“This asshole in a mask who’s been sending riddles and notes to Neil and his family for a while,” Xavier responded, summarizing the situation pretty clearly.
“Xavier’s got it. I don’t know who he really is. He’s shown up on multiple occasions with a white mask and a black Jeep,” I explained.
Luke looked from Xavier to me. “On which occasions?” he pressed, increasingly bewildered.
“The first time, he caused my brother’s accident, and then he crashed into Selene when she was trying to go back to Detroit. He’s also the one who attacked Chloe at the masquerade party she went to with Madison.” I stared into his eyes. “You were the one who told Madison to come to the party, weren’t you?” I still needed to have a conversation with Chloe about the whole thing.
“Yeah,” he admitted.
I shook my head, rubbing my temples. I held him partially responsible for what had happened to my sister, but I had to keep my cool.
“You know she’s just a girl, right? What the hell is a guy like you doing with a girl that young? I’d feel like I was fucking my little sister if it were me,” Xavier observed, sounding horrified. For once, I actually agreed with him. I had no interest in how my friends chose to live their lives, but sleeping with a seventeen-year-old was depraved, even by mine and Xavier’s standards.
“She’s not a little girl. And she knows what she’s doing in bed,” Luke said defensively.
“Just because she knows how to act like a woman doesn’t mean she is one,” I interjected, and both of them gave me thoughtful looks. It was a simple enough concept: Some women were women, while others were just girls imitating them. The difference could be subtle, even invisible, to someone who was less observant or less experienced with the phenomenon.
I, unfortunately, had plenty of experience, courtesy of Kim.
“My sex life is none of your concern. Why don’t you focus on sharing women, playing heads or tails, and all the other twisted shit you guys get up to?” Luke said dismissively, waving a presumptuous hand in the air.
“Shall I remind you that you’ve done all that same ‘twisted shit’ yourself? Don’t play the white knight now, because you’re not,” Xavier shot back in irritation, and, once again, I agreed with him completely. I could vividly recall how Luke had talked about Selene and how he’d kissed and touched her in the pool house.
Just the thought of it made my chest shudder and my stomach clench.
Luke was absolutely no better than the rest of us.
“Let’s get back to the broken window on my fucking Maserati,” I snapped. I didn’t enjoy talking about my problems with them, but Player had attacked me in broad daylight this time, right in front of the school and countless students. I couldn’t just pretend nothing happened; I couldn’t ignore it, and I needed to use the Krew to my advantage.
“Right,” Luke agreed. “Why not call the police?”
The main obstacle there was that if Player was an enemy or someone I’d hurt, the police could very well wind up investigating things I did in the past and tossing me in jail instead of him.
“Are you a moron?” Xavier put in. “He can’t do that. Did you forget about Roger Scott and the whole thing with Scarlett?” he continued, just as the waitress arrived with our coffees. Xavier clammed up, and the girl set the mugs down in front of us, hurrying around the table like she owed somebody money. Xavier watched her with amusement, thrilled at the idea that his mere presence was putting the waitress into such a panic. When she turned to leave, he gave her one last lingering look, turning back to pick up the interrupted conversation.
“Her father wants us dead. Me most of all,” I noted, leaning back against my chair. Sleeping with Scarlett Scott was the biggest fuckup of my entire life. I wasn’t proud of what had gone down three years ago on spring break. It was a week every American college kid looked forward to, one where you were supposed to go overboard and drink, fuck, and party to your heart’s content. People flocked to tourist destinations and let themselves become total animals. Everyone turned their brains off and allowed themselves to be whatever they wanted to be, indulging in whatever kinks or sick fantasies they had.
It was a week without boundaries or inhibitions or morality or sense of shame or any fucking thing like that.
And, three years ago, I had been acting like a beast along with the rest of them, and I’d made the fatal error of underestimating Scarlett’s obsession with me. I’d handled the whole thing entirely wrong.
And something irreparable had happened…
“Neil?” I heard Luke’s voice calling to me, and I blinked several times, pulling myself away from those thoughts. Once again, I had gotten lost, indulging myself in the still-painful memories.
“Yeah…I’m listening,” I muttered, though I hadn’t heard a single word. Luke and Xavier exchanged knowing looks, because they knew exactly where my head was at.
They’d both been there on that fateful day with my ex.
“It wasn’t your fault. Scarlett was obsessed with you. She was unhinged and desperate for your attention; you couldn’t possibly have predicted how far she’d go…” Luke went on, and I squeezed my eyes shut briefly. The air felt thin around me, and the feeling of remorse rose up like a ghost fromthe depths of my soul. I opened my eyes again and tried to suck some air back into my lungs.
I wasn’t that same person who trampled recklessly over all limits; I was done with that kind of excess.
I still had to live with the cursed part of me that emerged now only when I was extremely frustrated, disappointed, or enraged, but I’d locked up that old Neil three years ago and thrown away the key. I had no intention of releasing him ever again.
“I could have been clearer, though. I could have told her—” I said tentatively, but Xavier shut me down immediately.
“Fuck that, Neil. You did all that. You’ve always done it. She was the one who refused to get it through her head. She was the one who dreamed up this whole fairy tale with you,” he reminded me earnestly. It was the truth.
