SIX DAYS (2 page)

Taking in our surroundings, my eyes were as wide as saucers. I thought the homes in my community were big, but these were enormous, and Tosh’s house was just plain monstrous.
It sat on a hill at the back of the subdivision and was lit up like a spaceship.

At the bottom of Tosh’s driveway stood two guards in front of a very ornate and sturdy gate attached to a fence that disappeared into the darkness on both sides of the property. Getting past those guys wasn’t as simple as it had been with the others. They were nowhere near as friendly either. I was asked to get out of the car, show a photo I.D., and was patted down. I felt like I was being booked by the police.

“T’s dad is a big deal,” Hazel explained with a smile once I was allowed to get back in the car.
A warning would have been nice
. Which was probably why she hadn’t given me one.

“I’m still not sure what he does, but it must be some heavy shit. He’s, like, never here, either. I’ve never seen him in person and Tosh and I have been friends since middle school. They don’t even have pictures of him in the house.” Hazel glanced at me, a slight smile on her mouth. “Once the guards get to know you, they won’t pat you down anymore.”

I thought that was a plus.

A slightly round woman probably in her fifties wearing a traditional black and white maid’s uniform answered the door and escorted Hazel and I through the house, which was immaculate and filled with things that looked too expensive to breathe on much less live
with.

The woman stopped in front of a set of wooden double doors painted in an ivory shade that matched the trim and pushed a button on the wall. It was a doorbell.
This girl had a doorbell for her bedroom
. It made me think that staying home wouldn’t have been so bad after all.

A small square in the door slid open and a sweet voice traveled through the opening.

“Thank you, Michka.”

“You’re welcome, Ms. Natasha,” the woman said and walked away. Afterwards, one of the doors opened and a girl with smooth caramel skin, long, dark wavy hair, and blue-green eyes appeared.

“Bout time,” Hazel griped, pushing past her into the room. 

“Sorry, I had to make sure Michka was gone. I didn’t want her to see anything,” the girl whined at Hazel. Then she smiled at me. “You must be Ryen,” she said, sounding overly excited. “I’m Tosh.”

“Thanks for letting me crash,” I said warily.

“Of course.”
Her smile widened. “We’ve been waiting for you.” Something in her tone completely gave me the creeps. Hazel elbowed her in the side. “For both of you,” Tosh roughly corrected. Hazel glared hard at Tosh, who mouthed that she was sorry, but Hazel didn’t appear too receptive of her apology.

The thought
that I was about to have a jawbreaker shoved into my mouth and get left in a trunk to suffocate crept into my mind and lingered there.

“Have you seen the movie Panic Room?” Hazel asked me.

“A while ago,” I answered hesitantly, slightly afraid of why she’d asked, wondering if they really were about to do something crazy to me. I was new to town, and only my mother would notice if I went missing…eventually.

“All of the bedrooms in my house seal up like that room in the movie,” Tosh said, and pushed a button on the remote control in her hand. A stainless steel wall silently formed behind us, closing off the entrance to her room.

“That’s why I have the doorbell. I wouldn’t exactly hear a knock. Later I’ll show you the one for the elevator.”

“Elevator?”
I gasped.

“Yeah, but we have to wait until T’s mom’s asleep,” Hazel said.

I peeked around Tosh’s room, which was huge. Like, half the size of my last house huge, and full of sparkle. Crystal chandeliers and sconces, shimmering wallpaper, silk linens on two king-size beds. Even her furniture had an iridescent quality. It was beautiful. The kind of room most girls could never dream up on their own, but would die to have if they’d ever seen.

Hazel abruptly squealed, yanking my attention from my surroundings. She bounced toward a sandy haired boy dressed in khaki shorts and a polo shirt, wearing a backwards baseball cap, sitting in a hot pink Victorian chair on the other side of the room. Hazel jumped into his lap and they kissed disgustingly with their tongues showing.

“C’mon,” Tosh encouraged, ignoring the
what in the hell have I gotten myself into
expression on my face. “I’ll introduce you.” She wrapped her thin fingers around my arm and walked me across the room.

