Whelve, verb
To bury something deep, to hide.
I didn’t approach her. I waited for Lana to come to me.
It didn’t take too long before her curiosity got the better of her. She whispered something in her friend’s ear and sauntered over to where I was standing. I pretended not to notice, chatting with Anders, even though my heart was thumping so hard.
She’d touched my Miles. She’d fucked my Miles.
Jealousy mixed with rage and genuine curiosity of my own when she tapped my shoulder, and I turned my head to look at her.
“Hello,” she purred, her fingers going through her mane of light-blonde hair. “So, you do remember me.”
“How could I forget?” I smiled. “Nice to see you.”
She leaned down to the arm of the sofa I was sitting on, and we exchanged air kisses as my new friends watched. Lana moved away, and we gave each other the once-over. She wore too-high heels, stilettos even I would find difficult to walk in. Her dress was knee-length but so impossibly tight it hugged every curve of her petite body. She was gorgeous, a tiny little doll, perfect for throwing over a man’s shoulder and fucking until she screamed for mercy.
“Where’s your boyfriend?” we asked at the same time, and I gave her a long look while she giggled.
“Johnny,” she said. “His name’s Johnny. He’s just over there.”
She pointed behind her without turning around, and I saw the guy who’d watched her getting fucked by Miles, laughing easily with some friends. How could he do that? How could he share her and now act like this, as if it meant nothing? It was a mystery to me. Lana was gorgeous, and he should’ve clung to her for dear life. It was so fucking obvious he liked her better than she liked him, and even though I couldn’t see into the future, I predicted their relationship would be over in months. She’d finally realize he could never fulfill her desires, and dump him for someone who could. Of course, Johnny would be devastated. I wished I could have spared him the hurt, but there was nothing to be done. Neither of them knew their relationship was failing yet, and I wasn’t about to speed the process up.
“What are you doing here alone?” I asked next, twirling my straw between my fingers. I took a sip of my drink, my eyes focused on Lana as I slurped the boozy liquid through the straw. “Don’t you think you’re out of your depth?”
“It’s him,” she said, a note of desperation so very obvious in her voice it was almost pathetic. “Miles, that guy Miles.”
“Miles?” I asked innocently, batting my lashes. She stomped her little high-heeled foot down, giving me an annoyed look. It would have been adorable if I didn’t hate her guts with every cell of my being. “Miles who?”
“Miles Reilly,” she said.
His last name. Oh my God.
“What about him?” I played it off, pretending the sound of his full name hadn’t sent butterflies dancing through my whole body. “I don’t think he wants to see you again, Lana.”
“And he wants to see you?” She crossed her arms, right away looking defensive even though I hadn’t so much as given her a threatening look. “You want me to back off, don’t you? Just admit it.”
“Back off?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. I tapped my friend on the shoulder and handed him my glass before getting off the sofa, towering over poor little Lana. “You think you’re any kind of competition, little girl?”
“You seem to think so,” she said with her head held high.
But I’d played these games before. I knew a scared little bitch when I saw one. I smiled in a syrupy-sweet way and leaned down against her lips.
“We better settle this somewhere else,” I told her while my friends went quiet.
“Bebe, don’t…” Anders muttered in my ear, but I waved him off.
“Come on, let’s go,” I said to Lana, and pulled her in the direction of the ladies’ room.
She followed closely behind, and as we started walking, I pulled my phone out of my purse. We made our way through the crowd, the dancefloor reverberating with the sound of the bass.
I swung the doors into the luxurious ladies’ room open. It was empty.
I settled on the round pink sofa in the middle of the room, the foyer of the bathroom made to look like a powder room.
“I think we have a common interest,” I told Lana when she settled down next to me.
If she was surprised by the fact I wasn’t about to kick her ass, the little bitch didn’t show it. She just glared at me and thought of how to respond. At least her mouth wasn’t as quick as her mind. It would do her a world of good when it came to dealing with me.
“Miles Reilly,” she said finally, and I smiled in response. “What do you know about him?”
“Probably not much more than you do,” I lied smoothly, shrugging. “But I know he’s probably at home right now regretting not having either of us. So, what do you say we have some fun?”
The girl’s eyes sparkled, and I thought to myself that I’d really underestimated her.
“What did you have in mind?” she asked, her voice shaking a little, and I giggled, showing her my phone.
“Want to take some selfies?” I asked her, my voice as wicked as my thoughts.
Her eyes sparked with recognition of a fellow troublemaker, and she nodded vigorously, only one question coming from her pretty pouty lips. “For Miles?”
“For Miles,” I agreed, snapping a shot of us sticking our tongues out for the camera.
I fired it off to his cell phone, deciding not to check obsessively for replies. Instead, I was going to have some fun. The kind I hadn’t had in years.
I fired off photo after photo.
Lana licking my ear.
Me pulling her hair back while she arched her spine.
Us, mouth to mouth, a sultry smile on our lips for the camera.
“Take your dress off,” I finally told her.
