My hands slice through the water, parting the clear blue liquid and propelling me forward. I slam my feet against the pool wall, twist and turbo in the other direction.
Above me, there are two figures, distorted by the view from underwater. One is Finn who, last time I surfaced for a breath, was reading a book on his tablet. The other is Zane who followed us because—unless it’s Ms. Jamieson’s Lit lecture—he’s as disinterested in attending class as I am.
When a third figure joins my brothers, I change directions and swim to the edge of the pool.
Sol’s eyes meet mine as I surface and draw in a deep breath. My lungs are burning. So are my legs and arms. Chlorine-water drips from the edges of my hair and slides around my goggles.
“This is new,” Sol says. Pointing to me, he asks Zane. “This is new, right?”
Zane looks up from his phone. “Is class over already?”
Sol nods and looks inquiringly at me.
I push my goggles to the top of my head. “How was it?”
“How was what?”
“Class.” I wipe a hand over my face to dry off.
“If you were so interested, why didn’t you attend?”
I breathe hard, my chest inflating and then caving down. “Were we the only ones missing?”
He gives me a puzzled look.
“Were we?” I insist.
“He’s asking if Cadence was there,” Finn says dryly, swiping a finger over his tablet to turn the page. “Keep up, Sol.”
I slant my brother a thunderous look.
He pretends not to see it.
“Yeah, she was there. Why?” Sol glances around. “Am I missing something?”
Zane sets his phone away, swings his legs around and leans his elbows against his knees. Flashing Sol a mischievous grin, he asks, “How did she look?”
“I don’t know. She was sitting at the back. It’s not like I could stare at her.”
Zane groans. “Damn. I thought you’d have some intel.” He hooks a finger at me. “We caught Dutch trying to sneak into the practice room after he met her. We had to drag him off his guitar before he ruined his hand even more.”
“You’re banned from guitar?” Sol looks shocked.
“Because he’s injured,” Finn says calmly. “He played until his hands got bloody.”
Sol looks at me in concern.
Zane runs a hand through his hair. “Guy’s a maniac.”
I flip Zane off.
He returns the gesture.
“So… you’re saying that this random swim has something to do with Cadence?”
Finn doesn’t look up from his book when he says, “He and Brahms had another showdown this morning.”
“But he won’t tell us what happened.” Zane pouts.
Sol blinks slowly. And then his eyes focus on me. “Actually, I did talk to Cadence before she left class. She looked a little shaken.” He arches an eyebrow at me. “And she had bruises on her neck.”
Finn drops his tablet.
Zane pins me with a stunned look. Tensely, he whispers, “Did you… choke her?”
“I’m not that much of a psychopath,” I growl.
“Not bruises like that,” Sol clarifies, shaking his head.
Understanding dawns on my brothers.
“Wait,” Finn’s eyebrows knot together, “doesn’t she have a boyfriend?”
“Cadence has a boyfriend?” Sol stiffens.
“Cool.” Zane looks smug. “The taken ones are hotter.”
Already tired of the conversation, I dive back under the pool. I hear Zane and Sol trying to yell questions at me, but I tune them out and sink into the world that’s underwater.
Cadence is becoming a problem. How the hell did I go from wanting to bring the wrath of hell down on her to sucking her soul from her body?
It’s like I can’t allow myself to be alone with her when a piano’s nearby. Sooner or later, I’m going to back her up against the keys and rip her open.
I propel my head above water only for a second before diving down again.
She made me lose my damn mind when I saw her panicking. I’ve never heard such tortured, helpless sounds. She acts like such an impenetrable freaking pillar all the time, so seeing her crumble by just hovering her hands over a piano broke my brain.
It’s why I kissed her the first time.
But it can’t explain everything that happened after.
I hear a splash and feel the water ripple around me. A moment later, someone’s arm wraps around my neck and yanks me forward. Shocked, I open my mouth and gulp a bunch of water before instinctually propelling myself up.
Zane’s laughter meets me first. I crack my eyes open, ignoring the way chlorine is stinging my eyeballs, and glare at him.
“The hell is wrong with you?”
My brother’s hair is drenched and so are his clothes. He jumped in here with his full Redwood Prep uniform on.
“Enough with the sulking, Dutch. You got her back for the car thing, didn’t you?”
I shove his arm off and clench my jaw. If my brothers heard what I said to Cadence, they’d think it was a part of my punishment. And I’m sure Cadence thinks the same.
But the truth is even more pathetic than the way I handled my ‘revenge’.
I didn’t push her off because I didn’t want her. It was the opposite. I wanted to screw her brains out of her ears. I wanted to plant her hands on those piano keys, bend her the hell over, and fill the hall with music hot enough to burn the entire school down.
