1
“The secret to getting out of here alive is to trust no one, keep your head down and don’t get caught.”
That strange yet excellent advice was given to me by Artie, the girl who I’d be rooming with.
But, to be honest, I didn’t think anything of it.
All I could think was, Tagus, I’m finally here!
It was my first day. I was walking through the new student welcome fair in the central park of campus, and I looked exactly like I was supposed to: the typical girl, ditzy and blown away because everything looked just like it did in the pictures.
The miles of green space that made up the university grounds were lined with trees trimmed and shaped just like the lives of the students lucky enough to get a place here.
People were cycling on the paved streets.
There were billboards on every corner with announcements and upcoming events.
Did I just see a poster of a missing girl?
In the center of the park was the first-day meeting point. There were loads of stands of people selling shirts, while others were handing out timetables and campus guides and trying to get students to sign up for clubs.
Working at those stands were the If I wanted, my dad would buy me this street, this apartment, and whatever is under this apartment types.
And around them, trying to take it all in, were the new students, giving off a vibe as if to say, This is so amazing, and all I’ll have to worry about is what outfit to wear, since my dad wipes his ass with money!
“Are you listening to a word I’m saying?” Artie berated me for my blatant preoccupation.
She was walking beside me. I’d asked her to come with me to the fair, because I’d thought I would get lost. To my surprise, Artie had been up for it.
“Of course,” I lied to her to hide the fact that I’d been ignoring what she was saying about social survival. “I have to follow your advice or . . . What’s the worst that could happen to me?”
“It depends,” she replied, looking at me curiously. “What did you say your last name was?”
“Is it that big of a deal here?”
“Yeah, in the silent, dark, and unpopulated nowhere.”
“Does it have to be?” I asked because they say what matters here is getting top grades.
Artie nodded with a laugh.
“Important people come through here,” she admitted, “so get that Tagus brochure out of your head. It’s not just about spending the whole year studying in your room. Or are you the loner type?”
Actually, I was the type to keep her preferences to herself.
“I’m adaptable,” I said with a shrug that gave nothing away.
“Well, here it’s nonstop events, and social circles are important,” she explained. “With the right surname you don’t have to try that hard to find a group, because people will always seek you out. So, have you got any well-known relatives, or ones that could at least be Googled?”
She pulled out her cell phone and waited anxiously. I liked to make mental profiles of people, so I cataloged what I knew about Artie.
Appearance: reasonably tall, with black hair, wavy and short to the neckline, Marilyn Monroe style. Pixie nose and chin, large eyes, and wearing a sweater and jeans. Her Instagram photos were probably picture-perfect, and she probably always had a quote from a book in the caption.
Outstanding feature: she cared way too much about social reputation. Basically, she tries too hard. But does it work? Is Artie socially relevant?
At least she was nice.
“No, nobody in my family is well known,” I said. Artie made a face.
“Too bad, it would make things easier, but don’t worry, because you’ve met me. I know people and I’ll introduce you to them. What’s your target?”
I was about to tell her that I had no idea what she was asking me, but my eager eyes, which had been taking in everything going on around us, were drawn to one of the fair stands.
It happened then. I saw them.
Him.
I was struggling to walk and talk at the same time, so I stopped and observed the guy manning the stand first. He had a run of tattoos starting on his right wrist that lost its way up the rest of his arm, and his jet-black hair was shaved on the sides and fuller on top.
He was the kind of guy who turned heads the moment he walked into a room.
One of those guys where it’s like looking at some sort of devilish sun—irresistible, yet capable of blinding you with his sheer energy and power.
He oozed a sense of authority as he argued with the guy working with him.
They weren’t exactly causing a scene, but I could tell they were arguing by the way their mouths were moving.
I even saw him lose his patience, snatching the cigarette out of the other guy’s mouth and angrily tossing it onto the ground.
Then I noticed the guy with the cigarette.
