Months ago
“Oh my God, it hurts!” I squeak, trying not to look, but it’s hard when the needle keeps puncturing my skin. God, it makes me want to pull my hand back.
“It’s almost done,” Eve says. “You can do it.”
“Did yours hurt this much too?” I ask.
“Yup, but it’s worth it,” she says.
“Fuck,” I growl, and even the tattoo artist laughs.
Finally, it stops, and he wipes off the excess ink. “All done.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief as I sit up straight, feeling a little woozy in the head. “Phew.”
“Look at it,” Eve says.
I hold up my arm and admire the beautiful calligraphy. “Eve.”
“Now we finally match!” she squeals, and she hugs me tight.
Her arm was tattooed in the same calligraphy font with my name, and we push our arms together to admire them in the mirror at the back of RINGO’s shop.
“Satisfied?” the tattoo artist asks.
“It’s perfect,” Eve says. “Right, Pen?”
I nod, and I hug her tight. “Thank you, I love it.”
“Well, you gave this to me last year, so I figured I’d repay the favor,” she says, laughing.
“I deserve it,” I jest back, winking.
“Now let’s go eat some fucking cake. We’ve got a birthday to celebrate.”
She pinches my ass and then walks off to pay at the cash register before we both walk out of the shop.
“Man, it stings so much,” I say as we make our way down the street.
“It’ll calm down. Keep the clear tape on, though,” she says.
“Did your other one hurt that much too?”
“What? This one?” She points at a small circular line on her hand. “Not really. It’s too tiny.”
I smirk at her self-assuredness. She’s so much like me it almost hurts because it’s like watching myself in a mirror. “What does it mean anyway?”
Her eyes briefly widen before she averts them and laughs it off. “Oh, it’s nothing. I was testing if I could do a real tattoo, so it needed to be something tiny and … insignificant.”
“Oh,” I reply. I thought it’d be more important. Oh well.
A shiny new ring draws my attention, and I gasp as I grab her hand. “That’s gorgeous! Where’d you get it?”
She blushes. “Oh, I got it from one of my besties at university.”
“For your birthday?”
She pauses and looks at me for a moment. “Uh, yeah. Of course.”
It’s almost as if she forgot.
At least she’ll never forget us both getting each other tattoos as a gift. Her name on my skin and my name on hers, a forever reminder of our bond.
And I can’t wait to show Mom and Dad.
Suddenly, she whips out a card. “Look what I have.”
I take the card and look at it. “Eve Richards. Age … twenty-one?”
I look up at her beaming smile. “Awesome, right?” She snatches it right back out of my hand. “Had them made a couple of days ago.”
I frown. “Them?”
She rummages in her pocket and holds out another one. “Tada! Happy birthday, Pen.”
I take the fake ID from her, staring at my photo on the card. “Oh my God …”
“Awesome, right?” She wraps her arm around me as a smile forms on my lips.
We’re not old enough to go out drinking yet but we are old enough to get tattoos. But this … this is definitely a game changer.
Eve winks at me. “Now, who’s ready to go on our first-ever real party tonight?”
Suddenly, her stomach rumbles, and we both look at each other before we burst out into laughter. “Okay, but first … let’s get that freaking cake.”
Felix
Present
Music calms my violent soul.
Loud bass, low voice, just the type of sound I need to stop the surge of adrenaline flowing through my veins.
I grab the straw off the table and snort up some of the cocaine, getting high as fuck in front of everyone, even the servers.
Here in one of my father’s clubs downtown, RIVERA, I can do whatever the fuck I want without repercussions because the manager knows better than to get in the way of his boss’s son.
Besides, everyone who gets into the VIP room is rich as fuck, and rich fuckers don’t fucking care about any rules. And neither do I.
I lean back and enjoy the show. On the stage in front of us, a bunch of girls are dancing around a pole. One of them slowly takes her top off, flaunting it in the air before chucking it at Dylan.
He puts his fingers in his mouth and whistles at her, then puts them in front of his lips and sticks his tongue through, pretending to lick her pussy.
I roll my eyes. Always the fucking flirt, even with girls he doesn’t want.
“What?” Dylan retorts when he sees my face.
“You make me sick sometimes,” I reply.
“I’m just having fun,” he says. “You should try it sometime. You’re beginning to look like a corpse. Maybe it would bring your black heart back from the dead.”
“Too late. I’m already in hell.”
I look away, but all I see is pussy on dick everywhere.
This club doesn’t shy away from private dances. It’s the full monty, including lip service, and I don’t mean the agreeable kind. But I don’t want to watch some random dude getting a BJ in the club.
