Page 18 of Beautiful Dark Temptation

“And everyone needs a wingman,” I added.

“And you think I’myourwingman?”

I shrugged. “Girls like helping.”

“Not all of them,” he muttered, “But this,”he lifted his crutch, “Isn’t what’s going to get you laid.” Dashersaid and stopped to look at me. “You’re living in Arcas house withThe Ark Boys. A-listers. The guys are trying to figure out whichtop-four family you belong to, and the girls want to know how bigyour dick is.”

I lowered my eyes to my crotch then back upat Dasher who kept laughing. “You are so clueless.” He slipped intothe auditorium leaving me there wondering if I had a big enoughdick to make good with the girls. I followed Dasher inside.

Striving for an easy A, I signed up fortheatre. Mrs. Comiskey loved me and after I gave her my renditionofI See Fireby Ed Sheeran she quickly added me as theunderstudy to third year student by the name of Blake T—don’t omitthe T—who happened to be the lead in this year’s fall musical ofThe Greatest Showman. After I’d been given the assignment, Iwatched the movie with Dasher and loved it. I wanted to be HughJackman. And that he also played bad-ass Wolverine gave me enoughhope that acting in a musical wasn’t too weird. Not that I hadanything against the weirdos of theatre, but if Bake T, who tookthe awesome Hugh Jackman role, was any indicator of how weird theweirdos in theatre could be, then it probably was the reason whythe rest of the school stayed away from it. Which was why I wantedto be there—the one place none of The Ark Boys would ever findme.

Dasher was lead designer and responsible forthe patterns, fabric, design, and making of the costumes. Which wasa huge job. Thankfully, he had me to carry the textiles for him.I’d also made a few friends in theatre. Though Dasher did notapprove of Jack, claiming that a drug dealer would dampen my futurejob options. I told him jobs were for future me to worry about. Thenow me preferred the weed.

I gave Jack a salute in greeting and he gaveme a sharp nod. I kind of felt responsible for the guy. Dasher gaveme a look. Pity would get me killed, that look said.

Jack and I followed him to the costume areaof the theatre, which was behind the secondary curtain on thestage. Listening to Blake T sing made my ears bleed.

“How the hell did he get lead again?” Iasked as we walked from the back of the stage to the wardroberoom.

Blake had gotten lead to this year’s theatreperformance before I had auditioned. A fact that Mrs. Comiskey kepttelling me. But she couldn’t just bench the guy because he sucked.She’d already told him he had the part.

“You’ll be lead before the start of theplay. Mark my words,” Dasher said.

The thought made me warm inside. I wantedthe lead, but I wouldn’t admit it. I liked music. I hadparticipated in a musical when I’d been in third grade. Got thelead in Peter Pan. Of course, Daniel had been the only one to showup to watch me. I had felt accomplished. For a few moments, Ibelieved Icouldbe someone else. Not Tomás. And I’d beengood at it. Finally, something that belonged to just me, not mybrothers.

Daniel had given me a soft slap on the chinafterwards. “You did good, but don’t go doing that shit again.Miguel will kill you.”

Even at that age I knew he meant my brotherwould literally kill me. My dream of the stage died a quick deaththat day.

Jack snorted, his face contorting intosomething I couldn’t read. I was horrible at reading people tobegin with, and I couldn’t put my finger on Jack. Yeah, we smokedweed together sometimes, and he seemed all right. There were timeswhen I caught him looking at me the way Miguel looked at Nick. Asif he were dissecting him while alive. But then Jack would smile atme, shake his head, and make me laugh. I got the feeling the guythought I was someone else. Someone he wanted to drive a knifethrough.

I ignored the visual of a knife through myeye.

“Hey,” Dasher snapped me out of my thoughts.I felt my shield go up in the form of a smile. “You okay?”

Jack gave me that same look. I feltdissected.

“Yeah,” I lied taking that opportunity toplop down on a chair and spin so they couldn’t see the wordliarstamped on my forehead. The room spun, making thecolors bleed together. “So,” I said, my brain already tackling whatI knew I shouldn’t. “Don’t get mad.” Dasher stopped what he wasdoing and turned to give me a look. “I was thinking.”

“Uh, huh, never a good thing,” Dashermuttered.

I ignored him. “We should sign up forcapture the flag.”

Dasher coughed out a laugh and startedmoving around the room away from me as if my ideas might infecthim. I pushed my chair closer to him just to annoy him.

“We’d never win. They always win,” Dashersaid.

No surprise there. “They’re psychopaths,”Jack added.

Dasher lifted his eyes from the fabric hewas measuring. “You’re not wrong there,” he said with littleinterest in the topic.

“I want to do it. I think we have a realshot.”

“I agree,” Ashton said, walking into theroom, followed by Charity and Micah. “We could do this.”

Ashton, a second-year student, was yourtypical all-American looking white dude. Blond hair, blue eyes,built like a linebacker but not much there. I met him after I metAshlee, his sister. We both wanted to bring down Kieran a notch.Charity was an actress in the theatre department who currently hadthe role of Charity Barnum which was perfect for her. Micah wasalso a second-year student. He’d been the first one Fox killedduring class. Micah didn’t talk much. Ashton convinced him to comeand listen to my plan.

Dasher glared at me. I felt a tad guilty fornot warning him about the ambush, but the thought of winning threwguilt out the window. I wanted to see Kieran lose so damn bad.

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