“Just my life before my dad got promoted and I met you guys.” The warm water rippled as I swished it around.
Avery dramatically threw a hand to her chest. “A life before you met me? How horrible.”
“Shut up,” I giggled.
On the other end of the phone, the image started to blur and twist a little bit. I thought maybe Avery dropped her phone or something, but when the image became clear again, it was no longer Avery’s face on the screen, but a paler-skinned man with a clean goatee and long, light brown hair that dropped past his shoulders. His chocolate eyes brimmed with happiness, and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling widely.
“Hey, Cherri,” he greeted.
“Hi, Ali.” I raised an eyebrow. “Pretty early for you to be at Avery’s.”
Alistair, one of the guys in our group of friends, grinned from ear to ear. “Well, you know I don’t travel in the daytime.”
I snickered as Avery’s hand came flying into the frame and smacked against Alistair’s head. “Stop it. Give me that,” Avery demanded, but Alistair leaned away from Avery, keeping the phone secured in his hand. “Ali!”
“I’m having a conversation with my dear friend,” Alistair replied.
My whole body was filled with warmth at the interaction. Avery and Alistair had liked one another for a while, but Alistair had been staying away from Avery out of respect to another friend of ours, Kyle, who Avery had dated for a while. Avery’s relationship with Kyle was mostly political, but she was head over heels for Alistair. If they were finally moving in a good direction, that made me happy.
I raised one of my hands. “Um, if you guys need to get a room, I can go.”
“Oh my god.” The phone went blurry again, and then Avery’s face appeared again, rushing off with Alistair rolling around laughing on the pavement behind her. “I swear, you two are going to be the death of me.”
“Are we gonna talk about that?” I asked.
Avery lifted her head to the sky. “No, we are not.” Her face came back down, and she looked at me. “You’re coming today, right?”
I groaned. “I don’t know, Avery. That just doesn’t seem like a good idea.”
Avery poked out her bottom lip as she settled into a chair a few feet away from the pool. “Oh, come on. It’s an annual event. You’re the queen. You have to be there!”
My heart thudded a little harder, thinking about it. Avery, Alistair, and I were all part of an elite group of students called The Royal Court. There was nothing particularly special about us, apart from the fact that we were all incredibly rich and had been specially recruited by the King of The Royal Court, Nathan Loche. Although we were really just a group of entitled kids who one of us decided were worth special treatment, that one kid’s dad, Connor Loche, was one of the most powerful and influential people in Postings. Therefore, we received the special treatment we all enjoyed.
Connor also happened to be the guy who gave my dad that life-changing promotion. Right afterward, Connor invited my dad to one of his family Christmas parties, and while my parents were rubbing elbows with the elite, I was brought to Nathan’s sub-party, where Avery pulled me aside and told me that he was the King of The Royal Court and wanted me to be his queen. We started dating shortly thereafter and had a tumultuous relationship for the next three years until I found out he was sleeping with one of the teachers at our school. I broke up with him officially, but I maintained my role as queen.
“It’s gonna be so awkward,” I murmured to Avery. “I don’t want to be around Nathan at all.”
Every year, during the last week of the summer, right before school started, Nathan hosted a massive Royal Court pool party that every single student in our city got an invite to. Everyone expected the entire Royal Court to be in attendance, but the thought of having anything to do with Nathan when I’d successfully managed to avoid him all summer just didn’t sit well with me.
“So, don’t be around him.” Avery shifted as Alistair made his way over to where she was sitting and sat in front of her between her legs so that he could look into the camera as well. “The three of us will get some booze, get some food, find a corner, and just shit talk everyone.”
I grinned. That did sound like fun. If I could go to the party and not see Nathan, I would probably enjoy myself. The party was always hosted on the Loches’ massive estate, and with five hundred or more people there, it should be easy to lose myself.
Right?
“Come on, Cher. If you don’t go, Avery isn’t gonna have a good time at all, and you know how much she loves parties,” Alistair said.
“Oh, please,” Avery scoffed. “When we went to the movies last weekend and you couldn’t go, Ali whined the entire time that we shouldn’t be there without you.”
“No.” Alistair turned away from the camera. “I don’t even care.”
It was a good thing I had Avery and Alistair. Things with The Royal Court often felt very vapid, but they were a couple of good souls who I’d found through the whole thing. Even once I was off to college and, hopefully, leaving Postings and The Royal Court behind, I hoped that I’d be friends with them forever.
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, I’ll come.”
Alistair started to clap, and a wide smile found Avery’s face. “Yay!” she sang. “It’ll be fun, I promise.”
“It’d better be. It’s the last party before our senior year. If it isn’t epic, I’m holding the two of you personally responsible.”
2
Cherri
I had other, more revealing bathing suits that I might have chosen to wear, but given the circumstances, I decided on a teal and white two-piece with a halter-top and bikini bottoms. I twisted my blonde hair up into a messy bun on top of my head and skipped a majority of my makeup regimen in case I did decide to get wet. I’d been blessed with my mother’s natural beauty and didn’t require much makeup on a good day, but I did put on some mascara to frame my blue eyes and called that good enough.
Over my swimsuit bottoms, I pulled on a pair of blue-jean short shorts, and I added a black camisole that was successful in accentuating my large bust for my slim and short frame, but it failed to hide the straps of my top, not that it mattered. It was a pool party, so people expected to see swimsuits, either in full or poking out of street clothes. To finish the ensemble, I slid on a pair of black roman sandals to show off my latest pedicure.
I loaded my wallet, phone, and car keys into a small tote bag alongside a towel, sunscreen, sunglasses, and a power bank, and then I left my bedroom and made my way out to the driveway. Thanks to my auto-start Audi, it wasn’t necessary to pull my keys out of my bag. They were close enough that I was able to press the unlock button on the door and then the ignition buttons again once inside to start it. I smiled as it purred to life, and I petted the steering wheel.
“Good afternoon to you, too, CJ.”
CJ, the name I gave my car, stood for Cherri Jr. It was the only rich person’s luxury I’d struggle to give up if I had to. I loved my car, and as a poor kid coming up, my own car was something I didn’t think I’d have until well into my adult years. Thanks to my dad’s promotion, I was given the car for my sixteenth birthday. It was my favorite and most expensive thing that I owned. The steering wheel had a jewel-encrusted crown in the center. The crown was a gift from Nathan, given to me because, as he said, I was his queen, but other people said it was because he wanted to brand me.