Chapter 24 Over at Eighteen
over at eighteen
Dolly Beckett
Preston kept his word and didn’t give up on me, but he eventually accepted that I hadn’t given up on Devlin.
He stuck around as my friend, as steadfast as he promised he’d be, like he had something to prove.
Sometimes, I’d try to talk to Devlin, but he always blew me off.
A man has his pride, and I’d hurt that by dumping him.
And Devlin wasn’t just any man. He was a Darling man.
Preston had his pride, too. He was there for me, but he wasn’t the type to hang around begging for scraps or pining in self-denial.
If he couldn’t have me, he wasn’t going to waste his prowess with celibacy.
I knew he still blew off steam when the occasion arose, but he spared me the details.
Mostly he told me he was bored of hookups, that he was bored of everything, like all powerful men must get when they’ve already won and there’s no challenge left.
I was the only challenge left, and his boredom only made me wonder if I was just another conquest to him, more desirable because I hadn’t given in yet.
He didn’t date anyone, but then, he’d never done messy entanglements before, so that was no different.
He stayed in the same holding pattern he’d been in for years, like he was waiting for something.
I felt terrible every time I suspected that it was me holding him back, even though I’d done everything I could to make it clear I didn’t want that.
Devlin didn’t date, either, much to Lacey’s annoyance.
I heard rumors that he hooked up with a girl or two, and it nearly killed me every time, even though I knew the Willow Heights rumor mill couldn’t be trusted.
Colt was the only one seemingly enjoying himself, still young enough to get a kick out of all the girls throwing themselves at him and hardened enough by loss to move on from Destiny.
He spent the first few months of his sophomore year running through every girl who’d open her legs and tormenting the Darling Dog, my freshman step-cousin who’d landed at Willow Heights thanks to her proximity to the mayor.
Her aunt was my stepmother, but we’d only met at a few town functions and didn’t really talk due to her age and the fact that my stepmom and I barely tolerated each other.
Preston and I texted daily, but we stayed well within the bounds of the friendship I’d insisted on.
Sometimes, when I got upset about something Devlin said in a class we all shared, I’d go out and sit on the bleachers.
Preston followed and sat with me, holding me while I cried.
I felt guilty every time, knowing that I couldn’t give him what he wanted and deserved, and I didn’t know when I’d be able to.
Our families still intended for me and Devlin to marry and work things out later.
There was no future with Preston, but when I told him, he just said he’d never let distance grow between us again.
Then in October a new family moved to town, and everything changed, just as it had with Destiny’s death the year before.
Occasionally we got transfer students in addition to the new class of freshmen each year. They were absorbed into the social order after a few weeks, finding their place according to their extracurriculars and family situation.
The Dolces made no attempt to fit in. They wanted to stand out—as kings.
They came in like a hurricane, four boys and one girl, shaking up everything in our rigidly structured school with its set social order.
No one had ever questioned the founding families or the Darling reign.
They’d expected them to be the beloved and slightly feared kings until Devlin and Preston graduated, at which point Colt would remain on top for his senior year, along with a couple founding sons in the grade below him.
No one expected a family of big city thugs to come in, start fights, and demand the top position as if they were entitled to it by their very existence, even though no one knew them from Adam.
No one expected the gorgeous sister to lure in all three of the Darling boys, though it was an easy enough feat for a hot new girl in a school full of bored guys who’d already had their pick of all the other girls for years.
If we had thought the Darling family was depraved or twisted, we were in for a dose of the real world with the Dolces.
We must have looked like small-town rednecks to them.
There was a reckless, terrifying thrill to catching the eye of these boys—exactly the sort of thing that could entice a small-town girl who’s tired of being good and doing what’s expected of her.
So, on Homecoming night, a night I now dreaded above all else, when Duke Dolce slid his arm around my waist and pulled me close, pressing his dick to my hip and a shot to my lips, I did something I’d only done once before in my life. I let go.
Devlin had driven us to Colt’s for the afterparty.
