PROLOGUE
MADS
Junior Year - High School
The rumors were true. Micah Bradford’s dick was goddamn heavenly. Not that I was the most skilled lover at sixteen, but holy fuck. Sex with Micah had been better than ecstasy. I also wasn’t an expert at drugs, so the comparison didn’t hold a lot of weight. Yet still, Micah’s dick and ecstasy? I couldn’t even let my mind consider the pleasure. Nope. It was too much.
Tonight was the first night I’d see him since our hookup. Butterflies of excitement zipped and buzzed inside my stomach as I climbed the stairs of Brock Taylor’s house to the second floor. Brock was the elite of the Elite, and his parties were legendary in Elmwood, probably in the entire state. They were constantly being crashed, especially by our rival school, Elmwood Public. I didn’t give two shits about other schools. I barely gave a shit about my own school. I should, of course, because it had been pounded into my head that education was the key to my future success. It was like the academy motto.
I hooked around the corner, scoping out the kitchen, seeing Micah nowhere in sight. Neither Fynn, Brock, nor my cousin Grayson were anywhere to be seen either.Just where the hell is everyone?
I turned and spotted Porter Beck, one of the football jocks who played with the guys. “Have you seen Micah?” I asked him.
“What?” Porter hollered back, putting his hand to his mouth as if that would make a difference in me being able to hear him better. The music competing with the chatter was too much. Porter wavered toward me, a little too close.
I scowled, lifting my chin. “Have you seen Micah?” I shouted, making sure my voice projected much louder, and I emphasized each word for him. I was pretty sure he was drunk, a typical Friday night after a game win.
“Bradford?” Porter blinked with hazy, droopy eyes and a leering smile. The beer in his red cup sloshed over the side as he bumped into me. “Upstairs, I think.”
I jumped back but not fast enough. My new fucking Converses got splattered with beer.Fucking great.Asshole. Rolling my eyes, I shoved his chest and took off toward the stairs, eagerness fluttering my heart.
Why was I so damn giddy? This was just Micah Bradford. I’d known him my entire life.
We slept together.
Don’t make a huge deal out of this, Mads,I scolded, even as I raced up the stairs. I hadn’t been able to see him after the game, but he was easy to find. There was only one place Micah went after a victorious game—the nearest party.
I didn’t want to admit how long I’d had a crush on Micah. It was too damn embarrassing and made me feel like those girls at school who hung on the guys, just waiting to jump on their dicks. I refused to be one of those needy, attention-seeking whores. I was not a standby girl.
That was what the guys called them. They were basically booty calls.
Micah knew how I felt about those girls, knew I wasn’t like them. I was the cousin of his best friend. The one thing the Elite didn’t do was mess around with family. Unlike those girls, I had integrity and self-worth. And popularity meant dick to me, despite my best friend, who also happened to be my cousin, being one of the most popular girls in school. Perhaps I never cared about it because I’d always been associated with the Elite in a way.
No, I had no intention of ever being a standby girl. Something I intended to make very clear to Micah tonight. I didn’t want him to get the wrong impression about the other night.
It had meant something… right? This wasn’t all in my head?
It better had, or Micah Bradford would lose a limb—a vital one.
I wasn’t naive enough to think we were dating, but I hoped we were headed there. Never in a million years would I have believed I’d be dating anElite. We might have done things a bit out of the normal order, but it was hardly like he was a stranger. Micah and I had been dancing around each other for years. Flirting and bickering were our thing.
Micah Bradford was part of the Elite, the four most popular guys at the academy. They all came from influential families. Some with old money and others new fortunes carved out by their parents, but for as long as I could remember, they had been known as the Elite. I couldn’t recall if they’d given themselves that title or if it had just been something our peers started referring to them as. Regardless, it stuck. And now the four of them did whatever the fuck they wanted, when they wanted, and no one said a damn thing.
It was a power I didn’t quite understand, but the shit they did and got away with, not just at school but everywhere, should have gotten them arrested on more than one occasion.
Weaving my way around a couple making out on the staircase, I headed to the second floor. Brock’s house was filled with drunk teenagers, many of whom I’d never seen before. Typical. The Elite were famous, not just in the football scene, but they knew how to throw renowned parties. The booze was endless. The girls were desperate. And drugs were readily available. Everyone within a fifty-mile radius flocked to Elmwood for the free stream of drinks, sex, and a fun time. The Elite provided it all.
Downstairs, music pumped throughout the house, slowly drifting away as I reached the top of the stairs. There were a few closed doors, but I was familiar with the layout and what rooms were off-limits—like Brock’s bedroom. No one was allowed to step a toe in that space.
Not that I blamed Brock. I wouldn’t want random hookups happening in my bed every other weekend. Luckily, his house had many rooms for people to find a private spot. The indoor pool tended to be popular, one I stayed far away from.
Taking a left down the hallway, I decided to check the first door as thoughts of the text Micah sent me earlier tonight replayed in my head.
You’re coming tonight, right?
Maybe,I’d replied. Football wasn’t my thing, and I only went to games at Kenna’s insistence. She was the typical popular, rich girl on the cheerleading team, and I sometimes wondered how we were best friends when we were so different, but then I remembered she was family. I overlooked her flaws and forgave her shallowness.
Come to the game. I need to see you,he’d sent back.