“What?” she blanched right away. “But… somebody could walk in.”
“This is the VIP bathroom,” I told her, pointing towards the sign. “You shouldn’t even be in here. But anyway, so what if they do? We give them a fucking show. Trust me, nobody is going to throw Bebe Hall out of a club. I fucking made this place what it is.”
She looked back at me, her wide eyes feigning surprise.
“Oh, stop,” I said simply. “Come on, show me your tits.”
Her shaky fingers pulled down the straps of her dress, and her tits spilled free with no bra or even tape to hold them in place. She was gorgeous, a natural beauty with a slim body and big, sexy boobs. Our bodies weren’t alike at all—she was pale where I was tanned, I was toned and she was tiny and curvy. A different kind of girl, but a beauty nonetheless.
Her nipples were pretty, a dark shade of pink. They settled into tight buds as I took pictures. She didn’t need much guidance, the alcohol and whatever the fuck else she’d had that night working her up a treat and making her the slut I knew she could be.
She licked her own nipples, let me suck on them. She rubbed her cunt over a lacy black thong and moaned for me while I filmed her. Every new snapshot was sent to Miles’ phone, hopefully driving him insane.
We burst out of the bathroom, laughing and holding hands, already fast friends as we made our way to the bar. We got drinks from a group of guys, Johnny and Anders long forgotten. We drank shot after shot. Downed pill after pill. I was fucking dizzy, delirious and giggling like a fool, and little Lana was being a complete slut, her mouth desperate for mine, her eyes drinking me in as I danced all over the dancefloor, a bottle of Moet in my hand and raised to the DJ.
She found a pink feather boa somewhere and had it wrapped around my neck the next moment. I threw my head back and laughed, and the world spun around me in slow-motion. If only I could get off on the right stop. The one where Posy was waiting for me patiently, ready to fix all the mistakes I’d made in the past years.
But when I looked ahead, I didn’t see Posy. I saw a girl I didn’t know, a girl I was using to get to a guy that wasn’t even mine.
I pulled her against me and a tear slipped down my cheek as I kissed her.
I felt everyone’s eyes on us as we devoured each other, tongues intertwining, pussies dripping, the scent of her strawberry shampoo heavy in my nose. I handed my phone off to someone I didn’t know or care about and asked her to take photos of us. She did. Moments later, all of them ended up in Miles’ inbox, because I couldn’t help myself.
I was angry and jealous, bitter and upset because she had touched him, and I still hadn’t.
I kissed her harder, sucked on her slutty tongue and filled my phone with raunchy images of us.
And with Lana’s lips hot on mine, I could almost remember a different moment, a moment just like this one.
“Posy, don’t be such a messy drunk!” Arden giggled as our friend sprayed a bottle of champagne all over her brand new Alexander McQueen dress. “Oh my God, you’re going to ruin your outfit!”
“I don’t care!” Posy climbed on the table and got everyone’s attention in a matter of seconds. “Hey. HEY! Can you hear me?”
Everyone cheered her on and Arden groaned and hid her face in my shoulder as Posy shouted into the bottle, pretending it was a microphone.
“Who’s ready to have some FUN tonight?” she asked at the top of her voice, and everyone cheered again.
“I’m here with my best friends,” she went on, grinning at us. “We’re new to the city. Oh, except for Bee. She’s been here for years.”
I shifted my feet uncomfortably. My glasses felt thick and uncomfortable on top of my nose, the dress they’d forced me into way too tight and way too short.
“Arden and Bebe,” Posy went on dramatically. “I love you bitches. Forever!”
We helped her get off while everyone cheered. It was only the beginning of our evening, and only the start of the three years we’d spend in the city together.
I was a nobody before Arden and Posy. I was a bookish geek with her nose in a book and glasses so thick people still bullied me at eighteen. I was boring. A nice enough face, but a body I hid in baggy clothes because I was afraid of my own curves. Then, they appeared… Broke, glamorous. Spending every last cent they had on clothes and booze, and taking me under their wings. They dragged me out every night, and I let them, because for once in my life, I wanted to know what it was like to be an it girl.
I had the money. They had everything else. And slowly, as the weeks passed, I became one of them.
Someone put another pill in my hand. I stared at it for a long time.
It was shaped like a heart, a neon purplish glow making it look like it was something from another planet.
I remembered snippets of conversation.
“It was a heart-shaped pill…”
“…we don’t know the name…”
“….overdose…”
“Too late… we can’t do anything…”
I realized in a very small, very quiet part of my brain that this was the pill Posy had taken the night she overdosed and died.
I stared at it in my palm, the purple heart so innocent. It would never hurt me. I trusted my heart. I trusted the pill. And Miles had my back, anyway, right?
Miles. Miles. Miles.
Maybe if I did this, he would finally come to get me.
Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
I swallowed the pill, washing it down with more champagne and letting Lana kiss me, her tongue twirling and licking up the remains of the pill on my lips.
And then I let it take over.