Page 53 of Forever Golden
It’s her. Any excuse I can come up with to be around Southside, I’ll take it.
Come tomorrow morning, I’m getting her away from all the Cypress Pointe bullshit. Dupont Bayou is like a whole other world, the most laid-back place on the planet. There, we won’t have to deal with school. No Vin. No Pandora.
Her post last weekend had everyone losing their minds, wondering who this “little birdie” is that she mentioned. I was one of them until I got the frantic call from Southside, describing the contents of the mysterious envelope she received.
And imagine my surprise when I heard the news, that my crooked-ass father has plans to run the city. As if he doesn’t already have enough power and influence. I can only imagine the shit he’d pull if he had the police department—and damn-near everyone else—in his back pocket. There wouldn’t be a thing he couldn’t get away with and I’m guessing that’s the whole point of this stunt.
Now, things are starting to make sense—the two-month timeline he gave Southside to end things with me, the NDAs. He was always looking out for number one.
Himself.
Southside filled me in on bringing in her dad’s ex-partner. She didn’t tell him everything, but still, my first thought was that she’d fucked up by tellinganyof this to an outsider. But that was before she told me a bit more about him, how he stepped in and did what he could to lighten Hunter’s sentence, how he’d been like family before her dad got let go and their friendship fell apart. If any of this is going to work, we have to trust each other. So, if she thinks this guy’s on the level, if she’s willing to include him knowing Scar’s safety is on the line, I have to trust that she knows what she’s doing.
Hopefully.
The storm of speculation died down around midweek. By then, people were pretty sure that whoever Pandora had given that open invitation to would never be revealed, so they got tired of investigating. Onlyweknow who the behind-the-scenes players are, including Vin being the one harassing the town’s digital snitch, posing as X. Or at least he’s the one who put someone up to the idea. Now, with what Pandora delivered to Southside, we can assume she knows it’s him, too.
I check the time and I’ve got twenty minutes to get to the other side of town. If I speed, I can make it in fifteen.
Passing my brothers’ rooms on my way to the elevator, I see both have their bags packed and on standby for tomorrow. It reminds me that I procrastinated until the very last second and still need to pack when I get in tonight.
“I’m out,” I announce.
“Okay.”
“Right behind you.”
I’m too far away to know who said what, but the plan is to meet up outside the school. The elevator doors close and no sooner than they do, my phone rings. Seeing as how it’s not the secret line, I know it isn’t Southside, but I definitely don’t expect to see Parker’s name pop up.
“Shit.”
I stare at the screen, ninety-nine percent sure I’m gonna let the call go to voicemail. But then I remember how I dismissed her at the party before the Championship. Then, she’d been trying to warn me about my dad’s NDA spree, and I blew her off. With the possibility of her calling to give some sort of heads up, I go against my gut and answer.
“What the fuck do you want?”
She scoffs into the phone and I don’t care that I’ve already pissed her off within the first millisecond of this call.
“I’m sorry. Am I interrupting while you’re getting ready for the Snow Ball?” she asks snidely. “Looked like you had fun playing dress up with your hood rat the other night. You always did have a soft spot for strays.”
Apparently, she didn’t miss Pandora’s montage dedicated to me and Southside’s shopping trip a couple days ago. She deserved a new dress for tonight and we thought that by going to a mall a few cities over, we’d avoid having our every move clocked. Obviously, we were wrong about that.
“It’s funny,” Parker says. “I always thought you hated these things.”
She sounds salty as hell, but I don’t call it out. Instead, I hit the button to unlock my car as my steps echo in the parking structure.
“What is it about her?” she asks. “I mean, yeah, she’s pretty or whatever, but so are all the other randoms you fuck. Did you choose someone so far beneath you because you needed an ego boost? Does being with her make you feel…superior?”
I don’t have time for this shit.
“Get a fucking life, Parker. I’m hanging up.”
“Do you even care?” she rushes to ask, halting me from ending the call.
“The fuck are you talking about?”
She scoffs and I start my engine, letting the call pick up on the car speaker.
“I lost everything, West—my scholarship, my friends. Yeah, I may have fucked up, but do you really think you didn’t have any part in that? You don’t think there are consequences for how you emotionally abuse women? For how you sweet-talk your way into their heads, fuck them, then fuck them over?”