Prologue
Four years ago
Zoey
Waking up, the smell of bacon was wafting through my room, I look behind me and Logan sitting on my bed the door wide open “Logan, what are you doing?”
“Waking yuw up siwwy” I laugh at his cute little voice, I turn over, grabbing him and give him a big hug tickling him
“You’re waking me up, why?”
“Mom has bweakfast weady” I smile, kissing him on the cheek
“Breakfast,” he nods laughing as I tickle him more
“I’ll beat you to it,” I tell him jumping up running out the door, he runs after me as fast as his little legs can move screaming at the same time, I make it to the kitchen where Colt has my sister on the kitchen counter kissing her
“God, you two make me sick,” I tell them and Logan groans as well
“Wuk,” he says, and we both sit at the table, as Niya gets down and Colt smacks her on the ass.
***
Chapter One
Zoey
I’ve been in College four years now and this was my last week of school, I was graduating in two days, and I was looking forward to going home and starting my job back at the garage.
“What are you going to do when you get home?” Simone asks me, and I turn to look at her
“Nothing really, just lay around the house and veg, what about you?”
“Dad already has a job interview set up for me.”
“Are you looking forward to working with him?” she turns putting the last of her books into the box and sits on the bed
“I am and I’m not, working with my father has always been a dream, but leaving school and finally growing up is scary” I smile at her just the thought of her interacting with other people makes me worry, she’s always been so shy and has sort of relied on me. I remember walking into my dorm room on the first week of college, and this small mousy little woman was studying already, she shied away from me only talking if I asked her a question. It took two months to really get to know her we’d both lost our mothers to Cancer the same year, so we connected through that and our love of studying. She was studying to be a lawyer, and I was studying Engineering, and even though we really had nothing in common, we fit, and I was glad she was my roommate and friend.
“Are you going to miss school?” I ask her and she nods
“Yeah, but I won’t get to see you every day and hang out”
“You can come and visit anytime you want, you know Niya would love that,” she smiles as I mention my sister
“She is lovely”
“How about Christmas?”
“I can’t, dad’s taking me to the Bahama’s”
“Ok, what about New Year?”
“No, I’m heading to New York to visit my Grandma”
“You better not be busy for my birthday”
“No way I promise I’ll be at your door with champagne”
*
We spend the rest of the day cleaning out the room we’ve shared for the past four years “Party tonight” I tell her
“Who’s?”
“The building apparently, they’ve got a huge pig on a spit so they're having a luau”
“Really,” I nod
“Yeah, so you gonna come everyone is going to be there,” she rolls her eyes, that’s one thing Simone never does is party, she’s spent the last four years studying and nothing more.
“Fine,” she says and I jump up and down clapping my hands going to my suitcase
“Wear this,” she looks at it shaking her head
“No way”
“Simone it’s a luau”
“Don’t you have a one piece,” she asks, holding the bikini I just gave her in her two fingers like it’s diseased
“No,” I tell her and she bites her lip “Simone you have a great body,” she looks down, blushing “Hey,” she looks up at me “It’s our last ever party, it’ll be great” she looks at the bikini again and smiles
“Fine,” I hug her tight
*
By lunch the music was blasting all the way up the stairs, the smell of the food cooking was mouth-watering and the drinks were flowing as we made it down to the bottom floor, half naked people everywhere and it reminded me of the clubhouse and all of the whores and I think of Saint (god he still haunts my dreams) “Oh my god,” Simone says and I look at her
“What?” I ask and she blushes “what?” I ask again looking around
“Tyler Jones is here” I look around seeing Simone’s crush standing with his arm over a half-naked girl's shoulders
“Why don’t you go over and say hi?”
“Because if I do, it’ll break the illusion I’ve had of him for years, and I’m not sure I’m ready for that”
“Simone this is the perfect time, next week you’ll never see him again, go talk to him” I give her a little shove and she stops