An icy chill circles my bare legs as I wait with bated breath for Marshall to answer. It’s taking all of my strength not to jump on his waist and launch into a killer kiss that spans the present, and more importantly, the future. I’d love to know what those visions show. Plus there would be one more magical kiss. Marshall brings the magic to the table without even trying.
“Am I pleased?” His brows furrow. “That’s yet to be decided.” He turns to walk away.
“Marshall, wait!” I’m quick to block his path. “Will you come with me tonight?”
He shoots a dissatisfied glance into the field as if he were scanning it for Logan and Gage.
“Very well. Be in my bed at a decent hour, and I’ll more than likely escort you there myself.”
“In your bed?”
“My rules, Skyla.” He gives a sly smile before making his way to the bleachers.
I’ll never tell, but a tiny part of me likes Marshall’s rules.
I turn back and fall into the cheer lineup, with Brielle to my left and Giselle to my right, for the very last time in my life. It feels as if I’m crossing a threshold tonight, entering a doorway to a whole new world.
The team from north Washington runs onto the field and heads to the sidelines. West’s football team runs onto the green, and the crowd goes wild.
The boys head in our direction, and we hold out our hands, so they can high five us as they rush by. I try to memorize the way they look in their silver-white jerseys as their cobalt numbers flicker under the lights like a wall of exotic flames.
Gage clasps my hand and pulls me out of the lineup.
“Sorry, birthday girl.” He lands a kiss high over my cheek. “I hope you don’t mind, I asked my mom to take a picture.”
I turn around, and to my surprise Emma is standing there hoisting a camera with a long paparazzi-style lens attached.
“Here.” Gage lands his helmet on the grass and helps me stand on it, which makes me almost as tall as he is. He places his arms lovingly around my waist, and we smile for the camera.
“One more!” Emma holds her fingers in the air, counting backward from three.
I turn to kiss his cheek—he does the same, and we end up smacking each other right on the lips.
Gage breaks out in a killer grin.
“Good aim.” He rides his hand over my back, and a warm tingle fills me. “That’s exactly what I was hoping I could give you for your birthday. You going to Ellis’s tonight?”
“Of course.” I slide off his helmet and feel at least four feet smaller.
“Could I get you to come over for a minute? I have a gift for you.”
“You’re all the gift I need.” I tighten my grip around his waist. Gage is solid and real. I can feel our future in the love that emanates from him whenever he’s near.
Logan strides up. “Is this a private party, or can anyone join?” He circles my waist.
“Over here!” Emma calls out and snaps a picture of us. Logan and Gage, each with an arm wrapped around my waist.
A whistle blows on the field.
“Wish me luck.” Gage plucks his helmet off the ground and trots off into the fog. He doesn’t look at either Logan or me. It’s as if he wants nothing to do with us anymore at least not when we’re together. This is killing me, and I’m afraid it’s killing Gage.
“I can hardly wait to give you your gift.” Logan’s dimple cuts in and out. “You think we can hang out after the game?”
“Gage asked me to drop by.”
“Perfect.” Logan’s eyes ignite, each their own shade of sunset.
He takes off, and I watch as his jersey fades away like the ghost he is.
Brielle waves me back to the lineup, and I jump by her side. Tonight is a night for building and cherishing memories, for cherishing
people
. West will be a part of my life forever, and I want to savor this last sip of my youth before I drink it down to the dregs.
All of the drama Chloe and the bitch squad have served up over the last year melts away as I shout and scream for my team, my school, those boys that I love with all of my heart.
Everything eventually comes to an end, and tonight the curtain closes on an era. Sure we’ll wear our cheer uniforms again for spirit week, to the senior rally, but there won’t be another football game for the rest of our scholastic careers. Tonight is pristine, a flower getting ready to press into the recesses of our minds. I’m going to feel and taste and love every minute of it.
I wipe a tear from my eye and cheer my heart out for Logan and for Gage—the boys I’m going to love for the rest of my life and then into eternity after that.
***
After the game, Brielle and I head straight over to Ellis’s.
The party is already pumping with cars clogging up the roadways on both sides of the street. The music sounds twice as loud as usual, and the bodies are lining the halls—the yard, thicker than before. There are tons of faces I don’t recognize, mostly because everyone from the other team showed, plus a ton of people from East.
