Rivals (#3)

8.

Val.

I hate school. More importantly, I hate that I have no goddamn clue what I want to do with my life and yet I'm sat with piles of textbooks and unanswered questions.

Majoring in journalism was the only one that seemed slightly appealing at the time. Especially since back when I was thirteen, I'd thought being a reporter would've been cool. I was indecisive as hell. I still am. But I soon came to realise that I'm not built to be a reporter or a writer.

I just lack ambition if it doesn't have anything to do with the water and unfortunately, there aren't many careers associated with the ocean.

I groan and let my forehead fall into the textbook, earning a loud thud and I screw up my face at the light pain.

"I won't let you fail, Val." Violet's soft voice sounds out, "I never let my tutees fail."

"Everest's failing." I mutter.

Ria chimes in, "Everest has the attention span of a piece of lint."

I lift my face, setting my chin on the page. My blonde hair falls messily over my face and Violet smiles slightly, sat opposite me on the floor of our apartment with the table between us, all my due work piled up on it. She's wearing a white headband in her light hair, perfectly styled and delicate.

Ria's strewn over the couch besides us, a random magazine in her hands and her legs falling over the armrest. She's in black denim shorts and a tiny racer top that stops just below her boobs. The delicate tattoos over her torso are on show.

"Ugh." I slam my head down again, "Why can't money fall out of the sky for me too?"

"Mine didn't fall out of the sky. Fell out of my dead daddy's pockets, if we're being accurate." Ria turns the page of her magazine.

Ria adopted her mainly absent, abusive dad's inheritance when he passed away recently. And Violet was born to the sort of wealth that's hard to even fathom.

"You're both set for life. You could live off your inheritances like sexy rich people and I'll be slumming it back in Kilned because once I secure no job, I'm gonna be living with my mom again." I tilt my head and correct, "I love my momma, don't get me wrong-"

"If we're rich, you're rich." Ria shuts the magazine and sits up, crossing her legs beneath her, "But relax. I'm nowhere near Amory status."

"All my richness is yours." Violet smiles a little, "Seriously. Maybe we could get a house together someday."

Ria wrinkles her nose, "We'd all end up killing each other. I still don't know how we're all alive in here."

I snort, chin still on the page. It's chaos here. Perfect chaos. Just yesterday, Miguel and Everest had started to wrestle in the middle of the goddamn floor like animals at dinner. It was Friday, and as per Benji's decree, that's our pizza day. The now broken coffee table is on its last leg, sadly waiting to be thrown out as a result.

"I'm being serious." Violet shrugs, "I'd love to live with all of us. Even after college."

"I'd love it too. I don't want to leave." I say, "It's weird to think we'll move on from this place someday."

Ria runs her fingers over our shared tattoo on her wrist, "We'll always be together. I'm kinda excited to see how our lives pan out."

"A wedding soon." I wriggle my eyebrows and Ria's lips lift as well, Violet's cheeks turning pink.

Everest Jones and Violet Amory are nineteen. Most people would say it's stupid to marry that young but one look at those two together and it seems weird they hadn't already run off to Las Vegas or something, to seal the deal. They're both reckless beneath the surface and perfectly made for each other.