by Weil, J. L.
“I can’t wear that,” I protested.
Austin shoved the clothes in my hands. “Can. And will.” He steered me into my conjoining bathroom.
Closing the door behind me, I picked up the jean skirt. I was pretty sure it wasn’t even mine. Snuggling the skirt over my hips, I looked around to see where the rest of it was. This gave a new definition to mini – it was micro mini. I hope I didn’t drop anything because I just might end up being tonight’s entertainment. And a peep show was not part of the deal.
This had to be a joke.
I held up the black top, a sheer, very see through off the shoulder do-hicky. Beaded fringe dangled from the bottom. Pushing my arms through the sleeves, I slipped it over my head and checked myself out in the mirror.
I am going to kick their ass.
Storming out of the bathroom, I shot painful daggers at Tori who was sitting on my bed filing her nails.
She glanced up and gushed, “You look freaking hawt.”
I peered at myself in the full-length mirror. “I look worse than Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.” Turning back to her, I put my hands on my scanty covered hips. “I look like a hooker.”
“A smokin’ hot hooker,” she assured. “Here I brought these over. You can borrow them. They’re purrfect.”
I took the pair of knee-high stiletto boots from her out stretch hand. “Oh yeah right. Like I am not going to break my neck in these.”
“Just put them on you baby. I’m dying to see how they look.” She was literally doing a happy dance in the middle of my bedroom floor.
Bending over, a feat all in its own, I zipped up the hooker boots. They had a pretty pattern on them with a peek-a-boo toe in the front and at the heel. I was sure they cost more than I made in a month.
“You got a tattoo!” Tori exclaimed squealing from behind me. Her hand was already pulling up my shirt. “When were you going to tell me?”
Oh shit. I’d forgotten, and this skimpy ass top gave her a bull’s-eye shot of my back.
Austin popped around the corner. “Babygirl got a tattoo? Get out of here. Let me see,” he said wiggling his way in-between us.
Feeling naked and vulnerable I had completely forgotten about my newly body decoration. “It’s not a big deal,” I said trying to push my shirt back in place. The bigger problem was this outfit left nothing for the imagination and barely covered the necessary parts.
“Are you kidding me? Does your aunt know? Of course not,” she said answering her own question.
What on planet earth ever possessed me to think I’d ever be able to hide this from them? I chewed my lip. “No one knows…except Gavin and now the two of you. And I expect to keep it that way.”
“Please. My lips are sealed.” She air zippered her mouth shut. Ha, I thought. That would be the day. “Where and how? I need details. You aren’t eighteen yet,” Tori rambled over-excited.
I shrugged. “Gavin might know someone.” I waited to see if either one of them would noticed anything peculiar about the tattoo, like the fact that the rainbow ink swirled in movement.
“You have a fake ID,” Austin proclaimed. “Can he get me one?”
I rolled my eyes. Boy could he ever and that was beside the point.
Austin looked, really looked at me for the first time since I came out of the bathroom. “Girl you are going to bring him to his knees. Look at those legs. Who would have guessed Babygirl had legs like that.”
“Me,” chimed in Tori. “Someone is going to get lucky tonight,” she sung, winking at me. God, she was worse than a guy. Every thought somehow started and ended with sex.
“Tonight is going to be unforgettable,” Austin declared pulling us in for a group hug.
I didn’t doubt that.
Chapter 21
THE FIRST STIRRINGS OF BUTTERFLIES fluttered into my belly. I was upstairs in Tori’s bedroom finishing my hair, while a swarm of people gathered below. Deliberately I was taking my sweet old time, not entirely prepared to embrace my skanky side just yet. If Sandra Dee could do it, so could I. There is a little bit of bad girl in all of us, right?
Tori and Austin literally had to haul me from my bedroom to her house in this ridiculous getup. I didn’t go without a fight, and they forbid me a sweater – cruelty. Thank God my aunt was on one of her routine date nights with Chad. He seemed good for her. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about her as much when I was off to college.
