Shatter Me At Dawn

2

Some people wait their whole lives to find their soulmate. I’d been lucky enough to find mine early—at age fifteen to be exact. If I had known before I sat down in my History classroom on the first day of high school that the girl behind me would end up my best friend, I would have been one hundred percent more excited for the class.

“I don’t know, seems pretty straightforward to me,” said Lex after I’d explained the meeting over the phone. I’d gotten home and hopped into a rose and lavender bubble bath in an effort to de-stress, calling her even before the steam had settled on the fragrant water. “Trevor is jealous of you cracking the virus first and getting the promotion, Bossman is worried about it falling into the wrong hands. Cole is just hot.”

“Lex, be serious. Why would Bossman be worried about it falling into the wrong hands? It was only the four of us in that room—we all have security clearances and we’ve been working together for months now with sensitive information.”

“You never know, anyone could be listening. You know, like, bugs?”

My elbow jerked, spilling the glass of chianti off the marble ledge of the tub. I cringed at the sound of the glass shattering on the black-and-white parquet floor. “Bugs?”

“I mean, can you even really be sure there aren’t any at your house? Like James Bond kinda ish. You don’t run background investigations on the guys you bring back.”

“Wow,” I said with a shiver, “thanks for that terrifying thought, Lex. I’m sure I’ll sleep well tonight…after I check everything. What does a bug look like?”

“Oh, you won’t be sleeping,” replied Lex ominously, “…because we’re going out tonight. You got a promotion and it’s time to PARTY!”

I grinned. What could I say? The girl knew how to speak my language. It’s a fact—in my corner of life, at least—that if there’s something bothering you, there’s nothing like jumping into the heart and soul of the nightlife to help forget your problems. A temporary forgetting, maybe—but sometimes that was enough. Maybe a little carefree fun was just what I needed.

“The Usual?”

“Definitely,” replied Lex. “I’ll make the invites. See you in an hour.”

I groaned, watching the rose petals floating sedately around the tub. “An hour…really, Lex? I just got in this bath.”

“You can do it, sweetie. Wear that super sexy red dress.”

“Yeah, duh.”

“Oh, and, Soph—“

“What?”

“Can I borrow the Lambo?”

***

“I love it,” Lex moaned an hour later, eyes closed, hands gripping the wheel of my yellow Lamborghini Huracan. “Love. It. I can just feel the six hundred and two horsepower. Hear the seductive purr of the five-point-two liter V-10, the responsiveness of seven speed dual-clutch automatic. So much luxury. Intensity. Severity. Elegance. And it smells…so…good…”

“Lex, are we ever going to leave the driveway?”

“Of course,” Lex replied, snapping open her honey-colored eyes and tossing heavy black curls over her shoulder. “Just let a girl have her moment, will you?”

“So...how long have you been subscribing to Car and Driver?”

Lex scoffed as she extended a slender leg—looking for all the world like a model in an car advertisement—and peeled us out of the driveway. “Whatever. Anyone can appreciate a fine piece of engineering.”