Boring.
The garish laser lights, the repetitive dance beats pounding from the speakers, the hot crush of the crowd jumping up and down like they wanted to sink this town into oblivion.
Downright. Fucking. Dull.
“Remind me again why I even bother with this.”
“Street cred, man. Our rep’s been through the roof ever since you started throwing these parties.” Gabriel lounged in the deck chair by the poolside, swigging his beer. “Dumbfuck High can’t beat this shit, especially now that we’re seniors. We’re running this whole town.”
Of course. That was the only thing Gabriel obsessed over aside from his reflection: Showing up the other high school in San Juan, Dunford High.
Cam popped another beer. “Still smarting over the game?”
“Dude, they bought out the referee! They’re cheating fucks and they had this coming.”
“Yeah? You sure it’s nothing to do with their line-backer wiping the floor with your face in front of the cheerleaders?”
“That too,” Gabriel admitted freely. “And payback’s a bitch.”
I didn’t join their conversation as I surveyed the party happening around us.
When the architects designed the back gardens of the Beckett Mansion, I was certain that they had expected a dinner party of fifty people to be the maximum capacity the garden would see at any given time.
There were over a hundred high-schoolers here now, laying waste to the place like a horde of ravaging Mongols.
That being said, there wasn’t much that was lost in the way of aesthetics.
Horace Beckett was the kind of man who became successful through sheer dumb luck—by being in the right place at the right time with the right people.
But being a businessman of middling success wasn’t the same as being recognized as part of elite society, which was what Horace desperately wanted to be. His unpolished ambition showed that, manifesting itself in everything he did, from his abrasive personality to his choices for home decor.
The result of that unchecked ambition was, quite simply, a horror show.
Greek statues of naked women pouring water out of their pots—and their tits—lined one length of the pool in a macabre row. The lawn across them housed floodlights in the ground that shone upwards to illuminate the pale, sickly-white brick face of the mansion, which was itself a crass eyesore of a structure.
That didn’t seem to bother the three guys beside me, who were was giving exactly zero shits to the scenery.
Gabriel had shifted to a spot on the table to flirt with a sophomore. Cam already had two giggling blondes draped over him, and Ryland lounged in a deck chair and nursed his beer, looking deep in thought. It was his usual look these days. Knowing him, it had something to do with his father and his company.
The alliance between us hadn’t been hard to forge since we all stood to gain something out of it. I had fully expected us to kill each other long before this, but apparently we all had our eyes on a bigger prize—the power that our combined influence brought us.
“No kidding though, we were already big around these parts, but ever since you came? We’re untouchable.” Gabriel smiled quizzically. “What do they teach you in those boarding schools?”
“Hierarchy,” I said simply. “Barclay worships the English elite. When you’re at a school established centuries ago by some long-dead duke, bloodlines and money outweigh everything.”
“I’ve heard of those,” Ryland said, finally turning his attention back to us. “The entire student body is made up of wealthy pieces of shits with sticks up their starched asses.”
“Isn’t that a description of you?” Cam said dryly.
“Nah, I’m just a wealthy piece of shit.”
I sat back and watched the partying crowd get up to their antics, not truly taking in anything. It seemed like a glaze of boredom came over my vision whenever I was at these parties. Sometimes I almost thought I missed my life back at Barclay. It might have been my personal hell on earth, but at least it was eventful.
“All this power play won’t matter once we graduate.” Cam arranged the two now-topless, giggling girls in his lap like they were dolls for his entertainment. They obliged his wordless demand and began making out with each other. “It’s just petty bullshit.”
“It’s a trial run. We’re gonna play the same game in the future, but on a larger scale. Might as well start practicing now.” Ryland glanced at me, utterly uninterested in the girls. “By the way, I got my dad to sign our upcoming project with Beckett like you wanted. You owe me one.”
