Текст книги "Reapers and Bastards: A Reapers MC Anthology"
Автор книги: Joanna Wylde
сообщить о нарушении
Текущая страница: 1 (всего у книги 8 страниц)
Reapers and
Bastards
A Reapers MC Anthology
By Joanna Wylde
Copyright (c) 2015 by Joanna Wylde Cover design © Hang Le Cover Photography © Predrag Vuckovic This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
Dedication
For Kandace, because fuck cancer.
Table of Contents
Charming Bastard
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Becca’s Huckleberry Pie Recipe
Sticky Sweet
Marie’s Bread Recipe
Skunked
Marie’s Emergency Skunk Solution
Sugar and Spice
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Darcy and Boonie are characters in their late thirties during the Reapers and Silver Valley novels. Their love story started twenty years before the beginning of Silver Bastard.
Charming Bastard
Chapter One
CALLUP, IDAHO
TWENTY YEARS AGO
DARCY
“There’s no room for you in here!” Erin hissed, glaring up at me from a narrow hollow between two boulders. I clenched my fist, wishing I could punch her right in the face.
This was my spot—she only knew about it because I’d shown it to her. In the distance I could hear the boys shouting at each other, followed by a girl’s shriek. We’d been playing a weird game of hide and seek on the way home from the bus stop all week, although it seemed a little unfair that the girls always had to hide. Unfortunately there were five guys and only four of us, so they called the shots.
“You suck,’’ I told Erin, then started up the hill again. Bitch. See if I ever saved her ass in math again.
Pushing through the trees was hard work and after a couple minutes I was panting. Not only that, between the steep hillside and the brush everywhere, I was making too much noise. Crap. I’d bet Boonie five bucks that he wouldn’t be able to catch me before five p.m. I didn’t actually have the money to pay up. It’d been stupid, but he’d been flipping me so much shit lately. For a couple weeks, actually.
God only knew what he’d make me do if I couldn’t pay. Knowing my luck he’d make me eat another damned worm.
________
I’d first met Riley Boone when I was four years old. We moved to Callup, Idaho, after my dad blew out his back and had to go on disability. Boonie’s family lived next to ours. Every afternoon he’d swagger off the school bus after kindergarten like a conquering king. For the first week he ignored me, until I’d impressed him by climbing nearly thirty feet up in the tree behind his trailer. They had to call the fire department to get me down, but it’d been worth it to see the respect in his five-year-old eyes.
He gave me a worm in honor of my accomplishment. I’d fallen in love. The next day he made me eat the worm and our relationship has been complicated ever since.
Eight years later I was still getting myself in trouble trying to impress him.
________
I was almost halfway to the ridge now, my backpack tugging me downward as I climbed. I’d been up this high before—hell, I’d explored most of the gulch over the years—but this was farther than I’d usually go this late in the afternoon. It was a bit of a risk. If I went too far I wouldn’t make it home before it was time to fix dinner for my dad.
Not a good scene.
On the other hand, Boonie probably wouldn’t look for me up here. He liked to think he was so sneaky and tough, but I was pretty sneaky, too.
The distant shouting faded as I clambered higher. The hillside was really steep now. The soft trickle of a stream sang to me in the distance, the light hardly filtering through the thick evergreen branches overhead. Ferns and moss and pretty little flowers grew on everything.
Unfortunately, ferns and moss and flowers aren’t big enough to hide behind.
Then I saw a fallen tree and smiled. The trunk itself wasn’t that big, but it’d come down sideways, lodging against several other tree trunks to form a natural shelf on the slope.
It was perfect.
Climbing up and over it, I followed the length to where it’d crashed through a little thicket. If I crawled in there I’d be completely invisible. Seconds later I was flat on my stomach, peering down the hillside from my perch and feeling smug as hell. It was four thirty already. Another half hour and I’d be the winner. About time, too, because it seemed like Boonie was always ahead me.
Not this time. Ha.
Something rattled on the slope below and I froze, eyes darting. More rattling, and I saw some branches swaying about a hundred feet off to my right. Someone was down there, but if I stayed still they wouldn’t be able to see me.
Don’t move. Don’t breathe. Don’t let him win.
Then a boot landed on the middle of my back and I screamed.
“Hey, Darce,” Boonie said. “Looks like I win again.”
“Shit,” I groaned, dropping my forehead into the pine needles. “How did you do that?”
“I’ve been right behind you the whole time,’’ he said. “When will you learn? You can’t beat me.”