“I’m not staying too long,” I warn Brielle.
“I’ll catch a ride home with Drake.”
“How are things going?” I ask as we traverse the sea of bodies, holding out our red Solos like some hall pass you need to stay indoors.
“He says they’re going to tell your folks soon. I guess her parents know and didn’t freak out.”
I’m sure Emily drew it up on a napkin for them one morning before breakfast, and they figured the whole thing out.
“Weird,” I say under my breath.
“Drake says we can sort things out afterwards—he said he missed me.”
“Oh!” I pull Brielle in and give her a long hug. Too bad Drake is too big of a jerk to realize he’s not only screwing with their ovaries, he’s screwing with their hearts.
“Girl on girl!” Ellis calls out before snapping a picture of Bree and me.
“Very funny,” I say, yanking him over and snapping a picture of us with my phone.
“Face five for the birthday girl.” Ellis lands a kiss just shy of my lips. “Where’s Giselle?” He glances around.
My hand flies reflexively to my lips.
“You can’t say that!” I hop a little. “It’s a
secret!
” Chloe will hang us both from the nearest tree if she discovers the truth.
“Relax, she filled me in. I’m in the know.” His head bobs at someone in the distance before he bolts over to a group of guys from East.
“What the hell is Ellis in the know about?” Brielle asks as we make our way toward the backyard. “I want to be in the know.”
“
Johnson
,
Messenger!
” Emily waves us over to where the bitch squad and Giselle are seated on the lawn. I swear if this is another one of Chloe’s grave robbing powwows, I might be moved to drown her in the pool.
It’s freezing out, the haze glitters under the harsh outdoor lighting like white plumes of powder.
I glance back for signs of Logan or Gage, but they’re nowhere to be found. They mentioned they’d meet me here, and, to be honest, I’d rather spend what’s left of my eighteenth birthday with the two of them instead of with the decapitator and her minions. Maybe that’s how I should send Chloe off into the afterlife—slice her head off with a sharpened blade.
Brielle and I take a seat on the grass. The icy blades prickle our bare legs, and we run our hands under our thighs simultaneously.
“Tonight was something none of us will ever forget,” Chloe spits it out triumphantly as if we had conducted a heist that procured of the opposing team’s mascot.
“We lost,” Michelle points out.
“It doesn’t matter. It was our last time to root for our team. In case you haven’t heard, we’ve been excluded from the All State Competition due to Skyla’s extracurricular shenanigans last year, so we’ll have to find something else to occupy us come spring break. But that’s not why I’ve called you here.” Her lids reduce to slits. “I wanted to make it clear that no matter what happens, no matter how bad each of you fuck up in life, we’ll always have each other. We’re cheer sisters, forever.” She puts her hand out, and each of us place ours on top, respectively, and we shout,
one, two, three, West
, in unison.
We rise, ready to party with the rest of the school and start fucking up our lives like Chloe so gently inferred.
“Nice job on the field today,” Chloe chimes. “Especially you,
Giselle
.”
“Thanks!” Giselle gives a little hop before clasping her hand over her lips.
Crap. I’m going to kill Ellis I’ll-Do-Anything-For-A-Blunt Harrison.
“Why don’t you go inside with Bree,” I say, to Giselle. “I want to talk to Chloe for a minute.”
Chloe lends an amused demeanor to Giselle, but buried beneath her faux smile, you can practically see the gears of revenge grinding at top speed.
“What’s the matter, Skyla? Disappointed I’m in on your little secret?”
“Not at all. It’s my birthday, and I’m not going to let anything, or anyone, get under my skin, least of all you.”
“It’s sort of my birthday, too.” Her lips curve with a malevolent satisfaction. “In fact, I believe I was your big gift last year. Chloe Bishop with a bow on top.” She gives a little curtsey.
“Yeah, well, that I’d like to forget.” The Eye of Refuge blinks at me. “How about you give me another present? The protective hedge.” I reach out to touch it, and she covers it with her hand.
“You wish.”
“Come on, Chloe. You have a price. Everybody does.”