He was a little thinner, had the same jet-black hair as the one with the tattoos, though it was longer and styled in a more casual cut.
Compared to the first guy, his face was less expressive.
His lips were pursed, and his bushy eyebrows gave nothing away, so it was virtually impossible to tell if the argument had gotten to him at all.
He was wearing dark clothes and didn’t look like he was going to react to the words being spouted at him.
While the other guy looked like an earthquake in full swing, this other guy was the unsuspecting calm before the storm.
“Have you come out from under the Cash spell yet?” Artie suddenly asked me.
I snapped out of it and looked at her, blinking. I noticed she was also looking at the same two guys.
“What?” I didn’t know what she was getting at. “What spell? What are you talking about?”
“You’ve been staring at the Cash brothers, and that’s what they say happens when you cast eyes on them for the first time,” she explained, clearly amused. “You’re in a daze for a while, you can’t even look away and think, ‘Are they real?’ And yeah, they’re as real as your shaking legs right now.”
Well, my legs had stopped shaking, but I was in a kind of trance while looking at them. Doing so had brought up a . . . mixture of feelings?
“Cash brothers?” I asked, even more puzzled.
“I know, sometimes it’s better to pretend you’ve never heard of them,” she grumbled.
I looked at her in disbelief. “I’ve never heard of them.”
At first Artie didn’t believe me, but when she noticed I was staring at her and waiting for her to tell me about them, she let out a strange laugh.
“Are you serious?”
I nodded. “Yup. But you’re making me want to know all about them.”
She looked at me a little longer, half frowning, trying to figure me out.
“You’re weird, Jude,” she snorted like it was hilarious. “How could you not know them? Remember the Cash scandal?”
“Never heard of the Cash scandal either,” I admitted. There was an awkward silence as she struggled to respond to my social disorientation. So I insisted: “Come on, tell me about it; it sounds juicy. Who are those Cash brothers?”
“Oh, what a question . . . What a damn question.”
Artie sighed like a teacher who was being forced to explain something obvious to a new student. And then she started.
“Well, have you noticed there is always a group of absurdly rich and powerful people? These are our absurdly rich and powerful guys. They share their surname with a long line of prominent politicians.”
“Like the Kennedys?” I raised an eyebrow jokingly.
“Kind of.” She nodded, more serious than I was. “Their dad, Adrien Cash, is a very influential figure who wields enormous political power. So that makes them the elite above the normal elite. The dangerous elite, you could say.”
Artie nodded and motioned with her head at the two brothers.
The one with the tattoos ran his hand through his hair like he was trying to regain his composure and then turned to the front of the stand, where some giddy girls had come over to check out what all the fuss was about.
Surprisingly, he leaned his arms on the counter and threw them a great big cunning smile.
“That’s Aegan, the eldest. He’s a third-year political science major,” Artie said. “He’s president of most of the organizations, clubs, societies . . . literally everything.”
She then slyly pointed out the other one, who was still at the back of the stand like he was daydreaming, aloof, maybe even a bit grumpy.
“That’s Adrik with the ‘don’t talk to me, please’ face,” she said. “He’s a sophomore in Business Science. He isn’t as extroverted as Aegan, he’s more . . . of a loner? Like, you couldn’t make small talk with him.”
While Aegan was busy chatting up the girls, Adrik pulled another cigarette from his pocket and lazily put it up to his mouth.
He paid no heed to his brother. He was looking in the opposite direction.
As he breathed out the smoke, the lines floated in front of him, indifferent, yet with a sense of style.
“Finally, there’s a third one: Aleixandre,” added Artie.
“He’s the youngest, a freshman in International Relations, but he’s not really around much.
He’s more sociable. He has a YouTube channel where he uploads video blogs and stuff like that.
He has two million subscribers and likes to brag about it.
” To finish up, Artie said in a dramatic tone, “They’re called the Perfect Liars. ”
I could’ve burst out laughing. Three cute guys with a stupid nickname, huh? Sure, why not?