College. I was light-years behind my fellow classmates on the whole college submissions. My mind this whole year had been filled with boys and magic. There hadn’t been thoughts of my future. Now with it looming in the near distance I was screwed.
And my aunt knew it too.
Just the other day I had woken up with an enrollment packet to UNC Wilmington, Lukas’s school. It might have once been my first choice, and obviously my aunt’s, but now…I wasn’t so sure. I wasn’t so sure of anything.
The whole thing with my missing aura came back to haunt me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe I had done something. What if there was evil lurking inside me? What if I was capable of darkness – dark magic?
I shuddered at just the thought.
My reflection scowled in the mirror. Turning off the curling iron, I figured this was the best my hair was going to get. Satisfied with my curly locks, I paused at the door inhaling a deep breath. “Here goes nothing,” I muttered taking once last look at myself and shaking my head.
My heels clicked on the tile floor as I weaved down the hallway. An interior designer had decked out Tori’s pad in the spirit of Christmas. Lighted garland hung over the doorway arches, down the banisters, and alongside the fireplace mantels. Snowflakes hung sporadically from the high ceilings, a Christmas tree the size of Time Square twinkled in the corner. What was usually the music room had been cleared out for a dance floor and DJ.
Tori’s dad’s wallet knew no end. He pulled out all the stops for his little girl.
Leaning against the stair railing, a group of girls giggled wildly behind me.
Rianne and her posse of hoodrats.
Oh goodie sugar plums.
“Looks like someone forgot to take the trash out,” Rianne goaded with a sneer. Her eyes filled with ridicule and disdain.
“Apparently, they let you in,” I grimaced. She deserved so much more. Turning my back, I ignored the clunking of heels as her minions trailed her down the hall. Far. Away. From. Me.
Where the hell were my sidekicks?
Just as I was about to search them out, tingles skirted the back of my neck, and the tattoo at the small of my back roasted instantly. My eyes darted to the doorway.
Gavin, looking so insanely hot, my heart melted. He walked through the door with a rock-star swagger, his gaze sliding over me from head-to-toe lingering in some parts longer than others.
Whoa. My pulse darted all over the place as I waited near the stairs. There was a flutter deep in my chest. He made my head swim, my knees tremble, and my blood burn.
I still hadn’t composed myself by the time he was in front of me. A small smile crept over his lips, and his eyes traveled up at something over my head. Mesmerized, I could barely pull my gaze from him, but when I did, I saw what capture his attention. Mistletoe hung directly above us.
I blinked. “Oh.” I couldn’t help it. I stared at his totally kissable lips. The silver hoop rolled as he played with it. And I knew without a doubt he was going to kiss me.
Or at the very least I was going to attack him, either way it ended the same, his mouth on mine.
Gripping the banister, I could do nothing but hold on as a gazillion pearls of anticipation beaded through me. He pressed his lips against mine in a feathery kiss that left me aching and starved for more. One was never enough.
My breath got stuck somewhere between my lungs and my throat. Dazed, my eyes fluttered open.
Smirking he said, “You look…dangerous.”
I toyed with the necklace at my throat needing something to do with my h
ands. They were itching to pull him back. “Thanks I think,” I managed in a breathy whisper.
He casually interlocked his fingers with mine as if it was the most natural thing ever. “She’s really outdone herself,” he said surveying all the glitter, thousands of flickering candles, and lighted bulbs. There were people strewn around the great room, hanging out in the hallways and gathered around the food in the kitchen, playing some kind of drinking game. Red solo cups scattered over the countertops.
“That’s putting it politely. I thought it looked like Frosty exploded. Everything with Tori is over-the-top.” Including the lack of supervision. Her dad and his barely legal wife, Mariah, were having their own overnight holiday party at the Hilton. Wink. Wink.
In my mind, they were nuts to leave us alone. It was only a matter of time before their house was trashed. Or we were trashed.
He chuckled. “Poor Frosty.”
“I bet this doesn’t even compare to the parties in Chicago,” I said, thinking how boring our little party in Holly Ridge must be.
