Headmaster Taurin hadn’t so much as looked at me when we’d gone to his office to request a late slip. He had to have heard about the asshole who’d broken into the school and vandalized my locker in order to fill it with deadly pests. I was sure of it.
Yet not a word had been said.
“He won’t do anything,” Cory had said, shoving her phone into the hidden pocket of her skirt. “And you don’t want him to.”
Her words had my mouth opening and closing. I clamped it shut when I acknowledged what she’d meant, and the fact that no, I didn’t really want Jude in trouble.
Not because I liked him, but because it would indeed only mean more trouble for me.
Also, he hadn’t vandalized my locker at all. I’d stared and stared at it after excusing myself to the bathroom during history. There was no sign of forced entry and no indication it’d been tampered with.
So it was then, Gale calling my name behind the counter with my croissant in hand, that I felt my face drain.
He knew the code to my locker.
Cory would never betray me like that, so he must have figured it out himself. I could almost imagine it. Him standing there, those deep green eyes narrowed upon the metal door.
I couldn’t and wouldn’t dare imagine what his expression had looked like once he’d guessed and guessed right.
“Sorry,” I said to Gale.
“Them fancy high heels and lipstick haven’t fixed that fairy dust brain of yours, I see,” she said, chewing on a skewer. She waved her hand, dismissing me. “You looked better before anyhow. Now be gone.”
I scowled, my painted lips falling open, then found Cory in the back of the long room. “You wouldn’t believe what Gale just—”
“There’s a party on Friday,” she said at the same time.
I gestured for her to continue when she paused.
She splayed her hands. “Now, I know you’re not a fan, but I want to go.”
A small laugh left me, and I tore a chunk of pastry, pointing it at her. “Since when does something I don’t like have to be your problem?” Cory didn’t party often, but when she did, she went with Silas, of course.
I’d attempted to show my face at some, but Cory was always busy with Silas somewhere private, and no one cared to so much as say hi to me, let alone hang out. So I’d see myself home and write about how I’d wished it’d been in my diary instead.
Lame, I know. But it was also kind of fun.
“Since I want you to come. I think it’ll be good for you to actually drink a little more this time and give it more of a chance.” She stabbed a piece of carrot with her fork. “Besides, everyone knows who you are now.”
It would seem they most certainly did. I’d never dreamed of being popular. I’d never really cared. I did care about a certain green-eyed devil, though, and he was as popular as one could get.
Really, I probably should’ve put more thought into what I’d wished for.
A thought that followed when school let out and I found Jude leaning against my car. “She returns.”
“Disappointed?”
“I was yesterday,” he said, straightening and tucking his hands into his pockets. “Where were you?”
I told myself to stand perfectly still and give nothing away, all the while knowing I’d eventually fail. “Home.”
He hummed, reaching out to drag a finger down the side of my cheek. I couldn’t read his eyes because they were shielded behind his sunglasses. But I could read the war within his touch when his thumb ghosted over my bottom lip.
I wanted to scream at him. To wail at him and demand he tell me why he did that to me.
But if I knew anything about Jude, it was that he kept every single one of his cards close to his chest, and that to keep his attention, I must do the same.
“Jude,” Silas called from farther in the trees at his truck by the fence. “You need to come watch this shit.” Laughter followed, but I kept looking at Jude, and he kept looking at me.
With my heart pounding in my ears, I stared at my own reflection in my tormentor’s sunglasses, wishing I could see his eyes when my lips wrapped around his thumb, my tongue flicking it.
I didn’t need to see them. The stilling of his body, with the exception of his jaw clenching, told me all I needed to know.
He wasn’t as done with me as he wanted himself to believe.
He stepped back, his voice gruff and low. “Have you had enough yet, Red?”
“Have you?” I dared ask, then dragged my fingers over the hickey he’d given me.
In answer, he laughed and walked away.
I’d been drunk before.
Cory and I had finished a bottle and a half of champagne on my kitchen floor the night of my eighteenth birthday. Mom had bought it for me, but we’d stolen the other from the fridge. We’d then proceeded to bake brownies and almost burned the house down.
It had been fun and all, but the next day was horrible.
I tried not to think about that as I sipped from my glass, an actual glass, of champagne.
The first of many pre-prom parties was underway, and if I planned to show up to any more, then I knew I should probably pace myself.
Gina’s house sat upon the cliff, a ten-minute drive from mine, and faced the woods that separated what most would call the rich side of the island from the commoners.
Her parents owned the power company. They also happened to be good friends with my mom. So whether she liked it or not, I was here, and she could sneer at me all night, but she couldn’t get rid of me, or her parents would skin her alive.
“Ferrrn.” Silas slung a beefy arm around my shoulders.
Trying not to collapse under the weight of it, I faked a smile. “Silaaas.”
He laughed, almost sending us to the floor. “I see what you did there.”
Cory watched him, concern tightening her smile. I wasn’t sure what she was so worried about, but I was sure I’d find out later. For now, I drank and listened to him ramble about how good it was to finally see me having some fun.
“Yeah,” I muttered. “Loads.”
He released me and grabbed a bottle of wine from Jeff Springs, our star mathlete, who balked.
“Easy, Jeffy,” Silas said, then belched, shaking his shoulder-length hair from his face. “Go see Gina and tell her I owe you one.”
Jeff shrugged and disappeared, likely to do just that. Willowy with breast implants and a killer smile, not many guys would pass up the chance to talk to Gina.
Taking the bottle from Silas after he’d popped the lid, I humored him by taking a huge sip.
I lowered it to find him grinning and giving me a dopey thumbs-up as he backed out of the room.
Cory made to follow, but she lost him in the crowd outside the living room and came back.
“He’s so wasted!” she shouted over the rising music.
“So?” I said, taking another sip and ditching my glass. I tried to make out the label but couldn’t see in the dim lighting coming from the lone chandelier above. “Isn’t that what you guys do at these things? Get wasted?”
She stole the bottle from me and drank.
I watched, my eyes bugging when she kept going. Swiping the back of her hand over her mouth, she shook her head. “Wow, that’s good.”