If there was any doubt about my mother’s and my standing with Horace, it would be erased with this single move. I had helped endear my mother to her rich boyfriend simply with my association with the three most powerful last names in California, the kind of last name Horace wanted Beckett to be.
But in doing so, Ryland also looked good in front of his father, something I knew he obsessed over.
“It’s a win for both of us, so no, I do not owe you.”
“Fucker.”
Beyond us, the party raged on. The music changed with the charts, but aside that, nothing new ever happened. Everything was agonizingly repetitive, and even the people acted like marionettes.
There were the jocks who were desperate to be part of our clique. The cheerleaders who wanted to fuck us for bragging rights. The freshmen who were out of their depth but acted like they belonged anyway.
All smiling the same damned way, all dancing the same damned way. One-dimensional automatons programmed to act the way they did.
Tonight, these people were going to trash this place with their partying. Tomorrow morning, the servants would arrive to clear the vomit and broken glass and spilled beer and weed, erasing every trace of the chaos as if it had never existed. The cycle continued the next week, and the week after, a never-ending loop that made no difference in the grand scheme of things.
I was tempted to find out how just how far I could go before Horace Beckett ejected me from his estate, but instead of exerting his authority as the master of the house, Horace seemed to be relinquishing it bit by bit. Lust was one hell of a powerful drug, and my mother used that to her every advantage.
“You know what we should do?” Gabriel suddenly said. “We should hook up with Dunford girls. We should take their girlfriends. That’ll fuck with their heads for the next game.”
“You’re going to make me believe in reincarnation, Easton,” I said simply. “No one becomes this stupid in one lifetime.”
Cam choked on his beer. “This one does, and he only needs a quarter of a lifetime.”
Gabriel scowled. “Some back up here, Wyatt?”
Ryland murmured a non-committal agreement, his distracted gaze trained at a point somewhere beyond Gabriel.
I turned to see what he was looking at, but the direction only led to the bedroom wings. All the windows were shut. “What are you looking at?”
Ryland watched for a moment longer before turning back to the pool. “Nothing.”
I was about to dismiss it and return my half-hearted attention to the party when I spotted a flash of orange darting through the hallway on the third floor, at the other end of the house.
My gaze sharpened instantly.
Where was the little princess going on a Friday midnight? The direction she was headed would take her straight through to the servants’ staircase.
Wherever she was going, she was doing it in secret.
“The hell you looking at?” Ryland threw my question back at me.
“Original.” I watched the stairwell on the first floor with strange, unfamiliar anticipation, waiting for the tiny redhead to emerge.
For the first time that night, I was intrigued.
I hadn’t spoken to Karin Beckett again since I made my threats a year ago, but that hadn’t stopped her from being friendly from afar. Allie Beckett made no secret of her hatred for me, but Karin just followed me with a curious gaze whenever we passed in the hallways of the house or at school.
And when our eyes met, she’d smile hopefully, a silent question of whether I had somehow changed my mind about her. My answer was always a pointed disregard of her presence.
But I had to concede, it was easy to see why Karin was popular at school when she was only a freshman. She spoke to everyone in the same earnest way, from the biggest bitch to the weirdest outcast, as if every word that came out of their mouth was the most exciting thing in the world. The girl was a walking Valentine’s Day card.
And at some point in the past year, I realized that I had begun watching Karin Beckett’s every move and eavesdropping on her every word.
Perhaps it started when O’Kleeson, the groundskeeper, mentioned that the outer gardens were being overrun by wild rabbits. That same night I caught Karin tiptoeing out the back of the house, armed with a small bundle of carrots.
The damned girl had been feeding them.
I sat up, bracing my arms on my knees as I waited for her to appear. Even after a year of watching, I found it hard to believe that anyone could be that genuine. Was Karin Beckett truly as artless as she seemed, or was it all a well-scripted act? I wanted my answer, and I wanted it from her lips.
My target finally emerged from the stairwell. She was wearing a black hoodie and jeans, with the hood now pulled over her head to conceal her bright hair.
