Silver (24 page)

“I think the argument is way past due, personally,” Maya said with a grin. The other two girls glared at her, and she raised her hands. “Or not.”

“I’m just trying to make sure everyone knows the truth,” Lindsay said. “The truth is important between friends.”

“Yet I don’t consider us friends,” Bryna said, crossing her arms.

“Well, when you didn’t know Stacia and didn’t consider her a friend, she chose you because she was a loser in high school. She only wanted to get close to you because she thought you were the biggest bitch and would protect her.”

Stacia’s mouth flew open, and her head snapped to Madison, who wouldn’t meet her eyes. First, her real name, and then the stuff about Bryna.
Honestly?

Bryna laughed. “What? Like that’s an insult?”

Lindsay opened her mouth in surprise and then hastily recovered when Pace appeared with Stacia’s drink.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Pace asked.

“Lindsay is just starting shit again,” Bryna said. “She thinks, by bringing up Stacia’s past and manipulating her history—info she clearly got from Madison, who none of us trust in the first place—that we’re going to ditch Stacia, that she’ll be all isolated and defenseless. Try again.”

“Go bother someone else,” Pace said dismissively. He turned his back on Lindsay and then handed Stacia her drink. “Just ignore her.”

Stacia nodded and then took a reassuring long drink of whatever Pace had gotten her. It was some kind of vodka mixture that went straight to her head. And she was happy for the reprieve.

But Lindsay did not look so happy to be dismissed by Pace. Stacia could see then that she wasn’t going to stop. She would do whatever it took to bring Stacia down. All because Stacia had ended up with Pace when Lindsay thought it was her right as the captain of the cheerleading squad. She was taking desperation and manipulation to a whole new level.

“Well, I’d just be careful if I were you, Pace,” Lindsay said, as if it were an offhand comment and not one carefully calculated ahead of time.

Pace rolled his eyes and glanced back at her. “And why is that?”

“Stacia is a gold-digging jersey-chaser and always has been. You’d be an idiot not to see that.”

“Are you done?” he asked threateningly.

His grip on his beer tightened, and Stacia tensed. He couldn’t believe that was really why she was with him. She’d given up that life. She would hate to think that, in the back of his mind, he still thought of her like that.

“And what’s worse is, she’s more like a curse than a good-luck charm,” Lindsay continued. “She throws every quarterback off his game. Marshall, of course, choked at every big game. The one game she hooked up with Blaine”—the quarterback at LV State during Stacia’s freshman year—“was the worst game of his career.”

“She didn’t hook up with Blaine,” Trihn said.

“Yeah. He didn’t even know her name,” Bryna said. “I remember. He used to call her Stacy.”

Stacia shrugged. “Well, that was my name,” she murmured.

“See? She won’t even admit it. She’s slept with all three of the quarterbacks at LV State since she’s been here.”

“I didn’t sleep with him,” Stacia squeaked. “We just…fooled around.”

Pace’s eyebrows rose. “I didn’t know that.”

“Well, we didn’t exactly go through a list of all our old hook-ups before getting together,” she said, knowing her cheeks were turning red.

“And, not to mention, Kent Baxter,” Lindsay threw out. Her smile turned megawatt, as if she had been waiting the whole conversation for that moment.

There was silence from all the people as eyes turned to Stacia. All she wanted to do was bury her head and never hear that name again.

But, instead, she just turned to Madison in dismay. “You didn’t?” she gasped out.

Madison’s cheeks were just as red. “She wasn’t going to say anything. She promised.” Madison turned to Lindsay. “You promised you wouldn’t say anything about that.”

“Oh, shut up,” Lindsay said, bored and irritated with her minion.

“Um…who is Kent Baxter?” Trihn asked.

Stacia swallowed hard. She hated that she had to disclose this to a roomful of people, especially in front of Pace. The only person who had known this was Madison, and now, Stacia’s deepest secret was going to be revealed.

“The starting quarterback at USC my senior year of high school,” she muttered. “He’s a backup quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons now.”