“Why are they called that?” I wanted to know.
“Well, because they’re very good at making you think they like you and then telling you to go to hell,” she replied abruptly.
I waited for more details, but Artie shrugged. I thought she looked annoyed as she watched them, but I didn’t want to probe. I barely knew her.
“Literally, or . . . ?” I said, finally, trying to get her to spill more details.
“It’s just that they only date girls for ninety days,” she said, again with some trepidation. “No more. It’s like . . . a rule. When the ninety days are up, that’s it. They end it like they’d never felt anything for you.”
I frowned and looked at her like she’d just told me she had three boobs.
“Who the hell would put up with that?” I asked, looking at her carefully. I expected her to say: Nobody, of course, Jude, I’m just kidding.
But that’s not the answer I got.
“You’d be surprised . . .” Artie said, again with a shrug of her shoulders, basically saying it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary around here.
“Girls are always saying they wouldn’t go out with them, but when one of them asks them out, nobody turns them down, because going out with a Cash gives you status and visibility. You get it, right?”
Get it? Really? Of course not, but I just nodded, trying not to say the wrong thing.
I then slowly looked at the brothers again.
Adrik was now looking at Aegan, who was talking nonstop to the girls and showing them a sheet.
They were loving his seemingly passionate explanation.
I felt like picking up a rock and throwing it at Aegan as a small sign of protest at his behavior, but that would’ve had consequences.
Bad ones. And I couldn’t ruin my time at Tagus. I wouldn’t get this chance again.
“Well, I’m not so surprised,” I said. “They’re hot, but there are hot guys everywhere.”
Artie’s smile took on a slightly bitter demeanor.
“Hot guys, yeah, but not guys with the prestigious Cash surname.” She glanced at me curiously, squinting.
“They’re surprising too. Aleixandre is one of the top influencers, Adrik is the face of loads of animal and humanitarian aid organizations, and Aegan is following in his father’s political footsteps. There’s nobody on their level.”
“That’s just stupid,” I said. “You’d have to have no self-worth to put your dignity below your future.”
Artie said nothing for a minute. She looked like she was trying to ignore Aegan.
“Yeah, well, everyone knows what they’re doing, right?” she said. “Keep your opinion to yourself on this. It’s a Cash thing, and they’ve got no shortage of people who suck up to them.”
So, basically, I had to keep my mouth shut because they had their own little fan club.
I was going to respond, but suddenly she flashed an excited smile. It was crazy how the entire vibe shifted.
“Let’s talk about something better: the events kick off tonight,” she informed me, buzzing. “First of all, the games, which are a must before classes begin. You’re going, right?”
“What kind of games? Do they make girls have mud fights and place bets on them?” I said sarcastically.
Artie laughed. “No, you hang out playing games of chance, drinking, meeting new people . . . Maybe you’ll sign up for a club .
. .” She looked at me anxiously. “Although I’ll introduce you to some friends who don’t see girls as pieces of meat, which is why they aren’t so popular. You can hang with us.”
I had no idea what these Tagus events were like, but I needed to learn more about the world I’d just gotten myself into, and the only way to do that was by blending in.
After all, I hadn’t come to Tagus to be asocial and sit in the cafeteria staring down at my tray, keeping a low profile. No. I had other plans.
I took a quick glance again in Adrik’s direction. He was gone. At some point, he’d slipped away. The butt of the smoked cigarette was now spoiling the grass next to the stand. How rebellious.
Aegan was still there, talking to the girls, looking as delighted as ever. They couldn’t take their eyes off him, like they were talking to someone fascinating and inspiring.
So that was the leader of Tagus. He ran this world of the elite. He was the one that everyone sucked up to. That was the guy who could destroy or change lives in the blink of an eye. The guy I had down as a powerful idiot.
What the Cashes didn’t know yet was that I would be the new thorn in their side.