Trial by Power

The Single Ticket Out

My sister had a gift for making men believe they were the one she'd been waiting for, right up until the moment she got bored.

When it fell apart, the guys she'd cut loose didn't go quietly. They came after me instead.

Vivian thought it was funny. "Go have fun," she said. "Maybe they finally figured out you're easier to like than I am."

Then the lines started coming.

*Two nice words and she turns pink. Easy.*

I was standing at the edge of the bar, half behind a pillar, when I heard my name.

"Nothing like Vivian," somebody said. "Vivian's a wall."

"You've got no idea." Hunter's voice was low and flat, then it lifted into something lazier. "This one's different. Say two nice things to her and she blushes. It's almost sweet."

They all laughed.

I looked at the floor and turned away. I was one step into leaving when he called my name across the room.

Two more lines surfaced.

*Struck out at Vivian's tonight. Door didn't even open.*

*So now he's working the sister. Watch.*

Hunter was sprawled back against the booth, one arm along the top of it. He lifted two fingers and curled them at me.

Last week I would have walked over.

I didn't.

His smile thinned by degrees. He looked me over, head to toe, and the impatience came up in his eyes like water rising.

A month ago I would have told myself he was tired. That he'd had a long day. That somebody like me didn't get to be picky about who was nice to her.

Hunter stood and crossed the floor. He stopped close, dipped his head until we were level, and smiled.

"Something bothering you, sweetheart?"

"I want to go home."

I turned.

His hand closed around my wrist. I stumbled against his chest, and he brought his other hand up and pinched my cheek between two fingers.

"Yesterday you baked me a cake with your own two hands. Today you don't know me?" He didn't lower his voice at all.

Behind him, his friends roared.

My face went hot. I bit down on the inside of my lip until I tasted metal.

I thought about what Vivian had said when I'd gone to her, panicking, about all of them suddenly circling.

"Relax. Maybe they just like you better."

She'd taken my hand and walked me through it, cheerful as anything. Bake them something. Keep them company. They'll be loyal.

A line drifted past.

*Never opened the box. It went in the trash by the door.*

*Told his boys if it had been Vivian's he'd have framed it.*

*Like she'd ever touch an oven for him.*

I stood there a while. Then I looked up.

"Yesterday's cake," I said. "What kind of fruit was in the middle?"

Something moved across Hunter's face. Just for a second. Then the grin came back on like a switch.

"It got there, didn't it? What do you want, a five-star review?" He shrugged at his friends. "Avery's not opening a bakery."

I didn't answer.

The silence got uncomfortable. That was when a new voice cut in from the side.

"Small world."

Elliot Pearce had appeared out of nowhere, hands in his pockets, mouth already curving. He had one of those faces that smiled even when it wasn't.

"Avery. Out here by yourself?" His eyes slid sideways, landed on Hunter, stayed a beat too long. "Somebody ought to be keeping an eye on you."

The lines went up like a wall.

*These two. These two are the wolves.*

*Elliot wouldn't touch her type on a bet. He likes the ones who can play.*

*Said dating a nice girl is like getting a dog you can't give away.*

*He's just bored of losing to Vivian and looking for somewhere soft to land.*

Elliot's hand came down on my shoulder, easy, unhurried.

"Come on. I'll drive you."

I stepped back without meaning to.

He laughed, low. "Don't be shy with me."

"She doesn't want to talk to you," Hunter said flatly. "Are you blind?"

"Sorry," Elliot said. "Genuinely didn't notice."

---

I ended up in a car with both of them.

It wasn't complicated. Elliot just stood smiling in the one direction I could have walked out of and said, "Avery, your sister specifically asked me to get you home safe. You're not going to make a liar out of me, are you?"

The car had barely pulled out before they started.

The driver kept his eyes on the road and his hands at ten and two like he was expecting a crash.

They'd put me in the middle. Hunter on my right, Elliot on my left, close enough that I couldn't lean either way without touching somebody.

Hunter went first. "Don't you have enough going on at home? Your dad's got how many kids running around now?"

Elliot's smile didn't move. "I heard yours is trying to ship you off. You're still here, though."

"You're a barnacle."

"Thank you."

I pressed my knees together and made myself as small as I could. I thought about being somewhere else.

The lines came back.

*Neither one of them is fighting over her. Every single sentence is about Vivian.*

*Driving the sister home. That's the excuse.*

*Poor Avery. Standing next to that one, she's basically furniture.*

---

The car stopped at the gate. Both of them got out. Both of them walked me to the door.

I didn't say a word the whole way up the path. The housekeeper saw us coming and hurried to push the door open.

Vivian was on the couch in a slip dress, curled into the corner with one leg tucked under her, looking like she'd been there all day and had no plans to move.

She lifted her eyes when we came in and went straight past me.

"Vivian," I said.

She gave me a small curve of the mouth. Then her gaze settled on the two men behind me.

"So good of you both," she said. "Bringing my sister home at this hour."

Hunter barked a laugh. "She's easy to be good to. I volunteered."

Elliot nodded along, all warmth. "Avery's a sweet kid. Not like some people."

I watched them out of the corner of my eye. Their mouths were saying one thing. Their eyes hadn't left her since the door opened.

Vivian didn't blink. "Then we're all set. As long as nobody makes her cry."

Hunter's eyes narrowed.

She met him dead on and didn't look away.

