1. Lyric

1

LYRIC

C restwood Academy, two years ago.

As I ring the doorbell, I swallow, the metallic taste in my mouth a reminder of the bitter thing I'm about to have to do.

"Hey, Lyric, the boys are upstairs," Beanie says as she answers the door. The sound of old-school pop-punk filters from the landing and I give Beanie a weak smile, trying to pretend everything is fine.

Archer's housekeeper waves me off as I climb the stairs and my mind flashes back to the last time I was here, before everything went sideways.

It was the night after prom, the three of us giggling and stumbling as we climbed the steps to Archer's house after getting buzzed on wine coolers in the limo.

"Shh," Archer says, putting a finger to my lips as he unlocks the door. "Mom and Dad are asleep. We can't be too noisy."

My mouth opens, swallowing around Archer's finger. Impulse is reigning supreme tonight, and I desperately want to give in, to finally taste the forbidden fruit.

"Shit, Lyric," Archer swears, his eyes going straight to my finger.

I grab his hand and pull the finger out, looking up at him. "I want you," I whisper. "You and Levi, and Zane. All three of you. I don't want to choose."

"Baby, we won't make you choose," Zane says, brushing a curl behind my ear as he leans down to kiss me. "We've all wanted you for so long. None of us are selfish enough to make you choose."

This close, I can smell the scent of Zane's aftershave and hear the beating of his heart. I lean into him, reaching a hand out to cup Levi's face.

"Are you sure?" I ask, hoping this fairy tale will finally come true.

"We're so sure," Levi assures me. "All three of us want you, Lyric Shaw. And tonight, you're ours."

We head up the stairs, the three of them kissing me and tugging at my clothes as we get closer and closer to Archer's bedroom, to the point of no return.

At the time, I was so excited, but so scared. Now, I'm just scared. I have to face them. I have to tell them something important.

As I reach Archer's bedroom, the door flies open and Levi comes out, grabbing me by my arm. "We've been waiting for you, Lyric," he says, tugging me inside.

The two of us crash together on Archer's bed while Zane gives me a lazy wave from the window seat, blowing a puff of smoke out the open window.

"Laurie is going to have a fit if she catches you smoking again," I warn him. Zane shrugs, too relaxed to care.

"Listen to this, Lyric," Archer says, clicking on a video on YouTube as a song begins to play. Strains of Fleetwood Mac filter through the speakers and I lean back, cuddling Levi as he strokes my hair.

"I need to tell you guys something," I say, nausea rising inside me as I try to brace myself for the fallout.

"Can it wait until after the pep rally?" Zane asks.

"Yeah, we got a fuckin' epic prank planned, Songbird," Archer says, abandoning the computer to crawl up the bed and lie on the other side of me. "We wanna start our senior year off with a bang."

"Just wait until you see what we have planned, Songbird," Zane says with a grin, taking another hit before setting it down on a plate and coming to join us. "It's going to freak everyone out, but it'll be totally worth it."

"Sure," I say, smoothing a hand over the leg of my jeans. "It can wait."

"Sweet." Archer grins, leaning down to kiss me, making my head spin. I'm still not used to the casual affection between us, the way they so easily touch and take from me when before, we were all so guarded.

"I wish I could join the prank," I tell them, "but my senior year is next year."

"Don't worry," Levi says, draping his arm over me. "We'll still take you to your senior prom. And then all four of us will move in together when you start school with us after that."

It sounded so nice, so neatly thought out. But after today, I don't know if they'll still want the same future.

Levi plays with my fingers while Archer strokes my hair. Zane lies between my legs, letting me massage his head as we listen to Archer's eclectic music playlist. I wish I could live in this moment with them forever.

But all good things must come to an end because Archer sits up after a while, stretching out. "Okay, let's go do this thing," he says, rubbing his hands together in glee. "Levi, Zane, you guys ready?"

His cocky grin is disarming and I have to swallow hard to resist the urge to push his blond hair out of his eyes and grab him for a kiss.

"Ready, Bro," Zane says, grinning. Levi and Archer high-five and then the four of us pile out of the house and into Zane's truck for the pep rally.

We arrive a few minutes early so the three of them can make sure things are set up properly. They promise to meet me in the bleachers, so I head upand wait for the start of the pep rally so I can see this "epic prank" they promised.

The boys rejoin me just as the cheerleaders start dancing to kick off the event and they nudge my side, snorting about how their prank is going to go off with a bang.

"Everybody, give it up for your Crestwood Wildcats!" Brianna says as she announces the football team. As the football players emerge from the locker room, several drones fly out above them, circling the crowd. Everyone is mesmerized by the light show.