But I couldn’t get this stupid warning out of my head. A little voice that I never listen to but, when it comes to that freaking headache of a girl, seems to get pretty damn loud.
She just had a panic attack. She’s not in her right mind. She needs help, not your mouth on her tits.
I’m not the kind of guy who draws lines when a girl is willing, open, and groaning my name. And Cadence was already making it difficult with the way she was purring and rubbing on me like a cat in heat.
She was right there.
Right freaking there.
A feast laid out in all its bountiful glory.
But I knew she wasn’t really holding on to me because she wanted me or even because she wanted sex. It was a knee-jerk response to being locked in a terrible mental space and I was the convenient target for her adrenaline boost.
And the worst part?
It’s that I care.
It freaking matters that I don’t take advantage of her.
Holy hell.
I don’t even recognize myself.
“Yo, the water feels great.” Zane releases me and swims over to Sol. He makes a ‘come on’ gesture. “Get in here, man.”
“Nah.” Sol shakes his head.
I arch an eyebrow in his direction. Before, Sol would have been the first to jump into this pool, not giving a damn about the consequences.
But Zane isn’t deterred. He sends a wave of water over the pool rim and it splashes right in the center of Sol’s chest.
The dull, burdened look in Sol’s eyes putters out, replaced by a familiar twinkle that reminds me of our old days.
“Oh, it’s on!” Sol makes a running leap and cannon balls into the pool.
The wall of water he sends up soaks the ends of Finn’s sneakers. He scowls at us.
“Get over here, Finn!” Zane yells.
“I’m good.”
“Scaredy pants!”
“At least my pants are dry. Good luck with soggy socks and wet boxers.”
“Unlike Dutch, we didn’t have time to change into speedos.” Zane juts a chin at me. “Besides, girls love seeing my abs through a wet shirt.”
I laugh.
Zane winks and does a backstroke.
Sol sends a skitter of water over him.
Zane sputters. “Hey!”
“That’s payback.”
As Sol and Zane start a water fight, Finn returns to his book—albeit this time, he has a small smile tugging on the corners of his lips. It really feels like old times again, with Sol slipping back into his bright self and Zane getting on everyone’s nerves as usual.
With them around, grounding me back to the reality, I feel less untethered and more like myself.
I swim with the guys for a bit until Sol complains that he’s late for class.
Since he’s already talked about wanting to keep his grades up, Zane and I agree to take him to his next class. That way, the teachers won’t dare say anything stupid to him.
I walk into the boys’ locker room alone, glad that I was smart enough to take my clothes off before I jumped into the pool. I open the locker, reach inside and find…
Nothing.
No shoes.
No boxers.
No pants, shirt or Redwood Prep jacket.
Blinking, I open another locker, thinking maybe I got the wrong one.
Still nothing.
I step back and peer around the damp locker room, scanning the benches and looking behind the shelves just in case I misplaced them.
The clothes are gone.
“Zane,” I spit.
Stalking back to the pool, I glare at my brother who’s sitting down and drying his shirt off with a towel. It’s not doing much. He still looks just as soaked as before. Sol is on the opposite side of the bench, encountering the same problem.
My nostrils flare. “That’s not funny, Zane.”
“What’s not funny?”
“Give me back my clothes,” I bark.
Zane’s eyebrows scrunch together. His acting’s getting better because he genuinely looks like he has no idea what I’m talking about.
“I didn’t take your clothes,” Zane says.
“Sol?”
He lifts both hands. “I didn’t either.”
I glance over my shoulder. “Any ideas where it could have gone?”
“Hey,” Zane protests, “how come you’re not blindly accusing Finn?”
“Because he wouldn’t do something that stupid.”
“I’m offended,” Sol says with mock outrage. “So you’re saying I would? You’re lumping me in with this guy?” He points at Zane.
“The clothes couldn’t have walked off,” I growl.
Finn lifts a hand. “I do remember hearing movement in the locker room, but I didn’t think it was anything suspicious.”
“Whoever it was, they would have seen we were here,” Zane says.
“No one at Redwood would mess with you like that.” Sol rubs his chin thoughtfully, his dark hair clumping all over his head. “You sure you looked everywhere?”
My fingers curl into fists. “There’s one person at Redwood who’d be insane enough to try me.”
Finn smirks.
Zane smacks his hands together. “Why am I so entertained by this?”
“Who?” Sol asks, glancing at me and then Finn and Sol. “Who’s crazy enough to cross Dutch?”
I turn sharply and stalk out of the pool.
You want a show, Cadence? I’ll give you a freaking circus.
