UNLoved: a bay falls high novel Read online

  He took one more drag of his cigarette and dropped it on the concrete.

  Of course he didn’t step on the cigarette.

  “See you tonight, sugar,” Pres said to me.

  “I’ll be here early, love,” Barr said.

  Pres, Barr, and Kip all walked away, disappearing down to the beach. The only thing left behind of them was Kip’s wet footprints. But those faded quick.

  Oh.

  And Barr’s lit cigarette.

  Just resting on the concrete, smoke curling into the air.

  “That was fun,” Iris said.

  “That was terrifying,” Gi said.

  “I guess you both will be at the beach thing tonight then?” I asked.

  They didn’t answer.

  They didn’t need to.

  I knew they would be there.

  They had no choice.

  Gi motioned toward the door and Iris was quick to run toward it.

  They were done with the pool.

  They were done outside for now.

  Not that I could blame them.

  I was left alone, watching Barr’s cigarette on the ground.

  I slowly moved toward it and crouched and reached for it.

  As I picked up the cigarette, I curled my lip.

  It was gross.

  Yet somehow it tasted good on his lips.

  I leaned forward a little and shut my eyes and took a deep breath to smell the nasty smoke. But that nasty smell was the smell of Barr. And it did something to me.

  I licked my lips, thinking about his kiss.

  Thinking about all their kisses.

  When I opened my eyes, I caught myself almost tempted to take a drag of the cigarette.

  “No,” I whispered. “Fuck no.”

  I stood up and carried the cigarette to a glass of freshly made lemonade and dropped it into it.

  It sizzled and died a quick death.

  I wiped my hands on a towel and shook my head.

  I wasn’t going to be theirs… not anymore.

  They were going to be mine.

  two

  I was going to meet Gi and Iris down on the beach.

  I showered, grabbed a change of clothes, and actually spent more than thirty seconds putting myself together. This was unheard of. Me… brushing my hair. Fighting with my hair. Peeling my cheeks down to look at my eyes. Wondering if I was getting enough sleep. Or if I was getting bags under my eyes. Like any of that actually mattered.

  But here… it did.

  If I was going to be BFH fake, I needed to do it the right way.

  Then again, what did that even matter?

  The Rulz didn’t care about my hair, my eyes, or my smile. They cared about one thing. And that was the fake thing. Hell, I could stop washing my hair for two weeks, wear a baggie hoodie with mustard stains on it, and not brush my teeth for days, and they would still be placing their stupid bets on getting me.

  I shut the bathroom light off and since I was thinking about a hoodie, I went and got my favorite one to wear tonight. I put it right over my tank top and it was like a blanket. It smelled like sleep because I had slept in it for the last two nights. The sleeves were extra-long and the edges were ripped from wear and tear. And it was so long that it covered my shorts.

  I walked down the super-giant staircase as though I were a princess in a pink gown. Throwing my arms out, putting my head back, taking each step gracefully, laughing as I did so because it was all bullshit. The dirty poor girl coming to town to ruin the rich boys. Take that for a fairy tale.

  My fingertips touched the smooth railing and I pretended someone was waiting for me at the bottom of the steps. My prince charming. The handsome man ready to whisk me away into a life of luxury and ease.

  “Do you like my dress?” I asked in a horrible English accent.

  “I’ve seen better, love,” a voice said.

  I let out a yelp and missed the third to bottom step.

  And as graceful as I would have been as a real princess, my ass hit the steps and I slid the rest of the way down.

  “Oh, shit, love,” Barr said as he rushed to my aid.

  I was on my ass, my legs open, hoodie pulled up, revealing that I was actually wearing shorts. Which was a good thing. A great thing. Because Barr would have had a full view.

  “I guess I missed a step,” I said.

  “I guess so,” Barr said.

  “Are you going to help me?”

  “I prefer you on your ass right now, love,” he said with a cocky grin.

  “Oh my! Barrington! What happened?”

