Elijah reeks of weed, and I’m praying to that Virgin Mary window that I’ll get high off the smell alone. Otherwise, I’m breaking his hand for trying to reach for the tit in question. The only reason Duke—orany other guy I’ve been with—has gotten anywhere close with me was because I was impaired and willing. If I had all my faculties in place, I’m sure I’d still be a virgin.
“You got anything for me?” I ask, stopping Elijah’s hand in his tracks.
If you want to touch, you’ve got to pay up.
One of the other guys—Aaron, I think—looks at Charlie warily when she gives him her crazed “fuck me” eyes. Whatever she’s doing, it works, because he sidles her way and pulls out a ziplock bag of pills.
Damn it.Every guy knows she’s going to put out. Elijah is the idiot for trying to bark up my tree, and it’s only a matter of time before he realizes. Then I’ll be shit out of luck.
“You know I do,” Elijah whispers, kissing a path up the side of my neck while grabbing my tits. I’m so glad my thick coat is enough of a barrier to stop me from feeling the full impact of his hands.
The telltale clang of someone climbing over the fence makes me freeze. The metal clang sounds again. “Someone else is here,” I say.
Elijah shrugs, reaching for my boobs again, but I swat his hands away. We’re still sitting hip to hip, so that will have to be enough contact for the time being.
I turn toward the spot where we came from, waiting to see who else shows up. I haven’t been caught leaving school grounds before, and I’m not losing my freedom as soon as I get it. If I’m the most sober person here, chances are I can gap it and let everyone else take the fall. My heart hammers as two people walk around the corner, and it takes me a second to figure out who the newcomer is.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I throw my hand up and point to the dickhead I’ve been chaperoning all day. “Who the fuck invited you?”
Specifically, who the fuck let Kohen wear something other thanhis school uniform? The guy makes the shitty green blazer look good, and now he’s out here in a leather jacket, boots, and a pair of black jeans that are making his thighs look downright illegal.
The man in question pins his gaze on me, then the piece of shit glued to my side.
“I did,” Liam, the scrawny kid who’s freakishly good at calculus, says matter-of-factly before dropping down on the steps by Charlie, who is blushing like crazy at the bane of my existence.
Traitor.
“Get lost, Osman,” I growl.
Kohen looks me dead in the eye, drops his gaze to where Elijah and I are touching, and then looks down his nose at me as he says, “I think I’ll stay.”
“Get me that joint.” I slap Elijah’s chest with the back of my hand and do the universal sign for “gimme.”
Kohen and I don’t stop glaring at each other like a couple of prepubescents as Elijah grabs my medication. I narrow my eyes at Kohen when he pulls out a lighter, and the flame comes to light, reflecting off the silver rings on his fingers and the chain around his neck, and I momentarily forget about our budding fight.
I want it. I want all of them. I wonder if I can get close and try to slide a ring off his finger. Or I can try to break into his room when he’s not looking. Any one of the rings will do, but if I had a choice, I’d want the signet ring with the—he catches me staring, and I snap my attention away and snap my fingers at Elijah.
“Hold up a second,” he says, all stupid and drowsy as he fiddles with the latch of a tin container.
“Give me that.” I snatch the container away and open the lid. I grab the fattest joint I can see, then drop the rest on his lap.
He ungracefully tucks it back into the pocket of his puffer, then slides his hand underneath my coat to place it on my thigh, and a fresh bout of nausea lurches up my throat. My skin itches with the burning intensity of Kohen’s stare, and it takes physical restraint not to squirm.
I fight back the bile and slip the joint between my lips then call out, “Anyone got a light?”
“Nah, babe.” Elijah is the first to respond, squeezing my thigh like it’ll soften the blow of the fact he gave me something I can’t consume. Then he leans back on the step and gawks at the cloudless sky.
Charlie gives me a sympathetic look. The guy who offered her pills doesn’t notice me. The other three people don't respond.
Useless. All of these idiots.
I repeat my question again, and no one but Kohen speaks up. “You deprived me of information,” he says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. What information he’s referring to, I wouldn’t have a clue.
My lips twitch. “I’m going to deprive you of your balls if you don’t give me your lighter.” Childish insult, but whatever. Fuck him. He’s not going to ruin my first night of restricted freedom.
He scoffs, nodding at Elijah, who’s rubbing my leg—I have a feeling he’s doing it for the texture of my jeans rather than to touch me. But that doesn’t make the sensation any less disgusting.
Kohen sneers down at me, even though he’s the one who’s two steps below me. “They’d shrivel up and fall off if you go near them.”
