“To dance on Luca!” I smirked up at Niko as I dragged Luca into the middle of the sitting room. Our group of friends weren’t the conventional type. Beneath it all, I think our love for one another outweighed our emotions when it came to fucking each other. Although Cece loved to play with Niko openly and they were essentially together, everyone knew they were never faithful to one another.
The lighting was dark, but there were flickering strobe lights flashing from the corner. Sweaty bodies were scattered throughout the space, but more people were out the front and back. Upstairs was always out of bounds and no one tested Niko’s authority, so everyone knew the boundary lines of a Davis party. The family room was always for me, though. It’s where I would drink, get wasted, and dance. Cece would try to dance with me, but she never lasted as long as I did.
Luca flopped onto the sofa beside Niko, and I flung my jacket onto his lap, closing my eyes to feel the music up against my bare flesh. “Freak on a Leash” from Korn was playing, the lyrics and beat wrapping around my limbs. I loved this. Music and dance. It’s the place I could run to and feel that warmth that the Cathedral always left me craving. Mira said people would talk about my dancing episodes at school on Mondays, but I never noticed. Not when people would come in and watch, and definitely not when Niko would lose himself in Cece.
My eyes opened, and I found Nik staring back at me, leaning back against the sofa with his thighs partly spread. This was the usual cat-and-mouse game we liked to play. Even with Cece on his lap, his fingers dancing up her inner thigh, I knew. I knew deep down it wasn’t her that he tasted every time he lost himself between her thighs.
It was me.
The beat dropped into that lethal strum, and I jumped up on my tippy-toes, head banging and laughing while grabbing at Jer as he was passing me by.
Jer smiled, his dimple in his left cheek indented into his flawless, dark skin.
He leaned into my ear. “You tryna get us both killed tonight, Ruckus?”
I shook my head, resting my hands on both of his cheeks. “Never. You’re too pretty to die.”
Jer bumped my nose with his. “And you’re too pretty to live.”
“Sounds like the start of a great love story…” I teased, biting on my lower lip and pushing out of his muscle-roped arms. Jer was also our star QB. He’s going to go far in football if his brains didn’t outweigh his sport, because not only was he painfully great at football, but he was also ridiculously smart.
He touched his heart. “You wound me. You do.”
Ari was pouring powder out onto his mother’s coffee table, Luca was rolling up a dollar bill, and Niko was buried in Cece’s neck, his hands disappearing up her skirt. I ignored the pang that vibrated through my chest. That was not part of the rules.
They were clear.
They worked because we did. Very hard.
But I needed a distraction, and I knew I wouldn’t get it from Jer, as much as I wanted it. Jer was fiercely loyal to Niko; he wouldn’t take it as far as I would need it to go. I knew I had to get it from Luca, because as much as they seemed close on the surface, there was something about the way Niko reacted any time Luca came near me that made me wonder if it bothered him.
If Niko wanted to play this game, I’d play, but the rules were about to change.
Past
Ari came crashing into the room, holding his phone. “You fucking know?” I didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about. After the last party we threw at the house, Ma had officially called it quits on the Davis parties. To be fair, I was over them, and Meraki got way too fucked up that night. I almost tapped out of our little promise and dragged her out by her fucking throat.
I stared at him, confused. “What are you talking about?” Ari was as loud as he was big. I seriously didn’t know how Ma held both of us in her womb at one time, let alone birthed us.
He fell onto the bed while flashing the screen of his phone. “Luca is moving in on Meraki.”
I waved him off, shoving my boots onto my feet. “She’s way too smart for that shit.”
“Yeah?” Ari said, his tone pitched. “Then watch this Snapchat.”
I replayed the stupid fucking video. Ari was right. Everything played out right there in front of me. I didn’t know whose phone it was coming from, but I could see Luca kissing Meraki, and her fucking smiling about it. I knew where they were, at the river hole where every teenager usually was on a Friday night. I also knew Jer was already there, so I’d text him to keep an eye on her, since I wouldn’t be there for forty minutes. Knowing Jer, he was probably already on it.