“Friend of mine? From way back? Like way, waaay back.”
“Oh, Kai!” She snaps her fingers—poorly—and takes back her cup. “Wait,that’sKai? Kai from the trailer park, Kai?” She giggles into her cup, swigs at it, hands it back to me. “Good thing you and Milo never hooked up. Kai would have murdered him.”
My stomach drops.
Milo.
I’d forgotten all about him. About the job. About the fact that he’d literally disappeared the day before me and Kai went on vacation.
“You heard from him lately?”
“Who? Milo?” She nods. “Yeah. We texted like two days ago.”
I let out a breath. After the way Bastian had treated Milo at his food truck the other day, I was convinced he’d done something to the guy.
“Lee!”
Teagan looks past me and smiles drunkenly into her cup. I turn and see Blake standing nearby. He’s dressed all in black, a Scream mask pushed to the top of his head.
“Oh, hey,” I greet him.
When I feel a tug on the apron of my Alice costume, I wave a hand toward my friend. She’s always so fucking thirsty—in more ways than one.
“Blake, this is Teagan. Teagan, Blake. He’s one of Kai’s frat—“ I clear my throat. “Ex-frat brothers.”
Blake dismisses Teagan with a glance.
“This thing with Melissa is fucking wild, right?” he shouts over the music. Then he just stares at me.
“Yeah, wild.” I shrug uncomfortably. “You looking for Kai? He’s gone?—“
“Is it true?”
My fingers go numb. “Is what?—”
“About Kai? Melissa told everyone he fucking kidnapped her and shit.”
“Is Melissa the one I met at the football game?” Teagan asks, slipping her arm through mine.
I want to shake her off.
I want to fucking run away.
But that will just make matters worse.
“I can’t talk about it,” I say. “And even if I could, I wouldn’t want to.”
I try to turn away from him, but with Teagan latched onto my arm, she’d have to turn with me, and she’s locked on to Blake like a fucking homing missile.
“Teagan,” I mutter, tugging on my arm.
“Whole lot of rumors doing the rounds,” Blake says, stepping closer. “She missed midterms, you know that? Apparently she’s gone to rehab, but that’s a load of bullshit because from what I heard she’s been clean for a while. Want to tell me what really happened, Lee?”
“None of your fucking business happened!” I rip my arm out of Teagan’s and lunge toward Blake. “And instead of gossiping, why don’t you tell all these people spreading rumors that Kai was innocent! You’d think you’d defend your frat brother rather than throwing him under the bus like?—“
A hand clamps onto my arm.
I don’t even have to look.
