“You chose
Chloe
over me,” Lex hisses it out as if Chloe were sewage soup.
Oh, I love this. Chloe’s expression just fizzled down a notch, and now she’s seconds away from becoming a real live fire-breathing dragon.
Chloe spins her out by the elbow. “What the hell are you talking about? I’m an upgrade compared to you.”
Lex snatches her elbow back and hawks a giant wad of spit into Chloe’s eye.
Nobody moves. Nobody breathes. The party rages on in the background oblivious to the grand treason that just took place out here.
“You’d better hope I forget this.” Chloe wipes the offense away with the back of her arm. “You’d better pray I look the other way, Alexis.”
God, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Lexy’s real name before. Things just got serious as shit.
“Screw you.” Lexy pivots and heads into the party.
She’s going to be a social pariah. The bitch squad is totally going to abandon her, and it’s only the beginning of senior year.
Chloe tosses her head back and barrels toward the party with the rest of her cheer peers following along like a line of lost baby ducks. Dumbasses. Except for Giselle. Giselle is totally not a dumbass. She’s just pretending to be one, so we can nail Chloe to her casket once and for all. As if.
“That was weird,” I say as Logan tightens his grip around my waist. I turn slightly and accidently bury my face into Logan’s neck. I take in the scent of his woodsy cologne, smooth mint, and cotton. Logan always holds a stronger, bolder scent than Gage. I could tell them apart in the dark any day of the week.
“You piss Lexy off today?” Gage asks Logan as we head inside.
“Not that I’m aware of.” His voice rumbles over my back. “It’s probably just that time of the month.”
Gage nods as if he totally gets it.
“Hey.” I give them each a soft kick to the shin. “That’s from girls everywhere. A girl can get bitchy anytime of the month if she feels like it.”
I pull back and take Logan in. He’s in his jeans and West football jersey, but other than that he looks nowhere near a zombie.
“You cheated!”
“I didn’t cheat.” His eyes round out. “I’m simply a really good looking zombie. Right, Gage?” He teases.
Of course, Logan is right. He’s got my heart thumping like a caged gorilla, and I swear I’m one stray hormone away from pulling him into the bushes.
Logan pinches my hand with his. “Now we’re talking.” He gives a sly wink.
“Very funny.” I let him pull me in again, securing his arms around my waist.
Gage turns back, and his eyes widen with horror at the sight.
Shit. This isn’t going the way I hoped. I slip Logan’s arms off my hips, but they buoy right back up like some faithful floatation device.
“No, it’s OK.” Gage presses into me with those denim-stained eyes. “I know we had our time. Logan made it more than clear you guys were showing up as a couple.” He swallows hard, and eyes his truck across the street. “Anyway, you said you were short at the bowling alley.”
“No,” I plead, escaping from Logan’s death grip. I grab Logan by the hand and pick up Gage’s hand as well. “I don’t care what anyone says. This is a group date. I’m not spending my last Halloween sad because you’re not here, Gage. It would majorly kill things for me if you took off, so please don’t ruin my night. Stay.”
“Fine.” He gives my hand a quick squeeze before letting go.
Logan slinks his arms low around my waist again. “What do you mean by your last Halloween?”
“Oh…” I glance down and make sure Logan is in no way plugged into my mental musings. I’m pretty sure I’m not sharing anything that Marshall may have said or done earlier with the two of them. “I’ll be eighteen in a month.” I glance up at Gage. “We both will. This is my last official Halloween as a kid.” I pump my shoulders. Something tells me I’ll be emotionally stunted at seventeen forever, but that’s beside the point.
“Sounds good.” Logan pats me on the back before leaning in. “But I don’t believe you.”
Perfect. Logan can read me like a book with or without touching my skin. I slink my arm around his waist, and we follow Gage up the stairs. It feels good like this, comfortable, but only because I know for a fact Gage isn’t going to hook up with anybody later tonight. I couldn’t handle not having Gage, or Logan, in my life. Just the thought of them with other people enrages me on an unnatural level. It’s too heartbreaking to think about, so I let it go for now.
Demetri’s palatial mansion is booming with the sound of violent piano clatter much like Marshall’s. I glance over at the oversized white and gold trimmed monstrosity fully expecting an empty seat, but there’s an old man playing his heart out.
“Lovely,” I say.
