Chapter 4
“GIRLFRIEND” BY BEA MILLER
I rolled my eyes. Leave it to D’arcy to act like her father wasn’t making enough money off the town’s misfortunes. At least I acknowledged my father’s control.
My bare shoulders sank into her mattress, a thin sheet draped over me. D’arcy had the softest bed and the loosest mouth when it came to screwing around.
“Babe, you make more being the mayor’s daughter than I make being a genetically wired con artist,” I snickered.
She scoffed at my statement and emerged from her closet with her dark hair pulled up in a messy bun.
D’arcy was unfortunately dressed now, killing my chances at another round before I wasted more time waiting for the preschool’s release.
I sat up as she fell back on the bed beside me, throwing a leg over her.
“Quinn, come on.” D’arcy giggled as I cuddled into the plushness of her sweater, hugging her thighs. “Fuck. You need to get a girlfriend. This shit is getting old.”
“Sleeping with me is getting old?” I asked, not believing her for a moment. “Didn’t sound like you thought that a few minutes ago, babe.”
“I’m a great actor.” D’arcy laid back on her pillows and ran her fingers through my hair.
We did this often. Part of me believed we wouldn’t continue like this for too long, but then I found myself responding to her messages with more than friendly banter.
I’d end up here with my fingers inside her and my tongue down her throat.
For someone I saw as more of an attractive ex-teammate, D’arcy did her part in trying to piss off our fathers.
The stress relief of it all was a great benefit too.
“Q?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you see the new girl?” she asked.
“See her?” I rolled my eyes and turned over until I landed on my back beside her. She yanked the sheets back over my exposed breasts, caring more than me if her homophobic father walked into the room. “Yeah. I’ve seen her. I think everyone’s seen her.”
“She’s kind of cute, in a deer in headlights kind-of-way.” Hm, I wasn’t the only one who noticed. “Do you think she’s gay? Word on the street is, she’s into football?”
“Football?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe she’s from overseas and that’s why she judges us Americans like that.”
“Hm.” D’arcy’s lips quivered, fighting off a smile. “Yeah. You’re right.”
“Jealous of the new girl taking all the attention away from you?” I laid my cheek on the mattress and squinted at my friend. “Because you don’t have to be. I can give you more attention.”
D’arcy laughed as she sat up against her headboard and shook her head. “I’d hate to be her right now. Everyone’s watching her, trying to figure her out.”
My eyes trailed over to the decorative embossing of the ceiling.
The crown molding and high ceilings made her room much more extravagant than I knew my friend was.
D’arcy was simple. I enjoyed that. We bonded over the simple things in life our families overlooked.
Her cottage core bedroom made my fairy friend feel much more at home than when we met up in my childish bedroom.
“She has a nice car.” My right snake bite twisted as I tongued the silver inside my mouth. “Did you see it in the parking lot? It’s the?—”
“The Mustang?” D’arcy slipped off the bed and snorted. “Seriously? Who the hell didn’t see it? With how flashy that car is, I think even our dads are watching it.”
She took a few steps away and paused. I pressed my lips into a thin line and stared at her, trying my best to rid any telling information from my face.
My father taught me from a young age to never give my cards to anyone.
Always keep my aces close to me, hidden from the reflection of my eyes, yet protected, as if the cards were my own daughter.
My father played the game with Mayor Miller.
He kept me close to D’arcy to keep Hunter in line.
I was sure he never expected me to sleep with her, but it got under his skin in all the best ways.
I knew D’arcy’s father had an idea, both that I was naked in his daughter’s bed and that D’arcy was into girls and boys.
Never once did he dare to say anything to either of us, not even after I grabbed her ass in the middle of the parking lot over the summer, not having noticed Hunter Miller pulling up to pick up his daughter.
He was lucky, though. At the end of the day, D’arcy was my short friend with a cute face. We weren’t going to be much more than that. We deserved some fun.
“My dad’s going to come check on me soon.” D’arcy grabbed the jacket I tossed on the floor earlier and examined the back. She glanced up at me a few times as I slowly sat up, waiting for her to comment on the clear Harrekson tag I’ve brought into her house. “Nice bling.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, accepting the jacket from her as her eyes fell to the stars near my clavicle. Eight-pointed stars, as my father wanted. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen them, yet she stared each chance she had. I knew she knew their meaning.
I was a star. I couldn’t escape. Everyone in my life would see it eventually. Or maybe they already had. It was me who needed to catch up to this new trend of sticking me with the worst possible life imaginable.
“I love you.” D’arcy raised her eyes with an upside-down smile.
She leaned on the mattress, keeping herself from falling as she pressed her lips to my forehead.
She’d always been the lovey-dovey, affectionate type.
There weren’t many I could handle, but D’arcy had always been the exception.
“Careful climbing down, Quinn. Your face has value.”
“I love you too,” I replied, the words barely reaching my ears as D’arcy walked away from me.
For a moment, I sat back and watched her move around the room.
I’d learned a lot about someone based on how they acted in their bedroom.
Not sexually, but behaviorally. This was her space.
I’d never once stepped over the line where she needed to be afraid of me.
However, I knew by now that the lock on D’arcy’s door didn’t work, and she felt exposed in her own world.
Her father made sure she was a princess with terrifying dreams.
It was a feeling I knew like the tattoos on my skin. Footsteps shouldn’t have a tone of voice.