Prologue

The last day of Ethan Stanhope's life happened to be his last day at River Glen High School. Graduation day. Finally the end, finally, he thought as he swung into the school to pick up his cap and gown, having forgotten it every damn day this week even though his mother had been grinding her teeth each time she had to remind him.

But that was over, he thought, as he drove his black BMW into the lot and strode toward the school's front doors.

"Hi, Ethan!"

"Hey, Ethan!

"Yoo-hoo, Ethan! "

" ETHAN! "

A group of girls were waving frantically at him as he approached the high school's front steps. Freshmen , he smirked to himself. Almost sophomores but he wouldn't be around to see that happen. Nodding toward them with his usual half smile, he chuckled as they fell all over themselves in hysterical giggles. He was a graduating senior. And captain of the water polo team. And king of the prom this year, although he'd taken off his crown as soon as the foil-and-glitter piece of junk was laid on his head and then he'd purposely placed it atop Katie Ergon-Smith's instead. From her wheelchair she gazed up at him in adoration, her cheeks turning pink. He didn't know why she was in the chair; some kind of birth defect he never knew the name of. Really sucked. He then bumped fists with Katie, smiled at her while ignoring his "queen," and the crowd had gone wild.

The queen was Mia Beckwith, his girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend now as she'd iced him out ever since he'd fooled around with Roxie Vernon at Gavin Knowles's parents' pool house during the senior barbeque. He'd told Mia that nothing had happened between him and Roxie, and really not much had. Roxie was a tease, which he could admit he kind of liked. It was just . . . well, there'd been less than a month of school left at the time and he'd wanted to do something else. Be with someone else before there was no more school, no more seeing everybody every day.

Sorry, Freshmen , he thought as he chirped his tires and raced his BMW out of the school parking lot. I am fuckin' outta here.

After this afternoon's graduation ceremony his classmates were once again gathering at Gavin's, once everyone took care of the "have-tos" with their own families. Gavin's parents had purposely left again, tacitly allowing Gavin to have the party for his class. But Ethan didn't really want to go if Roxie wasn't going to be there, and he'd asked her if she would be there and she'd simply shrugged. He didn't know what that meant. She'd been hard to pin down since the pool party. He just felt . . . unsatisfied. He'd kissed Roxie in the pool house, but she hadn't really kissed him back. She'd stood in front of him and intimated that he was too needy, which had really pissed him off. Needy? Who the hell was she to tell him what he was when everyone knew what a slut she was.

He'd opened his dumb mouth and said as much and she'd smiled and asked, "Who's the slut here?"

He'd pointed to himself in surprise. She couldn't mean him. "Guys aren't sluts," he'd said. "We're bees, sampling all the honey." He'd laughed, expecting her to, too. After all, she and that guy from Laurelton had been going at it for years.

"Is that right?" she'd challenged, pushing him onto the pool house cot. He'd tried to struggle upward but she'd leaned over and reached for the button of his pants and so he'd frozen in place, watching as she slowly pulled his jeans over his hips, then his boxers, then stared at his engorged cock. And when she'd bent over closer he'd groaned aloud in anticipation, but all she'd done was kiss his dick and then give it a friendly pat. "Not tonight," she said with a small smile.

"Fuck, no. You can't leave me like this!"

"Sometimes that's what we sluts do," was her dry response.

"C'mon, Rox." He'd grabbed her hand and tried to yank it down to his dick, but she'd twisted away.

Through a haze of frustrated desire he'd heard, "Sorry, Ethan. No can do."

Then she'd sauntered out of the pool house and he'd had to wait a while to cool his blood before following after her. But then, of course, one of Mia's friends had seen him follow her out of the pool house and put two and two together. Everyone assumed he and Roxie had had sex and though Ethan half-heartedly stated that they hadn't, Gavin had thrown back his head and roared. "Sure. Wink, wink, Bro." He'd exaggeratedly closed and opened one eye a couple of times, grinning like an idiot. Ethan had let him think what he would.

Of course Roxie also maintained that nothing had happened between them, but no one had believed her. Mia had flat out called Roxie a slut, too, which had gotten more of a reaction from her than Ethan's comment had. Really pissed her off, even though, well, yeah, they all knew she was one. A real bitch, teaser, slut. Yet, Ethan wouldn't say so aloud because he still thought there was a chance they might get together at Gavin's, now that he and Mia were unofficially through. After that pool house meeting he'd gone home to learn Roxie had left red lipstick on his skin and the realization had made him groan some more and engage in a little self-love.

