Devils' Day Party: A High School Bully Romance

by C. M. Stunich

  Barron, meanwhile, moves up behind me, cupping my breasts from behind and kissing the side of my neck.

  “Calix couldn't stop talking about how much you liked it in the ass last year,” he whispers against my ear, and I shiver. It's true. I did like it. “You're blushing, Karma.” Barron chuckles, reaching down and slipping a single finger into me, right next to Raz's cock.

  “Jesus, dude,” Raz groans, bucking his hips up and making me cry out. Barron takes some of my natural lube and uses it to insert first one, and then two fingers into my ass. The sensation makes me see stars, so I close my eyes, sucking Calix's dick, grinding my hips into Raz.

  When Barron pulls away, he chuckles and spits into his hand, using his saliva to lube up his cock with his fist. He makes himself nice and wet, and then puts the tip of his shaft up against my ass, teasing me with it before he pushes his way in slowly, inch by inch.

  I've never felt so full, a sense of euphoria sweeping over me as Barron takes over the pace, thrusting slow and deep into me, his cock and Raz's squeezing the thin wall of flesh between my openings.

  This time, when the orgasm comes, it's earth-shattering, taking over my entire body, working the devil's magic into every limb.

  I end up collapsing on the blankets beside the boys, shuddering and shaking, soaked in sweat. Raz must've come inside of me before I finished, curling his body around mine and pulling me close. Calix and Barron are forced to finish themselves before they join us, the four of us stretched out together on one blanket, looking up at the stars.

  “That was … less disturbing than I thought,” Raz murmurs, and Barron laughs, like there's an inside joke we're all in on.

  “Glad to hear it,” Calix quips from my other side, his body pressed up against my back. When I hear the sound of Barron's pencil against his sketchbook, a sense of contentment settles over me.

  Could there be a night more perfect than this?

  I don't think so.

  But … I wiggle out from between the boys to find my phone, checking for messages from Luke or my moms.

  There's nothing.

  No sex tape.

  No messages about suicide.

  I shoot off a few quick texts to Luke, asking about April, about Pearl. She replies almost immediately, promising that everything is okay, but that she has a secret regarding Sonja that she wants to tell me tomorrow.

  A grin takes over my lips before I put the phone aside and head back to bed.

  It's Devils' Day; I'm at a Devils' Day party; nobody is dead.

  Come on universe, give me this, I think as I crawl back into the nest of bully boys and close my eyes. Give me this day and I'll live every one beyond it like it's my last, I promise.

  Before I get a chance to drift off, snuggled up between Calix and Raz, I hear Barron stand up, and open my eyes. When I sit up, he glances back at me, his leather pants undone and slung low, his Mohawk mussed up in that sexy bedroom hair look.

  “Where are you going?” I ask, and he smiles at me. Not a smirk or a sneer, just a smile.

  “To draw the sunrise,” he says, and my heart skips a beat, remembering my mother’s words about seeing the sunrise and painting it. Even though my limbs are heavy, my body sated and lazy, I scramble to my feet, throwing on Calix’s velvet coat and my discarded panties. It’s all I have the energy for, but it doesn’t matter. It’s good enough.

  Barron helps me down from the emergency exit, taking my hand like a true gentleman and leading me to the edge of the junkyard, where a hole sits in the chain-link fence. We slip through it and find ourselves a place to sit, facing out toward Devil Springs lake. Just beyond the trees, the orange face of the sun peeks out, banishing the dark cobwebs of the Devils’ Day party, and the lurid pleasure I found in the naked, sweaty arms of my bullies-turned-lovers.

  “This should do it,” Barron says, opening his sketchbook and penciling in the tree line. It’s amazing, how he creates such beautiful landscapes with only one pencil. I lean my head against his shoulder, watching the sun come up and wondering if today might actually be the day. If this could be my tomorrow.

  I glance at my phone, looking through my texts from Luke. The last one she sent was in response to my questions about Pearl. And there’s still nothing about the sex tape either.

