He scoffs, his jaw tight. He hesitates another beat, jerking his chin at Jack. “Come on.”
Jack scoops Marisa up into his arms, her head lolling against his shoulder. “Where we going?” she slurs as he falls in behind Barrett.
“Home,” Jack mutters back, just as Callum edges into his path.
“Marisa—” Callum starts before Jack cuts him off.
“Don’t talk to her, asshole.”
Callum stumbles back at the raw fury in Jack’s voice, the color draining from his face. He doesn’t give him a chance to say anything else, leaving without another word.
I turn back to Bliss, finding her already watching me, expression twisted into something ugly—probably imagining feeding me to crocodiles or lowering me into a vat of acid.
She’s twisted enough for it.
Callum has turned to watch Jack leave with Marisa. He looks back, his shoulders tensing as he watches us. Dillon steps behind me, close enough that I can feel his breath brushing over the top of my head. His cologne—the same one he’s worn since I gave it to him for Christmas—fills my lungs. I fight the urge to step away, refusing to show weakness in front of any of these people.
The party is still raging outside the room, but it feels as if we’re far away, trapped in our noxious little bubble.
“You know what, Bliss?” I say calmly into that quiet. “I feel sorry for you. Wait, no”—I purse my lips thoughtfully—“not sorry. Ipityyou. You’ve spent your entire life treating the people around you like toys, playing with them when it suits you and your agenda, but as soon as they try to shift out of your control…you break them. Marisa stood up to you once, calling you out on your bullshit, and you destroyed a years-long friendship over it. Was it worth it?”
The skin around Bliss’s eyes tightens infinitesimally, but her smile is smug. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Callum and Marisa aren’t together.”
He makes a low noise, looking as if he’s just fully realized the damage he helped wrought tonight.
“You don’t know me,Charlie,” Bliss sneers. I stare at her, wondering why this woman had such power over me, because now? I really don’t give a shit what she thinks of me and that…
This isfreeing.
It’s an unfamiliar feeling—a little like wearing a pair of shoes that are a size too small, pinching and rubbing in all the wrong places. My entire life has been filled with people doubting and second-guessing me, commenting on my looks or how I’m perceived—the way I talk, act,breathe.
My entire relationship with Dillon, I kept his friends at a distance. I buried myself in low self-esteem, never wanting to give them a reason to think he deserved better. It was a rigged game, and I never stood a chance of winning.
“You aren’t with Dillon anymore.” Bliss drops the words like a grenade, pleasure lighting up her eyes as she watches me, waiting for the shrapnel to hit. “You aren’t welcome here, and neither is your shitty opinion.”
“Bliss—”
“No, Dillon,” I interrupt, keeping my focus on her. “Lether get it out. Maybe if she spits out enough poison, she might actually start to resemble a human being.”
Her mouth drops open. “Oh, you bitch?—”
“Name-calling seems beneath you. I’m not sure why I expected more. I mean, you think shit-talking people behind their back is hilarious, like we’re all still stuck in a crappy movie about the mean girls in high school.” I shake my head, clucking my tongue. “Sorry, but your words only have power when other people give it to them. You know what that makes you?” She glares daggers at me, trying to flay the skin from my bones with her eyes. I don’t care. I don’t need her input for this. “Weak, Bliss. The one thing that made you strong is that you had friends who actually gave a shit about you.” I let out a thoughtfulhum. “Guess you took care of that tonight, though. You showed them your true colors, and that’s not something you can ever take back.”
Bliss doesn’t say a thing, looking like she might actually be at a loss for words, but I’m done. I stride past her and Callum, leaving while the going is good.
It doesn’t take me long to push through the crowd and make it out the front door. I can hear the quiet tread of footsteps on my heels, and I don’t have to look to know it’s Dillon, his eyes burning into my back.
Chapter 15
Dillon
Charlie doesn’t look back at me as she stalks outside, her head high like she didn’t just crush Bliss under the heel of her sneaker.
I wish she would stop—just for a second, just long enough toseeme. I feel like a ghost, trailing after her, desperate for even a speck of her attention. We step outside, the silence between us taut and thick, only broken by the sound of my heart pounding in my chest because she’sright here.
I reach out and snag her wrist, tugging her to a gentle stop. “Charlie?—”
“Yo!”