That wasn’t worth an answer so I didn’t bother giving one. Instead I pushed with my hands, trying to get up but his booted foot held me down firmly.
“Jesus, Boonie. What’s your problem?”
“Five bucks. Pay up.”
I sighed, wondering why the hell I’d let him goad me into this. Time to ’fess up.
“I don’t have the money,” I admitted. Boonie didn’t say anything at first, then he lifted his boot slowly, setting me free. Shit. Was he going to be a dick about this?
“Roll over,’’ he said. I rolled over and looked at him, wishing to hell I’d never opened my stupid mouth. Boonie wasn’t a guy to mess with. He got in more trouble than any of the other freshmen. Even worse, he’d started running around with some of the older kids in the trailer park ever since he’d shot up last summer. Now he was six feet tall. It occurred to me that I didn’t really know him that well anymore.
We were only six months apart in age, but I was just a lowly eighth grader.
Crap.
“Can I get up?”
“Do you have five bucks?”
“No,” I admitted, feeling a little sick.
Boonie dropped to his knees next to me, a knowing smirk on his face. “I knew you didn’t when I made the bet.”
“What do you mean?”
“You had to borrow a dollar from Erin to get a drink and there’s no way you’d leave any cash at home. Your dad would take it.”
Well. Looked like Boonie knew me a little too well.
I sat up and we faced each other, our faces a little closer than felt comfortable. A strange tension had come into the air. I’d known him most of my life, but these last few months he’d been more distant. Now I didn’t know how to act around him or what to say.
Erin had a crush on him, said he was hot. Studying his face I could see it—he had strong features, and his short, dark hair was just shaggy enough that I wanted to touch it. Push it back, away from his face so I could see him better.
This was totally messed up—I shouldn’t be thinking shit like this about Boonie. We’d always alternated between being friends and enemies.
This was different. Scary.
Boonie lifted a hand toward my hair and I flinched, feeling my cheeks heat.
“What do you want?” I whispered.
“What do you think?”
I licked my lips and his eyes followed the movement. My breath caught as he leaned forward just a little.
“You guys up there?’’ Erin called, her voice shrill. “Darcy! Where are you? Is Boonie with you?”
I eyed him warily. “Erin likes you.”
He shrugged.
“So?”
“She’s my friend.”
“Come here.”
“We should get going,” I said, scooting back across the pine needles. My jeans caught on a branch, stopping me. Boonie leaned forward, crawling up and over my body. He wasn’t touching me, but his knees straddled mine. Then his hands came down on either side of my head.
“Give me a kiss and we’ll call it even.”
I didn’t know what to say. His eyes were dark, intense. I knew he’d kissed girls before, maybe even more than kissed. I’d even seen him coming out of Shanda Reed’s trailer a few times. She was sixteen and everyone knew she slept around. Not that I judged her for it—she’d baby-sat me a couple of times when I was little and used to build tent forts for me. I liked her.
But I had a feeling she wasn’t building forts with Boonie.
I licked my lips again, knowing I should kick him in the balls. Instead I watched as his head came closer. Then his lips brushed mine, ever so softly. Something strange and new started to uncurl deep inside. Something restless and needy. When his teeth nipped I opened my mouth with a soft sigh.
Then his tongue slipped inside.
Holy. Shit.
Erin said open-mouthed kissing was slutty. No wonder Shanda was slutty, because this was amazing. Boonie’s body lowered over mine and I felt his weight press me back down into the pine needles.
The kiss was harder now, his tongue plunging deep into me and his fingers tangled into my hair. I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything but feel as he thrust one of his strong thighs between my legs.
That’s when I felt it.
Something hard, pushing against my stomach.
Was that . . . ?
Ohmygod!
“Darcy!” Erin yelled again. She was almost on top of us and we both froze. Boonie lifted his head, staring down at me in heated silence. Whole worlds burned in his eyes and I knew things would never be the same between us again. His hips shifted once, restlessly.
“Darcy, where the hell are you?” she shouted again. I opened my mouth to reply, but before any sound could come out Boonie put a finger across my lips.
“Stay quiet. She can’t see us,” he whispered. His pelvis pressed down into mine and suddenly I knew exactly where this was going. Boonie might only be six months older than me, but he was years ahead of me when it came to this kind of game.
I wasn’t ready. Not at all.
“I’m coming, Erin!’’ I shouted abruptly. Boonie’s eyes narrowed, but he pushed away, letting me sit up. Then he was pulling me to my feet. Watching him warily, I reached for my backpack and slung it over my shoulder.
