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PROLOGUE

Vanity’s a debilitating affliction You’re so absorbed in yourself it’s i you ithout realization of it It’s quite sad You’ve no idea what you’reeither You will never know real love and your life will pass you by

But you will see

One day you will blink and the haze will dissipate You’ll discover that what once defined you has wilted into graying hair and wrinkled skin Frantic, you’ll glance around yourself, in hopes of finding those you swore adored you, but all you will find is empty picture frames

CHAPTER ONE

Six weeks after graduation and Jerrick had been dead for three of theh for us all to take a breather from our habits, but it wasn’t

I bent to snort the line of coke in front of me

“Brent looks very teht, doesn’t he?” I asked Savannah, or Sav as I called her for short, when I lifted my head and wiped my nose

Savannah turned her glassy eyes away fro from side to side “Yeah,” she lazily slurred out, “he looks hot tonight” Her glazed eyes perked up a bit but barely “Why?”

“I’ hello to him” I smiled wickedly at my pseudo-best friend and she smiled deviously back

“You’re such a bitch,” she teased, proddingwith her perfectly ive you for it”

“Yes, she will,” I said, standing and s out my pencil skirt

I could’ve been considered a dichotomy of dressers I never showed much in the way of skin because, well, my father would have killedpieces that kept the boys’ tongues wagging For instance, everything I oas skin tight because I had the body for it, and because it always got me what I wanted I loved the way the boys stared I loved the way they wanted me It felt powerful

“How do you know?” Sav asked, her head heavily lolling back and forth on the back of the leather settee in her father’s office

No one was allowed in that room, party or no, but we didn’t care Sav’s parents went to Italy on a whi her house as the inevitable destination for that weekend’s “Hole,” as we called them The Hole was code for wherever we decided to “hole up” for the weekend My group of friends was, at the risk of sounding garish, wealthy That’s an understatement We were filthy, as we liked to tease one another, doubleand all Someone’s house was always open some random weekend because all our parents traveled frequently, mine especially In fact, almost every other weekend, the party was at my home This isn’t why I ruled the roost, so to speak It wasn’t even because I was the wealthiest My dad was only number four on that list No, I ruled because I was the hottest