Too many memories at our other places. That was when it hit me that everything had changed.
Because the people at our afterparty didn’t know the history, the memories.
We’d ended up leaving the dance with seven people crammed into Devlin’s Ferrari—a mix of old hurts and new beginnings.
Devlin, Colt, and me were there, as always.
But instead of the rest of our group, we’d grabbed Dixie, along with Crystal Dolce and her twin brothers.
When Devlin handed me a shot, our eyes met, and some understanding settled between us.
This was what we both needed to move on.
Someone new. Not Preston, not Lacey. A clean slate.
There was no long and complicated history between us and the Dolces.
No messy entanglements, no roots that went so deep they’d twined together until we couldn’t tell where ours ended and theirs began.
“Cheers,” he said.
“Cheers,” I echoed.
We took the shots. Then we turned away from each other, into the unknown, into the possibilities of the night. For the first time, I knew for certain that we wouldn’t end up together by morning, and I was okay with that. A sadness settled over me, but there was something freeing in it, too.
“Come on,” Baron Dolce said, taking my hand, a predatory hunger in his eyes. “Let’s dance.”
I looked at Duke, whose arms were around me. He nudged me forward with his hips, his dick pressed firmly to my ass. I looked from one to the other and swallowed. And then I followed them into the living room.
We danced to Brody Villines. We took shots of tequila. Duke sprinkled salt on my cleavage and licked it off.
We danced to Nicki Minaj. Baron came up behind me and started grinding into me from behind. I let him. We took another shot. Baron pulled the lime from my mouth with his teeth. I looked at Duke to see if he was mad. He was smiling.
We danced to Aria Airheart. They pinned me between them.
I could feel both their dicks now. It felt good to let go, to dance between them.
Even that was naughty, something I’d never done—grinding on a stranger, let alone two.
There were no strangers in Faulkner, at least not on the side of town where I lived in my privileged little bubble of school and town functions and summers at the pool.
I didn’t know these boys, but they didn’t know me, either. I decided I liked that as I hooked an arm around Duke’s neck while he danced behind me, and one around Baron’s while he slipped a thigh between mine. They didn’t know my past, my mistakes, my devastation. They just wanted me.
We danced to Bon Jovi. They told me to close my eyes while they danced around me.
I obeyed, swaying drunkenly on my feet. When they told me to open my eyes, Baron had taken off his glasses and messed up his hair, and I couldn’t tell them apart, being identical twins and all.
They made me guess, laughing hysterically but refusing to tell me which one was which.
We danced to Harlow and the Honey Badgers. We were interrupted by a couple bumping the railing of the stairs. We turned to watch Devlin and Crystal stumble up the stairs. Devlin tripped on her dress, and they both ended up sitting on the stairs, laughing. Then they kissed.
My heart twisted. I went in the other room. The twins followed. We took shots.
When we went back to dance to Kendrick Lamar, only Colt and Dixie remained, grinding to the music.
The stairs were empty. My stomach dropped like I was on a rollercoaster.
But I was done riding that rollercoaster.
I was done waiting, done hoping, only to have that hope dashed at every turn.
I was ready to put Devlin behind me for good.
So, I did something so unlike myself that Destiny would have been proud.
When we were all thoroughly wasted, and one of the twins slid a hand between my legs and asked if I wanted to go upstairs, I said yes, even though I still didn’t know which one he was.
And when he asked if I wanted his brother to come too, I said I did.
As we staggered up the stairs, I remembered Destiny saying everyone had a threesome by the end of senior year.
I guess she was right. As Baron slid into me from behind while I took Duke in my mouth, I remembered walking into the Den of Iniquity at that party and seeing Preston and Colt sliding into her at once.
I wished Preston could see me now, could feel the pain I’d felt.
I’d never done something so wild, so naughty. But I didn’t regret it. Not even the next morning, when I was sober, and Preston and Devlin saw me leaving the bedroom where I’d let the twins spit roast me.