At First Hate (Coastal Chronicles)

“You look hot. Shut up,” Josie said.

I rolled my eyes. “Easy for you to say.”

I gestured to her. Josie was… Josie. Tall and tan with flowing black hair and hazel eyes. She was extroverted and flirtatious. She dominated a room. She always had. And then there was sarcastic, cynical, brainy, introverted me.

“You do look hot,” Lila said with a shrug.

Her blonde hair was loose and lips painted bright red. Long dancer legs were exposed against the white toga and black high heels. The benefit of having really hot friends meant no one spent too much time looking at me at least.

“All right,” I said with a sigh. “Let’s do this.”

Maddox was waiting out front in his truck. He wasn’t dressed up, except to look like a rocker, which wasn’t that different than his normal attire—ripped black jeans, a white Nirvana T-shirt, and his hair brushed forward to look emo. I was pretty sure he was even sporting guyliner.

“Hot, Maddox,” Josie said, shimmying in tight next to him.

He went nonverbal. Typical.

“Just drive. Let’s get this over with.”

Lila and Josie laughed at my lack of enthusiasm, but it was short-lived. It was hard to be with my two best friends and not be happy. We were so rarely all together that it would be a travesty to not revel in it.

Halloween weekend in Savannah meant three things: one, my birthday, two, parking was shit, and three, the ghost tours were packed. If we had to lay on the horn at one more oblivious tour, I was going to go mad. I remembered why we never did anything other than birthday shenanigans for Halloween. Savannah was one of the most haunted cities in America. Any local could probably rattle off a half-dozen ghost stories without blinking, but the tourists made it all so over the top.

“We are never going to find parking,” Lila said, craning her neck down Gaston as we passed Forsyth Park. “Literally just park anywhere, and we’ll walk.”

“In these heels?” Josie complained.

“Deal with it,” I said. “We’re never going to find a spot near the square.”

Josie huffed but nodded at Maddox. Then she pointed. “Oh there! Parallel park.”

Maddox huffed. “Great.”

Maddox sucked at parallel parking. Meanwhile, I was a pro from years of parking Gran’s minivan in the spot across the street. I’d baffled the person who administered my driver’s test by blowing the parallel park test out of the water and failing the actual driving part.

“I’ll do it,” I offered.

“You don’t even have a license,” Maddox said.

“So? If you hit that Beamer, Gran will never forgive you.”

Maddox sighed heavily and shot me a pained look. As if how dare I make him look bad in front of Josie. But he relented, and I swung it around with practiced ease.

Maddox pulled out his guitar from the back, and then we headed down Whitaker. A gentle mist hung over everything as the humidity doubled the size of my hair. I tried to flatten it, so it looked long and glossy like Josie’s, but there was no hope.

“This is the place,” Maddox said.

All four of us gawked at the enormous Victorian. It didn’t matter that I’d lived in Savannah all my life; there was always a new mansion with giant oaks covered in Spanish moss, which left me slack-jawed. And this one came complete with a gold plaque, listing the residence as The Ballentine House, built in 1833. Well, at least that confirmed that it was Derek’s party.

“Man, I want one of these,” Josie said, swinging open the giant wrought iron gate that led to the courtyard.

“Don’t you have a house like this?” Maddox asked with a grin.

She arched an eyebrow. “No, that’s Mom’s.”

His smile faded. We all knew she had issues with her mom, which was why she was staying with us this weekend.

My head craned ever upward, past the massive double doors to the sprawling white brick with tiered balconies. On some level, I had known that Holy Cross guys were rich, but there was knowing, and then there was knowing.

“Holy shit,” I muttered.

“Seconded,” Lila said, looping arms with me. “How the hell do I deal with this every day?”

That was a fantastic question. St. Catherine’s and Holy Cross felt like a completely different world. A world we were about to enter.

Maddox didn’t bother knocking; he just stepped into the mansion, which was already full. Everyone held a red Solo cup and laughed and chatted as if they’d all known each other their entire lives. I kept my mouth glued shut as we passed through the immense entranceway with its marble floor and two giant staircases leading up to the second floor.

Josie dragged us through the house as if she owned it. We stopped in the kitchen, where booze covered every available surface. Josie grabbed us each a drink and passed them out.