“You smart-mouthing me boy?”

I peer out from under the covers and Rainer’s body is so stiff it worries me. His fists are clenched and he’s glaring at the door, which, thankfully, is locked.

“No,” Rainer yells.

“Beg your fucking pardon?”

“No, sir.”

Poor Rainer. My heart aches for him. It’s as if his pride is being torn to pieces every time he talks to his father. His father is an asshole. I dislike him and try to avoid him at all costs. We hear a pound, as if he hit the door, and then the floorboards creak loudly as he disappears. Rainer stops the movie and we both sit in silence, like we always do when this happens.

“You okay?” I ask, the same question I always ask.

“Yeah,” he says, the same answer he always gives.

“Do you want me to go?”

“No,” he says, flicking the television off and sliding down into the covers. “Roll.”

I do as he asks, rolling to my side. He slides up close and throws his arm over my middle.

“Hey, Rai?”

“Hmmmm?”

“Do you think this friendship is . . . unnatural?”

It’s a very random thought, but now that Rainer and I seem to be finding our own love interests, I’ve been thinking more and more about our friendship and how it might look to another person. It seems normal to me, but I don’t know any other people who have a friendship like ours.

He’s silent a minute. “No.”

“We sleep together.”

“So?”

“I don’t know. I guess some people probably don’t get it.”

“Then they wouldn’t get us. Girls have sleepovers all the time, where four or five of them pile into a bed. What’s the difference?”

“We’re snuggling.”

He grunts. “I’m not snuggling.”

I laugh softly. “Okay, dude, whatever you say.”

He doesn’t move his arm off me—that just shows he doesn’t give a crap and is going to sleep like this, no matter how much I taunt him.

“Promise me something, Em,” he says just as my eyes start fluttering closed.

“Anything.”

“Promise me you’ll protect your virginity with everything you’ve got. Only give it up when you know, with all your soul, that it’s time.”

I reach up and grab his hand, squeezing it. “I promise.”

I honestly don’t know what I’d do without Rainer, some days.

And that thought scares me.

CHAPTER SEVEN

NOW – MALI

“Order up!”

I take the tray of coffees and walk them over to the snot-nosed group of girls sitting at the table, waiting. They ordered things I can’t even pronounce off the menu, and are looking at me expectantly as I walk towards them. I flash them my best smile and place the coffees down, having no idea which is which. Thankfully, they seem to know and reach for their selected drinks.

“I’d like a sweetener,” a pretty blonde girl says, waving a finger as if she’s too posh to wave her whole hand.

“Right,” I say, turning and grabbing a few sachets from the table beside us. I thrust them at her and then get back to work.

The bell above the door rings and I look over to see another group of girls coming in. I recognize one. She’s the girl who was at Rainer’s bar the other night when I first went in there. She’s really pretty, with strawberry-blond hair and the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. There are three other girls with her—one has really dark hair and dark eyes, another is tiny and blond, and one has crazy purple streaks in her hair.

I smile at them and the girl I met the other night smiles at me, giving me a wave. “Oh hey!” she calls, nearing closer. “I saw you the other night.”

I nod, smiling. “Yeah, sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

“It’s Belle. These are my friends Pippa, Santana and Jaylah.”

I wave at them, and they all smile.

“I’m Mali. What brings you girls in here?”

“We heard the coffee was good.” Belle grins.

I wave to an empty booth. “Take a seat. We’ll see if that’s a true statement.”

They all smile and sit down, and I pull out my notepad to take their orders.

“So what were you doing at Rainer’s bar?” Belle asks, browsing the menu. “Do you know him?”

I look up, unable to answer as she’s caught me off-guard. The blond girl, who she introduced as Pippa, pipes up. “Oh, you know Rainer?”

My eyes flick to hers. “Ah, kind of. Sorry, do you all know him?”

“He’s my best friend.” Pippa smiles, and it feels as if someone has slapped me across the face.

He got a new best friend.

A new one.

And he forgot about me.

That hurts so much.

“Oh,” I say, forcing a smile but I’m sure my lip quivers. “That’s great. I don’t know him well. I ah, we ah . . .”

Belle’s eyes widen as she clicks. “Oh,” she says, nodding.

Pippa narrows her eyes, almost as if she doesn’t like the idea, but she doesn’t say anything.

“So you say he’s your best friend,” I say to her. “How long have you been friends?”

Her face grows a little troubled—kind of the way Rainer’s did the other night. “A long time.”

Not that long.

“That’s good. I’m glad. He’s a good guy.”

She smiles again. She really is sweet—you can see it written all over her. It’s as if she could never be nasty. She’s the complete opposite to me. “Yeah,” she says. “He really is.”

“Hey, we’re going to my husband’s club tonight. You should come with? Rainer and him are fighting,” Belle pipes up.

Fighting? Rainer fights?

“Rainer fights?” I ask.

“He does, but don’t worry, it’s really great to watch,” Santana adds.

“Yeah,” Pippa says. “It’s fun. You should come.”

Jaylah and Belle nod.

“But you don’t know me,” I point out.

“Well, we can get to know you,” Belle encourages. “What do you say?”

“Okay.” I smile. “I’m in.”

If these girls know Rainer, I might just have a chance of figuring out what the hell has happened to him.

And I just bet Pippa has something to do with it – don’t ask me why but there’s something in her eyes that matches Rainer’s and I think she just might now his story.

If I’m lucky.

~*~*~*~

The music pounds out the doors to the club called House Of Obsidian. It’s a massive place, with a line-up a mile long at the front entrance. A big black deck can be seen off to the side and it’s crowded to the point where I don’t know how anymore people can get on there. Belle tugs my hand and I focus back on walking through the entrance. We didn’t have to line up, because her husband, Max, owns the club.

When we step inside, I gasp at the sheer size of the space. It’s huge, and modern and sleek. The colors are very sharp, blacks and whites, with splashes of silver. It looks amazing.

I follow the girls up to the bar, and a pretty blond girl serves us before others. We get a round of cosmos, and then Belle leans over and tells me we’re going to watch the fight.