“I’ll be right down!” I yelled, backing away.
“Stop,” Boonie said.
I shook my head.
“Your hair is full of pine needles,” he added quietly. “Let me fix it. Otherwise you’ll catch shit.”
Crap. He caught my shoulders and turned me around, fingers combing through my hair. The touch sent shivers running down my spine. I wanted to lean back into him, to feel him wrap his arms around me.
Instead I waited for him to finish then started down the hill.
“Erin, I’m headed down,’’ I called, glancing back at him. “Wait for me and I’ll be right there.”
Boonie watched as I left, making no move to follow. That was different, too. We’d fought with each other as much as we’d played through the years, but more often than not it’d been us against the world—I was used to having him at my back. That boy was gone now. He’d turned into someone else. Someone hard and fierce and maybe even a little scary.
I wanted him to kiss me again. Desperately.
Erin started babbling about the eighth-grade graduation dance when I reached her, oblivious to the world-shaking events that’d taken place farther up the slope. I followed her down the hill to the road and we started walking along the gravel toward the trailer park.
“Everyone else already went home,” she declared. “It took me forever to find you. What were you doing?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t have five bucks. I couldn’t let Boonie find me.”
“Whatever,” she replied, and I wondered if she’d even been listening. Probably not. She never did. That usually pissed me off but today it was exactly what I needed.
It was just after five when we slid through the ancient wooden fence surrounding Six Mile Gulch trailer park, which was missing at least half its boards. My dad would be zoned out in front of the TV with his beer and Mom was working swing shift at the grocery store. That gave me plenty of time to get dinner started on a normal night.
But as soon as we reached the central dirt driveway I realized this wasn’t a normal night.
My steps faltered as I took in the clumps of anxious, upset adults. Some of them were crying. Children sat on steps, watching with wide eyes. Over at the Blackthorne place, Granny Aurora stood on the porch looking lost. I’d never seen her like that—usually she was the rock holding all of us together, always ready with a hot cookie and a cold glass of milk. My stomach sank. This was bad. Really bad. Fear and something worse hung in the air.
“What’s going on?” Erin asked, her voice wavering. Shanda ran over to us, her face smeared with streaks of black mascara.
“Have you seen Boonie?” she asked breathlessly.
“He’s probably right behind us,” I told her, ignoring Erin’s sharp look. “What happened?”
“There’s a fire at the silver mine—it’s bad. Real bad.”
“That’s impossible,’’ I said, confused. “It’s solid rock down there. What could be burning?”
“Nobody knows, but it’s definitely on fire. Boonie’s stepdad was underground today. So were Jim Heller, Pete Glisson, and Buck Blackthorne. We need to find Boonie and get him up there because his mom’s lost her shit. Nobody knows if they got out or not.”
Oh crap. Boonie’s mom had gone downhill over the years. Not that his stepdad was that hot, but Candy Gilpin was a basket case on a good day. In a genuine crisis she’d be uncontrollable. Like, shooting at people uncontrollable.
“Fuck,” I whispered, running across the dusty ground to my place. Tossing my backpack on the porch, I grabbed my bike and pedaled down the driveway and out onto the road. Boonie couldn’t be that far behind, could he?
Two minutes later I saw him, looking more like a man than a boy as he walked toward me. My bike skidded to a stop so hard I nearly crashed.
“What the fuck?”
“The mine,” I gasped. “There’s a fire at the Laughing Tess. Your stepdad’s underground and your mom needs you.”
Boonie’s face paled and I started to climb off my bike, planning to give it to him. He was already off and running. That’s when I happened to glance up at the sky and I saw it.
A pillar of thick, black, oily-looking smoke was rising slowly, over the ridge.
Holy shit. What the hell had happened down there, half a mile underground in the darkness?
________
Funny how we turn disasters into dry, sterile numbers.
Three. That’s how many days it took for the fire to burn out. Sixty-six. That’s how many self-rescuing breathing devices failed because they hadn’t been repaired or replaced on schedule. Eighty-nine men died, most within the first hour. Some were found sitting in front of open lunch boxes—that’s how fast the smoke took them out.
And then there was the worst number of all. Two hundred fourteen. Two hundred and fourteen children lost their fathers that day. One of them wasn’t born until months after the last funeral.
Seven days after the fire started, they pulled out two men alive. They’d sheltered under an air vent nearly a full mile below the surface, breathing shallowly and praying as tendrils of dark, poisonous smoke ebbed and flowed less than twenty feet away.
