Grey: The Retribution (Spectrum Series Book 3)

by Allison White

  I take the box and watch as he continues down the stairs, disappearing from my view before I can even say thank you. I gulp down the ball in my throat and walk down the rest of the marble stairs, meeting the cluster of people I love dearly, who greet me with smiles so wide, I know their cheeks are on fire. “Jaimie, Julia!” I run into their arms and breathe in their distinct smells I didn’t know I missed until this very moment. “I didn’t know you guys would come.”

  “That’s why it’s a surprise, duh.” Julia mockingly rolls her eyes, and I laugh as Jaimie nudges her side.

  “Noah helped get us here. He’s, like, really nice,” Jaimie says, shocking me.

  “He did?” I swallow another lump in my throat.

  She nods and raises an eyebrow. She suspects something but doesn’t comment on it.

  “Happy birthday.” I feel arms around me and turn to find Mason beaming down at me. “How does it feel being one hundred and nineteen?”

  “I wouldn’t know, since I haven’t experienced my nineteenth yet.” I stick my tongue out at him, and he pinches it. I groan in a little pain and hit him, gaining laughs from all around. I can’t help but join in.

  “We have gifts set up in the living room,” he informs me and grabs my hand, pulling me in that direction before I can even say a word.

  “You guys didn’t have to do this,” I whine as he sits me down on the white couch and hands me a large wrapped box.

  “Of course we did, silly,” Charlotte says as she sits on the other side of me and gives me another, smaller box. “It’s your last year as a teen.”

  “Oh, my baby has grown so fast.” Louise squeezes her chest.

  Charlotte rolls her eyes. “You never said that when I turned nineteen.”

  “That’s because you thought you were always grown.” Louise kisses her teeth.

  “So you guys got me presents,” I say before they can get into an argument. They do that a lot.

  I begin opening the presents one by one. Louise got me a beautiful gold, diamond-encrusted bracelet. I tell her it’s too much; she must have had to save up just to buy me this, but she, of course, demands I keep it. Mateo and Mason got me a collection of first editions of all my favorite classic books. Jaimie and Julia got me…a pair of hot-red lingerie that had more holes and sheer than I’d ever wanted to see in my life. I kept that one in the box and didn’t show everyone, but Mason got a peek and burst into laughter. I then moved onto the next and last one, from Charlotte, which was a coupon for “bomb-ass advice” because gifts are meant to come from the heart. I call BS on that one, she just spent all her money on liquor and other “necessities,” but it’s okay, I still love it.

  Mason leaves and comes back with a large pink and white frosted birthday cake.

  “Cake before one?” I glance at Louise, who shrugs.

  “Louise approves.”

  We laugh, and I blow out the candles surrounding the top layer.

  As I chat and laugh with everyone as we all lounge around on the couch, I can’t help but feel like something is off…wrong. Noah isn’t here. He disappeared. All because of me. The smile on my face plummets as I subtly try to look around for him. Surely, he couldn’t have really left. I want him here, no matter how fucked up I am. He makes me feel slightly more sane than normal.

  Jaimie notices and nudges me in the side. “Hey, you okay?”

  I turn away from the TV that’s broadcasting something about a violent robbery last night and look into her searching eyes. “Huh? Um, yeah, I’m fine.” I give her an assuring smile and take another bite of the strawberry cream cake and face the TV. Now they’re saying there was a shooting going on, but before I can find out more, she pinches my leg, making me jump and shake my head at her.

  “You are not fine. What’s really wrong?” She sounds genuinely concerned.

  I sigh and shrug. “Things are a little complicated between Noah and me…” I feel so guilty.

  “Is that his gift?” She nods to the little box still in my lap.

  “Oh, yeah. It is. I forgot about it…” I half-lie.

  “Or you’re just scared because you don’t want to hurt him?” she suggests in a sing-song voice. I hold in my breath. “If this is about Grey, don’t let it be. He can’t dictate the rest of your life. You fucked up, you apologized, you’re paying the consequences. There is nothing else you can do but at least try to move on. It’ll be hard, but trying a little harder each day should help tremendously.”

  “How are you so good at that?” I breathe, a little choked up.

  “At what?”

  “At the advice giving.”

  She shrugs with a half-smile. “Guess it’s my calling…open it.” She glances at the box, then gets up and joins Julia next to her on the other side of the L-shaped couch.

  Maybe I should listen to her. I mean, it’ll hurt like hell, but there really is nothing else for me to do now but move on.

  “It takes one step at a time…” I mutter, then set down my plate on the coffee table in front of me. Slowly, I lift the shiny lid and gasp. It’s a diamond-encrusted heart-shaped charm, but on a necklace. It’s so gorgeous, and when I lift it out of the box, it matches the charms on my wrist. I cover my mouth to hold in a sob as I clutch the jewelry in my fist.

