Thrive (22 page)

“Get
out,” she sneers, shoving his arm. “Or I will burn more than just your eyes.”

I
wrap my arms around Lo’s neck, and his hands slide to my legs as he settles
down. My sister has this under control.

Julian
raises his hands, sending the room one long, useless glare before he exits the
townhouse.

“One
douchebag down,” Lo says under his breath.

One more to go.

{ 34 }

0 years : 09 months

May

LOREN HALE

“Can I ask you both something?” Connor says,
leaning against the dresser in our room. The clock blinks 4 a.m., but he stands
there, fully clothed like he just returned from a business meeting.

Lily and I have had a few minutes to rub our eyes and sit up
against the headboard. Her body rests against mine, basically using me as a
pillow. My lethargic brain has trouble processing what topic this could be about.

“If it has to do with Scott or production, I’m going back to
bed.” I just don’t have the energy to deal with that at four in the morning.

Lily lets out a small yawn, her eyes partially closed. We
had sex for over an hour. She was a little compulsive…I think because Rose made
her try on the wedding dress to see if it needed any alterations.

“It’s not about him,” Connor says, his voice quiet in the
dead of night. “I want to know your feelings on your wedding in a month.”

I rub my eyes again. “You know, this is one of those things
I
really
don’t want to talk about
this late, Connor.”

“Me…either,” Lily yawns and begins to scoot underneath the
covers.

“Wait,” Connor says, stepping forward. “I need you to answer
me, please.”

I only hesitate because of the
please.
Connor rarely pleads for things, not like that. I shake my
head as I try to pick through my emotions on the matter. “I don’t know…”
I do know.
“I mean, we’re not looking
forward to it.”

“Why?” Connor wonders.

“You know why,” I snap, frustrated and tired. “Connor, I
don’t know if this is the time when you do your best thinking, but the rest of
us—the average people—sleep now.”

Connor stuffs his hands in his pockets. “I needed a time
where Rose wouldn’t be awake to hear us.”

“Is this a riddle?” Lily asks sleepily.

I don’t even know.

“What if I told you that you don’t have to get married?”

Now he has our attention. Lily’s eyes snap open fully, and
my back straightens like a board. “What?” we both say in unison.

“You don’t have to get married,” Connor repeats. “Not in one
month. Not in six months or seven. You choose the time, the date, the place,
everything on
your
terms, no one
else’s.”

“This is a dream,” Lily says under her breath.

He shakes his head like
it’s
not.

When I look at her, I see tears just streaming down her
cheeks. “This is a dream…” she repeats as though to convince herself that it
can’t be real.

I feel something wet slide down my face. Good things don’t
happen to bad people. Lily used to tell me that all the time. This does seem too
good to be meant for us.

“My father…” I start, not able to finish. I lift my knees
and rest my elbow on one, pinching my eyes to dam the waterworks.

“I talked with Lily’s parents and briefly with Jonathan.
Everyone agrees that the reality show helped improve your reputations. It’s
hard for any media outlet to deny that you’re in love, and so the wedding, at
this point, isn’t as important as it once was.” He continues, “Lily will regain
her inheritance since the wedding won’t be a stipulation anymore.”

Neither of us really cares about the money. I drop my hand.
“Won’t it seem suspicious if we suddenly cancel the wedding?”

He takes a deep breath. “I want to marry Rose on that day,
if you’ll let me.”

My mouth opens in surprise. “What?” I breathe.

Lily is nodding repeatedly, overwhelmed with so much emotion
that she begins to sob in her hands. I hug her to my side.

It’s like someone finally gave us a break, and then went one
step further, clearing a dark storm into a bright blue sky.

I am about to ask if he loves Rose, but the expression that
washes over his face—it says it all. Connor is smiling, his gaze far off as
he’s picturing that future already, glowing with something innately human.

Hopefully one day he’ll accept how much love
has actually overcome him.

And then he looks back to me, and I nod at him. “If you’re
serious—”

“I’ve never been more serious in my life,” he says. Connor
rarely exaggerates, so I’m flooded, once again, with the power of his words.

“Yes,” I say. “Marry Rose.” I let out a short, stunned laugh
and shake my head. I can’t believe this is real. “If you survive your wedding
day, that is.” Rose not in control…how is that going to blow over? “She’s going
to be pissed that she only has one month to fix everything.”

Lily calms a little and wipes her eyes with the blanket.
“She’s so particular,” she says.

“That’s why I’m not going to tell Rose. It’ll be a surprise
to her.” He adds, “And I know her well enough to plan a wedding that she’ll
love.” He walks to the door, solidifying this as a night that I’ll remember for
the rest of my life. And it had nothing to do with our addictions.

“And darling,” he says to me, his grin lifting his lips,
“you’ll be a great best man.” He taps the wooden frame and shuts the door
gently behind him.

Lily sniffs and says, “When did Connor Cobalt become the
tooth fairy, granting wishes in the middle of the night?” We’ve known for a long
time that Connor Cobalt possesses some form of magic.