Pace stared down at her in horror and confusion. “You hooked up with one of your dad’s quarterbacks?”

“It was after I graduated. It was stupid,” she whispered.

“So, you see,” Lindsay said, dropping her hand on Pace’s arm, “you’re just a part of a long line of quarterbacks she uses to try to forget the one who got away. You can do better.”

Pace shoved her hand off of him. “What? You think doing better is you, Lindsay? It’s not. So, just leave me and my girlfriend alone.”

“But—”

“What? Do you think I care who she was with before I even knew her? Who cares if she fucked half of her daddy’s team? She’s mine now. And, anytime you say a word against her, you’re saying it against me. Just back. The fuck. Off,” he spat. He wrapped an arm around Stacia. “Come on. Let’s go enjoy the party.”

Bryna, Trihn, and Maya followed behind her and Pace, leaving Lindsay and her minions in the dust. They found Eric and Drayton trying to subdue an apparently riled up Boomer outside. He was screaming something at a poor girl who Stacia didn’t recognize.

“What the fuck?” Pace cried. Then, he ran over to help the other two guys. “What is going on?”

“That bitch fucking deserved it.”

Stacia got a good look at the girl and saw she was holding the side of her face. Stacia rushed over to her, but the girl scurried back.

“Hey, I’m just trying to help. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” the girl said. “Just…leave me alone. My sister is on her way to pick me up.”

Stacia nodded. “Okay, that’s good. What’s your name? Did he hit you? Let me see.”

“I said, leave me alone,” she said again. “He didn’t hit me. I just…fell.”

Stacia’s eyes rounded. “You fell and somehow got punched in the face?”

“Leave me alone!” the girl screamed. “I just want to go home.” Then, the girl darted away from all of them and into the crowd.

Stacia’s head was spinning. Boomer had obviously hit her and in front of people. Did she think she could cover his tracks by denying he had ever done it? Stacia was feeling worse that she hadn’t come forward.
How many other girls would get hurt for my silence?

God, how had her perfect weekend away turned into this madness? She’d thought that she would just have some fun while hanging out with her friends, seeing Bryna try on wedding dresses, and watching LV State win a football game. She hadn’t anticipated all this other bullshit.

“What did you do to that girl?” Pace yelled at him.

Boomer had stopped fighting them as soon as the other girl had disappeared in the crowd. Apparently, she had just needed the opening to get away.

“I didn’t do shit to my girlfriend,” Boomer said.

Stacia felt sick.
Girlfriend?

“You hit your girlfriend?” Eric asked. “That’s disgusting.”

“Yeah, man. That’s no way to treat your woman,” Drayton agreed.

“No way to treat my woman either,” Pace said angrily. His hands were in fists at his sides.

“Fuck your piece-of-shit woman,” Boomer cried, wildly throwing his hands. It was clear he was wasted drunk. “She’s the one who knocked your head off its axis before the game tonight and fucked us all up. And, you know, she did that shit on purpose, so we’d just fucking hand that game to her dad and brother.”

Pace didn’t hesitate. He swung his fist into Boomer’s face. The girls screamed, and Stacia stood, frozen, watching him unleash all his anger and aggression that had been brewing under the surface. She knew that Pace had just been biding his time and looking for an excuse to beat Boomer’s face in. Ever since that day when he had seen her bruised face. Boomer had just given him the opportunity he’d wanted for months to hurt the person responsible.

As soon as the fight started, it seemed to explode.

Bryna grabbed Stacia and pulled her away from the guys.

“Stop,” Stacia cried. She pulled against Bryna, but her friend held her close.

“You’re going to get hurt if you go in there,” Bryna said.

“Stop! What the hell are you doing?” Stacia screamed anyway.

She could feel that everyone else at the party was keyed into the fight. Phones were everywhere, capturing the brawl. And it couldn’t have been better fodder for worthless drunks to witness their star quarterback and running back going at it. But, for Stacia, this was the worst possible outcome. Another thing that was all her fault.

