Devious Little Liars (Saint View High, #1)

by Elle Thorpe

This boy I could fall in love with.

“You’re perfect, you know that?” he said, kissing my shoulder. “We are,” I corrected. “We’re perfect.” In that moment, I believed it.

“I can’t believe you’re eighteen,” she breathed. “I swear it was just the other day we opened this door and found you on the step with your social worker. You looked up at me with those big eyes, and my heart broke into a million pieces. I fell in love with you right then and there, you know? And I’ve never stopped. Not for a moment. And now you’re all grown-up.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Selina pulled away, blinking at me in surprise. “You’ve never called me that.” “Is it okay? It’s just you’re the only mom I really remember. You’re the one who has always been there for me. And I don’t want to regret not telling you that, the way I do with Uncle Lawson. I wished I’d called him Dad. Because that’s how I think of him.” Selina’s eyes went glassy. “He would have loved that. But he already knew. He was your dad, even if you never actually said it. He knew.”

“You look smoking,” he whispered, fingers tightening around my lower back. “Happy birthday, baby. Here.” He placed a thin rectangular present in my hands, wrapped impeccably, with a silver bow.

I didn’t have to ask to know he’d wrapped it himself. The perfect wrapping job was somehow reminiscent of the tidy way he kept his house. It was all very Banjo, and all at complete odds with the laid-back surfer vibe he showed off to the world. I knew him. The real him. The one he hid from the rest of the world.

I pulled off the ribbon and peeled back the edges of the paper. I gasped. Banjo knew me, too. So well. A beautiful pile of personalized sheet music lay beneath the wrapping. My name was in a gold foil font across the top, and the lines were blank, just waiting for me to fill in with my song...

“I know I’ve made our music study sessions more about making out than writing songs.” I snorted. “Understatement of the century.” “But I know how talented you are. And I promise, as part of this present, I’m going to stop distracting you and start supporting you to get your songs down. And ev...

“Thank you. It’s beautiful. I love it. And also, happy birthday!” I grinned back at him. “Ready for your present?” His eyes raked over my curves, heating my blood. “The only present I want is to fuck you while you’re wearing that dress.”

It would be hours later before I realized Banjo had never said I love you back.

My mind drifted. The pain lessened. And as I floated in and out of the fading blackness, my only thought was I’d trusted all the wrong people. Banjo. Rafe. Owen. They’d all betrayed me. But this wouldn’t be my downfall. They might have won this battle. But this was a war. If I lived through this, I’d be their princess no longer. I’d be their fucking queen. And they’d bow to me. Whether they liked it or not.