Cyrus fisted Kane’s shirt at the chest, snatching him up on his toes.
The drugs left Kane’s eyes crazed, the color ofno-sleepsurrounded them. He was positively going mad.
“You don’t want to do this right now,” Cyrus said through his gritted teeth. “You’re high and worn out. Go home and sleep before you get yourself killed.”
Kane laughed. “Always has to be the bigger guy. Always has to be the beloved. Always has to be the first.” But then his laughter faded, and his gaze turned serious, hazel eyes sliding across Cyrus’s face. “What if I told you I took her virginity inyourbed?”
Cyrus’s jaw tensed, his teeth grinding. I watched as if it happened in slow motion, the muscles in his neck straining, the blue veins popping. Kane smiled, seeing it too.
“You won’t hit me,” Kane said, eyes narrowing and sizing him up. “You have never hit anyone a day in your life. You care too much about what people think. You—”
Cyrus’s decorated knuckles cut the air in half and smashed into Kane’s jaw.
Blood sprayed as Kane’s head popped backward.
He stumbled, swayed, but surprisingly avoided crashing into the street.
He looked at Cyrus with gaping eyes.
“You just fucking punched me,” he said, then a grin stretched across his face. “Oh, man, I fuckinglovewhen you stoop to my level.”
“Go home, Kane,” Cyrus said, looking down to check his rings with his fingers stretched straight.
To our right, one flatlander shoved another in the chest, and he fell back into a group of girls. To our left, a teenager was yanking the purse off a woman’s arm as she screamed for someone to stop him.
Around us, the crowd was closing in, pushing and shoving from all sides. They were getting paranoid and rowdy from the excitement. Cyrus turned his back on Kane and scanned the crowd as he searched his front pocket.
He looked at me, grabbing my hand and dropping his car keys inside. “I have a feeling. Something bad is about to happen, and I need you to wait for me in the car.”
He had a feeling, and he wasleavingme? “Come with me,” I insisted.
“There’s something I have to do. Just go to the car,” he said. “Five minutes, Adora.”
The clockon the dash flipped to three past twelve.
Midnight had passed.
The earth had danced entirely around the sun, and this new year had arrived without him. A new year Stone and I hadn’t existed in together. I held my breath to keep myself from exploding, refusing to let it go until my lungs forced me. The only thing left to hold on to was this black lily.
Stone was out there somewhere, holding on too.
Eventually Cyrus showed up, slid into the driver’s seat, and white knuckled the steering wheel. His voice was thick inside the heated cabin of the car when he said, “Did you really fuck Kane in my bed?”
No explanation for where he’d been, NoHappy New Year.
Yes. “No.”Lies, lies, lies.
Cyrus looked at me without really looking at me.
I didn’t know if he believed me or not, but he put the car in reverse and looked back, holding on to the back of my seat as he reversed out of the parking space. That was the last thing he said.
The rest of the ride was in silence.
When we pulled into the Cantini driveway, Viola barreled out of the front door and stumbled upon the steps.
Cyrus slammed on his brakes, dropped the car into neutral, and jumped out of it.
I followed him, and when I reached Viola, Cyrus already had his mother cradled in his arms.