  Did I just do it? Did I just live the perfect day? I wonder, barely daring to breathe.

  Nobody died.

  Nobody fucking died.

  I swallow the lump in my throat and close my eyes against the morning sunshine, listening to the birds in the trees, and the gentle lap of the water against the shore.

  “Let’s go for a swim,” Barron says, putting the notebook aside.

  “Now?” I ask, shivering slightly in the cool morning air. The sun might be shining, but it’s still fall, and it’s early as fuck.

  Barron gives me a dark look and a smile, standing up and shedding his clothes.

  After a moment, I take his hand and let him pull me to my feet, his warm fingers reaching for the button on my coat, his hand sweeping my tangled hair back from my face.

  “You’ve never looked as beautiful to me as you do right now,” he says, leaning down to capture my lips one, last time before he turns and strips off his pants. He dives into the water completely nude, and I’m reminded of Raz and me at the spring, swimming naked together for hours.

  I shuck my clothes as fast as I can and stumble over the rocky shore to join him, cringing at the ice-cold water, but jumping in anyway. When I come up, I swipe my hair back and look around for Barron. But I don’t see him.

  At first, I figure he’s pranking me the way Raz did, that I’ll feel his strong arms band around my waist, his lips against the back of my neck as he surprises me. Only … that never happens. I wait there, treading water for what feels like an obscene amount of time.

  Barron does not come up.

  That’s when I panic, scrambling out of the water and throwing the coat over my shoulders. I run as fast as I can back to the junkyard, barefoot and dripping. My feet are bleeding by the time I get there.

  “I can’t find Barron,” I choke out as I climb through the door to the bus, the panic in my voice startling both Raz and Calix awake. “He went under the water, and he isn’t coming up.”

  The two boys are on their feet in seconds.

  “Show me,” Calix says, yanking on boxers as Raz wraps a blanket around his waist. There’s no time to get dressed; it doesn’t matter. Instead, we race back to the eerily still surface of the lake. The three of us dive in, dipping our heads beneath the water, searching for Barron.

  Raz is the one that finds him, an old rope tangled around his ankle, holding him under. It’s wrapped up in other debris from the junkyard, and it’s too heavy to move. Instead, Calix stays under the water for as long as he can, unwrapping the stupid fucking thing, and then helping Raz get Barron to shore.

  As I stand there, shivering, teeth chattering, feeling helpless as fuck, the two of them perform CPR, and I dial 911.

  It takes the ambulance too long to get all the way out here.

  Barron does not breathe again.

  When I collapse in tears at the hospital, I must pass out, and seconds later …

  There’s blood all over my steering wheel.

  I’ve never been so happy to be so wrong.

  Clearly, this fucking time loop isn’t done with me yet.

  For ten days I try this timeline in varying flavors.

  Ten.

  And on every single one, I’m happy. I spend time at home, I confess to the boys, we spend a night together naked and under the stars.

  Then somebody dies.

  That first night, it was Barron. The next night, I get a call from Luke that April had an accident. Then Raz. Calix. My mom. Luke. Calix, again. Barron. Barron. April.

  Tonight … Luke.

  My phone is clutched in my hand, the text message from April still showing on the screen.

  You won’t answer, but this can’t wait. Luke is
dead. I need you, Karma. I need you.

  With a scream, I throw my phone as hard as I can into the trees. I took off from the boys as soon as I got the message. I just need to be alone right now, just for a second.

  I punch the trunk of the nearest tree as hard as I can, sinking to my knees in the leaves with a sob. My knuckles are bleeding, but I don't care. No matter what I do, somebody always gets hurt, somebody always dies.

  Closing my eyes and letting my head fall forward, I pray for the universe to just take me. Send me to the next life or to heaven or hell or wherever it is that souls go because I can't take this anymore. I can't make the perfect day happen over and over, if only to see my friend die.

  Or Pearl.

  One of the boys.

  One of my friends.

  One of my family.

  What do I have to do to end this? At this point, it feels like I've tried everything. Everything. Fucking everything.

