Anyone But Rich(Anyone But... #1) - Penelope Bloom Page 0,1
the little piece of West Valley she could see below.
“You seriously didn’t know I liked him all this time?” she asked.
Iris chimed in. “You did say, ‘Ew, Nick is like a brother to me,’ pretty much every time we teased you about liking him. So you can’t really blame Kira for not realizing you wanted to fuck your brother. Brotherfucker,” she added. “Besides, if you wanted to get Kira back for dating Nick, I think Rich kind of beat you to the punch.”
I covered my mouth so Miranda wouldn’t see me grinning, but thankfully, Miranda was smiling too. We could always count on Iris to say something dumb at the right time. I didn’t think Iris could even help it if she’d wanted to. That was just how she was. And saying Rich had beaten her to the punch was the understatement of the century. I didn’t need to dig deep to know why I’d dated Nick. The King brother I’d always dreamed of had been Rich, but he was untouchable. Nick was my pathetic attempt to get his attention. If only I’d realized a single day of Rich’s attention would be enough to turn my world upside down.
“Just because you’re right, it doesn’t mean you’re not an asshole,” Miranda said.
The stony look on Miranda’s face finally softened. “I’m proud to say I have only seen one asshole. And I think you’d have to be a little demented to call it ‘nice.’”
“You get that, Kira?” asked Iris. “That can be your front-page story for the next school paper. Miranda Collins has a disfigured, terrifying asshole.”
Miranda rolled her eyes, but she was still smiling. “Just make sure you put an asterisk after that sentence. And her name is Iris.”
“You named your asshole after Iris?” I asked.
Miranda threw up her hands and shook her head. “I thought this was supposed to be some kind of cease-fire meeting. You two are just teaming up on me and my poor asshole.”
Her words reminded us all why we’d come to Overlook Point and of everything that had happened. Nobody was smiling anymore.
“I had an idea,” I said. “It won’t fix what happened, but I think it’s the best way to move forward.”
Iris nodded. “I know what you’re going to say, and you’re right. We leave the gas on in their house and then lob cherry bombs in the window. If science doesn’t let us down, only their teeth will survive the explosion.”
I stared at her. “Surprisingly, that wasn’t what I was about to say.”
Iris shrugged. “If your idea isn’t good, we’re going with mine.”
“I hope your idea is good,” Miranda said, “because I’m scared by how much I like this cherry bomb plan.”
“I say we make a pact. We all swear that no matter what, even if the King brothers come begging us for forgiveness on their knees, even if they end up becoming megafamous billionaires, we’ll never date them again. No matter what.”
“That’s it?” Iris asked. “Can we at least slash their tires? Maybe shove a potato in their exhaust pipes?”
“What the hell?” I laughed. “I don’t see how any of that would help.”
“It would help,” Iris said quietly.
“You can vandalize whatever you want, but I think we all need to swear it,” I said.
Miranda nodded. “I swear.”
“Fine. Me too,” Iris said.
“And me,” I said.
Chapter 1
KIRA
Seven Years Later
“Friendships are a lot like kindergarten art projects: without glue, they all fall apart.” Surprisingly, my father had said that. Granted, he’d also gone on to rant about how he never understood the stigma of eating glue and how scented glue sticks could have been like candy if people only tried them. It was always a little bit shocking that the man had ended up becoming a mayor, even if it was of a small town in rural North Carolina.
What he said had stuck with me. The first part, at least.
Maybe that was why I couldn’t help feeling like my friends and I were growing apart. Our promise to stay away from the Kings had brought us back together all those years ago, and it had held us together since. The Kings had left right after high school to launch some tech company out in California. Unfortunately for us, they’d found enough success and money that they had become billionaires and they had become national celebrities. Their shocking good looks, antics, success, and money made them household names. Go figure. When you made a solemn vow and