I smile, tackling and pinning her on the bed. I plant kisses
all over her face, and she laughs into more tears. I realize I’m crying again
too.

We’re starting to feel in control of our own lives.

It comes with sentiments so strong that the only response is
to laugh, cry, and finally, fall into a peaceful, quiet sleep.

{ 35 }

0 years : 10 months

June

LILY CALLOWAY

“You passed all your classes?” Ryke asks for the
third time on the couch, the disbelief a little insulting.

“Yeah, I mean, I was only taking three this semester, but I
passed.” Granted, they were
pass
or
fail
online courses from Princeton, but
still it’s
Princeton
so I deserve a
tiny pat on the shoulder, back, arm, I’ll even take the ankle.

“I never even saw you crack open a textbook.” His lack of
confidence in me is nothing special.

“You wouldn’t. I did most of my homework in my room.”

Lo snacks on sour gummies beside me. “And weren’t you busy
climbing rocks?” he snaps at his brother. We’re barely into our movie marathon
with Ryke and Daisy, and we’ve already had to pause
The Fellowship of the Ring
five times for unnecessary interjections
that don’t pertain to hobbits or hot elves. When we learned that both of them
hadn’t seen
The Lord of the Rings
trilogy,
Lo and I wanted to correct that immediately. At this rate, we’ll finish all
three movies by next summer.

“Not all the time,” Ryke refutes, shaking his bag of popcorn
beneath Daisy’s chin. She’s squished beside me and him.

She absentmindedly scoops a handful, eating more now,
especially since one of her giant modeling campaigns wrapped up.

“Let’s watch,” I say, pressing a button on the remote. When
Frodo arrives at the elven kingdom, my mind wanders to celebrations. The
nearest one for all of us is only in four days. We’ll be in France for Connor
and Rose’s wedding. We’ve all kept the secret about the switch from her, and
despite Connor’s proclamations that he has it under control, I’m a little
worried she’s going to have a mental breakdown from the surprise.

Rose isn’t the type who fantasized and planned every detail
of her wedding when she was a little girl. On the contrary, Rose never
thought she’d tie the knot. But she’s
also a touch OCD, and having someone else control the biggest day of her life
might upset her.

That is, if Connor doesn’t nail the details to perfection.

The wedding also marks the end of the reality show. No more
cameras. No more communal showers. No more Philadelphia townhouse.

Daisy picks the fuzz on a blanket, hardly watching the film.
Returning to our Princeton house will be the hardest on her because it means
that she has to go back home, to live with our mom and dad. These six months
have been like one long, extended summer camp, and probably the first time that
she’s felt included in our group.

Before the reality show, she tagged along and asked to join
us. For the past six months, it’s been unspoken that she’d belong in any event
we planned. I don’t want to go back to the way things were. I want Daisy to be
with us, but at the same time, she’s only seventeen.

She has prep school.

I scroll through Twitter on Lo’s phone, too curious. He
glances over my arm, and he must realize it’s
not
Tumblr because his gaze returns to the TV.

His feed is loaded with tweets from comic book artists and
fans of TV shows like
Game of Thrones
.
My eyes sting from staring so hard, about to shut the app. But I pause as I
graze over a hashtag.

#CoballowayPornTape

What? My brows crinkle, and the first tweet near the top is
from a credible news station.

@GBANews:
Connor
Cobalt & Rose Calloway have sold their porn tapes to a very large
distributor. Clips already streaming online.

My heart nosedives to the bottom of my stomach. This can’t
be right. My breath catches in my throat. Rose would never share her own sex
life on
the internet
if she can
barely share miniscule details among her friends. I practically pummel Lo with
my bony body, squishing into his space.

“Lil?” I hear the concern in his voice.

I hand him the phone, and at the same time, I switch the
television to the other HD input, turning on cable.

“What’s going on?” Ryke asks, his arm stretched on the back
of the couch.

I answer by flipping to the news. I reread the headline at
the bottom, over and over, expecting them to say
April Fool’s.
But it’s not April. And this is far, far from a joke.

Sex Tape of Rose
Calloway and Connor Cobalt Sold to Porn Site for $25 Million.

“Fucking hell,” Ryke mutters.

“This can’t be right,” I say aloud what’s been floating in
my head.
No, no, no.
I never had
videos of my sex life broadcasted to the entire world. This goes beyond what
happened to me. This is—this is life-altering, earth-shattering bad.

I’m so sorry, Rose.

Lo shakes his head, in a fog. “It had to be Scott. They must
have had cameras in the bedrooms.”

“What?” I squeak. “
Our
bedrooms too?”

“No, Lil,” Lo says quickly. “If they had a sex tape of us,
it’d be on TV before Connor and Rose’s.” He’s right. I’d be more “newsworthy”
since we’ve been in the media much longer.