I watched closely, but instead of coming over to the party like I half-expected her to, Karin made a left turn and headed round the mansion to where the back gates were.
There was only one reason she was going that way—to leave the property.
My eyes narrowed.
Where the hell was she headed? Did she have a secret boyfriend who’d somehow slipped my notice?
I crushed my half-empty beer can and tossed it aside, pushing to my feet.
“Where’re you going?” Gabriel asked in surprise. “The fight’s just getting started.”
Sure enough, a small crowd had gathered to form a makeshift ring in the courtyard, the usual occurrence when it drew close to midnight.
I’d started the fights out of pure boredom. It was a stupid game, everyone knew that, but it was better than doing nothing. Watching guys who were just as bored as I was fight it out for cash was the only thing that had me remotely interested nowadays.
But tonight, my gaze remained drawn towards the corner where Karin had disappeared.
“I have other entertainment lined up.”
“Dude, seriously? I’m going up in the third round!”
“I know—I’ve got a large wager riding on your loss.” I clapped Gabriel’s shoulder as I passed him, feeling strangely eager to go after Karin Beckett. “Don’t disappoint me.”
The music from the party grew faint as I made my way around the side of the mansion and towards the back gate of the Beckett property. A narrow one-way road ran just outside the gates, separating the mansion from the forest beyond.
There were no street lights on the private property, and it took a good few seconds until I spotted Karin’s small form caught in the pale moonlight. She was diligently making her way down the road, in the direction of the cliffs by the sea.
I made my way over, easily gaining speed until I was right behind her.
“Going somewhere?”
Karin screamed and jumped into the air before I even uttered my second word. “Oh my god! Oh, it’s just you!”
No one had ever referred to me as just you.
“I thought you were a ghost,” she shrilled, her hands still clutching at her chest.
I slipped my hands in my pockets and eyed her coolly. “The question is obvious, but I’m going to ask it anyway. What the fuck are you doing out here?”
“It’s none of your business.” She couldn’t even meet my gaze as she said it.
“Congratulations,” I drawled. “You’ve said your first cutting thing, and it’s not even that impressive.”
“You don't know that it’s my first,” she sniffed. “I could say mean things all the time.”
“You don’t,” I said simply. “I know everything that goes on in this town.”
“Riiight. Your plan to take over it, along with Dad’s house and his business.” She narrowed her eyes. “Doesn’t it keep you up at night, taking what doesn’t belong to you?”
If only she knew how close she was to the literal truth. I slept light, jerking awake at the smallest sound, half-expecting an intruder to jump me. Another residual habit courtesy of Barclay Private School for Boys.
“I sleep well enough. Better than those who live in fear of having their possessions taken from them, I imagine.” I smiled pleasantly. “If you can’t keep it, you don’t deserve to have it.”
Her mouth fell open. “That’s so freaking selfish!”
“I am, and I don’t pretend otherwise.” I cocked my head, giving her a once-over that was outright insulting. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world out here, princess, not everyone can afford to live out a comfortable life in an ivory castle like you.”
“Don’t call me that, you don’t know anything about me. And ever since you moved in with your sneering and your death glares, the only parts of the house left for me are my bedroom and a straight path to the front door!”
I eyed the fuming redhead in front of me with growing amusement. Apparently, Karin Beckett had a bit of spite in her. It was as threatening as a puppy with a butter knife, and just as entertaining.
This night was getting interesting.
“It isn’t personal. Like I said, it’s every man for himself.” I shrugged. “And I’ve never been one to be satisfied with scraps.”
Karin muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like “Stupid asshole.”
“Care to repeat that?” I said mildly.
She glared harder. “If you’re done grilling me for something that is none of your business, I’ll be on my way.”
“On your way, where?”
“Somewhere far, far away from you.” Then as if she couldn’t help herself, “It’s a secret hideout.”
I couldn’t stifle a laugh. “What are you, four?”