Boonie’s stepdad was one of them.
The New York Times plastered a picture of the survivors across the front page, showing them as they stumbled out into the light for the first time. Afterward there were congressional hearings on mine safety, although according to the local union it didn’t change anything. The Laughing Tess shut down for six months. Then she was up and running again, business as usual because the price of silver was rising.
None of this mattered to Boonie and me. His stepdad announced on live TV that he’d never go underground again. Then he packed up the family and they left Callup for eastern Montana.
I didn’t see Riley Boone again until my junior year of high school. By then I’d been dating Farell Evans for nearly eighteen months
Chapter Two
SIXTEEN YEARS AGO
DARCY
“Get your ass up here!” Erin yelled, laughing so hard I could barely understand her words. She’d already scrambled to the top of the embankment ahead of me. My boyfriend, Farell, boosted me up behind her, and I didn’t miss how his fingers slipped under my jean skirt to grope my ass. Someone was horny. He’d started drinking before the graduation ceremony, although I hadn’t realized how much until we were driving up the gulch toward Six Mile Cemetery for the after party. He’d nearly gone off the road twice, scaring the hell out of me.
I hated it when he got like this.
Fortunately, we made it okay and I was definitely ready to party. There were only forty-two students in the class of 1992, so they were more than happy to have us juniors along for the ride. I’d probably be here even if my boyfriend wasn’t a senior. Half the high school was.
I’ll never forget the first time he’d asked me out—it was one of those Cinderella moments. He was tall and strong and smart. Not only that, he played quarterback on our football team. His family had lived in the valley for a hundred years and they owned the White Baker mine. Practically royalty by Silver Valley standards.
My mom already had my wedding dress picked out, although I had my doubts. Farell would be heading to the University of Idaho in the fall and I’d seen way too many couples break up when that happened.
Fortunately, I’d only have to get through another a year before joining him. My family was broke, but I’d always worked hard in school. I wanted to get a business degree. The school counselor told me that between my grades and our family income, I’d have lots of scholarship opportunities.
I planned to make the most of them.
Popping up and over the top of the bank, I staggered to the side. Farell, Colby, and Bryce followed, then we all started across the darkened cemetery toward the party.
Six Mile had close to ten thousand graves, although you’d never guess it. Back during the gold rush, thousands of people flooded the valley. Callup might only have eight hundred residents now, but in those days we’d been the biggest city in north Idaho—home to a strange mix of miners, whores, gunfighters, and preachers. Even a bunch of nuns. You name it, they came here and when they died, they’d been buried on the steep hillside above Six Mile Creek. Now pine trees had taken over. From the road you couldn’t even see the place.
I loved it here.
Peaceful graves stretched along the thickly forested hillside in every direction, covered in moss and brush. Stone markers, wooden crosses, statues, and crudely built crypts . . . thousands of memorials for people long forgotten.
At night it turned into something else entirely.
“This place is creepy as fuck,” Erin whispered with thrilled glee. She clutched my arm as the boys whooped and wandered off. I couldn’t argue with that. We stumbled along the slope toward the party, which was back behind the memorial for the men who died fighting the 1910 wildfires. A terrace overlooking the grounds had been built out of smooth river stones, and was lined with benches. A rough concrete bowl sat in the center. I think once upon a time it was supposed to be a pond or something. Tonight it would be our fire pit, with the terrace itself providing the perfect place to set out the kegs.
Yeah, I know. We were horrible kids.
We were also the third generation of Callup residents to party up here, so at least we came by it honestly. Everyone in town knew where the graduation party would be, of course. Same place it’d been for the last twenty years—traditionally the cops gave a free pass on graduation night.
I stumbled on a tree root and tripped, falling into a headstone. Farell came out of nowhere to scoop me up, throwing me over his shoulder and running up the slope like I was a football. I screamed and slapped at his back.
“You’re gonna kill me!” I shouted. Farell laughed and his buddies cheered us on. Then Bryce caught Erin and it turned into a race. We reached the memorial at the same time to the sound of hooting and clapping. Farell lowered me to the ground and pulled me in for a kiss, tongue shoving deep into my mouth. He tasted like beer and the taquitos we’d eaten at his house during the reception.
I liked kissing Farell. Hell, I liked more than kissing him—we’d been sleeping together since I was sixteen and he was usually in tune with my needs. He pulled away and looked down at me, grinning like an idiot.
