Paisley pulled to a stop a little way from the clearing, killing the engine. The sudden silence felt profound, absolute except for the ticking of cooling metal and the distant thump of bass. “You ready?”
I smiled, doing my best to put her at ease. “This will be a piece of cake.” If she only knew. It couldn’t be worse than some of the shit I’d already seen and done in my seventeen years on this earth.
“I just don’t want to lose another friend. We’re just getting to know each other, and I really like you.”
“Same.” She had no idea how important her friendship was to me. Going to Daily Dose that first time had been the best decision I’d made since moving to Elmwood. Making friends had always been hard for me, but with Paisley, it had been effortless. We just clicked. Her taking the initiative helped, gave me confidence, and made me feel as if I wasn’t as out of place as I often felt. “I don’t know what I would do without you and Atlas. Starting a new school is stressful enough.”
“If you feel unsafe at any time…”
“I’m out,” I promised. I pulled out my phone and dialed her number. She answered on the first ring even though she was sitting right beside me.
“Make sure to mute on your end,” she said, her voice coming through the speaker pressed to my ear. “And don’t drink anything out of the Solo cups.”
“I won’t,” I said, slipping the black lace mask over my face, the silk ties brushing against my hair as I knotted them.
Here goes nothing.
I opened the door, the night rushing in, smelling of wood smoke and pine. I cast one last glance at my reflection in the window, at the girl I barely recognized.
16
MADDOX
The engine was already running when I got in the truck, the low rumble vibrating through the floorboards like it was impatient with me and had been waiting too long.
So was Mason.
I shut the door harder than necessary and stared out at the night stretching beyond the windshield, at the ribbon of road and everything that came with Raven Night. Chaos dressed up in pretty masks and bad decisions, but my mind was elsewhere, stuck on earlier today.
What had I been thinking?
Suddenly, I was standing in the hallway sucking her finger like I was a damn vampire craving her blood. Oddly enough, the look in her eyes had my dick hard. Even now, thinking about it, remembering the way she’d gone completely still, the way her breath had caught and held, the way her pupils had blown wide, that part of me strained in my pants.
And God, the taste of her. I hadn’t expected her skin to be so sweet; she was like my personal aphrodisiac.
I needed to get rid of the taste of her. I needed to get drunk. Quickly.
Mason pulled out of the driveway, the tires crunching over gravel. “Are you going to be moody all fucking night?” he asked, shooting me a sideways glance, one hand draped casually over the steering wheel. “You’re starting to act like Kreed.”
“Just drive,” I muttered, rubbing a hand over the tension gathered at the back of my neck. The sooner we got there, the sooner I could get this night over with. The sooner I could lose myself in a bottle of booze and maybe stop thinking aboutherfor five fucking minutes.
When the hell had my thoughts shifted from Kaylor to Hales? It seemed so seamless. I couldn’t pinpoint when the shift started. She was just suddenly inside my head, taking up way too much space.
“I will if you tell me what’s up your butt.” Mason accelerated, the Jeep picking up speed as we hit the main road. “Tonight isournight. It’s always been our night. And you’re sitting there looking like someone cut off your balls.”
I barely heard him. My head was stuck in that hallway, still feeling the softness of the little brat’s finger against my lips, the way her pulse had jumped beneath my thumb. “The fucking rose,” I mumbled, the words coming out rough and disconnected.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Mason’s brow furrowed, confusion bleeding into irritation.
“Someone gave her a rose. A black one. They left it in her locker with another note,” I explained.
“I’m assuming we’re talking about Freckles.” He glanced at me, then back at the road, his expression shifting from confused to amused. “Okay. And that’s bad, why?”
Because it meant someone else was watching her. Someone else was thinking about her, writing to her, leaving her gifts. Someone else was?—
“Just forget it,” I grumbled, cutting any further thoughts before they finished forming. “The sooner I get a drink, the sooner I can get her out of my head.”
“I’m still trying to figure out what you’re even mad about. But…I can’t think of a better night than Raven Night to at least test the waters.”