  My cheeks burned red as I heard the squeal of Barr’s mother’s voice.

  “She fell down the steps,” Barr said. He dropped to one knee and grabbed my hand. “I was just checking on her.”

  “Fucking asshole,” I whispered.

  “It’s okay,” Barr said. He put his other hand to the back of my head. “Just don’t move for a second. Okay?”

  “Are you okay, Tinsley?” Cathy squealed at me.

  Right behind her walked Sylvester.

  He touched Cathy’s shoulders and she wiggled him away.

  “Falling for my son?” Sylvester asked as a joke.

  I gave a weak laugh, not sure how to answer that.

  “I’m fine,” I announced. “Just missed a step. That’s all.”

  “Shall I get some ice?” Cathy asked. “I’ll get someone to bring ice. Or maybe we should call a doctor…”

  “Why don’t you go back into the kitchen?” Barr asked. “Let me help her up. See how she does walking.”

  “What happened?” Claire’s voice asked as she now entered the scene.

  I shut my eyes.

  “Tinsley?” Claire asked.

  She rushed toward me as Cathy and Sylvester went back into the kitchen.

  “I fell,” I said to Claire. “I hit my ass and here I am.”

  “I’ll take care of her,” Barr said. "I think the hoodie weighed her down.”

  Claire laughed. “What are you doing wearing that thing?”

  “It’s comfortable,” I said. “We’re going down to the beach anyway. I don’t need to be fancy.”

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Claire asked.

  “Trust me, I’m okay,” I said.

  I shook away Barr’s hand from my head. He helped me to my feet and I pulled my hand away in a hurry.

  “Tinsley, look at me,” Claire said.

  I looked at her.

  She was studying my eyes.

  I crossed my eyes for a few seconds.

  “Yeah, just checking,” Claire said.

  “I’m not drunk or high,” I said. “I literally fell.”

  “Literally,” Barr said.

  “I hate you,” I said to him.

  “You two figure out what you’re doing and then disappear,” Claire said. “Take your angst somewhere else. I’m trying to close a deal here.”

  Barr looked right at me and grinned.

  I could hear his voice… I’m trying to close a deal here too…

  “I’ll be back,” I said.

  I turned and Barr’s hand touched my arm. “Careful. No steps.”

  “Fucking funny,” I whispered.

  I ripped my arm away and walked to the bathroom to actually make sure I was okay.

  Other than embarrassed I was fine.

  I adjusted my old hoodie and just wanted to get to the beach. At least there I had some space. And the ocean. And Gi and Iris. Not that they were much help around Pres, Barr, and Kip. They were deathly afraid of them.

  When I left the bathroom, Barr was missing.

  I looked up and thanked whatever I could think of.

  Then I heard the dun of a piano key.

  Gritting my teeth, I walked into the piano room and Barr folded his arms.

  “Now that you’ve fallen for me, let’s just seal the deal and be done with it,” he said.

  “Oh… wow… that kind of talk… I’m so hot right now…”


  Barr pushed from the piano. “Right here on the piano. Make our own music. Or maybe right on the beach. You tell me.”

  “Don’t you have a song to play?” I asked. “So you can make Mommy and Daddy proud? Show them what a good little boy you are?”

  Barr cracked all of his knuckles and curled his lip. His honey gold eyes tore through me.

  “I’d rather do something else with my fingers tonight, love,” he said.

  He walked up to me and when I stepped back, I hit the wall, missing the opening to get out of the room.

  Barr was right there, his body against mine.

  He took a deep breath in and when he exhaled, he groaned.

  “I better walk you down to the beach… just in case you fall and get hurt.”

  “Why? Are you going to be there to catch me?”

  “If I catch you, love, I’m never letting you go.”

  Barr closed in on me, his smoky lips gently brushing against my lips.

  My eyes shut as my toes curled against my flip-flops.

  And then he was gone.

  I reached up and wiped my lips.

  I almost wished I had fallen down the stairs and knocked myself out.