He pulled us down on a recently vacated couch. “Considering the people I hung out with…yeah they weren’t exactly your run of the mill. It feels good to have a little normal every once in a while. We need it to stay grounded.” His deep blue’s pointedly caught mine.
Got it. I needed some normal. Easier said than done, I thought to myself. “Tori and Austin saw my tattoo,” I revealed, waiting for some kind of reaction.
He was as calm as ever – nerves of steel. “And you were worried that they might notice something different about it?”
I nodded. It hadn’t mattered that he had told me otherwise. “Sometimes it’s hard not sharing this huge part of my life with them. We’ve been through everything together, and I feel like in some way that by not being truthful to them, I’m not being a good friend.”
“I wish I could tell you that it gets easier, but I think right now is not the best time to tell them. I don’t want to see you get hurt.” There was concern crammed in his eyes.
“I know,” I sighed heavily, laying my head on his shoulder.
Moments later Gavin stiffened beside me, and I felt the familiar prickles in the air. Another witch.
Lukas. I didn’t need to glance up to know it was him, everything in Gavin’s body language told me what I needed to know.
Internally I moaned, suddenly feeling like I was walking on pins and needles. I was going to puke.
Slowly I raised my head, Lukas and Tori strolled towards us. They looked…striking together. Her long legs accented by deathtrap heels, a blinding sparkly strapless little number, and Lukas in his college pretty boy swag. Lukas might look like the boy next door, but it was the bad boy next to me who made my heart sputter. I was just starting to really realize what that meant to me.
I knew that I loved Gavin. Then Lukas had come along and blurred that line. Finding what my heart truly wanted had been an unexpected struggle.
Lukas’s lips spread into a crooked grin as he looked me over. “Wow. I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you in a dress. Wow.”
I wanted to morph under the family room rug. He looked at me like I was the only girl in the room, like Gavin wasn’t sitting beside me.
Tori utterly clueless to the sudden strain, she was glued to Lukas’s side. Not that he seemed to mind, he liked the attention. She laid a hand on his arm oblivious to my panic. “I take full credit. Our Brianna lacks fashion sense.”
My mouth fell open. Oh no she didn’t. True clothes weren’t high on my priorities, but did she really need to throw me under the bus like that. What I wouldn’t give for a shawl at this moment.
No introductions were necessary. From the glint in their eyes, they both knew who the other was, and I wasn’t about to make an awkward situation any more awkward. The room suddenly got smaller, and the air crackled with thick tension like a radioactive experiment gone horribly wrong. I was suffocating from it. Or it could be because I stopped breathing.
Lukas’s dimples twinkled. “But she makes them look good.”
I choked on my own shock.
“I need a drink,” Gavin grumbled in a foreign voice devoid of any emotion. He promptly stood up, and I watched him walk away. I’d been doing that a lot lately.
Austin, coming from out of nowhere plopped on the couch, putting his arm around me. The cushions sunk under his weight. “What crawled up his gorgeous butt?” Then his eyes roamed over Lukas like a mouthwatering piece of candy. “Oh I see. You must be the other guy.”
I elbowed Austin in the gut. He was totally not helping.
He grunted. “I’ll pretend like that didn’t happen.” Looking up at Tori and the dreamboat, Austin said, “You must be Lukas. I’ve heard all about you.” His words rolled off his tongue. Austin was in seventh heaven.
“Any friend of Brianna’s is a friend of mine,” Lukas stated filled with charisma.
Austin raised a brow, already under Lukas’s enchanting spell.
What this party needed was time for things to simmer down before it started to boil. After what I hoped was adequate downtime, I went on the hunt for Gavin. Somehow we all needed to co-exist. The only place I had left to search in this massive house was the kitchen, which I’d been avoiding. It was jammed packed with bodies.
Sure enough there in the corner of the kitchen was Rianne with my Gavin. Somewhere over the last few months he became mine, and I wasn’t a sharing type. She was pressed up against him, his back to the counter, attached like a leech. There really were no nice words to describe the way she was throwing herself at him. Her leopard skirt was shorter and tighter than mine. I don’t even know how that was possible and still be covering anything at all.