“Ryen, this is Luke. He’s mine,” she whispered. Luke had brown shaggy hair and wore black rimmed glasses. He was wearing a tan shirt with the sleeves rolled up and sat on the floor working on a laptop. “And the guy with his tongue down Hazel’s throat is Chase.” Chase paused from kissing Hazel for half a second to give me a nod, which was more than I could say for Luke, who hadn’t acknowledged me at all.

“Where’s Kasey?” Tosh asked, scanning the room.

“Phone—closet,” Luke answered, still not looking up.

“Ugh,” she grumbled, grabbed my wrist, and headed toward the closet, towing me behind her. Kasey stood at the far end of Tosh’s closet, which was the size of my room by the way, with his back to us.

“Hey, Kasey,” Tosh said softly. He held up one finger as if asking her for a moment.

“Come on. I want you to meet someone,” she said, her tone a tad whiny.”

“Hey Dale, let me call you back. Tosh is nagging me about something.”

“I
do not
nag!” Tosh complained, and playfully slapped Kasey on the back. He turned around seeming ready to argue with her, but then he saw me and didn’t say anything, just stared.

“
Yay,” Tosh breathed through an enormous smile, before introducing us, which unnerved me. She’d surely misinterpreted the reason for Kasey’s silence, because there was no way on earth that I was remotely close to his type. I was sure he went for blond, leggy girls with big knockers.

Kasey was breathtaking; dark hair and chestnut brown eyes that would appear golden in the right kind of light. He was tall with a nice, lean build—sculptured looking. He was dressed sort of preppy in a sweater vest with an open collared button down shirt underneath, and khaki slacks. He looked like one of those hot Abercrombie ads come to life. The corner of my mouth twitched; I bit down hard on my bottom lip to keep from smiling as my eyes soaked up every gorgeous inch of him.

I knew there were guys in the world who probably instantly hated Kasey. Because how fair was it for one person to walk around looking like he did? To appear so flawless and have the power to make girls swoon just by being—by standing—doing absolutely nothing. I was suddenly so nervous that my palms began to sweat and my ears were flaming hot.

“It’s nice to meet you, Ryen,” Kasey said. He smiled at me and I think my heart actually stopped beating for that moment. I awkwardly managed to force out a “hi” in response. Then I realized Tosh was gone and that I was alone with him, which only made me more uneasy.

“You want a beer?” Kasey asked me, noticing my empty, fidgety hands. I’d drank beer a couple of times with Derrick. I didn’t care much for the taste, but I knew having one would calm me down a little.

“A beer would be good, thanks.” I grinned slightly, grateful I’d been able to speak without sounding like a complete loser.
Kasey put his hand on the small of my back, giving me the worst case of goose bumps in history, and walked me out of the closet. He stopped at Tosh’s entertainment center and pushed the corner of one of the side panels. It popped open revealing a mini-fridge camouflaged in the cabinetry, but I was too preoccupied with looking at him to be impressed.

“I helped T install this thing. It’s meant to blend in and be a little hard to open so her mom won’t find it when she’s snooping around.”

“Neat,” I blurted.
Neat?
Dammit! I wished I hadn’t said that. Kasey smiled at me—at my uneasiness, I imagined—twisted the top off a bottle, and handed it to me. I looked at him to say thank you, but when I caught his eyes, I couldn’t get the words out. He held my gaze; giving me butterflies to the point of nausea, which forced me to look away first.

“Sit with me,” Kasey said, parking himself on one of two turquoise settees at the foot of each of Tosh’s beds. I gingerly sat, slightly facing him and sipped my beer, forcing my face not to distort because of the taste.

“So Ryen, what’s your story?” Kasey asked, opening his beer with a smile on his lips that should have been deemed illegal in all fifty states.

“My story?”
I asked, feeling so out of my league that I wished one of those prehistoric birds that legend had it stole people would come collect me.

Kasey’s smile widened. “How’d you get mixed up with the
twins?”

