Page 5 of Vibes

“Cora,” Londyn says, her voice stern. “Do not ruin this. We’re getting over the Dylan hill. Burying it if we can. New sex toys are part of the self-care package.”

The witch herself groans, and it gives me more satisfaction than almost anything else. “Fine. But… let me know if anything strange happens.”

“Strange?” Iris asks, and there’s rustling around me. I’m definitely being moved around as Cora rings things up, but it’s hard to see too much at my current angle.

“Oh,” Cora continues, hesitating. “You’ll know if it happens.”

“Well that’s cryptic,” Londyn says with a snort.

Cora continues to ring things up, and I’m moved from the basket to a bag, and she seems to deliberately stuff me to the bottom. It’s harder to hear down here beneath the other things but not impossible. “Do you think Colton is really going to throw another party?”

That’s Iris asking, and I’m kind of annoyed that her focus is on him instead of with the Denver Lords, the true champions of Evergreen College. Colton is a football player and he’s always had a chip on his shoulder when it comes to Flynn. Flynn throws the parties; Flynn gets the girls. The rest of us are just along for the ride. Even the football team pales in comparison to the success of the hockey team at Evergreen.

“Who cares?” Londyn replies, sounding annoyed. “He can’t be as bad as Flynn and his crew. And Dylan isn’t usually at the football parties, right? That makes it all the better.”

“I wonder what happened to the hockey guys,” Iris muses. “The team was doing amazing before the five of them disappeared. I hear there’s drama in the locker room. Do you think it’s drugs?”

“Honestly, they’re grade-A assholes. They probably pissed off the wrong people and got popped for it. They’re probably buried in the woods by now.”

I lock in every detail. So my friends are MIA too?

“Guys like that get up to no good,” Cora intervenes, and at this point I can’t tell if she’s finished ringing up the purchase or not. “It’s better if they stay away if they want to cause problems.”

“Like Flynn?” Londyn says knowingly.

“I guess we can skip it if Colton does try to throw one,” Iris goes on, and I secretly praise her for thinking Colton’s parties will be subpar. Damn straight they will be. “I could use the time to try out all of this anyway.”

Ah ha! If Iris decides to play, maybe I can reach out to her somehow. Talking doesn’t seem to be a thing I can do like this, but maybe when the plastic wrapping is gone…

“That’s my girl!” Londyn cheers. Interrupting my thoughts. “Cor, we’re still on for this evening?”

“Sure, sure.”

The girls move, and the bag shifts causing me to start rolling around in the packaging. I end up facing down, the motion of the bag swinging gently distracting me from the conversation above. It doesn’t matter really, because the bag makes too much noise for my small, vibrator self to hear anything in here.

For better or worse I’m getting out of here. With Iris of all fucking people.

2 Oh Yes

Iris

I finally get Londyn off my back for the day and get out of the store with that little bullet vibrator and something akin to lingerie. There's so little of it I'm still trying to figure out what I spent my money on, and I didn’t miss the way Cora tried and failed to hide her amusement.

Those two are going to be the death of me. I get that they want me to move past Dylan and be comfortable in my skin again but… I’m just not. Dylan’s main thing was calling out all my insecurities. I don’t want him back by any means, but whenever I try and see myself dating someone else, I just hear his voice in the back of my head making everything worse. We broke up over a month ago, and he’s only holding on because I’m not pining after him like every other ex he has.

He can’t take a hint. He’s shown up uninvited to my apartment more than once, and that’s a habit I need to stop. As I wander through my front door memories of the party bombard me, and I blame it on letting my thoughts circulate back to Dylan, and begrudgingly, Lachlan.

“Kelsey,” Dylan’s voice booms, or maybe it’s just loud because he’s in my face. “Hold Iris steady for a sec.”

“Sure thing,” Kelsey replies, and she barely looks at me before batting her lashes at him. I don’t really know her; Dylan’s a football player and during the brief time we dated I only had to put up with the girls who threw themselves at the team. I didn’t really have to deal with the puck bunnies too, but tonight after a hockey game it’s no surprise that the party is in one of the hockey houses.

Londyn tried to detail everything out for me since I prefer to not be this involved in social circles, but all the details bleed away as Kelsey grabs my arm, digging her sharp nails into my skin while she mainly focuses on Dylan. I decide she’s the more likely one to let me go, mainly because I think she’d love to be all alone with an idiot like Dylan.

“Kelsey—” I begin.

A shriek leaves me when cold liquid pours over my head, dripping down over my hair before something hits the dress. I knew I shouldn’t have worn this to begin with. It’s so thin that now it’s wet, it’s completely see-through besides being stained and probably ruined.

Panic hits me, and I rip my arm away from Kelsey who’s laughing. I look between the two of them as people stop to stare and laugh, my shriek drawing more attention than I care for.