All nightI dream restless dreams, Jen and I at the beach, entwined in one another’s arms, slow dancing at prom. Her laughter haunts me in and out of one nightmare to the next, a horrible dense hellscape I can’t seem to rousemyselffrom.
“Knox.” A cool hand swipes over my forehead. “Wake up. God, you didn’t OD, did you?” A couple of quick slaps ensue over my cheek. “Wake up!” The shrill cry of a female’s voice reverberates through my skull as I will my lids to unglue themselves. I pry an eye open, only to find Trix leaning over me with her brows curled up inworry.
“Thank God,” I whisper, pulling my pillow over my head for a moment. Thank God it’s not Janelle. Outside of Trixie, Jen is the only person who has a key to this place. “I’d better change the locks,” I mutter as I pull myself up on myelbows.
“What the hell happened? Lawson said you caught that whore cheatingonyou.”
I groan as she says the word. “Don’t call her that.” It takes everything I’ve got to sit up and lean against theheadboard.
“I will call her a whore because she is one.” Trix has her hair pulled back into a ponytail, her face far too done up for this early in the morning, and it’s only then I note the sun has long since crested thedresser.
“What time is it?” I reach for my phone. One forty-five. “Crap.” I wipe my face down with my palm. My screen is loaded with one text after another. My brother Rex, his girlfriend—my stepsister Scarlett, Lawson, Grant, Rush, Eli. I scroll downfarther.
“Not one from Jen. Just great.” I toss the phone across the bed and Trixie snatches it up. “Not sure why I needed to see her namethere.”
“You don’t!” The veins on the sides of her temples bulge with fury. “Swear to God, she had better switch schools while she can. There’s no telling what will happen if I run into that skank! What the hell happened last night—give it to me in slow-mo. I want to get all the rage juices going that I can.” Her nostrils flare, and with her hair back she looks a lot more like me than she ever should. Yes, we’re twins. I’m the older of the two, the calmer, cooler, far more collected. Trix is feisty and reckless and a soon-to-be felon if I don’t put a caponher.
“Don’t worry about Jen. Last night wasn’t as bad as it sounds.” The lie feels numb coming from my lips. “I went over to the Kappa house with Rush and Eli, and as soon as I saw Harper, I made a beelineforher.”
“Harper?” Trix cocks her head as if asking if she heardright.
“That’s right. Last night at the Black Bear, I overheard a group of girls talking about the douchebag that she’s seeing as he walked by. They said he’s been hitting on them, and”—I drop my head in my hand a moment and moan—“I felt bad for Harper. I talked to Jen about it, and she said she knew for a fact he was making out with somechick.”
“I bet it was her! It was Janelle!” Trix shouts so loud as if it were the winning answer to some cheesy game show question. “She was shitting on you, and you didn’t evenknowit.”
“That might be so. Anyway, last night when I saw Harper, I felt bad. Hell, I felt obligated to tell her something, anything. All I wanted to do waswarnher.”
Trix slides over next to me and wraps an arm around my shoulder. “The way you wish someone would warn you if the shoe were on theotherfoot?”
“That’s exactly right.” My stomach turns as Lawson’s words come back to haunt me. He said he tried to warn me. My mind races with all the interactions we’ve had over the last few months, and I push them out of my head for now. “And that’s when Lawson tracked me down. He dragged me to a dark hall in the back, the lights went on, and I heard Harper make a horrible sound, something between a scream and a gasp.” The room around me evaporates a moment, and I’m right there with the lights blinking on, Justin’s meat hook wrapped around Jen’s tit, their mouths still conjoined as they looked over to us. “I just saw her face—some dude’s hands all over her and I lost it.” My voice breaks and Trix scoots in closer. “The next thing I remember is pulling him off her by the shirt and bashing his head in with my fist. Damn, it felt good.” I reach over and clasp her shoulder in a weak attempt to hold this other side of me. Trix and I have always viewed ourselves as extensions of one another, but right now I’m glad it’s not technically true. I’d never want her to feel this agonizing pain I’ve launched myself into. “She never apologized. She never said a word. I took off for a second before turning around, and I saw the unthinkable—Jen helping that asshole hobble out ofthere.”
“What did you expect? You just caught her cheating on you. Her true colors were revealed. Once a snake sheds its skin, there’s nogoingback.”
I glance over at my sister. “I’m not sure I get the reference, but my head’s sort of scrambled at themoment.”
“No worries.” She pulls me into a hard embrace. “Hey, what are you going to do about theinternship?”
“Crap.” I bang my head against the wall a few good times. “I forgot all about that. I can’t do it.” Just the thought of showing up at So Shoe Me makes my stomach turn. As a business major, I was looking forward to a solid internship each summer while at Whitney Briggs, and the first was to be with Janelle’s father at his footwearsuperstore.
“Fuck. I’m notdoingit.”
“But you need it to get into the program! Damn her to hell for ruining this foryoutoo!”
“Shit.” I sink my head into my hand, and swear to God, I see my entire future dissolve tonothing.
“Okay, I’ve got it. You can take my place at OrvilleRealty.”
“What? No way.” I pull back to examine her, and I’m stunned to find tears in her eyes. For as much rage as she’s fronting, she’s hurting for me, and that alone tears me apart even more thanJanelledid.
“Yes way.” She pounds her fist over my chest just enough to let me feel it. “I’m undeclared. I don’t evenneedan internship. It was Dad’s idea. He won’t care. Dad says Forest, the guy who owns the place, is some longtime family friend. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to have either one of us. The downside is you starttomorrow.”
Tomorrow.Shit.
“Fine. But only because you don’t really need it.” I give her foot a light kick. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it. I’ll just forget about the shoe store. I wasn’t looking forward to a summer of stinky feetanyway.”
“And I want you to forget about her too. Don’t you even think of talking to that stinky skank ever again. Youunderstand?”
“I’ve got half herstuffhere.”