After a few seconds he pulled his mouth sideways, made a short sound in his throat, and turned and walked out.

Elliot stayed a moment longer. He looked her over, slow, from her hair to her bare feet, deliberately.

Vivian's brows drew together.

He took the hint, turned to me, and gave me a smile so gentle it could have belonged to a different person. "Get some sleep, Avery."

Then he was gone too.

I stood in the entryway long after the door shut, and all at once I couldn't feel my own body, it was so tired.

"I'm going up," I said.

Vivian didn't answer.

I was at the turn of the stairs when she spoke behind me. Light, offhand, a coin flipped onto a table.

"Avery. If it isn't yours, don't hold on to it. Know where you stand. Don't give your heart away for nothing."

I looked down at the step.

It took me a while to get the words out.

"I know where I stand."

---

After that, when they texted, I didn't answer.

Vivian noticed me staying home and seemed pleased. "Good. At least you won't get chewed up by every random guy out there."

She sighed, and there was something in it that was almost kind, which was worse. "You're too simple for Hunter and his crowd. They'd eat you alive. You and I aren't built the same way, Avery."

She ruffled my hair on her way past and clicked out the door in her heels.

I sank into the couch cushions with some drama playing on the TV, and for a minute I wasn't really watching.

She wasn't wrong. Vivian had been the sun in that house since we were kids. Bright, loud, always the one people turned toward. She could work a room, a dinner, a whole roomful of men with grudges, and come out on top.

People did compliment me. They always added something after.

"Avery's pretty too. But next to her sister, she's just... missing something."

I lit my phone up. There was still a pile of her leftovers in my messages, all of them finding new reasons to ask about her schedule, her taste in wine, whether she'd be at the party Saturday.

Sometimes I got tired of it and told them to just text her directly.

*She's so busy. She doesn't have time for me.*

*You're her sister. Do you even care how hard she works?*

---

The next day I came downstairs for lunch and stopped in the doorway.

There was an entire table of people. They'd already started.

Vivian patted the empty chair next to her. "What are you doing standing there? Sit."

I made my way over. "Dad. Mom."

My mother smiled. "You were sleeping so hard, I hated to wake you. Come eat."

Hunter sat with his face like a closed door, and peeled shrimp without stopping, and put each one in Vivian's bowl. Elliot served her with the serving spoon, refilling her wine, hovering.

It was two men at war across a dinner table, and Vivian sat in the middle of it like it was the most ordinary thing in the world.

Then my father put his fork down and looked at her.

"How are the papers coming?"

The table went quiet.

I looked up.

Vivian's hand paused over her plate. She didn't look at either of the men beside her. "I've been thinking about it. I'm not going."

"Excuse me?" My father's palm came down on the table. "I got you that spot. Do you have any idea what it took? That professor doesn't take just anyone—"

Vivian's mouth tightened. She bit her lip.

She was wavering. I could see it.

Next to her, both men sat up.

Elliot laughed softly. "Sir, if she doesn't want it, there's no forcing it. Give it to someone who wants to go. Everyone wins."

Hunter's head came up. He looked at me down the length of the table, and for the first time since he'd walked in, he actually saw me.

The calculation on his face was almost embarrassing.

My father's brows drew together.

Hunter leaned back. "She's right there. Give it to Avery."

The lines came up fast, crowding the air over the table.

*Neither of them is taking that seat.*

*If Avery says no too, Vivian's off the hook. Nobody blames her.*

*Revenge, they said. Look at them.*

*It was never revenge.*

Every head at the table turned to me.

My mother hesitated. "Avery's not really... I mean, the way she is with people—"

Two other lines from the night before surfaced.

*Don't worry. There's a bigger fish coming.*

*Honestly? Her best move is to get out. Why stay in a pile of garbage looking for something that shines?*

The room held its breath.

I looked up and met every one of them.

"I'll go."

The air went out of the room.

Hunter's hand jerked. The shrimp he'd just peeled slapped onto the table, smeared red.

He stared at me like I'd spoken in a language he didn't know.

Elliot's smile froze and stayed there, wrong on his face. His chopsticks hung in the air, and none of the easy charm was left to carry them.

Vivian stood up so fast her chair screamed across the marble.

"Have you lost your mind?" Her voice was sharp and clean. "That's one of the top programs in the country, and you'd be walking in without a single person over there who knows your name. You can barely get through a conversation with a stranger. What are you going to do, embarrass this family?"

I set my fork down and looked at her.

"Dad said it was hard to get."

My voice came out steady. "If you don't want it, I'm not going to let his work go to waste."

The lines were coming as fast as I could read them.

*She's not stalling. She's scared.*

*That professor eats people like her for breakfast. Her whole act wouldn't last a week.*

*And Boston's the worst crowd for her. She spent all last year online playing up some family's son, and when she finally showed up in person he clocked her for a fake and blocked her everywhere. If she lands there, it's over.*

Hunter was still staring at me.

Elliot picked his chopsticks up and put them down again.

Vivian sat back down slowly, and looked at me like she was seeing me for the first time.

Nobody said anything.

I picked my fork back up.

Author's Note

That moment when Avery finally says two words at the dinner table — I rewrote it more times than anything else in this chapter. For so long she's been the one everyone talks over, so I wanted her first real move to feel both very small and enormous at once. Do you think she surprised them, or herself more?

If you'd like to read ahead, early chapters are waiting for you on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/fengma