Me: Where did you go last night?
Ace: To crazy town dude. I got home to Gunnar here back from the bahamas without Cassie or Thatcher’s knowledge
Me: WHAT? How did he get back?
Ace: Spirit Airlines or some shit I dunno I don’t know how we have the same dna
Me: Haha. Okay, then. Let’s move on to what’s really important. What are we doing today?
Ace: No clue. Something together tho
Me: Well, duh! How about I get ready and meet you at your parents’ place in an hour?
Ace: No, I’ll come pick you up
My eyebrows draw together, but I shrug. I’m all the way at my parents’ house in Jersey, but whatever. If he wants to come pick me up, it’s probably because we’re going to end up in Ocean City, Maryland, eating crab or something. Ace is always dragging me along into spontaneous shit, and as much as I pretend to protest, I secretly love it. He’s controlled chaos, and my life would be far too boring without his brand of fun.
Me: Okay. See you soon!
Stretching widely, I get up from my bed with a toss of my white comforter and run on my toes across the air-conditioned hardwood floor to my bathroom. I flip on the light, and the heated floor, and turn on the shower to scalding levels.
While it warms, I admire my youthful glow in the mirror, despite still being covered in last night’s makeup. I know rolling out of bed and looking this bright-eyed and bushy-tailed won’t last forever either, and Ace’s mom is always reminding me to “kiss my tits while I can still reach them.”Seriously, her words, not mine.
“Maybe I should be a little sluttier,” I whisper to myself cheekily before shaking my head with a laugh. I’ve never been the loose-as-a-goose type, and sleeping with random guys at the drop of a dusty, crusty dinner date seems like the very thing that would make my father’s humble-billionaire head explode.
But I’ve never had an actual long-term boyfriend. Not even in high school. I’ve hooked up. I’ve even had sex…once after senior prom with underwhelming results. I’ve gone on dates but never actuallydatedanyone for longer than a month or two.
And I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
Like, should I be putting myself out there more? Should I be dating? Lord knows, Ace has been balls deep in the dating pool since we hit puberty.
“Julia!” my sister Evie yells, the shrill panic in her voice making me hold my ears. She’s fifteen—almost sixteen—and perpetually in crisis these days.
“Jeez, Evie,” I complain as she comes bursting into my bathroom without invitation. “I’m about to take a shower.”
“Thanks for the update, sis, I never would have guessed by the running water,” she replies smartly, her attitude temporarily pissing me off. “Though, I’m thankful your tits and bits are still covered.”
“Hey, genius, you’re in my room, on my time, without invitation, and clearly freaking out about something. If you want me to listen without kicking your ass out, you’d better take a chill pill.”
“Ugh, fine, sorry.” She huffs out a breath. “Queen Julia, master of your lair, may I please bestow my problems upon you?”
Poising my face with regal conviction, I bow. “That’s better. You may proceed.”
“I know you’ve been out of high school for a year, but this gossip has the kind of big boobs and an even bigger ego that’s unforgettable.” My eyebrows draw together as she continues. “Heather Donovan is running for class president against me this year, and she just put up a website claiming to have dirt on ourfather.”
The big boobs are making sense now, as Heather was always well-known at West Chester Prep for her G cup. I can’t even imagine the back problems she’s going to have in twenty years, but for now, she relishes the attention too much to get them reduced.
“It’s summer, Evie. School isn’t back in session for, like, two months. Why are you busy with your reelection?”
“Did you just hear anything I said?” Evie glares at me. “Heather Donovan says she has dirt on Dad.”
“Dirt on Daddy?” I shake my head. “That doesn’t exist. Don’t stress.”
Evie rolls her eyes. “Wow, I never thought of that, thank you. Come on, get real! I looked at the site, and she’s got screenshots of Dad sending ugly dick photos to women on TapNext! It’s his profile, his picture, his username! All of it!”
“Get real. That’s got to be AI.”
She purses her lips. “Well, I ran it through that AI-detection app that Lexi made, and it says it’s legit.”
