"Nobody's heard from him," Kingston dropped his tray against the table so hard that food went flying in every direction and I had to duck for cover to prevent becoming a walking table cloth. "I thought you might like to know since you're suddenly so interested in him."

The hostility in my best friend's tone was enough for me to stay silent. He didn't even bother asking for my food, but stretched his arm out and picked a handful of fries from my tray and dropped them all in his mouth. Once he'd finished chewing and swallowed, he raised a thick, dark brow. "I heard from Marcus yesterday at practice."

"Oh, goodie." I stated flatly, not nearly as angry about being ghosted as I should be. It all honesty, with everything else going on, a guy's feigned interest in me was the last thing I cared about.

"Said he had some last minute errands to run and his phone was dead." King shrugged a shoulder carelessly.

"Last minute errands like Elaina Bowers party?"

Though his lips twitched a little, my best friend remained stone faced, which hurt more than I let on. He was leaving out a huge part of the story, that was evident in his desire to avoid eye contact, which meant he was protecting his buddy.

"He wants another chance." he continued, ignoring my snide remark. "You should give him a second chance, Fai."

"I'm good." I stole his pudding cup and peeled the corner.

He sighed and reached out to lay his hand on top of mine. "I say this because I love you and I'm your best friend, but dude, you seriously need to get laid. You're so uptight."

"King," I narrowed my eyes. "in case you're high or not seeing clearly, I'm not one of your bros. I'm Fai, don't talk to me like that."

"Okay, maybe that was a bad way of putting it." he squeezed my hand. "Seriously though, Fai, you're like mad hot and you haven't dated since like seventh grade."

I shrugged, licking the chocolate from my spoon. "Guys are stupid. You all just want one thing, and when you don't get it, you move on to the next person that will give it you."

"Not all men are like that, Fai." he sounded a little irritated by the response.

I met his dark eyes from across the table. "You're right, but all boys most definitely are. You can't change my mind and you won't. So leave it alone."

He dropped his elbow on to the table and rested his head in his hand with a look of defeat. "You gonna eat that?"

I looked to the mystery sandwich on my tray and shook my head, nudging it across the table and hoping it'd be enough to keep him quiet enough to push the conversation any further.

*

As soon as I stepped outside the school, slipping into my jacket and ready to hunt down my best friend for a ride, I was greeted by a very rare sighting that had stopped most of my peers in their tracks.

Axel St. James stood leaning against a lime green Jaguar scrolling through his phone. Outside of the arrogance he wore like it was just another article of clothing, he looked like an entirely different person. He'd cleaned himself up; messy hair was gelled back, face clean of car fluids, and was wearing a pair of dark jeans with a body hugging black v neck and a Levi jacket over it.

I'd always found it strange how Oliver basked in all the admiration and the girls, having them fall to their knees with his charm and ladykiller smirks-and how Axel acted as if he were above us all. A God walking among us normies without even a glance in their direction.

"If you're done drooling over my brother, we need to go." Oliver's voice startled me so much I jumped a few inches and fell back into the street. I hadn't even felt him, he'd appeared without as much as even a slight hair raising on my arm. "Don't look at me like that. You've even still got a little bit of drool pooling right there."

He made a gesture with his thumb on the outer corner of the right side of his mouth with a taunting smile.

"You're luck I can't hit you." I grumbled, pulling my phone from my back pocket to text King a lie about my father showing up unexpectedly to take me to a doctor's appointment after school.

Once it'd been sent, I decided it would be best to just face the fire now and crossed the street to where Axel was leaning into his car. Hearing my footsteps approaching, he raised his head only a fraction of an inch so he could check who it was through his thick, long lashes. Seeing me, he finally turned his full attention on to something other than his phone.

"When I said to spend a day with me, I didn't mean show up at my school and send half the female population into a trance they may never wake from." I said it without even a hint of playfulness, but both St. James brothers cracked a smile at the words.

"I didn't have anything better to do today." he said, raking his fingers through his dark hair. Even from afar I could see the calloused fingers and dirty fingertips. I suppose he couldn't completely hide his double life. "And if you're actually not some crazy chick and my brother needs my help, I don't want to waste time. So come on."

I looked to Oliver, but he was eying his older brother down with an unreadable expression as he opened the passenger side door to the sports car. Wanting to clear the tension that was starting to rise-though I wasn't sure who it was radiating off of, if not all three of us- I threw my right hand of my chest and fanned myself dramatically with my left. "Did the Axel St. James just open a car for me? How chivalrous."

