All Grown Up (Eden High)

We stood outside holding hands as the cars came down the hibiscus-lined driveway. This one was all but jumping up and down at my side. I knew what her deal was; she’s all about the wedding. She’d talked my ear off nonstop like I have the first clue about that shit, but as tempted as I was to tell her no Disney costumes, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Jace and the others will just have to deal.

The noise level went up a few octaves as they offloaded, and it was pandemonium. The girls were talking over each other with excitement while the saps I call brothers watched them with doting smiles on their faces. The noise faded the further they walked into the house, and the five of us headed towards the water in the moonlight.

“Okay, tell me, what did you find out?”

“Well, we’re pretty sure someone from Mancini’s camp took her out, but we don’t know who yet. He was business as usual when I called to talk to him, didn’t even bring it up.”

“How sure are we that it was them?”

“Well, Catalina called us to establish an alibi of that much, I’m sure. Not sure if she knew that that’s what she was doing or if someone put her up to it. I guess we’ll find out more when we get there in a couple of days. All we know for certain at this point is that Mandy’s dead, and Liz is in the psych ward. Dad called in a few favors and got the details.”

“So, how did she die? Was it as painful as we would’ve made it?” I hope the bitch bled out from a thousand cuts.

“An arrow through the neck that almost decapitated her.” That’ll work.

“Mancini has someone on his team who can do that? Yeah, stupid question.” I answered my own question at the look Track gave me.

Sometimes I forget what we’re dealing with with this guy. I imagine he has a whole lot of everything in his cache. I forget even more that we’re now a part of that cache. “So what’s with Liz? Why did she go round the bend?”

“She was standing right there when it happened. The cops thought she’d set it up at first, but now that she’s catatonic, they’re changing their tune.”

I whistled at the information as it unfolded. “It’s hard to imagine her gone, Mandy, I mean. I thought for sure she’d be messing with us for quite some time. It almost seems too easy.”

“I’m glad she’s gone; my only regret is that I didn’t get to end her myself for that shit she did to Sian. At any rate, it looks like that chapter of our lives is over. With that lineup in there, I have no doubt we’ll be knee-deep in some other shit soon enough.”

Talk turned to our women and my plans once we went back to college. “Speaking of which, do you think this would look good in our apartment?” Each of us has our own living space in the building Jace had bought in all our names. I don’t remember giving him a freaking dime but whatever. I guess this is the reason others on the outside looking in hates us.

We’re the real deal. Friends who’ve been together through thick and thin. Who always have each other’s backs, and most importantly, whose love and respect for each other is as genuine as you’re ever going to get. I guess we’re a modern-day rat pack, without the entertainment factor, of course.

I pulled the image I’d downloaded off the computer from my pocket and tried not to laugh my ass off at the looks of umbrage on their faces. “Are you fucking kidding me?” Jace was the first to voice his opinion.

“Why? What’s wrong with it?”

“Is that for Jayla?” Track peered down at it while Shane and Jared looked like I’d betrayed them.

“She’s too young for something like that.” Uncle Jared, who’s almost as protective of the twins as Jace is grumbled.

“No, it’s for Cassie and me.”

“You’re gonna sleep on that thing?”

“Swear to fuck if you give Sian any ideas with this shit; I’m going to have to rethink our friendship.” I busted a gut laughing at his horrified expression and looking around at the others; they didn’t seem to be doing much better.

“I say we drown his ass right here and now before he fucks us all over.”

“Now come on Track, it’s not so bad. I can see Valerie in this; this seems like the kind of thing she’d go for.” The picture was of a seventeenth-century gold canopy bed from, you guessed it, Beauty and the Beast.

I ended up having to escape the four of them as they seemed to take Track up on his offer. I was laughing too hard, though, and ended up tripping over my own two feet. “Jace, get off me, you ass.”