It was like a punch in the gut seeing them so close. She whispered in his ear, and all I saw was…Red. Hot. Jealousy. It stole through my veins. Her sickening sweet smile made me gag. I was surely going to embarrass myself and heave right there on Tori’s polished floors. Her skintight dress outlined every slutty curve (I was one to talk, but that was beside the point).
Right then I wanted to throttle her.
I stopped dead in my tracks. Neither one of them noticed me. A million voices talked at once, but for me, the room went silent with nothing but their voices. Power swam inside my veins, and it was very hard to rein it in, but I knew now and here wasn’t the place to let my secret loose.
“Where’s your girlfriend tonight?” Rianne asked, walking a blood red nail up Gavin’s shirt. “I didn’t think I would get you alone.”
I was going to break her bloody finger. Totally eavesdropping, I waited at the tipped of the doorway holding my breath.
His eyes hardened to stone. “What girlfriend.”
Those words stung my heart worse than a thousand jellyfish. I couldn’t be in that stuffy room another second, not with the storm that started to brew inside me. So I ran as far from the kitchen as possible. I was feeling hot and cold all at once. Needing air and distance, I turned on my heels and headed outside to the porch. There was a sea of people blocking me from my escape, and in my haste I twisted my ankle.
Damn shoes.
God what are all these people doing out here? I was about to have a magical mental breakdown and they were laughing, having fun. Hobbling on one foot, I seethed as I pushed people out of my way.
As unreasonable as it sounded, I couldn’t help but be infuriated by their glee.
The crisp rush of the night air washed over me like a blanket. Millions of stars sprayed the sky above, but my mind was too bogged down to appreciate their beauty. The brisk air burned my lungs as I dragged in a ragged breath. I needed to calm down. The swirling of magic vibrated my fingertips.
I was so caught up in my rage, I never heard Lukas come up behind her. He whispered in my ear, “Careful, your eyes are starting to glow. And we know where that leads.”
Whipping around, I glared at him. “Shut up,” I mumbled low in no mood for anyone’s grief.
His lips twitched, holding up his hands.
“Hey. I’m not the enemy here, but I pity whoever pissed you off.”
My control snapped. I just could hold it in anymore.
Thunder snarled in the air behind me. Lightning split across the massive yard striking a nearby tree. The sound was deafening as the wood split in half. Dry lightning set the sky aglow over and over again. The ground under my feet shook with violence. And there I stood in the middle of it all, shell-shocked.
Oops.
Lukas put a tentative hand on my shoulder examining the destruction I caused. “Let’s get you something to drink. Plus I could really use one. Your friend has been smothering me all night.”
Like a dead zombie, I just nodded.
One drink turned into two, two into three, and so forth. It wasn’t until my fifth drink that I really started to feel numb.
And drunk as a skunk.
Like every great teenage party, someone had spiked the punch. The only difference this time was that bad girl Brianna didn’t give a rat’s ass. Bad girl Brianna told good girl Brianna to take the night off and go to hell.
“I’m such a light-weight,” I proclaimed, flipping off Tori’s boots. My feet were killing me. Lukas and I were sitting in Tori’s backyard with a jug of the good stuff. Well I was having a hard time staying upright. Giggling, I fell on my back, staring at the millions of stars as they came into focus.
“That’s not such a bad thing,” he assured, resting beside me on the grass.
I waved my hand in the air, playing connect the dots with the stars. “I think the world is spinning.”
“I think you have reached your limit.” There was amusement in his tone. “Come on. I’ll drive you home.”
Home. That sounded nice.
Chapter 22
LUKAS OFFERED ME A HAND up like a gentleman. Before I could even take it, a voice broke through the darkness. It was sinister and filled with promising threat.
Gavin.
“Don’t touch her,” he growled.
I shivered from just his tone. And maybe a little from his presence, I couldn’t help it. That did not mean I forgave him. The pain was too fresh and too deep, though the special punch had helped to alleviate some those feelings.