Oliver snorted, but Axel only rolled his eyes and gave the small of my back a gentle nudge so I'd get in. As soon as he shut the door and closed off all fresh air, the scent of stale cigarette smoke had me pinching my nose childishly. Oliver, who'd appeared in the back seat, leaned over the console and smiled. "What?"

"It smells like stale cigarette smoke in here."

"Uh, maybe 'cause I smoke cigarette's, sweetheart." Axel answered before his brother could. His elbow landed right where Oliver's hand was, but of course he didn't notice or try to move it, and Oliver just retracted his hand slowly and slumped against the back seat as he tried to keep his hand from fading in and out.

"I don't see why." Though, after hearing their traumatic childhood secrets yesterday, I suppose I kind of did. "They're little death sticks. Take a few seconds off your life every time you take a hit."

A chuckle shook through him as he started the car. "Where'd you here that, Health class?"

"My dad, actually." I replied. "He's a scientist and has made sure that I don't have any desire to try anything that would be detrimental to my health."

"Like sex." Oliver commented.

I immediately felt warmth spread through my cheeks and whirled around to point my finger at him accusingly. "Shut up."

"What'd he say that's got you all flustered?" Axel asked, shooting me an bemused look. "You're blushing."

"Nothing. He said absolutely nothing." I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest. "And he'll continue to stay quiet if he doesn't want me to throw myself out of this moving vehicle."

Oliver must not have taken much credence in the threat because as soon as Axel turned out of the parking lot and out on to the street, he spoke up again. "Come on, Ophelia. No dad wants their daughter having sex in high school."

"And I don't want to discuss my non-existent sex life with you, Oliver."

The words slipped out before I could stop them and I slammed my head back against the head rest and slapped my hands over my face.

I did not just say that.

"I heard your conversation with your friend earlier is all." Oliver replied guiltily. "I was just assuming your dad is the reason why you didn't date and shit."

I turned so my body was facing Axel and my eyes were meeting Oliver's. "Look, St. James, if this is going to be a thing, me helping you find out what happened to you, this needs to stop. I don't want you spying on me at school, or hiding in my bedroom and watching my get undressed, or even sitting in the bathroom while I shower. We're strictly business from here on out, are we clear?"

He blinked, taken back by the harshness of my words, and nodded. "One hundred percent."

"Great." I grinned and was starting to face forward again when I saw the look Axel was throwing my way. "What?"

These St. James boys were infuriating.

"I mean, if you're done talking to my back seat I kind of need to know where the hell we're going. I can't just sit pulled over on the side of the road, you know."

I met Oliver's eyes in the rearview. "Where's the last place you remember being?"

"Elaina's." he answered without hesitation. "The afterparty."

I sighed. "That doesn't help, Oliver. I can't just knock on her door and be like "hey, girl, I know we don't talk but Oliver's dead and I need to make sure his dead body isn't stuffed in your basement or something" can I?"

At this point, I was sure Axel had come to the conclusion I needed to be locked away in an insane asylum, which in all honesty, would probably be better than sharing the air with these two idiots.

"She's supposed to be having another party tonight. Celebrating some dumb rich shit." Oliver responded. "Go to the party and nonchalantly ask around and creep through the house."

That wasn't a terrible idea-except I knew that my father wasn't going to let me go to a party. It was also pretty safe to say that King would be there and the second he saw me, especially if Axel decided to tag along, he'd freak.

"Oliver—" I started, but when I looked back, he'd disappeared. .

Of course he had. Right when I needed him most he vanished into thin air.

"What'd he say?" Axel played along for a minute, looking toward me at a red light. "You look pissed."

"He's gone." I breathed, resting my head against the window. "But before he disappeared he said that Elaina Bowers is throwing another party tonight and we should go since it's the last place he remembers being alive."

"Who throws a party on a Tuesday?" was all Axel took from what I said. After a moment, seeing I wasn't in the joking mood, he shrugged and added, "It won't kill us to check then leave."

"No, but my dad might."

Axel's eyebrows drew together. "Strict?"

"Extremely." I huffed. "Like, he'd probably blow a blood vessel if he knew I was sneaking out to go to a party on a school night."

Axel nodded and looked straight ahead with a smirk that matched his brother's, "Well, then, Ophelia. I guess you're going to have to be a bad girl for once in your life."

I wonder who'd kill me first; Dad or King?

"If this goes South," I finally said, glaring at him, "you'll be joining your brother."