Granted Xav and I aren’t exactly gentle in bed, fine, we’re animals, but I’ll never forget having to explain to Dia why the top bunk was broken. I paid for the damages, but she didn’t let me hear the end of it for months. Even now, I’m convinced I’ll never live it down. Seriously, she’ll be telling the story at my wedding one day.
“Have you told her he’s back in town?” Xavier questions.
The thought makes my skin crawl.
“Nope. And I’m not going to,” I reply.
The last thing Dia needs right now is Finn fucking Richards back in her life, especially considering all that’s happening with her family. Finn is, and will always be, Dia’s blind spot. Her epic, arguably toxic love. I don’t care that he’s back in Silver Springs after dropping off the face of the earth; it nearly killed her when he left.
God, that was almost a year ago.
It’s crazy how things change.
Less than a year back, Xavier was on stage at the cocktail party, spilling his deepest secrets to the world. The events that followed ranked a solid ten out
of ten on the crazy shit scale. Word spread through town like wildfire, and by Monday morning, every student at Easton knew Zac’s identity.
Not that anyone risked confronting Xavier about it.
They wouldn’t have lived to see graduation if they had.
The Stallions remained loyal to their captain through and through, more than happy to hand out broken jaws and black eyes to anyone who ran their mouth. But the best part? Brie was eventually exposed as admin of the Facebook group and “confessions spreader” by Lacey of all people. I think it was something about Brie saying Lacey looked fat in her cheer uniform.
One quick recording on Lacey’s phone and it was over for Brie. Bright side is, Lacey’s revenge scheme got Brie off our backs. The bitch landed so much detention she couldn’t possibly fit another evil plan to ruin our lives into her schedule.
Xav’s parents were fired from Easton High immediately, and as discussed, Mr. Hall rained hell down on Xavier for the confessions. Gave him a three weeks’ suspension and cleaning duty every day until graduation. Xavier didn’t complain once. He simply accepted things for what they were and waited for Duke to call and revoke his scholarship.
Only… they never did.
We later found out Finn’s dad had meaningful connections at Duke and pulled some strings. To this day, I’m still unsure what Mr. Richards had to do to switch up the narrative. All I know is Xav got a call from someone high up in the selection process a day later, praising him for his courage and selflessness in delivering his own mother to the authorities.
As far as my mother is concerned, I came close to becoming an orphan when I bailed on my assistant job. That tends to happen when you nearly give your mom a heart attack.
She was beside herself at the news that I’d be staying in Silver Springs. She tried everything to talk me out of it, but with my scholarship to Duke back on the table, she knew she didn’t stand a chance. Plus, Dia’s dads had already agreed to take me in until graduation.
She and Ashley forged ahead with their plan to move to LA to chase some huge opportunity, only to return home with broken dreams a week later.
Long story short, it didn’t pan out.
Mom, Ashley, and her manager Rob decided moving to LA was still the way to go, but they’d grant Ashley one last summer in Silver Springs before the big move.
You can imagine the situation it put her in with a certain dark-haired, green-eyed heartbreaker. Ash spent every spare second she had with Theo that summer, until September rolled around and an inevitable dilemma reared its ugly head.
Choose the boy…
Or her dreams.
So much has happened since then, but my most vivid memory is of the day Xavier got called to the police station for questioning. I tagged along for emotional support.
I can still picture the resentment, the pain, the sheer disgust in his blue eyes when they asked him to describe what he saw happen between Brody and his mom.
In detail.
The trial took forever to start, but we finally got into the Courtroom three months ago. It was the first time Xav had seen his mom since the day he’d exposed her crime to half the town. He didn’t want to see her before then, but it still destroyed him to watch his mother be put on the stand this way.
Brody, Finn’s brother and the student she slept with, testified in her favor. Made it clear she had never raped him, and, as wrong as it was, whatever happened between these two was consensual.
Then the verdict came…