Page 1 of Fault Line

1

KAIA

“I’ve been thinkingabout it, and I feel like I deserve to get railed this weekend.”

“Jesus Christ, Kaia.” My best friend, Elio, scoffs, his usual mellow tone ratcheting up to an unnatural level. “Have some fucking decorum, why don’t you?”

I cross my arms with a huff, plopping down onto the edge of my bed across from him. “Coming from the guy who rails people for a living.”

Despite his constant attempts to trivialize it, I’m only saying this because it’s true. Elio Reynolds—my best friend from childhood and half-willing sober companion—is a well-renowned sex worker. It’s not something he enjoys bragging about, but he does make decent money doing it.

According to my estimations, he’s made more than enough cash to put himself through college, plus pay off any other debts he’s accrued along the way.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it a living. Besides, it’s one thing formeto do it and another to hear aboutyoudoing it.” He tosses his journal down onto my desk, spinning around in his chair to face me. “I think my ears are burning.”

“Oh my God, drama queen,” I mutter, picking at a particularly nasty split end. “I’ve actually seen you in the act, you know? That’s at least a thousand times worse.”

No matter how hard I try, I’m unable to scrub that disturbing image from my brain. If I remember correctly, it was a balmy June night when I accidentally walked in on him. He was sitting there alone on his couch, manspreading as one does, reviewing a solo scene before popping it up on a subscription site. Thankfully, I clamped both hands over my eyes, screeching out an ungodly sound, before I could witness a full-frontal shot.

And then, you know, the nightmares ensued. For literal months. In fact, I’m still getting over the whole ordeal, and it’s fucking September already.

“Alright, so you saw my bare ass through a screen. One. Fucking. Time. And it was an accident.” He flippantly gestures toward my chest. “Flash me your tits right now, and we’ll call it even.”

I lob a throw pillow straight at the center of his forehead. “Go home, E.”

“But Kaiaaa,” he whines, drawing out my name into three long, annoying syllables. “We only have a few questions left.”

We’ve been working on an assignment for Advanced Calculus for the past three hours. Both of us are deep in the midst of earning our engineering degrees here at Coastal University—electrical for Elio and biomedical for myself. This means that our elective courses occasionally line up.

Luckily for Elio, considering I’m the only one of us holding this fragile team together.

“Youhave a few questions left,” I huff. “I’ve been finished with mine for the last half an hour, waiting for you to catch up and get the hell out of my apartment.”

“Okay, Miss Smarty Pants.” He waves a dismissive hand, rolling his eyes. “We get it. You’re top of the class.”

“Tiedfor top of the class.” I cough out the spiteful clarification.

“Same shit.”

“Hardly.”

Leaning back in his chair, he folds his arms together to rest them on his stomach. “Sounds like good ol’ Beck’s got your panties in a twist again.”

Internally, I picture myself drop-kicking Elio out the front door, then hurling his entire backpack full of shit right on behind him. Instead, I say, “Holden Beckerhas nothing to do with my panties, thank you very much.”

“You know, I ratted the little hockey superstar out to my sister-in-law the other day.” He absentmindedly chews on a cuticle. “She said she’d go hard on him during practice for us.”

“Yeah, right.” I snort. “I can’t imagine Harper goinghard on anyone. That girl is like a fairy-tale princess or something. I swear to God.”

I’m barely even exaggerating when I say that. Harper Reynolds—his brother’s wife and the newest athletic trainer for our school’s hockey team—is hands down one of the kindest, most down-to-earth people I’ve ever met.

Unlike the two of us, I doubt there’s even one bad bone in her entire body.

“She’s pretty fucking loyal when it comes to family, though,” he argues, eyes wide. “You should’ve seen her the last time I dared to call my brother a pussy. Steam was practically pouring out of her ears.”

“Surely not.” I suppress my laughter. “Sofia swears she’s like thenicest person ever... which is wild, considering they met while she was still dating Daniel.”

“It’s funny you should say that because Harper is, like, physically repulsed by your sister.Still.”

---