  But then I realize … that that isn't true.

  There's one thing that I haven't tried.

  Dread fills me as I collapse against the side of the tree, my eyes staring into the darkness of the woods as the laughter from the junkyard drifts my way, the smoke from the bonfire curling against the inky blackness of the night sky.

  There's one thing that I haven't tried, that in my right mind, I would never try.

  If there's one thing I do know, however, it's that the universe demands balance.

  Life cannot happen without death.

  “Shit.”

  I close my eyes and lean my head against the tree, praying for sleep to claim me. Fortunately, I'm so exhausted that it doesn't take long. Unfortunately, it sends me right back to the gas station, and to what I'm certain is going to be my final Devils' Day this year.

  It's not the destination, is it? I think as I wake up and see the blood all over my steering wheel. It's the journey. I've been fighting like hell to claw my way to my final destination: tomorrow. But that doesn't mean I haven't enjoyed so many moments in the past month, too many to even count.

  Painting with my mothers, cooking with my sisters.

  Laughing with Luke, and getting to know Pearl.

  Punching Erina in the face.

  My lips twitch at that last thought as I reach out and hit the lock on my door. Calix grabs for the handle just a moment later, and, unlike on the many other days I've locked my door on him, I roll the window down and turn to glance his way.

  Fuck, this sucks. Why does it have to be this way? Why does today have to be my last day?

  But in my heart, I know it is.

  It’s time.

  “I forgive you,” I tell Calix, before the words can fester inside of me. I've needed to say this for a hell of a long time. He pauses and lets go of my door handle, looking down at me with dark, unreadable eyes. “I shouldn't have hit your car, but I saw your face as I was driving past.”

  “Are you fucking insane?” he asks me, right on schedule, but with much less heat than usual.

  “You looked sad and lonely, Calix, and you're not allowed to look that way, not when I was willing to love you.” I glance up at him and smile tightly. It's just occurred to me that there's always at least one constant here: sacrifice. When one event in my life tends to go right, others tend to go south. I can't have it all; I have to choose. As much as I was loath to do it before, I'm ready now. It has to be today. “Not when I still do.”

  “Karma …” Calix starts, hesitating just briefly before he steps forward and curls his fingers around the glass of the window. “I’ve never stopped loving you.” My heart lodges in my throat, and the tears come, even though I don’t want them to. Even though I want to enjoy the day without feeling sad, without thinking about what I need to do. “Not for one single second.”

  “What the fuck happened here?” Raz asks, as he usually does, coming to a stop beside Calix, Barron at his side.

  “I’m sorry we spent so much time fighting,” I say to Raz, looking up and through the glass, finding his ruby red eyes narrowed on me in confusion. “I love you, Raz, just as much as I love Calix.”

  He freezes up, but the snide expression on his face disappears, leaving a much more vulnerable looking Raz than I think I’ve ever seen before. My attention turns to Barron next, sucking on his lollipop and holding his sketchbook under his arm.

  “You draw me,” I tell him, smiling as his eyes widen, almost imperceptibly. “Almost every day. You’ve been doing it since freshman year.” My throat threatens to close up and choke me, keep me from saying the rest of the words I need so desperately to get out. I fight through it, knowing I’m not going to get another chance. “I wish you’d told me that sooner. Because … I’m in love with you, too. Despite your cruelty, despite everything that’s happened, I care about all three of you.”

  “I don’t … understand,” Raz starts, blinking in confusion and reaching up to ruffle his dirty blonde hair in frustration. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying … I want you to come and pick me up after school, for the Devils’ Day party tonight.”

  If it’s going to end anywhere, it’ll be there, in the woods, around that bonfire.

  “And Calix?” He’s still watching me, fingers curled around the glass of the window. “You need to find Erina Cheney and talk to her. She has a video of us from last year’s party.”

  “You’ve got to be shitting me,” Raz growls out, but I’ve got to nip this in the bud before it gets violent. I don’t want that video getting out and messing up whatever future it is that Calix has planned for himself, that wouldn’t be fair. Especially since …

  Since I won’t be there to help him through it.

