seventeen
Royal Dolce
I’m halfway home when my phone chimes, and fuckwit that I am, my first thought is that Harper is texting me. But no, it’s just Lo.
ThatsLo: Where r u?
Royal: what do u need
ThatsLo: nothing asshole harper is in trouble
Royal: Whats going on?
ThatsLo: Some guys have her surrounded I’m scared 4 her
I slam on the brakes and yank the wheel hard, flying across the median and doing a one-eighty to head back the way I came. Fuck. It’ll take me at least five minutes to get back, even doing over a hundred. I floor the car and grab my phone.
Royal: Fucking do something
ThatsLo: I tried.
Royal: Try harder asshole
ThatsLo: fuck u im not a martyr I’m helping more by txting u than making myself a victim 2
Royal: bitch
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Why did I leave her at that fucking party? Every time I turn around some guy has his hands on her. I should have known she couldn’t be left alone for five minutes, let alone the whole night. I curse my brothers for not keeping eyes on her, but I’m the one who should have been watching. If something happens, it’s on me.
A sick feeling grips my insides, twisting them all up into something I don’t want to look at, something weak, disgusting, that won’t go away no matter how hard I try to crush it into a fucking diamond with the force of my hatred. I know not to walk away from someone I—
I stop that thought. I don’t give a fuck about Harper. Still. She’s mine, and you don’t leave something that’s yours and expect it to be there when you go back, not when it’s something precious.
Royal: What is she doing?
ThatsLo: idk
Royal: TELL ME
ThatsLo: She knocked 1 out and kicked a guy in the nuts, but theres like 8 of them. U need 2 come back
Royal: WTF do u think I’m doing?
ThatsLo: then stop txting
Royal: no stay on I need 2 know she’s ok
ThatsLo: She’s not
ThatsLo: hurry k
I hit the dirt road too fast and almost spin out. Anyone who says you can drive fast on gravel has never tried it. But I do my fucking best, and if I slide in the ditch a few times, it’s nothing the Rover can’t handle. Thank fuck I’m not in Baron’s Tesla. I roll up to the party and hit the brakes, sending up a spray of gravel as I pull the brake and bust out of there without bothering to kill the engine or shut the door.
I see Gloria first, over toward the Faulkner side but not at the party. Of course she’s fucking on their side. Everyone on our side knows better.
I sprint across the gravel to where she’s standing a ways off from a small crowd gathered at the edge of the pit. Harper is standing with her back to the edge, not two steps from falling. Her tiny shirt is torn down the front, her hair’s a wreck, and her mouth is bloody. A couple guys are facing her, while two lie on the ground and another kneels nearby, holding his dick and groaning. About a dozen people stand around not doing shit but watching it all go down.
“Out of my way,” I growl, shoving through, not bothering to look who I’m pushing to the ground on my way. I grab the two guys’ heads and smash them together, feeling the satisfying crunch of their skulls connecting. Without bothering to see if they’re conscious, I step past Harper and toss them into the pit.