe and grab the dress I had planned to wear. It’s probably not formal or fancy enough.
I’ve arranged parties before, but no one turned up. So I haven’t bought anything that can compete with the girls downstairs. Especially Christina Fawkes and Becca King. They’re probably the reason why so many people showed up tonight.
They’re college royalty.
Lifting the bland green dress to my mirror, I grimace and glance at the framed painting on my bedroom wall. “What do you think, Mom? Too suburban housewifey?”
For the record, I’m not crazy. I painted the meadow hanging on my wall when I was nine years old. It’s the last memory I have of a happy family life.
My parents took me for a picnic one hot summer afternoon. My dad often worked late at his nightclubs, so I didn’t get to see him much.
Like any kid, all I wanted was attention, and I struggled to get that from my dad. We had nothing in common, and nothing I did seemed to please him.
But the day we had the picnic was the best day ever. So much fun, laughter, and all my favorite foods. With a small cottage in the distance, I committed that beautiful field to memory and painted it in art class the following week.
My mother was always pleased with everything I did, so I knew it would make her happy. But my dad’s reaction when he came home late that evening made it so special.
“Are you awake, sweetheart?” he whispered, creeping into my room.
I rolled onto my back and asked what was wrong as his white smile twinkled in the darkness. “Nothing is wrong, princess. I just wanted to tell you how amazing that painting is. Your momjust showed me. It’s the best painting I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot of paintings.”
A swell of pride rushed up from my feet. “Is it really?”
“Yes.” He kissed my forehead. “I’m so proud of you, Harper. And we’ll go back there for another picnic soon.”
I was so excited I couldn’t get back to sleep, but we never visited that meadow again. In the weeks that followed, my dad rarely came home at all and most evenings I would sit at the top of the staircase listening to my mother arguing into her phone. That painting was the pinnacle of our happy family life.
“Hey, Heather!” a girl shouts, banging on my door. “You coming for a swim? Things are getting wild down there!”
I glance back at the painting. “Can’t! I just got my period. And it’s Harper!”
The girl laughs. “Sucks to be you!”
One year to the day after I gave my parents that painting, my mother and I were driving home late from a movie. I knew she’d been crying when I was at school because I found a bunch of mascara-soaked tissues in the trash can.
My dad was calling her, but she hit the red button and switched off her phone. I hate it when I hear that someone died and their parting words were profound. My mother’s weren’t.
“Hold that while I’m driving, sweetie.” Those were my mother’s last words as she handed me her phone.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.