He wanted more.

After collecting his cap and gown Ethan suffered through the graduation ceremonies at the school auditorium later that afternoon, watching as Roxie's long legs took her across the stage to receive her diploma. His parents were planning a full-on event at the country club for Sunday, but Ethan could only think about getting to Gavin's house tonight.

At five o'clock Ethan called Gavin to ascertain when to arrive. He didn't want to be the first one to show up, but if Roxie was already there . . .

"Nobody's here. Nobody good, anyway," Gavin informed him on a disgusted sigh. "All that graduation shit. I told my parents to just take my brother and get the hell out, and they were glad to leave."

"Who's there?"

"Well, the Sorority bitches."

"What about Mia?"

"Well, yeah, she's with 'em. Like always. You still into her? She's a bitch. They all are."

"Mia's good," Ethan had protested. "We don't hate each other."

"You sure about that?"

"Why? She say something?"

"No, but the rest of 'em. They're all standing around in judgment, man."

"Is Roxie there?" He tossed the question in lightly, but Gavin was all over it.

"Stop thinking about her, Bro. It's messing with your head, and we're done here. School's over. Graduation's over. Foxy Roxie's probably out screwing someone else. You know what she's like."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't like that between us."

"So you say, so you say . . . look, get over here and cheer these fucking ‘sorority' bitches up like only you can do."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," Gavin said on a half laugh, half snort. "I'm gonna get hammered and maybe get laid, but not with any of them. They're all yours."

Ethan felt his hopes sink. If Roxie wasn't there, he really didn't want to go.

And he really didn't want to see Mia, and the rest of her posse. Leigh and Kristl and Natalie . God, she was one strange girl. And the other one, what the fuck was her name? The mousy one . . . Erin. That was it. Ethan was fully aware he could have any one of them at any time, no matter how much they professed to hate him, no matter how much they rallied around Mia. In fact, he'd had a few of them....

Ethan shook himself all over. The heebie-jeebies. He hoped to God he would never see any of them ever again after tonight.

Gavin had actually tried to make it with Erin, at Ethan's encouragement. But she was needy and whiny and that hadn't worked out. None of them were worth anything but Mia, and even she had gotten on Ethan's nerves. It annoyed him no end that since the Roxie incident she'd stopped talking to him, but it was a relief, too. He could do whatever he wanted now.

And what he wanted was Roxie.

An hour and a half later he showed up at Gavin's. Maybe nothing had been happening earlier, but the party was in full swing now. Wasn't even seven and some of the guys were really wasted and loud, and so were some of the girls. Not Mia's group. They were all standing together and looking dead sober. Okay, maybe Erin Humbolt was staggering a bit, but the others were as grim as unsuspecting parents who'd stumbled upon a rager in their backyard. He noticed Mia's black hair, clipped back at her nape like always. She was talking to Jeremy Orsini, a total piece of shit.

Natalie lifted her chin in his direction, throwing him recognition. She'd zeroed in on him as soon as he'd entered through the back gate. She, too, had black hair, but unlike Mia, whose skin glowed with good health, Natalie's pallor was pale as death. Natalie Hofstetter was totally Goth, like she'd just climbed out of a coffin. And she was grim like that, too. Mia said she was the leader of their group. Kinda spoke for how much fun the lot of them were.

He watched as Natalie leaned toward Kristl Cuddahy, who was the tallest and heaviest of their group. Kristl was looking over at him, too. She wore a one-piece swimsuit instead of a bikini to probably contain the flab. The only attractive part of her was her reddish hair and he momentarily pictured it in a soft blanket over his abdomen as her head bobbed up and down, her hot tongue and mouth on his shaft.

But she was nothing like Roxie. He imagined himself pumping away between Roxie's tan legs. He bet she was a wildcat, screaming and clawing. He thought about the red lips she'd left on his dick again, an indelible picture in his mind and had to shake himself back to the moment.

He waved frantically at the lot of them, pretending to be crazily overjoyed to see them. Not one of them waved back, although Leigh surreptitiously lifted a few fingers. Leigh Denning had light brown hair and was sort of cute, but she was flat-chested and Mia said she was emotional. Mia, for all her proclaiming to love her "sisters," was full of shit.

Roxie was nowhere in sight. How she was even part of their group was a mystery. He'd learned they'd named themselves The Sorority. He snorted. More like The Coven. He laughed out loud. That was a good one. He was going to have to remember to tell Gavin.