  * * *

  I walked down to the beach party and found Gi and Iris already enjoying themselves. A drink in their hands, they stood right behind the same two guys from other parties who were strumming guitars. That must have been their thing. To sit around a fire, playing songs, hoping to find someone willing to fall for that pretend hippie crap.

  And judging by the way Gi was already swaying her hips, it was working.

  “Where are your bodyguards?” Gi asked with a giggle.

  “Oh, look,” I said to Iris, “giggles is back.”

  “Gina,” Iris whispered with a wink.

  I laughed at the notion of Gi’s alter ego when she drank too much.

  But at least she was fun about it all.

  “Barr was just in my house,” I said.

  “Bet over?” Gi asked, lunging at me.

  I lunged at her. “Not even close.”

  “Too bad,” Iris said. “You should just pick one and let it happen. See what the fallout is. Oh, and then tell them you knew about the bet and that you weren’t a-”

  “Shut up, Iris,” Gi said.

  I saw the way their eyes changed.

  I turned my head and the first thing I thought of… my dream.

  The one where Pres, Barr, and Kip turned my ice cream into gold, gave me perfume, and then turned into vampires.

  That’s what it reminded me of.

  The entire beach came to a stop.

  For a second I literally thought the waves were going to stop too.

  But everyone turned their heads to watch the Rulz.

  One of the guitar players stopped right away. The other guy kept strumming until the first reached across and put his hand over the guitar.

  “They like to make an entrance, huh?” I asked.

  “Yes, they do,” Iris said.

  Pres, Barr, and Kip all walked down from the spot where I had come from Claire’s house. Pres was dressed all in black, thick with muscle, looking viciously good. And Barr strutted like he knew every secret about the world, sucking on his cigarette, the beach breeze playing with his forever messy hair. And then Kip… bare foot, light tan board shorts, and his forever needed sleeveless shirt. His long arms pouring from the no sleeves with toned muscle. And it all matched his perfectly cut jaw and the cocky grin on his face when he looked my way.

  Of course when Kip looked at me, everyone else did too.

  Heat raged through my body.

  I wasn’t sure what anyone else knew. Truth or not.

  “They are all locked on you, Ti,” Gi said.

  “Shut up,” I said. “I don’t really care.” I turned and faced Gi and Iris again. “Just start talking to me.”

  “About what?” Gi asked.

  “Anything.”

  “So you’ve only been with one guy?” Iris asked.

  “New subject,” I said. I looked at the guitar players. “Hey. You. Guitar dude.”

  The guy turned his head. “Me?”

  “No. The other twenty-five guitarists on the beach. Start strumming.”

  “No way,” he said.

  “I said to.”

  “I’ll wait until they’re here,” he said.

  “I said to fucking play the guitar,” I growled.

  “You can sit down and wait your turn to bark orders,” he said.

  “Want me to go get my screwdriver?” I asked.

  “What’s the problem, sugar?” Pres asked.

  Of course they came right to me. Just to make things even more obvious.

  I shook off the annoyance. “Nothing. Just wanted to hear a song.”

  “Play for her,” Pres said to the guitarist.

  “No problem,” he said.

  He strummed one chord and Barr jumped forward and kicked the guitar so hard, his foot broke the wood. He was then standing on the guitar, fighting to get his foot out. The guitar player fell back to the beach, a shocked look on his face.

  Barr then grabbed the broken guitar and tossed it into the fire.

  “That’ll work,” Barr said.

  “Holy shit,” Iris said.

  My head whipped around to her. “They do this before?”

  “No,” she whispered.

  “You better play your heart out,” Barr said to the other guitarist.

  “I can go get another guitar,” the first one said. “Not a big deal.”

  “What do you think, Pres?” Barr asked.

  “Fair enough,” Pres said. “Go get a guitar. Keep everyone happy.”

  The guitarist stood up and Kip grabbed him by the shirt. “If Tinsley ever asks you to play her a song… what are you going to do?”

