Page 5 of Sunrise Arrows

“Yeah, whatever,” she dismisses before telling her friend, “Nobody has this shit. I’m gonna be fucking rich when I sell this.”

“Hey, skank-face,” Briar says without looking up from her phone as her fingers fly across the screen. “You’re Live. No one’s gonna pay you for shit. Now get the fuck out before I call the police and have you dragged away in cuffs.”

“Actually,” I draw out, casually picking up Corey’s clothes from the floor. Keeping a wide berth between us as I go for my balcony, I decide, “I think I’d rather you just get out,” throwing his clothes over the railing and into the pool, dropping his overpriced sneakers in one after the other.

“Bitch!” he screeches, running over to the railing. “Those were a limited edition.”

“Yeah, and now they’re worth about as much as your public image is thanks to yourfriendover there.”

Going over to my closet, I snatch an armful of clothes only to have my nose wrinkle at the smell. It seems the eau de parfum of last night’s party made its way up here. Letting them all go, I head for the door and tell Briar, “You know, I think you’re right. A vacation is exactly what I need.”

Undeterred by my blatant ignoring of every call of my name and the nickname he has no right to use, Corey chases me down the stairs unable to catch up thanks to the wall of muscle Mikey and John are creating.

“Tinsel, I’m sorry. C’mon baby, I didn’t mean it. I was just upset. You know those were my favorite.”

“Is he, like, for real?” Briar asks. “He’s in bed withtwowomen andthat’swhat he’s apologizing for?”

Downstairs, I wave to the cleaning crew he must have hired to hide his mess, unaware I left to come home a day early, a smile stretching across my face as I snatch the keys to my house that Mikey dropped on the entry table.

With each one between my fingers as I walk outside, I turn around and look Corey right in his eye.

“Don’t worry, baby” I mock. “No hard feelings.” And with that, I dig the keys into his car’s paint job, dragging them across the driver’s side like Wolverine.

“You fucking backwoods BITCH!” Corey roars.

He’s too slow, too hungover, and possibly too high to think his actions through as he charges across the gravel for me. In one swift action, John is using his momentum against him to lift and drop his ass into the ground, coldly ordering, “Stay the fuck down.”

“Ooo that’s gonna leave a mark,” Briar coos, holding the SUV’s doors open for me.

She slides in behind me, yanking the door shut as the one girl, Lux, and the cleaning crew all come out of the house, phones raised as they take pictures and record us. Right behind her, Mikey is hopping into the driver’s seat, his door not even shut before we’re peeling out while John stays behind with my house until he can successfully remove Corey and hisfriendsfrom my property.

At the gate, hoards of paparazzi are already waiting, bringing us down to a snail’s pace as Mikey fights them for every inch in order to get us out of here.

Turning to Briar, who is already trying to do damage control, I ask, “How about Berry Falls?”

“Does it have any of these roaches?” Mikey asks.

“No. Last time I was there, I was able to go about my business completely unbothered.”

“Yes, and you used to be able to go buy your own groceries without needing crowd control,” Mikey counters. “Things change.”

“Small towns like Berry Falls aren’t impressed by fame. To them, I’m just a regular person.”

“I want the record to show that I think this is a terrible idea,” Briar says. “You know he’s still there and you guys are bound to run into each other. But so long as you don’t try to get me on a horse, I’m good with it. Though I think Paris or London, or maybe Bali, would be a better choice.”

“What do you have against horses?”

“You mean other than the fact that they eat people and have stompy death feet?”

“Briar,” I snort. “You cannot be serious. Death feet?”

“Stompydeath feet.”

“Did you say, ‘eat people?’” Mikey checks.

“You’ve seen those teeth. No way those things are for sugar cubes and carrots.”

He tries and fails to not laugh, earning himself a flick on the neck from Briar in rebuke.

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