Faith slumped into the chair beside her and took her hand. “Hey, let’s look at the bright side. She probably wouldn’t know if we snuck out.”
“Then let’s.” Grace had lost interest in partying soon after initiating Faith. The nights when she wanted to go out Faith had the hook-up, but she never forced Grace to come along. Besides when Faith left, Grace would swipe a bottle from Nana’s liquor cabinet. She didn’t have to share it and she also wouldn’t wind up puking in half the gardens in Ballard on the way home. It was a win-win. Tonight she wanted more than a few hasty sips of booze that she’s already watered down too much to feel that delicious burn. Tonight she wanted to forget.
“Really? I thought you’d sworn it off.” Faith was already out of her seat. “Can I do your make-up?”
“Why not?” Grace shrugged, not able to muster a smile. If it meant getting out of here and away from that letter and her grandmother, she was in. The thought of spending a night watching her future slowly circling the drain was too much to bear. “Where are we going?”
“Leave that to me.” Faith winked. “In a few hours you’re going to be so chill.”
It was a promise, but it sounded more like a threat.
“What are we doing here?” Grace grabbed Faith’s arm and began to shake her. The whole place was the definition of a hellhole. From the blinking fluorescent light in what was meant to pass as a kitchen to the cigarette burns in the carpet. Usually when she joined Faith there was a party. As in people. This place creeped her out. Clearly, she needed to be chaperoning a bit more often.
“Loosen up.” Faith tossed her hair over her shoulder and tugged her shirt down to reveal more cleavage. “I thought you wanted to relax.”
“I do.” Grace hesitated, finally releasing the vise grip she had on her sister’s arm. “I just thought we’d sneak into a bar or something. Isn’t there a party nearby?”
“Derrick can get us into a bar later, but I wanted to stop here first.”
Grace didn’t ask her why. She was more interested in the mysterious Derrick.
“Don’t be scared,” Faith continued in a soothing voice. Then she reached up and plucked out her sister’s ponytail holder. Grace’s hair spilled over her shoulders, instantly making her look more like her twin. “Derrick is going to flip. Let’s make him guess which one is which.”
Derrick’s bulky form filled the doorframe, blocking the hall behind him, as if he’d been summoned by Faith’s words. He was older, that much was obvious, from the slight wrinkles creasing his forehead. But otherwise he dressed like boys from their class in poor-fitting jeans and a sloppy t-shirt. But there was no denying Derrick was gorgeous. Maybe that was why he didn’t try—at all. Not in what he wore or where he lived. Crystal blue eyes peered at the girls, locking them in place. It could have been his muscular body or the scruffy shadow on his jaw. But it was more than all of that. It was the way he moved. It was in how his eyes traveled unapologetically down their bodies. Boys had looked at them like that before, but it hadn’t elicited the same reaction. Derrick could have a girl riding him with her hand gripping his wavy blond hair before she’d found out his name.
Grace moved closer to Faith out of instinct, but her sister merely wrapped and arm around her waist and pulled her tightly against her. “Bet you can’t guess which one of us is which?”
“She looks scared.” Derrick smirked as he motioned to Grace. “But if you want to both try to convince me otherwise, I’m game.”
“Slow down, baby.” Faith wagged her finger. “She’s a virgin, and she’s not for you. I just wanted to prove I had a twin, since you wouldn’t fucking believe me.”
“That’s a shame.” This time there was nothing casual when his eyes raked over Grace. “But I talked your pretty, little ass into bed. If you two are identical, she shouldn’t be much of a challenge.”
Grace stiffened at this revelation, but Faith laughed as she patted her sister’s back. “I hadn’t told her yet, dick. I wanted her to meet you first, so she’d have a visual. Now you ruined it.”
Derrick shrugged and crossed to the kitchen. Faith immediately followed, trailing a few steps behind as he pulled a bottle of Jack from the cabinet. He extended it to her, but she shook her head.
“You know what I want,” she purred. Grace had never seen her like this, so dialed into her sexuality. It was an unabashed show put on for a purpose that made Grace’s stomach churn. She’d fantasized about boys touching her. She had even let Matt from Student Council stick his hand down her panties on the way back from a field trip, but he hadn’t known what to do. How did it come so easily to Faith?
“Then you know what to do.” He unscrewed the cap and took a swig.