I float back to the party. I’m not sure my feet ever hit the ground. The only downfall is that I never had the chance to tell Ace how I feel. And I damn well plan on rectifying that in just a little while. I scan the blooming crowd for Brylee, but there’s no sign.
A pair of arms circle around my waist, and I spin with a smile.
“That was fast,” I say, and my smile glides off when I see Warren’s bruised face. “Shit!” I jump a little at the sight.
He tightens his grip over me. His lids hood low with a snarl locked on his lips as the stench of vodka washes over me.
“What were you doing at the boathouse tonight?” His demeanor hardens as his fingers dig into my waist. “Neva says you’re fucking him. Is that true?”
“You’re drunk. Let go.” I squirm out of his arms, and Warren reels me right back.
“Tell me rightnow,” he roars it over my face, making my skin vibrate in rhythm to his disdain for me. The veins on either side of his neck extend, thick as cables.
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know in the morning, when I know for a fact you’ll remember it.”
I break free and run all the way home—right up into my bedroom to wait for Ace.
My father’s cologne swims through the air as a seam of moonlight bisects my room, exposing a small white rectangle lying on my pillow. I close the door and head over without bothering with the lights. My fingers glide across the cool envelope as my mother’s familiar handwriting greets me.
Happy 21thbirthday, Reese!
I pet the soft skin of the paper and pretend it’s my mother’s hair. She wore it long, and when I played with it, I pretended I was combing through silk.
The seal parts for me all the way across without a single nick to the envelope. I slip the letter out and float it between my fingers. In just a little while, Ace will be here. He said he’d gladly read them with me. How much better will it be to read this while nestled safe in his arms? I slip the letter back into the envelope and tuck it under my mattress for safekeeping, right along with the “special recipes” I’m more than ready to read.
The curtains to my room billow like ghosts as the night breeze sails in. I can’t wait for Ace to arrive. And the fact I get to share my mother with him on my birthday is the icing on the cake, quite literally.
Kennedy was wrong. I can have my cake and eat it, too. After all, it is my birthday.
I lie down and drift to sleep to the sound of people laughing, and shouting, music blaring in my honor from the lake.
Ace will be here soon. And it’s a dream within a dream.
Time passes as I writhe over my sheets lost with Ace in my nocturnal wanderings. I can practically feel his hot lips racing up my neck, his heated hands tracking down my hips then melting lower still.
“Ace,” I whisper as my lids flutter. The hands, the body pressed over mine is real.
The strong scent of hard liquor pulls me out of my slumber, and I struggle to get my bearings on reality. He yanks at my dress and tears off my underwear.
“Ace?” I pull back in a panic and knock into the headboard.
“Try again. It’s the other man of your dreams.” Warren plunges his tongue down my throat, and I twist my head away.
“Get off.” I push him up enough for the moonlight to gloss over his skin.
Warren’s shirt is off, and I don’t see any shorts on him either—he’s naked, and proud, and judging by the liquor store he ingested, totally wasted.
He lands over me like a stone and gathers my wrists high above my head.
“You think I’m just going to let you turn me down while you whore around with Waterman?” He says his name like it’s a joke. “I fucking hung around for you.”
“Get the hell off or I’ll scream.” I struggle to break free from his grip. “My dad is going burn you alive if he finds you in here.”
Warren clamps his hand over my mouth and works my dress up over my hips.
“You want to scream?” He works my legs apart with his just as my phone buzzes from the dresser.
“Ace,” I moan through his fingers.
