Were they still on my revenge list? Did tolerance make up for their past transgressions? Probably not. I hadn’t realized when I started thinking about it that this punishment thing was hard. I couldn’t get past the fact that I wanted to hurt people I was sort of, sometimes, occasionally, maybe starting to like.
I’ve got to find a way to get over that, and soon.
As we neared the steps down to the pleasure garden, Quinn yanked me off the path.
“Argh, what are you doing?” I rubbed my shoulder.
“I bought something for you,” Quinn riffled around in the folds of his toga. He shoved a bottle of gin into my arms. “I knew you’d get all dirty in the caves so… hold that for a moment while I find… wait, I think I’ve got it.”
I tried to peer into his toga. He pulled out another bottle and dumped it in my arms. “What do you have in there, an entire bar?”
“While I’m excited that you want to see what’s under my toga, that will just have to wait until I’ve found… ah hah!” From the depths of his outfit, Quinn whisked out a hanger, upon which hung a red dress my mom wouldn’t have worn to work on account it was too slutty.
I snickered. “Are you sure you’re the spaghetti straps kind of guy?”
“It’s not for me, Hazy. It’s for you.”
“I’m not wearing that.”
“Yes, you are. You want to show Courtney who rules this school? You gotta look the part. Besides,” Quinn cracked his trademark grin. “You wear this dress, and you make this poor dead boy’s every dream come true.”
“This may come as a surprise to you, but I don’t live to fulfill your spank fantasies.” I fingered the hem of the dress.
“Aw, come on, Hazy. You know you’re all covered in mud.”
He had a point. I snatched the dress out of his hands, fingering the sparkling embroidery along the sweetheart neckline. “Where did you get this from?”
“I got my mom to bring it for me. She gave it to me at the party tonight. She thinks it’s a gift for Courtney.”
I remembered seeing Quinn’s mother as we left the alumni party. “Are you allowed to have your parents bring you expensive gifts?”
“Not really. The faculty and the Eldritch Club frown on it. They think it’s unhealthy if we get too much stimulus from the outside world.” Quinn gestured to the dress. “Some of us have parents who are more understanding than others.”
I filled in the blanks of what Quinn didn’t say. The senior Eldritch Club members wanted to keep the student body focused inward on tormenting the newcomers so they wouldn’t join together to rise up against the Eldritch Club. It was so glaringlyobviousI couldn’t believe clever people like Quinn and Trey and Ayaz (okay, mostly Trey and Ayaz) didn’t see right through it. “Why don’t you just stand up to them? There are over two hundred students at this school, and only what, five-dozen active senior club members? Why don’t you all just tell them, ‘no, actually, we don’t want to sacrifice orphans any longer’?”
“You think it’s that easy?” Quinn’s smile had frozen.
“To do the right thing? Yeah, it’s that easy.”
“Like fuck it is. Power isn’t just about outnumbering someone,” Quinn said. “If it were, ninety-nine percent of the world’s wealth wouldn’t be in the possession of the top one percent.”
“What do they have on you that stops you from just eating their brains? They can’t threaten your life if you’re already dead.”
“You mean besides the fact that we’re not brain-eating zombies?” Quinn stuck out his arms and mimicked a shuffling walk. “The Eldritch Club are so desperate to hold on to their power they’ll sacrifice their own children to an interdimensional cosmic entity. You think death is the worst they can do to us? There’s a reason every Miskatonic student falls into line, even if their parents weren’t members of the club. Rebellion is pointless – the only thing we can do is drink and fuck and try to enjoy eternity.”
“If that’s true, then why did you try to save me?”
Quinn shrugged. “We’ve done horrible, unforgivable things. Don’t make us into heroes, Hazy.”
I snorted. “Yeah, no danger of that.”
Laughter and music wafted up from over the ridge. “Put your party dress on,” Quinn said, his voice sad. “A night of Bacchanalian hedonism is just what you need.”
“As if I’ll be able to relax with the whole school breathing down my neck and Courtney on the warpath. I’m holding you personally responsible for anything that happens at this party. If I end up in a Carrie situation, then I’m pushingyouover a cliff. We’ll find out if dead monarchs can fly.”
“I swear.” Quinn made the sign of the cross.
“Your word doesn’t mean shit. The last party I came to with you, you lured me into the grotto so your friends could steal my clothes. Turn away.” I gestured for him to turn around.
