Page 53 of Fearless

Megan screwed up her face and said, “So, are you two, like, going out or something?”

“No,” Ava said quickly.

Carter glanced at her, hurt flickering across his features.

“I mean…” There was no way to soften it. “No, we’re not. We’re just friends.”

“Um, not to be rude,” Ainsley said, and Ava bit down hard on a laugh. “But, like, why are you even here?”

“Because Carter invited me.” She kept her personal reasons to herself.

Ainsley rolled her eyes and shot Carter a murderous glare. It was no small secret Ainsley had wanted to get her claws into the quarterback for a while now. She slept with Mason in the clumsy way of entitled teens who thought maturity was bound up in sexuality somehow, but Carter was the prize she was truly after.

Then, because Ainsley couldn’t hold onto any thought for long – not even hatred – she glanced over at Megan and said, “Oh my God, did you see what Rebecca waswearing?”

Ava accepted the joint as it reached her and passed it along to Carter. She had no idea what these morons had rolled and she wasn’t going to find out.

Mason noticed; his laughter cut through the dark and he didn’t attempt to squelch it. He was Mason Stephens’ son, damn it, and he could bray like a donkey while trespassing if he wanted to.

“Seriously, Teague – you dress like that, you’re a fucking biker chick, and you’re gonna puss out over a little dope?”

“Stop talking to her like that–” Carter began, as the two girls snickered into their hands.

Ava held up a hand to stop him. “I’m the sister of the biggest asshole I’ve ever met,” she said to him in a stage aside, “I can handle this little shitstain.”

“Oh!” Beau said like he thought a real fight might break out, and he was excited about it. “Dude!”

Mason inhaled, ready to return fire, but Ava beat him to it.

“Yes, Mason, I called you a shitstain. Because that’s thenicestthing I can think to call you. And yes, before you say it, I know exactly who you are. You’re the pain in the ass son of a pain in the ass man, and you’re the sadist who’s tried at every turn to crush me under your penny loafer just because it’s fun to verbally assault a girl. Well, this just in to the news desk, dumbass, you don’t scare me. You cannot peer pressure me. You are nothing to me, and I hope you crash your car into a telephone pole the second you leave here.”

And with that she stood, kicking herself for having allowed the night to go this far.

“You can’t talk to him like that!” Ainsley said.

“Um, pretty sure I just did. And I, like, totally can do it to you too.”

Ainsley gasped, at least smart enough to know she was being mocked. “Mason!Mason.”

Mason, as per maddening usual, was unaffected. “Let her go,” he said as Ava turned to leave.

“Ava,” Carter said as he scrambled to his feet. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think…”

“She can explain to the cops,” Mason continued, “how her daddy Dog sold me these.”

When she turned – and oh, how she hated to give him that much satisfaction – she saw that he’d picked up one of the flashlights and was shining it on an upheld baggie, not the one with the joints, but a different one, one full of what looked like SweeTarts.

“Sorry.” She folded her arms and tried to look confident. “Dad doesn’t sell candy. But I can get you a deal on an oil change if you want.”

“Oh, I bet you could.” He grinned as he set the flashlight on the ground and the baggie opened with a crackle of the seal. “But right now, it’s all aboutthis. And the beauty ofthis, Teague, is that when I get home, and my pupils are big as baseballs, my dad’s gonna take me to the ER and have a tox screen run on my blood. And when he asks me where I got this, I’m gonna tell him the truth. I bought it from your old man.

“And then,” he went on, gleefully, “the police will come batter your door down in the middle of the night, and they’ll dig through all your closets; go through the drawers and throw your mom’s thongs all over the floor. They’ll find your illegal guns and drugs and they’ll arrest your parents.”

Ava swallowed and felt her throat get stuck together. “You didn’t get that from Dad,” she insisted.

Mason’s teeth flashed in the night as he grinned. “You wanna see my receipt?” He fished into the baggie and came out with two of the tablets; their bright colors seemed fluorescent.

“The Lean Dogs,” Ava said, forcing her voice to be loud, strong, clear. “Don’t sell drugs. End of story, Mason. Just shut up about it.” But inside, she could already envision the house raid, the police in riot gear, her mother fuming at them as she was manhandled out to the curb.

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