“For a girl?” he asks. “That means we sex you in.”
I force myself to swallow my beer without reaction. “Who does?”
“All of us.”
I squeeze the cold bottle to keep my hands from shaking. “All the Swans?”
“A gangbang, baby,” Duke slurs, holding up his beer.
“And this has happened before?” I ask.
“No,” Baron says. “Because no chicks at this school would do it. But I bet you would.”
“You bet wrong.”
“Well, technically, the gauntlet only requires the participation of three Swans,” he says. “And you’ve already fucked Royal. So you’re third of the way there.”
“This is your chance,” Duke says. “Three for three.” He leans forward in his chair, then tilts slowly until he topples out, as if in slow motion. It would be comical, but I’m a little worried he’s going to choke on his puke and die in his sleep.
“He’s not wrong,” Baron says.
Duke rolls onto his back on the floor. “Gonna rest my eyes,” he mumbles. “Then we’ll tag team her.”
“My phone died,” I say after a minute, nodding at Baron’s light. “Want to call someone to let us out?”
“No can do,” he says, taking a drink. “No service down here.”
“Right.”
We sip our beers in silence for a few minutes. Then Baron climbs off the rock and sits on the floor beside Duke. “My phone’s going to die if I don’t turn off the light,” he says. “We should all just get some sleep.”
“Why don’t I trust you in the dark?”
“Because you’re paranoid and think everyone wants to fuck you.”
“Says the guy who was just trying to get in my pants.”
“That was me,” Duke says, not opening his eyes.
“Come sit by us,” Baron says. “It’ll be warmer. I won’t mess with you.”
“Fine,” I say, sliding off the stone and going to sit by them. Despite Duke’s usual drunken asshole behavior, they haven’t done anything. Baron’s right. They are my friends. We’ve been hanging out for a few months now. I sit with them every day at lunch, go to their games, am part of their circle. It’s not like it was at the beginning of the year, before I was a Dolce girl. I’m under Royal’s protection now. They might want him to be done with me, might try to convince me it’s true. But I know different, and they know it, too.
He didn’t lock us down here. Baron did. Baron has the key. He wants Royal to dump me, but he won’t risk his brother’s rage by touching his plaything before Royal gives the okay.
Baron turns off his light, and we both lie down. He turns toward me, and I tense, but he only lays an arm across me. “So, not into being a Swan if it means you have to work for it?”
“Would you let three dudes fuck you to get in?”
“Touché.”
For a while, none of us speak. After a while, Baron sighs. “You know, this is where they kept Royal when he was kidnapped,” he says drowsily.
A chill explodes over my skin, and I lose my breath for a second. “What?”
“Not in the main room,” Baron says, petting my hair absently. “Back here, in the dirt like an animal.”
“And he still comes down here?” I ask, remembering that weird encounter in the dark, when he brought me down here and started kissing me and said all those creepy things…