“Fuckin’ love you, Darce.”
Then he let me go and swaggered off, sharing high fives with the other football players before heading over to the keg. My eyes followed him, feeling that strange sense of loneliness that always came when he turned away. Farell was a bright, shining spotlight. When he focused on me it was like staring into the sun. When he left I found myself blinking, blinded and startled by the sudden loss of warmth.
I looked away, searching for Erin. Instead I saw Riley Boone watching me with those cold black eyes of his.
He leaned back against a tree just outside the circle of firelight. People swirled all around but Boonie stood apart, studying me with a scary intensity. Like always, the sight of him reminded me of that kiss we’d shared so many years ago. We’d hardly been more than kids, but they say you never forget your first.
Gave me chills every time I thought about it.
Boonie lifted his chin in silent greeting and I nodded in return. Then someone stumbled into me, breaking the spell. Good thing, too.
Riley Boone was nothing but trouble.
________
I’d hardly recognized him when he returned to Callup. I guess his stepdad ran off with a younger woman last summer, so his mom came running home to lick her wounds. Took her less than two weeks to hook up with one of the Silver Bastards, a member of the motorcycle club here in town. Boonie’s dad had been one, too, although he’d died when Boonie was just a baby.
I’d heard he was back, of course. Callup was the kind of place where everyone was up in each other’s business. Still, that didn’t prepare me to see him again in person.
He’d pulled up to the high school on a royal blue Harley Davidson, looking like the hero in a movie. You know, one of those teenage tragedies where the naive and foolish heroine falls in love with the gangster. Then she has to watch him get gunned down in the end, leaving her alone and pregnant because things can never work out with guys like that.
I hadn’t recognized him at first. I mean, Boonie had been cute as hell when he’d left, but for all his height, he’d still been a boy. Now he was all man. Six foot three, with a bulky, muscular body and dark hair. His eyes held secrets and he still walked like a conqueror, only now he was the kind of conqueror who’d cut off your head for crossing him. Farell and his friends learned that fast, too.
Until Boonie came home, Farell had been the king of the school. Now Boonie was, even if he wasn’t interested in taking on the role.
Farell hated him for that.
That was reason enough for me to avoid Boonie—Farell had an ugly temper. While I didn’t think it was reasonable for him to say I couldn’t talk to my old friend, I didn’t want to lose my boyfriend, either. I compromised by staying friendly toward Boonie, but distant. It’d been a tense year, made more tense by the fact that no matter where I went, Boonie’s eyes followed me.
I didn’t know for sure, but I think he and Farell even fought a couple of times—either that or Farell was running into an awful lot of doors. I couldn’t think of anyone else brave enough to take him on.
When they’d finally graduated I think half the town sighed in relief.
Now the party swirled around me in a blur of red Solo cups and cheap beer, punctuated by the occasional kiss or swat on the ass from my boyfriend. By two in the morning, I had a good buzz going. I also needed to pee. I hadn’t seen Farell for a while, but that didn’t mean much. I figured he was off smoking pot, which he seemed to think I didn’t know about. Not that I cared—compared to the pain pills my dad popped like candy, pot was nothing. That’s when I saw my old neighbor, Shanda Reed.
“When did you get here?” I shouted, running over to her. “I didn’t see you at graduation.”
“I couldn’t make it in time,” she said, laughing and pulling me into a hug. “Had a work thing.”
Her words broke through the haze and I felt awkward. Shanda’s “job” wasn’t what I’d want, although she drove a shiny new cherry red Mustang these days.
Not my place to judge how she earned her money.
Shaking off my dark thoughts, I looked her over. “I really like your hair like that. The blonde is perfect on you.”
“Thanks,” she said. I wondered if she was here for Boonie, not that it was any of my business. “Damn, I need to pee. Wanna go with?”
As soon as she said it I remembered my bladder was about ready to explode. “Yeah.”
“Great. You can tell me all the gossip.”
I followed her back into the trees, stumbling over roots as the firelight and music faded. The night air was warm without being hot, and the sound of crickets surrounded us.
“Here, this spot looks good,” she said, pointing to a clump of bushes. It was completely shielded from the party. Five minutes later we’d finished our business and headed back down the hill. About halfway back I heard a girl laughing, along with the rhythmic grunting that could only mean one thing. I bit back my own giggle, shooting a glance at Shanda. She smirked, catching my arm.
“Hold on,” she whispered. “I want to see who it is.’’
“What?” I asked, scandalized. “No. No, we can’t!”
