If anything, it’ll just give me another idiot to dodge on campus.
“You haven’t dated anyone since what’s-his-face,” Sienna says, grinning as she takes another sip of beer. “You need to get out there before your vagina closes up shop forever.”
I open my mouth to argue, but a knock at the door saves me.
Sienna darts over and yanks it open without even checking who it is.
“Baby!”
Sienna barely gets the word out before Mikel’s got her wrapped up in his arms, kissing her like a man who’s been lost at sea. Their reunion makes me snort because they literally saw each other in our last class of the day, which was like three hours ago.
Dave and Sara slip past them with the ease of people used to this kind of PDA. I can’t help laughing when I take in their outfits. Dave’s in a fuzzy white sweater with the Abominable Snowman’s face plastered across it, and Sara dressed as a sexy reindeer. Rudolph, obviously.
“Stop,” Sara says when she spots me. “You looksocute!”
I give a small twirl, letting the pink gingham skirt flare around my legs.
“Thank you. Now, let’s get this party started!”
Dave lifts a bottle triumphantly. “I brought Fireball! Let’s do a shot!”
The party hits its stride fast after that.
Music blares from Sienna’s Bluetooth speaker as Mariah Carey gives it her all while laughter and conversation fill every inch of the apartment. The living room is packed now, our tiny space straining under the weight of too many bodies and the scent of cinnamon, perfume, and cheap booze. Someone turns on the string lights I hung last week, and the whole room glows like the inside of a snow globe.
More people pour in. Friends of friends, mostly. A couple of guys from Sienna’s art class, a neighbor from down the hall, and a girl I only know as “someone’s cousin.” Beer cans clink, someone spills Fireball on the counter, and I can’t stop smiling.For once, it feels like the holidays aren’t something I’m just surviving but something I’m part of.
Sienna’s on Mikel’s lap, laughing at something he says, and I’m half-listening to Sara explain why reindeer antlers and her new make-up pallet should count as a tax deduction when a knock cuts through the music.
“Probably more guests,” Mikel says, setting his drink down. He pushes up from the couch and heads for the door like he lives here.
The knock comes again, harder this time.
“Hold on!” he calls, still laughing as he twists the knob.
The door swings open.
Two men shove their way inside. I barely register the black hoodies and the glint of metal before the first shot cracks through the air.
Mikel jerks backward, a red bloom spreading across his chest. Sienna screams. The music keeps playing—All I Want for Christmas Is You—as chaos explodes around us. For a second, I can’t move. My brain refuses to catch up. Then someone knocks into me, and the beer can in my hand smashes against the floor, spilling everywhere. Everything that had felt warm and bright seconds ago turns to ice.
The man who shot Mikel scans the room, his gun still raised. His gaze lands on Sienna.
“That’s her.” His accent is thick. Italian, maybe.
Then his words register and I don’t think. I just move.
I lunge at Sienna, shoving her backward as another shot cracks through the air. Pain tears through my arm, hot and blinding. For a heartbeat, I don’t even realize I’ve been hit. Then it burns—God, it burns.I cry out in pain. Not that it does any good.
Sienna grabs me hard and her fingers are slick with something I pray is beer and not blood as we scramble acrossthe floor. We’re slipping on broken ornaments and crushed pine needles from where someone knocked over the Christmas tree. There’s glass everywhere, glittering like ice in the dim light. For one absurd, irrational heartbeat, all I can think about is my aunt’s ornaments. How they were special, how she’d mailed them to me before she passed and how my first instinct is to try to save them.
But then another gunshot cracks through the air, and that thought shatters with everything else.
My ears are ringing so loud it’s like the world is underwater. My heart is a drum slamming against my ribs, too fast and definitely too frantic. Each breath feels sharp and thin, like the air has been cut in half.
I think I’m trying to go into shock.
Sienna’s still pulling me, her black dress streaked with something dark, her breath coming in panicked bursts. The music is still playing somewhere in the apartment, warped and skipping like a nightmare soundtrack, and every instinct in my body is screamingmove, move, move.