  “How do you know about that?” Calix asks, dropping his hand to his side. I shake my head, because there’s no easy way to explain things, not right now. And I only have so much time left. “Is she threatening you?” I ignore his questions, fighting back tears, my hands curled so tight around the steering wheel that my knuckles have turned white. I look at him, at all of them, pausing on Barron’s face before switching my attention back to Calix.

  “Please don’t hurt her. For me? You’ve hurt me enough over the past three years, and while I’m willing to forgive you, I can’t let you hurt anyone else. Talk to her, Calix. You were childhood friends. Let her know that some part of that has stuck with you.”

  Before he can answer, I roll the window up and peel out of the parking lot, heading straight home with a sense of determination burning inside of me. Today is Devils' Day, and tonight, tonight is the Devils' Day party. It's a night of magic and strange happenings, of sacrifice and ugly beautiful things.

  I can make anything happen tonight, if I want it badly enough.

  On the way home, I dial Luke's phone and notice that she's out of breath. Glancing at the time, I figure she's probably already naked in bed with Sonja.

  “Hey, are you too busy to talk?” I ask, and there's a long pause before Luke answers.

  “I'm okay to talk for a second, what's up?” Now that I know where she is and what she's doing, the hesitancy in her voice makes so much more sense.

  “I just … want you to know that I’m here, if you need to talk. About your parents or Sonja or anything else.” Luke is silent for a long moment, her breathing loud as I switch to speakerphone, setting my phone in my cup holder as I make the drive back to the Diamond Point Mobile Home Park. “If I was judgy, or self-centered or … anything else before, I’m sorry.”

  “Karma, you don’t need to apologize for anything,” Luke says, and I can hear blankets rustling as she moves around. There’s the sound of a door opening and closing, and I wonder if she’s just locked herself in the bathroom. “It’s me that needs to apologize.”

  A smile tilts my lips as I head down the winding road, tucked safely away inside of Little Bee. The rain’s just stopped and the clouds are parting, making way for the sun.

  “About sleeping with Sonja?” I ask, and I listen to her sharp intake of breath wi
th a chuckle. “It’s okay, Luke. I know, and I’m fine with it. You have a right to love whomever you choose—even if that person is a complete and total asswipe.”

  “I … I don’t know what to say,” she whispers, choking on tears of her own. I’m crying again, but that’s to be expected. I’ll probably spend the rest of the day sobbing. It can’t be helped. On the first day of this journey, I died. I was given a second chance. More than just a second chance, actually. Dozens and dozens and dozens of chances. Thirty-seven, actually, if you count the first day.

  Thirty-seven do-overs, which is more than most people get.

  “Don’t say anything. Just bring my committee gifts to the party tonight. I’ll meet you there around seven.”

  “You’re not coming to school?” Luke asks, and I shake my head before I realize that she can’t see me.

  “Not today,” I tell her, doing my best to keep my voice even and upbeat. “Could you do me a favor? Could you tell Pearl she can keep the dress? Tell her I’m sorry I didn’t appreciate what I had; she was right to take it from me.”

  “Right to … what?” Luke asks, but I just grin and cut her off before she can ask.

  “I love you, and I’ll see you at the party.”

  “I love you, too,” Luke says, a smile in her voice. “And I’ll see you there, too. We can talk about Sonja or … whatever else. And yes, I’ll tell Pearl that. I’m lucky to have you as a friend, Karma.”

  “I’m the one who’s lucky,” I say, ending the call, and finishing the drive with my windows rolled down, the wind whipping my hair around my face, my stereo turned up as loud as it can go.

  When I pull into the driveway, I walk in, leaving the blood on my face and knowing that this is my last chance to be honest.

  “Oh my god, Karma, are you okay?” Mama Cathy asks when I step in the door and she looks up from her pile of bubble wrap. She rises to her feet as Mama Jane comes out of the kitchen and rushes over to me, cupping my face in her hand and studying the shallow cut on my forehead.