“Fifteen. Goodbye.”
Karin spun on her heel and started clomping down the road again. I kept pace with her easily, every one of my strides matching two of hers.
“I said, goodbye,” she gritted.
“I heard you.”
“Ugh!” Karin stopped in her tracks so suddenly I nearly mowed her over. She flung her hood back like she was preparing for a physical fight.
“You’ve taken over my house, isn’t that enough?” she demanded. “Now you want to ruin my secret hideout too?”
“I do take extreme pleasure in ruining things.”
“I’m never going to tell you where it is now.”
I tilted my head, my lips curving. “You know what I’m in the mood for right now, Beckett?”
Karin squinted, but I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist the bait. “What?”
“Rabbit. Stew.”
She gasped, horrified, and I smiled evilly.
“Oh yes,” I assured her, “I know what you’ve been up to at night, and I’ve yet to thank you for plumping them up for me. Fat little bunnies, skinned and de-boned, finely minced and sautéed—”
“You wouldn’t! You sick, sick asshole!”
“Show me where your hideout is, or your newfound pets will be cooking in Mrs Smith’s pot come tomorrow evening.”
Karin’s face turned even paler than its usual color, but instead of giving in right away, she lifted her chin and glared. “What’s your freaking deal? Does this have anything to do with you showing up less and less to your parties?”
I raised my brow. I wasn’t the only one keeping watch, apparently. “The princess has been spying.”
“I sure have,” Karin threw back. “Especially when it’s an intruder in my house.”
“That stung, truly.” I shrugged loosely, not understanding why I was explaining myself to Karin Beckett, sympathizer of homeless rodents. “I find them boring.”
“Boring? It’s so loud it’s keeping half the town awake!”
“Is that a complaint?” I asked pleasantly. “Would you like me to have them turn down the music?”
“Oh.” Karin blinked, taken aback by my seeming acquiescence. “Well, yeah, thanks. That would be really nice.”
I gave her a patronizing smile. “Wouldn’t it?”
Karin scowled, finally catching on to the sarcasm. “You know something? I don’t think you find it boring, I think you find it pointless.”
“That’s the same bloody thing. Now make your choice; keep your secret or save those vermin?”
That earned me a sour look. “There’s an old watchtower on the other side of this forest, on a small cliff facing the sea. It’s the full moon now, and I'm going there to paint.” She paused, seeming to make a decision. “You can come if you promise not to demolish it after you inherit Dad’s estate.”
I looked at her sharply, but Karin simply shrugged.
“It’s not hard to tell that he’s gonna will everything to you and Estelle. His lawyer has been coming over pretty often.”
The younger Beckett girl was evidently shrewder than I thought. It was all too easy to mistake her sunny smiles for ignorance.
I had the feeling she used that to her every advantage.
“That doesn’t bother you?” I asked lightly.
She shrugged. “Kinda, but Dad wouldn't trust us with his money or the company whether you’re in the picture or not. He thinks boys are better and girls should stay at home and be good wives.” She looked at me from the corner of her eye. “So you promise to leave my secret hideout alone?”
“I don’t make promises, princess.”
Karin sighed impatiently. “I’ll show it to you anyway, you’ll find it sooner or later. Unless you’d rather return to your party,” she added. “In that case, please don’t let me keep you.”
Without waiting to see if I followed, Karin stepped off the main road and ventured into the dark forest, her footsteps sure and steady like she’d done this a dozen times.
I looked towards the mansion behind me, hearing the faint faraway sounds of a party. Booze, weed and sex were awaiting me back there.
I turned back to see Karin moving deeper into the trees. The moonlight turned her red hair into a small flame, a glowing beacon in the darkness. She would be swallowed by the dense trees in seconds.
I found that I wasn’t quite ready for that just yet. I wanted to keep her in my sights, even if just for a while longer.
And so I stepped off the path, heading into the dark forest after Karin Hope Beckett.