Page 20 of Privilege
He’s wildly unhappy, and I understand why. He’s got the lacrosse team, sure, but when I think back on it, Rich has never initiated a social activity in the entire time I’ve known him. He’s always preferred going to the movies, ordering in pizza, or even making me breakfast in his very shiny kitchen over joining Lyle and Christian at frat parties, going out with the boys, or even going out to the campus pub.
Seeing him here, drowning in the neverending social show, I get why he prefers to lay low and keep quiet.
“Gimme some of that,” he says, appearing on the balcony of the resort and resting one hand on my back and taking my joint from me with the other.
“Can we go now?” I murmur.
The backs of his knuckles glide down my spine. Goosebumps raise on my exposed skin, the V of this dress scandalously low. I picked it because it reminds me of the yellow dress inHow to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
Rich takes a hit of my joint and motions for me to lean in close. I open my mouth for him and he exhales, the stream pouring from his lips and into my mouth. I inhale giddily, despite my pre-existing and very solid buzz.
His hand drops lower and firmly wraps around the curve of my ass. “You look amazing,” he says, voice low. His face is solemn, and he takes another hit.
“You look miserable,” I say, pushing my ass harder into his hand.
His lip twitches, and he drops the joint and stubs it out with his overpriced loafers.
“I have to stay a while longer,” he says, but his grip is tightening.
No. I don’t want to stay any longer, and I know Rich doesn’t either. This is our third—fourth? —event of the week.Enough.I step out of his grasp.
“Do you even like these people, Rich?”
He sighs and starts to remove his hand but I grab it and keep it crushed to me. I sway into him so our bodies are touching.
“We’re losing the summer,” I whisper.
He looks torn. In the morning, he’ll get all kinds of shit from Evelyn for disappearing this early in the game. We both know it. But I think he can tell from my face that if he doesn’t walk away from this with meright now,he is—for the first time—going to get shitfrom me.
He twists his hand out from under mine, but only to intertwine our fingers and nod at the fire exit for the balcony. “Let’s take a break then,” he says. Only a few weeks back to his old life and he’s already a politician.
I open my mouth to argue but he clamps his other hand down over my mouth and shakes his head.
“No arguments.”
I nod and he lets go, and we scurry towards the rickety metal ladder by the fire escape. Hehelps me down, no small feat in a dress this tight, and we take off along a pristine boardwalk into the darkness.
“I want to show you something,” he says.
He leads me over a weedy hill to what can’t be more than a glorified shed, tucked away from the wind beneath the entrance to the boardwalk. You’d never see it from above. It’s the kind of thing you have to be looking for to know it’s there.
“Dane and I used to come here all the time,” he says.
“To make out with girls, obviously,” I say. I touch the peeling paint, the rotting wooden posts that smell like salt.
“No,” he says.
“Liar.”
He smiles at me. “I’ve never brought a girl to this place, Cara. And I doubt he has either. Girls here…” He stares off at the resort in the distance. “This isn’t exactly five star,” he finally says.
“Why did you come here then?” I ask him.
“I don’t know,” he says, brow furrowing. “Dane loved it here, though.”
I smile. “You did too.”
“Huh?”
