“I just threw up in my mouth a little.”
“Did you just say that to let me know you’re good at swallowing?”
She lets out a huff and crosses her arms, turning her nose up. “That’s on a need-to-know basis, and you will never need to know.”
Colt just laughs. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
“Okay, troll. A girl doesn’t care what your dick looks like. It’s what you do with it.”
Colt laughs. “So, your boyfriend does have a little dick.”
I’m grateful for their bickering, which kept me from getting too nervous until we pull up to the school. Unlike the last time I came here at midnight on a Thursday, the parking lot is not deserted. A circle of cars is aimed inwards, their lights blazing into the center, where half a dozen guys have congregated under the ominous sky.
“Are you fucking serious?” Colt says. “No, Harper. What the fuck?”
“What is this?” Gloria asks.
“I figured you’d put it together a lot sooner,” I say to Colt.
“I lost my memory, asshole,” he says.
“Not that far back,” I point out. “You should know what happens at midnight on a Thursday.”
“Anyone mind filling me in?” Gloria asks, sounding annoyed.
“It’s a Midnight Swans meeting,” I say, parking and shutting off the engine. I turn to them both. “We can change things, y’all. This is our chance. Now that Royal’s gone, things are shaken up. They haven’t settled yet. We don’t have to accept the status quo as it has been the last few years. But it’s not going to change itself, and the longer we wait, the more it’s going to settle back into the comfortable norm.”
“Yeah,” Gloria says slowly. “So tell me again why we’re going to change something that’s comfortable and benefits us? I mean, I’m not suffering.”
“But Colt is,” I say quietly.
“Fuck you,” he says. “I’m not your charity case.”
“I’m with him on this one,” Lo says.
“Look,” I say with a sigh. “I’m benefitting, too. I’m in the same crowd as you, Lo. I could sit on my ass and enjoy it, but what’s the point in having this power if you’re not using it to do something for someone else? I have no interest in being a status symbol. I want to help someone with my status.”
“Oh, but Gloria doesn’t want to help anyone,” Colt says. “She just wants to shit on everyone under her.”
“Shut up, charity case,” she snaps. “I can speak for myself.”
“So?” I ask. “What do you say?”
“I don’t know,” she says. “I suffered plenty to get where I am.”
I grab her hand and squeeze. “I know you, Lo. I know who you really are. You’re a good person, and more than that, a strong as fuck person. We can do this. This right here, this is the heartbeat of the school. We can sit at their table every fucking day of our lives, can call ourselves queens, but the truth is, we’ll never be their equals while their little boys club meets in secret and makes rules without us.”
“That part’s true,” Colt says.
Gloria stares at me a minute before shaking her head and unbuckling her seatbelt. “So, what are we going to do?”
“Tonight?” I ask. “Tonight, we’re going to join.”
thirty-six
Harper Apple
We climb out of the car into the sultry night and close our doors. Thunder rumbles low in the distance, but summer’s heat hasn’t broken yet. The darkness feels close and thick around us with the thunderclouds so low overhead.