Free Fallen: Angels in the Dark by Lauren Kate

WHAT HAPPENED TO TREVOR
    Luce eased the motorcycle to a stop in front of the lake house.
    She was in love. With the bike: It was a gold 1986 Honda Shadow, and it was beautiful.
    Her classmate mad Rachel Allison, with her dyed-red hair and immaculate French, had grown up and still lived just a few miles north of their school, Dover Prep. So whenever Rachel’s parents left town, most of their class—the in crowd, at least—turned out for the inevitable party.
    This was Luce’s first time.
    When she’d clocked out after her shift at Pisani’s Bike and Body Shop, Luce had had three texts from Callie: One with directions to the party. Another to let Luce know that Callie had borrowed her black flip-flops. And a third with a picture of Callie sipping a mai tai aboard one of Rachel’s speedboats.
    But it was the voice mail—no, the voice in the
background
of the voice mail Callie left—that convinced Luce to make an appearance.
    Trevor Beckman saying:
Tell Luce to hurry up and get here
.
    He was easily the coolest guy in their class. The cutest, too. Trevor was the basketball team captain, the homecoming king, and Luce’s biology lab partner. He was also Rachel Allison’s sometime boyfriend.
    And yet: He wanted Luce to hurry up and get there.
    Of course, Luce had a crush on Trevor. Who wouldn’t have a crush on Trevor? Tall and strong and always laughing, with dark brown hair that matched his eyes—everything about the guy was crushable.
    But it was the kind of crush Luce never planned on actually
doing
anything about. She didn’t go after guys. She never had. It drove Callie crazy, but Luce was perfectly comfortable admiring Trevor and his muscles from afar. Much more comfortable than she was going to be walking into this party.
    She cut the bike’s engine and hopped off before anyone could see her and wonder how on earth she could afford a ride like that.
    Luce
couldn’t
afford it. She had it on loan for one night from the bike shop, where she’d been working part-time for the past six semesters just to be able to afford “incidentals” at Dover.Her room and board were covered, embarrassingly, by the school’s one and only scholarship.
    To preserve that scholarship, Luce had made it through three years of honors classes, keeping a straight-A average. Not to mention three years of keeping her weekly therapy sessions at Shady Pines a secret from everyone at school.
    She probably would have made it through three years without ever going to one of Rachel’s famous parties if it hadn’t been for Mr. Pisani’s son. Joe was a few years older than Luce. Sexy in a dark sort of way. He’d always looked out for her, ever since she’d started working at the shop. He also knew she coveted the bike he’d resurrected from a heap of scrap metal. Just before Luce left for the night, he’d slipped the key into her palm.
    “What’s this?”
    “I heard there’s some party tonight.” He smiled. “Don’t you need a ride out to the lake?”
    At first, Luce shook her head. She couldn’t possibly. But then—
    In three days, she’d fly home to spend the summer with her parents in Thunderbolt, Georgia, where things would be quiet and easy and comfortable. And boring.
    Three whole months of very, very boring.
    “Have fun.” Joe winked at Luce.
    And then she took off. The feeling of riding a motorcycle, of the wind coursing over her face, of the speed, the thrill of it all, was familiar and yet like nothing else in the world.
    It made her feel like she was flying.
    When she crossed the tiki-torch-adorned threshold of the party, Luce spotted Callie standing near the water, surrounded by a circle of guys. She was wearing a red bikini top, Luce’s flip-flops, and a long white sarong.
    “Finally!” she squealed when she saw Luce. Callie’s wet corkscrew curls bounced when she laughed. She must have just gone swimming, which Luce couldn’t imagine doing in the cold, black lake beyond them. Callie was the kind of fearless