Ava and I hadn’t spoken since yesterday, and not only was that not like us, but I was nervous about seeing her without her mom as a buffer. I was nervous about seeing any of them. About seeinghim.
“Wait, I don’t think I should go in.” I pulled Shane back as Wade and Bea headed up the path.
“Why?”
“I, um, Ava and I had a fight.”
He looked surprised, and then he looked annoyed. “What, because she’s fucking a Devil, she’s suddenly too good for you?” he sneered.
“What? No.” I shook my head. “Ava’s not like that.” And she really wasn’t. She was just in her very first relationship, and her first relationship just happened to be the “forever after” kind.
“Then why did you have a fight?” When I said nothing, he made his own conclusions. “Exactly. You’re with me, not them.”
I was? I hadn’t thought of it like that, and I knew I needed to have a talk with Shane. With a firm hold on my hand, he pulled me up the path and into the house.
The heat hit me first. The house was hot and packed. I shook off Shane’s jacket and handed it to him. My hands fluffed my hair as I tried not to look too obvious as I scanned the room for Ava. But it was so busy that it would be impossible to find her.
Shane linked his fingers with mine, and he led me to the kitchen. I recognized Casey and Alden, and I gave them a wave. The water and the feeling of wrongness were sobering me up rapidly.
“Hey, Mia,” Alden greeted. “Haven’t seen you recently.”
“It’s been three days, Alden.”
“Where’s the beer?” Shane asked, and I realized he was drunker than I thought. Before anyone could tell him, he spotted the cooler, and then he was handing me a beer. “Losers.” He tipped his bottle to the guys, and then he was taking my hand and leading me away. I mouthedsorryto the guys over my shoulder.
Bea and Wade were dancing, and I wanted to dance, but I wanted to know where Ava was first. And then I saw her with Quinn. Always with Quinn.
Ava’s hair was in a high ponytail, her blouse black and fitted, her dark jeans ripped at the knees. She looked amazing. Quinn’s hair was down, swept over one shoulder, her halter top a deep red that matched her lipstick. Who even got that shade of red to match? They were laughing together, and I didn’t need to see any more. Ava and I were in a semi-okay place, and I didn’t want to mess it up any more than it was. I was jealous of their friendship, and I needed to accept that before Ava and I could move past this bump in our road.
Bea grabbed my hand, and I turned to her as I drank deep from my bottle of beer. Beer was okay, no more tequila for me. Not here. We danced, and the guys kept the drinks coming, but I was drinking more water in between, keeping a nice buzz and not becoming a drunken mess.
When the lights went out, I screamed. I wasn’t drunk, but I was admittedly a little unsteady on my feet. I’d made sure I’d kept my back to where Ava and Quinn had been; I didn’t want to ruin either of our nights, but mayhem changed everything.
Moving, I stumbled. I felt hands grab at my ass before they circled my waist. “Hey, Mia, I got you,” Shane slurred. “Come on, follow me.”
Follow? It was dark. Where would I go?
“No, stay still, they won’t chase if you don’t—” I bounced off of someone. “Oops. Sorry!”
I heard the frantic noise of the others at the party as Shane moved me through the bodies. His hands kept wandering, and I kept chasing them, pulling them off my ass.
“You don’t run in Mayhem,” I told him loudly as I banged my hip off something else. “Ow.”
“Come on,” he urged me as he pushed me forward. Stumbling, I knocked my knee off something hard, and I cried out again.
“Ow!” Trying to pry his hands off me, I squirmed. “Can you let me go? I keep hitting things.”
“Just walk,” he giggled as his hands pawed at me again, his hands were on my chest, squeezing, twisting, hurting.
“Seriously, will you quit,” I hissed, pushing him away from me, and I half fell up a stair. “Wait, no, where are we going?” I knew the house; the stairs led only to bedrooms. I was not going up. “I’m not going up the stairs,” I said loudly as I stopped moving.
All around us was the sound of other people shuffling forward, crying out, falling. Mayhem was stupid, reckless, and pointless, I decided. Shane grabbed my boob again, really hard, and I’d had enough.
Turning, I pushed him away from me, and I felt him fall. “Stop touching me like that.” My voice was louder than I expected.
“Mee?”
My head snapped up in the dark. “Ava?”