“Rachmaninoff.” Demetri appears by our side with my mother in tow.
“Excuse you.” I nod into him.
“No, Skyla,” Mom corrects. “That’s who’s playing the piano, some guy named Rachmaninoff.”
My mouth opens for a second. I vaguely remember the name from music class in seventh grade. I’m pretty sure she means the song and not the composer, although knowing Demetri the latter is very much a possibility.
“Got it.” I roll my eyes a moment. “So what are you two supposed to be?” My mother looks like an escapee from an asylum with her hair teased to the sky and her clothes all in tatters, while Demetri looks debonair with an upturned collar that rises high around his neck, and is that a…cape?
“Vampire.” Demetri fans his wings to the side.
Nice. “So you opted for no costume.” I don’t bother hiding my feelings.
“Watch the sarcasm,” Mom bleats. “You’re a guest in his home.” She curtseys into us. “I’m a cavewoman.”
I smirk. One who has obviously had her brains sucked out by a zombie. How else do you explain her inability to stay mad at the man who killed my father?
Tad stalks his way over in a ragged dress, slinging a club over his shoulder like it belongs there. God, talk about embarrassing. Must he explore his transsexual boundaries in front of my friends?
“This costume is itching the living shit out me, Lizbeth!” He gripes well over the music, and I take that as our cue to find the teen scene.
Mom and Tad decked themselves out as a couple of cave people, and that looks about right. I’d ask what she did with baby Beau, but when she turns around I find him in a papoose slung over her back.
We follow the stream of bodies out onto the expansive backyard that Demetri lit up with orange and black lights making everyone look as if they’ve already set one foot in the grave. I wouldn’t put it past him to arrange for the other foot to land inside as well.
Gone are the gorgeous flower arrangements and rose trellises, replaced with every tacky accessory from the local party supply shop, complete with cardboard cutouts of witches and ghosts staked along the yard.
A steady fog emits from the fountain, and bodies dangle lifeless from the weeping willows.
“Wow, my mom did a magnificent job of turning the Garden of Eden into a giant pile of gaudy crap.”
A slow song comes on over the speakers, and people migrate over to a makeshift dance floor under the canopy of bright orange twinkle lights.
“You mind?” Gage looks to Logan while taking me by the hand. “Just one dance, I promise.” His dimples wink in and out as he pulls me in.
“Just one.” Logan glares at him a moment before relenting.
I follow Gage’s sweet scent all the way down the stairs and into a thicket of bodies at least fifty deep. Logan will never see us, and I’m guessing that’s the entire point.
“I’m not going to lie, Skyla”—Gage breathes the words into my ear as he holds me close, his hips moving hard over mine—“I’m dying to talk to you. I’m dying to spend time with you. I need you more than ever. This separation is fucking killing me.” He seeps it out in defeat, and even his expletive sounds like a surrender.
“You have the visions, Gage. Hold onto those. I’ll be speaking with my mother soon, and everything is going to get straightened out.” I pull back enough to see him. The tangerine glow from above makes him look haunted, demonic, desperately broken. I blink away, too afraid I’ll remember him like this.
That kiss I shared with Marshall earlier floats to mind. It felt alarmingly final. I could feel it in my bones. That was it for us on some level. I cast a glance across the way at Logan, sitting slumped while talking to a few of the guys from the football team. Logan has defeat written all over him. And this newly erected wall of secrets seems to be an iron barrier that I’ll never penetrate. All arrows seem to point to Gage, and yet he, too, appears to be waving the white flag of surrender.
“Skyla”—he twitches a smile, his glory restored as a slow-spreading smile takes over his face—“I do know enough about the future to feel comfort. But there are holes, big ones. You could drop a refrigerator in them, a mountain. Some things happen that I don’t understand.”
“Tell me, we can figure this out together.”
“No.” He exhales as if he were holding a lifetime of secrets. “There are some things we should let play out, especially when it comes to matters of the heart.”
“Great. Thank you for going all altruistic on me and leaving me to my own devices.” I pinch my lips to the side. “But you know I end up with you, or you wouldn’t be smiling, right?” I try to coax it out of him.
He tips his head back swallows down a laugh. “I’m no fool, Skyla. I know if I tell you that’s the truth it’s only going to drive you deeper into Logan’s arms because the thought of losing him will kill you, and”—he averts his eyes to the sky—“maybe Dudley, too.”
