Brazen Tricks - Ali Dean Page 0,1

now.

The house is humongous, and Beck moved in last month with Griff and three other friends, with plenty of room to spare. I live here about half the time too, but my official home base is by Summerside University, where I’ve just started my sophomore year. Well, I’m a little behind to be a real sophomore after taking last semester off and only taking half a course load online instead, but I’m calling myself a sophomore anyway. Along with Lucy, our roommates Zora and Ellie are here tonight too. Actually there are about thirty or forty people here for our joint birthday party, and while some of them are Lucy’s friends from the surfer scene, I know just about everyone.

“Oh shit,” Ellie mutters beside me. I glance over at her and follow her gaze. It takes me a minute to process what I’m seeing.

“Is that Felicity Bernstein?”

“She’s with Sydney. Lucy felt too guilty about not inviting her so she texted her yesterday.”

“She never texted back. I didn’t think she was coming,” Lucy rushes out. “She hasn’t even spoken to us since that day at the pool.”

The day she’s referring to was a month ago. Sydney, my roommates’ friend from high school, announced she was transferring from her college in New York to Summerside University. She then suggested I move out so she could have my room in the condo. It didn’t really turn into a fight or anything, pretty sure I never said a word, but when my roommates didn’t give her the response she was expecting, she stormed off. Let’s just say none of them felt a strong need to chase her down over these past few weeks to beg for her forgiveness and friendship. I do think they all reached out to her at some point, but she is – or was, apparently – playing hard to get.

I would be surprised she drove forty-five minutes from campus for this party without even giving Lucy a heads up. But then again, some of the people here tonight are a big deal in southern California, or in Beck’s case, a big deal in a lot of places. Sydney wants to be a part of that. And if the girl at her side is her new friend, it definitely makes sense why she showed tonight.

Beck’s hold around my waist tightens. “I take it Sydney doesn’t know that the girl she brought here tonight was stalking and harassing Jordan?” he asks.

All of us are watching the two bombshell blondes. When they walked onto the deck, they were with Coby’s roommates, Lance and Trip. Those guys know Sydney a little bit from hanging with her earlier in the summer, but they probably don’t know much about Fliss, even if they’ve met her before at a party or something.

“No, that’s the thing,” Zora says, her eyes narrowed. “She does know about Fliss. I mean, we talked about the online bullying stuff when she was around and I’m almost certain the name Felicity or Fliss came up.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t stormed over there yet, Zora,” Ellie says.

“Thinking about it,” she admits. “But I also kind of want to see what the hell they think they’re doing first.”

Lucy sighs. “Well, I’m the one who invited her. I should go over there. She probably couldn’t resist a good party with hot guys, and brought a friend as a buffer. I doubt she realizes Fliss is also the razzleydazzles Instagram account.”

The razzleydazzles handle describes herself as “the future Mrs. Griffin Perry.” She harassed me last fall because she thought I was dating Griffin, Beck’s best friend. With Shred Live filming, Beck and I weren’t able to announce our relationship publicly until a couple of weeks ago. Based on a brief encounter at the airport with her, it seems she might still harbor some ill will against me, assuming I dated both Beck and Griff, either playing them or cheating on them or who knows?

Lucy’s already making her way over there, Coby right behind her. Since none of us want to stand by, and we’re all very curious to hear what Sydney has to say, we follow her.

I glance around, looking for Griff. He’s skateboarding with Moses, Taylor, and Brie, the others who live at the Jay Beach house. Lennon, who was also on Shred Live and has something going on with Moses, is with them too. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the fact this place has its own private skatepark in the back yard. None