Suddenly, a loud bang goes off and fire shoots out of the drones in every direction, lighting up the gym. My body freezes as I realize what's happening, the sound of screams echoing through the gym.

Pandemonium breaks out, students and teachers running in every direction as everyone tries to escape at once. I turn to look for the boys, but they're nowhere in sight and when I look back among the crowd, I spot Archer's blond hair disappearing through the locker room door.

What's happening? Is this their idea of a prank? How could they do this? My body feels numb and I'm frozen to the spot, my brain moving too slowly to catch up.

"Lyric!"

I look down and spot my friend Madison climbing up the steps of the bleachers. Her mascara is smudged and her perfectly curled hair is disheveled, I noticed as she grabs my arm and starts dragging me away.

"We have to get out of here!" she yells, trying to speak above the noise. "Come on!"

Once we're outside, Madison wraps her arms around me. "God, Lyric. You scared the shit out of me. Why did you freeze like that?"

"I don't know," I whisper, watching the flames climb higher and higher as the fire alarm rings and sirens blare in the distance. "I… froze. I was looking for Zane, Archer, and Levi. They were with me, but then when I looked away for a moment, they were gone…"

"What?" Madison's eyes widen. "They left you there? What the hell, Lyric! Those boys are nothing but trouble."

"They must have had a good reason," I insist, wrapping my arms around myself. It's getting dark out and the temperature is dropping. I'm cold, I shiver and can feel goosebumps breaking out along my skin.

"Lyric, did… did you see anything?" she asks, voice dropping to a whisper. "Because Taylor Kimball overheard Zane talking about a prank at the pep rally. Did they have anything to do with this?"

I blow out a breath. "I don't know! I don't think they did. I mean, even if they did, it was an accident, right?"

"You have to tell someone. What if it wasn't an accident?" Madison presses. "Lyric, they might have gone too far this time. The Hudson boys always get away with so much, but if they caused this… they shouldn't get away with it this time."

"I don't want to say anything until I talk to them," I insist, wrapping my arms around myself. "I'm not a snitch."

Madison grabbed my arm. "I see an officer over there," she says, dragging me along. I try to pull out of her grip, but it's too tight.

"Madi, stop!" I tell her. She pulls me over to the police officer who's arrived on the scene to corral the crowd.

"Sir!" she calls out. "My friend here thinks she knows what happened!"

She pushes me in front of the officer, nudging me. "Tell him," she insists.

"I don't want to tell him," I protest. "I don't even know what happened."

"Miss, if you know something about how this fire got started, you need to tell us," the man says, his deep voice sending a chill down my spine.

"Tell them about the Hudson's," Madison urges.

"Archer Hudson?" the officer asks, raising a brow. It's no secret that they're known around the community for the mischief they cause, but it's never anything that hurts anybody.

"They were planning a prank," I say, my voice weak. "I don't know what it was. But they told me they were going to pull a prank tonight. That's all I know."

The officer nods, then speaks into the radio on his shoulder. "Find those Hudson boys," he says. "They're the ones who did this."

A few minutes pass in silence and I pray fervently that they don't find the boys for a while.

"We got 'em," a voice crackles through the radio. "They were trying to sneak out the back way."

Archer, Levi, and Zane are dragged out of the main entrance to the school by several officers, their hands behind their backs.

As they pass, they see me standing with Madison and the police and it feels like time passes in slow motion.

Archer looks angry, Levi's expression is wounded, and Zane's eyes widen in shock as they're shuffled into the back of a squad car.

But I can't explain myself. They're too far away and even if I wanted to, Madison has a tight grip on me, holding me from behind as if to protect me.

Everything is a blur after that, it all happened so fast. The boys are blamed for the prank and face charges. Their parents get the charges reduced by promising to send them off to a military-style high school that will "straighten them out".

Even though I try, their parents won't let me see them. Finally, the day they're supposed to be sent off, I bike over to their house, desperate to say goodbye, to explain myself.

But they don't want to see me. "You did this," Zane hisses as he looks at me with contempt on his face. "You sold us out."

"Don't ever talk to us again," Archer bites out as he climbs into the waiting bus which has been sent to bring them to the school hundreds of miles away.

I open my mouth, needing to get through to them. "Levi, please. I can't…"

But Levi shakes his head and brushes past me, boarding the bus without another word.

Once I get home, I head into my room and grab the jewelry box under my bed. I pull out the little white stick and stare at it, despair welling up as tears start rolling down my cheeks.

The positive pregnancy test seems to mock me, reminding me that I'm the one who ruined my own future. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm going to have to do it completely alone now.