Mark My Words

66 | The Darling Dilemma

Georgina Saber was an early recruit, and one that Arden snagged long before Kaiserslautern when they lived in California. Her longstanding hatred for her father made the transition easy for Georgina, and she was more than willing to befriend Arden if it meant permanently dealing with her father. When Joanna met Georgie, Georgie's mother was a single parent. She didn't want to know the details.

Darlene Lavier, on the other hand, was a special case, and one that complicated the dynamic of the Kaiserslautern girls.

Darling wasn't the usual case, and still wasn't. Her attitude towards men wasn't tainted by perpetrators, hatred against men older than her, people who took advantage of her. She wasn't taken advantage of—rather, she took advantage of others.

She was not at all like Arden, though. Arden took advantage of others by putting them on leashes and tugging on them when they stepped out of line. Arden's possessions consisted of dogs who followed out of blind faith like any bitch. Darling, on the other hand, was the owner who bedazzled her collars and doted on her dogs with pink-lipstick kisses. Her bitches followed out of loving care. Arden's bitches followed out of possessive obligation.

Arden rescued them from bad situations, and Darling gave them all the love they were missing.

Darling's problem scenario, though, was with her younger brother.

***

"Anything I say about these girls... you're gonna feel sorry for them. And I'll tell you right now: Darling isn't the worst of them. She's the best of them, all right? And we were actually friends. She just... won't let go of them," Joanna explained, sitting up from the bed.

"What was wrong with her younger brother?" Rosalie asked.

Joanna rubbed a hand over her brow, sighing. "He was nearly seven years younger than her. We were all sixteen, seventeen, and he was this snotty little ten year old with a God complex. I met him once. Darling went to visit him, so Gucci and I went with her."

Rosalie stammered at the name. "Gucci? Like the brand?"

Joanna laughed bitterly, shaking her head. "Stupid nickname. Georgina. Most of us call her Gucci, Darling calls her George, Georgie, Teddy Bear, you name it. Gucci's like her personal guard. She protects Darling, which means as long as Darling's in the room, nothing bad happens. No shit talking, nothing. I forget about it sometimes.

"When I went batshit crazy on Arden, Gucci punched me so hard, it's a miracle I didn't get a concussion. She pinned me, and I had already lost it, so I bit a chunk of her arm. I had to get tested just in case when I was in the psych ward, what with... Gucci's history. Shit I never asked about," she explained, pointing to a spot on her own bicep. Rosalie ran her finger over the nonexistent bite mark. "Have you ever tasted someone else's blood?"

She thought about it. Her and Sami did some weird shit when they were kids, and she swore one time Sami kissed a boo-boo she got on her finger, but she never did that for him.

"No, I haven't," she confessed.

"It's shitty, don't do it," Joanna said. Rosalie couldn't help but laugh. "So Darling was supposed to be my safeguard, back in Kaiserslautern. She knew it, too, so she'd step in a lot. Whenever Arden got angry with me, at practice, with Auntie, she wouldn't let Georgina corner me. Darling, Nora Jacobs, and I wound up having a lot of classes together, which was nice, especially when I was trying to distance myself from the group.