  “Play her a fucking song,” the guitarist said.

  “Now that’s music to my ears,” Kip said.

  He winked and let the guy go.

  The rest of the party was in silence.

  Pres looked around. “Give me a bottle of something. Now.”

  Five hands shot out at him.

  Pres grabbed a bottle and stepped up on a log. Not that he needed the height to be taller or more powerful.

  “You were invited to be here,” he said. “But I really don’t give a shit that you’re here. Enjoy yourself. Just make sure you always… follow… the Rulz.”

  Pres took a drink, stepped down and smashed the bottle off the log.

  Everyone broke out into a cheer and just like that the party was back to what it was before they arrived.

  My eyes scanned the beach and I saw the guitar player walking with his arm around some girl. They were talking, smiling, looking back, making hand gestures that mimicked what Barr had done to his guitar.

  But what the hell did that guy care?

  He probably had two hundred guitars. And he probably could afford another two hundred and not blink twice.

  “Let’s go down to the water,” I said.

  When I turned my head, expecting to see Gi and Iris, they were gone.

  It was Kip. With his knees bent so he was eye level with me.

  “Sure thing, girl,” he said.

  I sidestepped and crashed into a waiting Barr.

  “You want to get wet tonight, love?”

  “The only thing you’ve done is make me dry,” I said.

  “I saved your ass when you fell down the stairs,” Barr said.

  “She fell down the stairs?” Pres asked.

  “Three steps.”

  “Boom, boom, boom,” Barr said. “Her pretty, little ass is probably all bruised up.”

  “Want me to kiss it and make it better?” Kip offered.

  I laughed. “Actually, yeah. You all can totally kiss my ass.”

  Kip made a playful move at me and I ran.

  He chased me through the sand, smiling.

  My mind almost forgot everything that was happening. Or wa
s supposed to happen. Or would happen.

  I had no traction in the sand. My small and stubby feet were like weights hitting the sand. Yet Kip’s giant surfer feet glided over the sand and he caught up to me in no time.

  The dry sand became wet sand and I went right into the water.

  I scooped up a handful of water and threw it at him.

  Kip screamed. “No! Not water! I can’t get water on my skin!”

  “What?” I asked.

  Stupid me for falling for that for a split second.

  Kip ran at me, wrapping his arms around me and ran into the chilly ocean.

  I screamed and laughed, feeling the water creeping up my legs.

  “Cellphone rule!” I cried out.

  “Fuck your cellphone, girl,” Kip said.

  I growled. “I’m the dirty poor girl. I don’t have the same luxuries as you.”

  Kip stopped. A wave rippled along the back of my legs.

  “Fuck that,” Kip said. “Your new Mommy will get you a new one.”

  “Don’t say that,” I said. “Claire is not my mother.”

  “I bet you want her to be. No way you want to leave this place. Admit it.”

  “I’m still here, right?”

  “Because we told you to stay,” he said.

  Our faces were super close. I could somehow see the blue of his eyes even in the darkness. And my body lined up to his body in a very certain way…

  “I stayed because I wanted to,” I whispered.

  “You’re here for me, girl. You can admit it. It’s just us.”

  “Nothing to admit,” I said.

  “You say that now.”

  “I’ll say it forever.”

  Kip stepped forward into the water.

  “Don’t,” I said.

  “Tell me you want me.”

  “No.”

  He stepped again.

  “Kip…”

  “I love the sound of my name on your lips,” he said. “Just tell me you want me.”

  “No,” I said again.

  Kip took another step.

  I opened my mouth to tell him I wanted him when a wave smacked against my back.

  It was so cold I froze up and tried to gasp but had no breath.

  “I’ll take that as you wanting me, girl,” Kip said.

  He turned and hurried back toward the shore.

  When he let me go, but kept my hand, and I ended up spinning like we were dancing.

  Back to the princess crap, huh?

  Kip let me go and I stumbled back.