Her wicked grin flashed. “Sure we can. They’re in the open—fair game.”
I shook my head, but I followed her as she crept through the darkness. Then I stepped on a branch, making a loud snapping noise. The laughter stopped.
“What was that?’’ a girl asked. I recognized the voice—Allie Stockwell. Well, wasn’t that nice . . . Allie made a huge production last year about wearing her purity ring, announcing she would never sleep with a boy before she was married. Not only that, she’d done it while staring me down in the locker room pointedly. I hated the bitch.
“It’s fine, baby,’’ her partner said, the words heavily slurred.
I froze.
“Farell?” I asked, my voice unsteady. No. I’d heard wrong. Farell would never cheat on me—Farell loved me. I heard Allie gasp as I swayed, dizzy. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real.
“Who the fuck is in there?” Shanda demanded, her voice ringing out in accusation. She started forward, pushing through the weeds and I followed, praying I’d been wrong. We’d find Colby back there with Allie, or some other guy. Obviously I hadn’t heard right. Too much booze.
I stepped into a clearing to find them, half naked in the moonlight. My drunken boyfriend had rolled to his back, dick flopping as he tried to pull up his pants. Allie gaped at us like a fucking goldfish.
“Farell . . . ” I whispered, my world shattering around me. “Oh, shit. Why? Why did you do this?”
He tried to say something, then Shanda had my arm and was dragging me away.
This was what it felt like to be punched in the gut.
I literally lost my breath. I couldn’t take in air, couldn’t focus, couldn’t do anything but try not to fall on my face as Shanda hauled me away from my future ex-boyfriend.
“Fuck off, asshole!” she shouted over her shoulder. “You eat shit and die.”
Finally my head stopped spinning and I realized I was crying. Sobbing. We were nearly back to the party and I dug in my heels, pulling back against Shanda’s grip.
“I can’t go back there,’’ I hissed. “I can’t let them see me like this. Oh my God, how did this happen? Why would he do this?”
Shanda caught my shoulders, giving me a shake.
“I’ve got no idea why the hell he’d cheat on you,” she said. “I don’t care, either. Here’s what I do know—if he’s been fucking her, then all of his friends know about it and so do all of hers. That means everyone at the party but you and your best girls are in on this bullshit. You’ve got two choices here. You can run off and hide like you’ve done something wrong, or you can walk back down there, grab a drink, and then wait for him. When he comes back, you’ll throw that drink in his face and dump his pathetic ass. Then we’re going to dance and have fun and maybe get you laid by a real man, because he does not get to win.”
I stared at her, blinking.
“I don’t think I can do that,” I whispered. Shanda’s eyes narrowed.
“Listen to me—the world’s tough for girls like us, Darce. Girls from the trailer park. They think that because we’re poor, we’re trash, and that’s how they treat us. But we’re not trash. I don’t care how much money Farell has. He’s the trashy one here, not you. Sometimes you just gotta cowgirl up.”
She was right. I hadn’t done anything wrong, so why the hell should I run away? Lifting the edge of my halter top, I wiped off my face, trying not to sniffle.
“How do I look?”
“You’ll do in the dark,’’ she said, winking at me. “Hold your head high and remember, I’ve got your back. Six Mile trailer park forever, baby.”
________
Boonie was the first person I saw back at the party.
He leaned against a pickup truck full of massive speakers that the senior boys had hooked to car batteries. Something had gone wrong with the system early on, and it’d stopped working. Fortunately, the truck’s own stereo wasn’t too bad when they cranked it all the way.
Now the fire burned high and girls were all dancing. I saw Erin wander up to Boonie and lean into him. He gave her a hug then pushed her away firmly when her hands started to wander.
Shanda marched us straight over to them.
“What happened to you?’’ Erin asked, so drunk I could hardly understand her words.
“I caught Farell fucking Allie Stockwell,” I said bitterly, wishing I could kill the hateful bitch. “Now I’m going to dump his ass.”
“Holy shit.”
Boonie didn’t say anything, but his eyes flared with sudden intensity. Shanda looked between us, a strange smile playing at her lips. I think she was about to say something.
Then Farell stumbled out of the dark and back into the party.
“Darcy!” he shouted, lurching toward us. People turned to stare. “Darcy! Darcy, it was a mistake. Let me explain.”
“Showtime,’’ Shanda said, pushing me forward. I felt an almost palpable wave of excitement from the crowd. Great. Nothing like a little drama to make a party memorable.