All it does is remind me of those sweet fucking lips of that dirty little slut named Penelope wrapped around my shaft.
I close my eyes and sigh, taking in the music and letting myself slowly sink away into oblivion. Because all of that is better than having to think about the one girl I should not be thinking about.
Again and again, she creeps into the forefront of my mind with that fucking diary of hers.
Why did she want it back so desperately she was willing to get on her knees for me?
Is there information in there about Eve’s death?
“Jesus, you look like you’re about to kill someone. Lighten up,” Dylan tells me. “You normally love this. What’s changed?”
“Penelope.”
“She’s messing with your head,” Alistair says, taking a sip of his drink.
“Better stay away for now,” Dylan says. “I don’t want to get on Dad’s bad side again.”
“Scared?” Alistair jokes, raising his brow at Dylan.
“Some girl isn’t worth losing my entire life for,” he retorts, chugging down his drink too.
“It is for me,” I say stoically.
“Don’t let her get under your skin,” Alistair says.
“Too late.”
I sit up straight and stare at the stage, ignoring the girls who make their way toward us.
“Oh, look,” Alistair says. “Boobs.”
“Like you ever cared about those,” Dylan jests, and he winks at Alistair.
“Hey, I don’t discriminate.” Alistair sticks out his long tongue that could make any fucking girl spread her legs.
The girl dances her way toward Dylan, and he tucks a wad of cash under her thin string. She starts dancing in front of him, sweeping her thick boobs along his face while bobbing her ass up and down, and he slaps it when she makes a turn. She puts his hands on her ass and starts twerking like crazy, and Dylan gets all fired up, grinning like the horny motherfucker he is.
Alistair keeps staring at him like he’s jealous the girl chose him.
But I couldn’t care less.
And when the girl on stage stops twirling the pole and makes her way to me, probably thinking she could get some quick cash, I turn my head. But she still tries to sit down on my lap.
I throw her off, and she falls to the ground. Audible gasps erupt in the VIP room. The girl throws me a snooty look and scoffs. “Fuck your money, scrawny bastard.”
I grab her by the throat and lean in. “The name’s Felix Rivera.”
Her eyes widen. “Bu-bu… that’s this club’s … name.”
“Exactly.” I throw her back to the floor, and she crawls away slowly, then scrambles to her feet and rushes to the back of the VIP section, disappearing into the dressing room.
“Jesus, relax a little,” Dylan tells me.
“I’m not here to touch some titty,” I say.
“The only tits he’s interested in are Penelope’s,” Alistair jokes. “But those are the only titties he’s never going to get.”
I pull my gun out of my pocket and point it right at his forehead.
Everyone’s suddenly screaming, and they all run out of the VIP section, including Dylan’s private dancer, but I don’t fucking care.
“Penelope. Is. Mine.”
Alistair stares me down but then sighs out loud. “Fine. I don’t fucking care.” He looks away and folds his arms.
I slowly lower my gun and tuck it back where it belongs. We’re all alone in the VIP section now.
“Now I lost my fucking tiddies too,” Dylan scoffs. “Goddammit, Felix. Really?”
“Got the whole damn university throwing themselves at your feet, and you want to stick your dick up some whore you have to buy?”
“Because she doesn’t know me. It’s more fun when they don’t want me,” Dylan retorts, sighing out loud as he leans back in his seat. “I think you can relate.”
My eyes twitch, and I look away again, back at the pole, even though no one is dancing. But I don’t need some random girl dancing around the pole to get excited. Because in my mind, I see a girl twirling right in front of me, slowly peeling off her clothes while having eyes only for me, her purple hair sweeping from left to right across her shoulders as she tilts that pretty fucking head just the way I like it.
“You know, I think it’s about time we kicked up some dust at the university. Have a filthy fucking party right on campus grounds,” Dylan muses.
“Oh, it’s Halloween soon,” Alistair adds. “Perfect for a disgustingly rich fuck fest.”
“Oh yeah, I love it already,” Dylan says, licking his lips.
“Knew you would,” Alistair says, snorting. “Of course, only you can come up with this, even when your dad already hates our guts.”
“Eh, fuck him. He doesn’t care about a party at the frat house. He’s too busy running that boring university.”
Dylan grabs the paper and takes a big sniff of the coke, getting high as a kite.
But even though I took some, I don’t ever get addicted to drugs, or to alcohol, and not even to life.
There is only one thing I can ever get addicted to.
Vicious little whorish girls I can bend and degrade.
And I know a girl like that will definitely show up at a Halloween party, ready to kill.
