Top Secret

by Sarina Bowen

after six years together,

She and I have been inseparable since junior year of high school.

The first time she brought it up, I thought she was kidding around.

Annika Schiffer, heiress to a home-furnishings fortune,

president of her sorority, wears a pearl necklace (and not the fun kind) on a daily basis, and made me wait until we were eighteen to lose our virginities to each other.

monthly facials, which require her to fly to New York every month

It helps that her father owns a helicopter

I’m not one to judge, though. My dad has his own jet.

“Later!” Tanner calls after her.

he takes a longing look at her ass.

“If you’re going to eye-fuck my girlfriend, you could at least ...

“Why?” Tanner argues. “She’d b...

Besides, I’m harmless.” He flashes me...

Disrespectful

“Holding onto anger isn’t conducive to robust mental health.”

“First of all, say the word robust one more time and I’ll clock you.

m/f/m m/m/f

What’s the difference?

I even dreamt about sex with men once. Or twice.

never mentioned that to Annika.

LUKE

As in Luke Bailey, the enemy?

I don’t work another shift at the club until tomorrow night, so cash is tight.

Skipping dinner to geek out in the statistics lab wasn’t my smartest move, I suppose.

I make it a point to never borrow anything from the rich kids I go to school with.

Nobody from the college ever leaves the campus unless they’re headed for the airport.

Darby is an old mill town that fell on hard times about a century after the college was founded.

used to be quaint and wholesome. Now it’s a total shithole.

Unfortunately, the scholarship doesn’t cover room and board.

sophomore and junior years at Darby have been all about fending off homelessness and starvation

Dorms and meal plans are expensive, so I rushed Alpha Delt and took the cheapest room.

Fun fact: the president of the fraternity doesn’t have to pay rent.

So guess who’s running for president?

Yes, my neighbor’s name is Keaton.

I don’t want to answer, but I also know my mother—she’ll keep calling

There’s only one male offspring Marlene Bailey gives a shit about, and it sure ain’t me.

My mother can cry on command.

watched her use tears to wrap her revolving door of boyfriends around her little finger.

Just uttering my older brother’s name sends an eddy of sickness to my gut.

Joe is the reason I can’t live at home.

there was literally no way of escaping Joe and his lowlife friends.

A deadbeat dad I haven’t seen since I was two.

drama-queen mom who would probably marry her eldest son if society didn’t frown upon it.

I made seven hundred the first weekend. Twelve hundred the second.

I’ll have money for groceries, rent, and gas.

Dad is goofier when there’s a girl present. Or anyone, really.

Annika has no idea how fraught our relationship is getting lately.

Now I’ve probably scared him off with my encyclopedic knowledge of crustacean sex.

“Who cares about a meeting with a TA?” she grumbles.

Maybe he does dumb ass

“We’re starting a handyman business!”

Would you have five hundred dollars you could invest in our business?”

But I’ve loaned her money before, and she never pays it back.

“You don’t like my idea?”