Still, the fact hardly lessens the enormity of the situation.
My sister…

The reporter starts speaking, grabbing hold of my dispersing
thoughts. “If you’re returning with us, news just broke about the heir to a
Fortune 500 company, Connor Cobalt and his girlfriend, Rose Calloway, selling a
sex tape. Another Calloway girl in a scandal,” she says. “This time there’s
legitimate proof.”

“Oh shit,” Ryke curses.

I follow his gaze over the couch, spotting my sister who
marches down the staircase. Lo snatches the remote and powers off the
television. It blinks to black.

Rose appears behind us, her cheeks concaved and her
yellow-green eyes frighteningly focused. Like a lioness ready to devour an
antelope.

She places her hands on her hips and sets her target on Lo.
“I’m not five-years-old, Loren. You can turn on the news.”

My throat swells. Does she already know? I can’t hide the
pained expression on my face.

“No,” Lo says, his voice edged in nervousness. “I’d rather
not.”

Daisy cups her hand to her mouth, whispering to me, “Should
we tell her?”

I mimic the discreet gesture so Rose can’t read my lips.
“Maybe not until Connor comes downstairs too.” He’s a crisis solver. He’ll make
everything better, right?

Rose refuses to wait any longer. She’s already halfway
across the room, her back arched like she’s building her defenses. She tries to
steal the remote from Lo, but he won’t release his grip. They end up having a
tug-of-war.

“Let go, Loren, unless you’d like me to dislocate your arm.”

“Aren’t you tired of making all these empty threats?”

She twists his forearm, and pain flashes in his face,
wincing. He loosens his hold, and she claims the remote.

He rubs his arm. “Bitch.”

Not nice.

“Yes, but I’m a bitch with
real
threats.” She powers on the television, and the news explodes
once more.

“Bet you feel like a bigger bitch right now,” Loren adds.

“Shut up, Lo,” I snap. This is
not
the time to attack my sister. “Rose…” She has frozen to the
middle of the floor. I know, better than anyone, how horrifying and
gut-wrenching it feels to see your dirty sex laundry scattered all over the
media.

She waves me off and increases the volume to an obnoxious level.
“The producer is none other than Scott Van Wright, Rose’s ex-boyfriend.”

They’re still perpetuating the ex-boyfriend lie? Rose
remains transfixed to the screen, her posture tight, just livid, pure heat
radiating off her stance.

Rose
…

Tears almost threaten to rise. It wasn’t supposed to be like
this. Our lives. She was supposed to have the perfect wedding with the perfect
guy with the perfect happily ever after. Being taken advantage of in pursuit to
strengthen her career—it’s not fair. It’s not right.

People just suck.

Lo rises and seizes the remote from Rose, and she jerks back
and hits another button.

The TV blares, and I cringe at the shrill sound.

“I’m watching this,” Rose says, managing to enunciate over
the noise. The reporter plays clips from the actual sex tape. On screen, her
arms are tied to the headboard with a belt, a glittery diamond choker around
her neck. Black bars censor all the naughty parts, but the uncut video streams
online somewhere.

“Rose,” Lo complains, pressing his hands to his ears.

I stand up and reach for her arm. “Rose.”

She recoils. “Don’t touch me.”

She scares me, more now, than she ever has before. It’s like
she needs to explode, but she’s containing this raging fire inside her body.

The news channel blisters my ears. “Scott Van Wright has
sold the sex tape to Hot Fire Productions for a multi-million-dollar deal.
There’s been no comment yet from either Connor Cobalt or Rose Calloway, but it
appears to be a legal transaction between all four parties.”

How can that be right?

“The summary of the film says the hour long session is rough
and for mature audiences only.”

Rose increases the volume to the highest level. Why does she
insist on listening to it like this?

“What the fuck are you doing?” Ryke asks, his hand rising to
his ear.

“Maybe she’s like…having a mental break…” Daisy says.

Rose retreats to the kitchen, more
on attack
than anything. She disappears from view as she digs
through a lower cabinet.

“Seriously though, Rose!” I yell. “Are you okay?”

She pops up with a bottle of whiskey. I forgot that Brett
hid his booze with the dishwasher soaps. She spins her heels and collects a
wine glass from another cupboard, pouring the whiskey to the brim.

It’s like watching a fissure run through a person made of
stone.

I don’t like it.

“Rose, not to lecture you at this really sensitive time in
your life,” Lo says, “but that’s not how you drink whiskey. And as an expert in
liquor, it offends me.”

She glowers, one so fierce that my breath dies in my chest.
“You’re not an expert in liquor. You’re an alcoholic.” She sets the whiskey
bottle on the table and takes a
giant
swig
from her wine glass.

She doesn’t even cringe.

“Which
makes me an expert,” Loren argues. She waves him off like she’s shooing away an
animal.

“What’s going on?” Connor’s voice emanates from the stairs.
His gaze travels to the television, the source of the cacophony. No…

That’s why she turned the television up so loud? She decided
to deafen everyone just to call him downstairs.

“Look honey,” Rose says. “We have a sex tape together.”

She’s lost it. Officially.