Neither of the guys was holding back, and there was nothing she could do about it. No matter how many times Eric and Drayton tried to get between them, nothing seemed to work. The boys seemed determined to beat the shit out of each other. Pace was on the ground, driving his fist into Boomer’s face. Then, Boomer somehow got the upper hand and knocked Pace off of him. They tousled for a bit, neither of them coming away with a clear shot, when Pace suddenly jumped backward.

“What the fuck?” Pace yelled. “Are you fucking serious?”

“You’re a piece of shit,” Boomer said. He spat blood into the grass.

“I’m the piece of shit? You’re a fucking maniac. You have a gun on you! Coach should never have given you a chance.”

“I’ve gotten this team everywhere!” Boomer screamed. “You’d be nothing without me!”

“Fuck off,” Pace said. He was panting slightly and favoring his right side. “We don’t need someone on the team who knocks girls around. We’d be better off without you.”

“Cops!” someone screamed, interrupting their argument. “Raid!”

Then, the party exploded.

Bryna released Stacia, and she rushed to Pace’s side. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Let’s get the fuck out of here,” he told her, drawing her into him.

People were running everywhere, navigating through the crowd. She saw cars zooming away into the distance. Eric led their group toward the nearest exit, but people were scared and chaotic and running into each other. Stacia tightly grasped on to Pace’s hand as they tried to get out the side door. The unfortunate thing was that, if Boomer and Pace hadn’t just fought, none of them would have to be worried about the cops’ arrival. They were all of legal drinking age. But, now, fifty people had evidence of the guys’ actions, and they really needed to get the fuck out.

Stacia had almost made it outside when two cops appeared out of nowhere and latched on to Pace and Boomer.

“Pace Larson and TJ Boomer?” one cop said.

“Yes, sir,” Pace said.

Boomer spat at their feet.

Fucking idiot.

One cop flexed his hand around his baton at the disrespect, but the first guy just continued, “You’re under arrest.”

“HOW LONG HAVE WE BEEN HERE?”
Bryna groaned. She arched back in her seat while they waited for Pace to finish processing.

“I don’t know. A few hours,” Stacia said with a sigh.

Stacia and Bryna had sent the rest of their friends back to the hotel after the raid had gone down. Boomer and Pace had been carted off in a police car, and Stacia had asked where they were going to be held. Eric hadn’t wanted to let them go alone, but Bryna was pretty demanding when she wanted to be. When they had arrived, they had been told that it would be a couple of hours until Pace would be released. Both girls had reluctantly decided to wait it out.

“Why is my dad not here yet?” Bryna asked.

Stacia shrugged. “They have little Zoe to worry about,” Stacia said, referring to Bryna’s and Pace’s half-sister. “I’m sure Celia is frantic and wants to come to the station with him, but they need someone to watch the baby.”

“The twins could watch Zoe,” Bryna said, referring to Pace’s younger sisters, who were both seniors this year.

“Probably.”

“They’re not the most responsible anyway.” Bryna scoffed.

“Anyway, they’ll be here. Just stop fidgeting.”

A half hour later, Celia, Pace’s mom, and Lawrence, her husband and Bryna’s famous director father, strode into the police station. Lawrence was a presence. Stacia had been shocked to find out that he was even in town at the moment and not jetting off to some distant location for filming. But, apparently, he was a bit more present for his youngest daughter’s life than he had been for Bryna’s.

Celia had worked on the set for one of his films, and they had fallen in love after bonding over their divorces. They were an insanely cute couple. She just couldn’t say that to Bryna or Pace.

“Girls!” Celia said, pulling both Stacia and Bryna in for a hug. “I’m so glad that you’re both all right.”

“We’re fine, Celia. It’s your son who’s the troublemaker,” Bryna said with a kind smile that she never would have used three years ago.

“Sorry we took so long. It’s impossible to find a babysitter in this town at this late of an hour. Lawrence was determined to come alone.”

“Bryna. Stacia,” he said. He nodded his head at them and then gave Bryna a hug. “Sorry that you have to be spending your night like this. Never how we liked celebrating back in my day at LV State.”