Page 1 of Serenity
Prologue
Dillon
“C’mon, bro.”I looked over my shoulder and stared at a mirror image of myself. Declan was my identical twin, older than me by only thirty minutes. And judging by the death glare beaming my way from his dark eyes, he wasn’t super happy with me at the moment. “It’s timetogo.”
I moved towards him and flung my arm over his shoulder. “Dude, chill out. We’ve got plenty of time before curfew. There’s no need to rush out of here when we’re having agoodtime.”
The guys I’d been standing with nodded their heads in agreement. Declan didn’t seem convinced as he shifted his glare their way and shook his head. “I hate to ruin your fun, but my brother and I need to hittheroad.”
“Fuck,” I groaned, recognizing his tone of voice. There wasn’t going to be any budging Declan on this. It was time to go. “You heard my brother, guys. It looks like I’mouttahere.”
I got a few chin lifts before our friends were distracted by a group of girls who walked over. Not that I blamed them since they were dressed to party in short skirts, low cut tops, and high heels. I hated to be dragged away from all the tits and legs, but I wasn’t going to argue with my brother over it. Not when there were plenty more parties for us to go to before we graduated, and a ton more after since we planned to attend the same college. “Bros before hoes,” I mumbled to myself as we walked outside and headed towardsmycar.
“And that’s my sign to take the keys away from you.” Declan snagged the fob from my hand after I pulled it out the front pocket of myjeans.
“Dude,” I complained while I tried to swipe the key back from him. “I’m fine todrive.”
“Nope. It’s not gonna happen. Not after you’ve been drinking and smoking pot. You know the rule as well asIdo.”
“Only one of us lets loose at a time so the other is there to be responsible,” we said in unison. It was an agreement we’d made back in our freshman year; to keep us out of trouble with school, our parents, and the police. No drunk driving, and we always looked out for each other. One of us being sober was the keytothat.
The original plan had been to take turns, but it quickly changed when Declan landed a spot on the first line for defense and offense on the school’s football team. He didn’t want to do anything that would risk his time on the field, so he became the sickeningly good twin. The one who never drank and didn’t smoke pot. And me? I took full advantage of having him around to make sure I didn’t get caught if I had a few drinks or took a hit from the bong when it was passedaround.
Like tonight. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t still going to give him shit since that’s what brothers did, especially us. “You’re right. As much as it pains me to admit it since you suck behind the wheel, you shoulddrive.”
“Shut the fuck up,” he grumbled. “Idon’tsuck.”
“Remind me again…how many times did you have to take the road test to get yourlicense?”
He slugged me on the shoulder, and I stumbled back a step. “Hey, that hurt me almost as much as my dig about your driving must havestungyou.”
“Whatever, jackass. Get inthecar.”
I walked around to the passenger side of my BMW, and Declan climbed into the driver’s seat. I groaned when he turned up the volume on my sound system and blared the alternative rock he preferred to listen to. I couldn’t complain too much though, not when the only time I let him pick what we played in my car was when he was behind the wheel. And that only happened a couple of times amonth,tops.
I might’ve taken on the role of bad twin, but I wasn’t completely out of control or anything like that. I still got good grades, only I had to work harder for mine. My SAT scores had been good enough to get me into almost any college, but they hadn’t been the almost perfect score Declan had received. I played at my brother’s side on the offensive line, but not on the defense too. So I wasn’t a total fuckup. I just liked to party more than he did, which wasn’t hard since he was wound so damntight.
“You gonna loosen up at all when we get out of here and head off to college? Pledge a frat? Maybe get wasted at a party so I’m the one who has to drag your ass back tothedorm?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Itdepends.”
“Onwhat?”
“How much scholarship money we get, if we’re playing football, how hard my major is, and which schoolwepick.”
“Declan,” I sighed. “You need to stop worrying about the future so much and enjoy the now. We’re only seventeen. That’s way too young for you to worry like an old manalready.”
“Almost eighteen,” hecorrected.
“Seventeen, eighteen. What the fuck ever.” Our birthday was less than two months away, but I didn’t think that made a big difference. “Either way, you need to chill out. These are supposed to be the best years of our lives, and you’re missing out on most ofthefun.”
“There’ll be plenty of time for me tohavefun.”
“Maybe,” I conceded. “But that’s not going to stop me from trying to talk you into being the one who lets loose at the nextparty.”
“You need to learn how to say no to the pot, bro. You get all mushy and shit whenever you hitthebong.”
“You might have a point.” I leaned my head against the seat and closed my eyes. “It makes me hungry, too. Any chance we can make a pit stop at the Taco Bell drive through before weheadhome?”