He meandered over to a sweating metal tub full of ice, beer, and soft drinks and pulled out a tall one, but then another girl—an underclassman, he decided, since he didn't know her—talked him into a glass of punch. He accepted the pink drink and tossed back half of it, then set it down as some more people arrived. By this time it was finally getting dark and the air was starting to chill, so Ethan headed around the side of the house and to his car to retrieve his jacket.

He nearly ran into Mackenzie Laughlin on the way out to his BMW and had to stagger a bit to avoid her as she was standing in the driveway by one of the SUVs, eyeing the house, clearly thinking over whether to join the party. He'd recently seen her in the school play, Oklahoma! , that Mia had talked him into going to. Mackenzie hadn't been half bad. He couldn't remember the name of her character, but he could recall part of the song she'd sung.

" I'm just a girl who can't say no ," he warbled badly, chortling.

Mackenzie eyed him carefully, but didn't say anything. He started to feel a little foolish for making fun of her. As he shouldered past her toward the street she said, "Maybe you shouldn't drive in your condition."

His condition? "I've barely had anything to drink," he protested. Had his voice slurred? That was . . . weird. He'd purposely kept track of his alcohol consumption. His dad had caught him drunk one time and that one time was more than enough.

"You need a ride? I'm leaving." The words sounded dragged from her. She clearly didn't want to invite him but probably felt compelled to.

"You just got here."

"Yeah, well . . . I'm not staying."

"Yeah, well . . . I'm just getting my coat." He heard his voice and thought he'd said those words pretty clearly.

Mackenzie gave him a look he couldn't decipher before she headed back to an older model Ford Explorer that was parked on the opposite side of the street from Ethan's car.

He leaned into the BMW and half fell on the seat as he snagged his coat. Wow. What the hell was in the punch? Maybe he was a little drunker than he thought. Fine. He wasn't having any more.

He watched Mac drive away. In a way he was kinda sorry to see her go. She was pretty stand-up, as far as he could tell. And yeah, she was friends with Mia and her group, but she seemed like a bit of an outsider. They didn't allow many in their group. And there was something about her parents, too . . . hmmm . . . couldn't remember . . . oh, yeah . . . shit . . . her dad had died a few years back. That was too bad. Although the way his dad was on his ass all the time, sometimes he thought . . . oh, well. Fuck it. Dad was Dad. A lot of dads were like him.

Back at the party, Ethan forgot his own admonition and asked about the punch and was led to the kitchen by a girl from another school who knew Gavin; she told him as much as she showed him to the pitcher of pink refreshment till in the fridge. "Help yourself," she added, as she left him to pour his own drink. He filled the glass, then remembered he shouldn't drink it, then stood there a moment, thinking hard. He ended up carrying the drink back outside and sinking into one of the lounge chairs around the pool, which really pissed off Orsini, who'd been sitting there apparently and who made a big fucking fuss when he came back to find the chair taken, to which Ethan lifted his middle finger and muttered, "Your name wasn't on it, asshole."

The world was spinning and Ethan set the drink on the pool deck and fell asleep. When he came to, he realized most everyone had moved indoors. He thought about Roxie. She wasn't here so why was he? He noticed someone had put ice in his drink so he shrugged, picked it up, and swallowed about half of it down, glancing at the pool house whose windows were dark. However, the plate glass windows of the main house were brightly lit from within and he could see through the dining room to the kitchen. Mia was standing with the rest of her group. He felt a pang in his heart. Yeah, she was a bitch. She'd ditched him and he wasn't the kind of guy who should be ditched, but he wanted to get some loving this last night of high school.

Staggering up, he swayed a bit before walking back around the pool house through the gate and down the drive. When he got behind the wheel he saw that someone had left him some food on the passenger seat sealed between two paper plates and covered overall in plastic wrap. Mia, maybe? he thought hopefully.

He started the engine but sat there for a while. Maybe Mackenzie was right. He shouldn't drive. He certainly felt odd.

He didn't know how long he stayed that way before he shook his head. Fuck it. He didn't live that far away.

He pulled into the street and glanced in the rearview mirror. Someone was standing in the road behind him. Mia? Was she waving?

No. It wasn't Mia . . . he didn't think.

And they weren't waving. They were giving him the finger.

Well, shit. He threw the BMW into gear and roared away. He wanted to drive to the ends of the earth, but then remembered vaguely that there was some obligation he needed to do for his parents so he headed home.

He didn't know that he'd be dead before morning.