“Uh, I—” I had no idea what he was talking about.

“Tosh and Hazel,” he clarified.

“Oh, I just moved in next door to her—to Hazel, I live next door to Hazel.” I shook my head, wondering if I could appear any more idiotic. Something Kasey was doing a fantastic job of pretending not to notice, but then again, he was probably just used to girls getting stuck on stupid around him.

“The Mediterranean?”

“Yeah.”
My lips mashed together, thinking about that stupid unnecessary house of mine.

“You don’t like it?”

“It’s fine. It’s just that my mother only bought it to stick it to my father. He has to pay for it. They’re getting divorced and she’s still pretty pissed about the reason.”

Kasey smiled, understanding in his eyes. “My father’s been cheating on my mother for years. She ignores it though. Tries to pretend it’s not happening. At least your mom left.”

“My dad left her actually,” I revealed slowly.

“Ah.
Younger woman?” Kasey remarked, and then swigged from his beer.

“Way younger,” I sighed.

“Mmmm,” he breathed. The sound made me shiver. “Twenty-five, thirty?” he asked.

“Try twenty-one.”

“Damn.” Kasey shook his head. “That’s rough.”

I nodded in agreement. I didn’t have anything else to add to the subject of my father’s disgusting infidelity, and looked at the floor, hoping he wouldn’t ask me anything else about it.

“Is there a story behind your name?” There was, and based on the look on Kasey’s face, he knew it, too. I just wasn’t sure I wanted to tell it. “Most of us have one,” he said, his eyes sweeping the room. “Our parents love attaching us with family names. Dead relatives seem to be their favorite, which is why we alter them. I don’t know anyone who really wants to be called Bartholomew.” That made me smile. Getting stuck with Bartholomew would suck.

“What’d your parents stick you with?” Kasey asked, smiling, making it hard for me to resist him. I closed my eyes and jumped, so to speak. “Rhiannon,” I breathed. He laughed.
“Really? Naming a child after a song is usually frowned upon by the wealthy.”

“We didn’t have money when I was born.”

“New money. I guess you get a pass then. I’m third generation, which is still considered new. Hazel comes from the oldest money here.”
And the oldest sperm
, I thought, and instantly felt bad and grossly embarrassed that the word sperm had entered my thoughts at all. Luckily, Kasey ignored the sudden blistering red flush spreading across my cheeks like a California wildfire.

“Has Hazel told you her full name yet?” Kasey asked, almost laughing. The only thing she’d told me was that it was too disgusting to say out loud.

“Don’t you dare, Kasey!” Hazel yelled.

He laughed, and then whispered to me, “
Arleigh Hazelette.”

“Kasey! I’m going to kick you in the balls if you don’t shut the fuck up.” The room erupted with laughter. Kasey threw his head back laughing. “Bring it, Hazel Hart.”

“Hazel Hart,” I blurted, interrupting their stare down. “That’s so cute.”

“Oh, but so is Kasey’s name!” she said, untangling herself from Chase, and pointing at Kasey. “Say hello to William Oliver
Kason Grayson the third,” her tone becoming more ferocious with every word.

“It rhymes,” Kasey smirked. “My grandfather goes by Oliver, my father by William, which left
Kason for me, and little Hazelette here used to love to make fun of me because of it. In school she would chant my name and make up juvenile songs and sing them whenever she saw me.” Kasey turned his attention to Hazel. “So I sort of owed you.” He smiled crookedly, eyebrow arched. The expression was beautiful on his face.

“Would you like for me to sing one of those songs now? I think I still remember a couple of them,” Hazel sneered.

“Only if you want me to keep telling Ryen what I know about you—which is only everything.” Hazel rolled her eyes and looked to Luke. “Is it time to go yet? I’m getting bored with this bullshit.”

“Go?” I asked. “Where are we going?”

“Someplace fun,” Hazel grinned. Who knew what that meant? She thought teasing strange men was fun, which was not my idea of a good time. 

“She didn’t tell you?” Kasey asked.

“No.”