“Gage Oliver’s love,” she purrs. “I hear he’s back on the market. Rumor has it you’ve met your time limit with him. Is that true? You’ve used him until the end of the faction war and then threw him away like toilet paper. And now you’re right back where you started with Logan.” She clicks her tongue. “My sources tell me he won’t touch you with a ten foot pole. Imagine that. Skyla Messenger begging for Logan to fall in her bed, and he shuts her down each and every time.” Her chest huffs a silent laugh as she steps in tight. “You are nothing but gutter trash. And now that you’ve thrown away Gage, you’ll be left with no one. Oh wait!” She feigns a look of surprise. “Dudley will have you—in five hundred different ways. How does it feel knowing the only person on the planet who wants to be with you is some over-the-hill math teacher—”
My hand glides over her cheek and ignites the slap that’s heard around the world or at least Ellis’s supersized backyard. Marshall is all of twenty-six if he’s not six thousand. He’s so hot I’ve seen grown women attach themselves to his leg at the supermarket and beg to give him a blowjob. Chloe is just jealous because he was never into her. Well, he sort of was, but that was Marlena. Why he would be interested in someone from Chloe’s demonic clan is beyond me.
“Listen bitch,” I start. “Marshall is twenty-six—eight years my senior, and that’s hardly scandalous. If I choose to be with someone as wonderful and drop-dead gorgeous as Dudley, that’s my choice.”
A series of gasps emit from around me.
I go on, “And if I choose to be with Logan or Gage, that, too, is my fucking business. The three of them have kindly stepped aside and are waiting for me to make the decision on whom I’ll be with. They are waiting for
me
. I decide who falls in my bed, Chloe. And who’s waiting for you? Oh, that’s right—nobody.” I grab the front of her cheer sweater and pull her in. “You will die alone and unloved. You and I both know this is a solid-gold fact. Demetri showed us your future. Did you know that not even your own damn supervising spirit can stand you? I bet your parents rue the day you were born. You’re the demon who tried to kill the boy you profess to love, and you
did
kill Logan. I think it’s only fair you die, too.” I drive her backward until she dangles from the edge of the pool. The light from above creates a series of white veins in the water, trembling, opening their arms happy to have her. “Happy birthday to me.” I push her in so hard she flattens against the bottom a moment before corking back up to the top.
Take that, bitch.
A wise man once said, Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you can’t do something. It’s poison every single time. And that wise man was Logan Oliver.
Can you come over?
Logan sends the text just after I push Chloe in the pool.
B right there. ~S
I make my way through the jostling crowd of Ellis’s party. It’s wall-to-wall linebackers and skanks. Truthfully, I’m over it. I’m ready to hit the quiet solitude of the Oliver house and maybe kick back and watch a movie with my two best friends before heading over to Marshall’s and crawling beneath the sheets with him. Who knew his bed was the portal to ethereal plane? Marshall, that’s who.
The lights are on in the kitchen at the Oliver house, but Emma and Barron’s sedan is missing. Even better. I get to have Logan and Gage all to myself. I miss the three of us just hanging out, not having to worry about who I’ll choose.
I sprint across the street and up the driveway.
Logan greets me at the door before I can knock.
“If it isn’t the birthday girl.” He pulls me in and buries a kiss in my neck. “Come in. Sorry it took so long. Gage and I actually tried to bake you a cake.”
“A cake?” I’m floored by this.
Logan shuts the door behind me and leads me into the darkened family room.
The lights flip on, and a room full of familiar faces scream, “
Surprise!
”
“Shit!” I hiss, and the room explodes with laughter.
Mom and Tad are here, my sisters, the Olivers, Drake with both Em and Brielle, Ellis with his arms around Giselle, and Marshall with that I’ll-have-you-in-my-bed-later grin that makes my heart give an unexpected flutter.
The house is decorated from floor to ceiling with streamers, and balloons, and a furry pink piñata in the corner in the shape of a donkey. A giant banner stretches just under the ceiling reading,
Happy Birthday, Skyla and Gage Oliver
, and my stomach sinks.
“I sense my mother’s touch,” I say.
“She wouldn’t have it any other way.” Logan kisses the back of my hand.
More bodies file into the room, and I recognize them as people from across the street.