“But you know what happens.” My chest quivers, tears try to crop up, but I take a deep breath and fight their efforts.
“I know what happens with me.” Gage latches onto my gaze and holds on, strong as steel. And for the first time he looks hurt, in pain. Now I’m not sure what to believe. All of the hope he held just a moment before has fleeted.
“I’m going to find out Logan’s secret tonight,” I whisper, sweeping my gaze over the ground
“Really?” Gage says it with a sly smile as if he knew I was up to something the entire time.
“Yes, really. But don’t say a word, or I’ll have to hurt you.” I dig a finger in his chest.
He leans in with his lids partway closed, and my stomach bottoms out.
“I’ll let you hurt me anytime, Skyla Messenger. Even a broken heart would be a privilege from you.”
“
Gage
.” His words settle in my chest like live coals. “I would die before I ever broke your heart.” I touch my forehead to his chest, polluting his white T-shirt with all of the crap Brielle slathered on my face. I pull back and admire the stain. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” the words rumble from him, deep and warm. “I’m just glad you’re here. I’m glad we get to be together, even if we are stealing a moment. So how are you going to find out whatever it is Logan’s hiding?”
“Marshall’s involved.” I make a face. “And before you say anything, I’m going to be careful. He would never let me get hurt.”
“I know.” He tips his head so far back the scar on his neck stretches, pink like bubble gum. Gage drops a kiss on my cheek, then one square on my lips. “I miss you. I miss your kisses in the worst way possible.”
“God, I miss that with you.” Gage and I are working ourselves into a sexual fervor right here on the dance floor. He presses me in by the lower back, and I can feel the bulge in his jeans far too eager to greet me.
“Skyla,” he pants hot into my ear, and my insides explode, forcing me to tremble into him.
Swear to God, I think I just had a Gage-gasm right here in Demetri’s backyard in front of all of East and West.
“Let me come to the butterfly room tonight.” Gage can hardly catch his breath. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that letting Gage come to the butterfly room tonight would lead to explosive actions that will involve prophylactics. Although, I do like the idea of Gage having his way with me.
“I can’t. Marshall is having his way with me tonight.” I gasp at my misgiving.
“What?” Gage pulls back as though I just dropped a bombshell.
“That’s not what I meant.” My fingers ride up to my temples. “He’s taking me to the Transfer.” I wrap myself back around Gage like a coil. “Otherwise, I’d totally be up for some serious alone time with you.”
“We
are
still technically dating.” He tries to hide the dirty grin blooming across his face.
“Never for a minute do I feel like we broke up.” An unexpected burst of sadness rips through me as I press my lips together to keep the tears at bay.
“Skyla.” Gage rakes my name across my cheek with the heat of a nuclear wind.
“Excuse me.” A male voice emits from behind him.
I look up fully expecting to see Logan smiling back at me, but I don’t. I see Cooper Flanders, our buddy from the faction war.
“Coop!” I leap out of Gage’s arms and into Coop’s, leaving poor Gage with a not-so-thrilled look on his face. I guess it was a little rude especially after all but declaring my love for him.
“What’s going on, man?” Gage and Coop exchange knuckle bumps.
“Just came by to say hi to Skyla. You mind?” He points over at me, ready and willing to hit some slow moves. The song has changed, but the pace remains the same.
Gage nods into me as if asking the question.
“I’m OK with it,” I say to Gage. His dimples dig in.
“I’ll see you in a minute.” Gage looks from me to Cooper as he heads off the dance floor.
“I would love to dance with you, Coop.” I pull him in, and we begin to sway to the music with a nice, platonic clearance between our bodies unlike Gage who practically dry humped me a second ago—not that I was opposed to the idea.
“Um.” Coop holds up our conjoined hand. “Sorry, but this thing is on.”
“Oh, right.” Crap. Cooper has Celestra blood, so, of course, he can hear me.
Not only does Coop sort of look like Logan, but that whole forgetting to shut the brain off thing remains the same. Coop’s sandy hair glows an eerie shade of peach under Demetri’s tacky lighting. His clear, sky blue eyes sort of remind me of my own.
“You clean up nice, you know that?” I lean back and take him in. Actually, his jeans look dirty, and, come to think of it, his shirt sort of looks like it took a soil bath as well.