  I know what I have to do…

  I get up and head out back. It has to be where he is. He didn’t go out through the front, and I highly doubt he’d just leave. He isn’t like that.

  Confirming my suspicion, he’s sitting in front of the pool, feet immersed in the water. He is staring off into space. I wonder what’s going through his mind. Does he hate me for pulling away? Does he hate me in general?

  I sit down next to him and dip my feet in the water.

  “Oh, he—” he begins.

  I cut him off by kissing his cheek. “Thank you.”

  He looks flabbergasted, his cheeks dusty rose. “For what?”

  I chuckle and hold up the necklace. “This…it’s perfect.” He blushes some more, and I bite back a laugh. I turn my shoulders and ask, “Can you help me…?”

  “Oh, um, yeah, of course.” He takes the necklace from me, and I hold my breath in anticipation. I see his large hands before they fumble behind my neck. I lift my hair so it’s easier for him to clasp it on. I turn to him, and he stares at my chest before raising his emerald green eyes and quirking his lips in a smile. “Beautiful…”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  If there is one thing that I’ve been terrified of since Jaimie and Julia got here, it’s that they would befriend Charlotte. And I mean that in the least mean way possible. I love them all; they’re great listeners and even better friends when I need them. But the thing is, when they’re together, they mesh well, like long-lost friends. And when you put two wild and partially mean people together, the product is usually chaotic and something out of a nightmare. Well, out of my nightmare, at least.

  Social royals online, both Charlotte and Jaimie pull together their Miami-based friends and invite them to a birthday bash tonight, my birthday bash. Something I never asked for, but they swear it’ll be fun. And despite my wishes that he not do it, Noah calls in his friends and tells them to bring their friends for a killer party in the “rich suburbs.”

  I love that they care about me enough to throw me a party, but I honestly didn’t want one. Things never end well for me when I am at parties, and I mean never. Either Grey shows up, making the night tense and it ends up with me in tears, or I get too drunk and do regrettable things. But considering what happened last night, I don’t think I’ll have a Grey problem tonight.

  Images of him bleeding and being so cruel, using words he knew would hurt me pop up in my mind, and I feel my stomach clench. I know he’d keep his promise to be unrelenting if he were to ever see me again all those months ago…and he’s been doing so every time he sees me. And every single time I feel my heart cracking, but last night—it shattered into an infinite number of little pieces. When I looked into his eyes, I di
dn’t see a single spot of the person I fell madly in love with, and it honestly scared the crap out of me.

  Somehow, I don’t think I’ll ever see that man ever again…

  “Perk up!” Charlotte screams over the deafening music-system blasting some new R&B song. “It’s your birthday—act like it.” She hugs me from behind and sways me side to side.

  I put on a smile for her and myself and at least try to act like I’m having fun. I swing my hips from side to side, feeling the eye of every boy in a one-mile radius on my legs. Much to my discomfort, the two fashionista ladies whom I love very much have forced me into a strapless gold-sequined dress that stops a several inches above my knees, with a pair of gold high heels. To say that I feel very exposed would be a horrendous understatement, but since they were like party bunnies on steroids, I put it on for tonight only and have been trying my best not to fall flat on my face.

  The amount of people that are here right now is insane. There must be hundreds, and I don’t know any of them. It will surely take all day to clean up. I can already feel the ache in my back as I pick up Solo cup after Solo cup. Thankfully, my parents and Louise won’t be back until the day after tomorrow. Charlotte has to be the best liar I know, which should be a horrible talent that she has mastered. But anyway, she’s convinced the lot of them to spend their day at the hotel since a small party’s being thrown for me tonight. Looking around at the party right now, I wouldn’t say it’s anywhere close to small, but what they don’t know won’t hurt them.

  “He’s been staring at you all night,” Charlotte sing-songs in my ear, then slurps beer from a can with a bendy straw.

  “Gross, Char,” I groan, and she laughs as I face her. As usual, she looks gorgeous, dressed in a tight blue wrap dress, face adorned in dark but highlighted makeup. “And who are you talking about?” I ask, nervously twisting the charm resting on my more than liked exposed cleavage. I pleaded with my “fashion gurus” to let me wear a nice light jean jacket, but they looked at me like I suggested they stop wearing makeup for a month and nearly bit my head off. I self-consciously cross my arms as she spins me back around, arm slung over my shoulder.

  “I’m talking about Nick over there.” She points a finger, and I follow it to where Noah stands against a wall, surrounded by his baseball cap-wearing friends. They revolve around him like he’s their sun, but he isn’t so much as interested in whatever they’re saying because he’s staring at me, more like observing me…with an intense look that sends my stomach in gravity-defying flips.

  “So?” I act like it’s no big deal, and she scoffs dramatically.

  “So? So, he wants in that golden treasure box down there.” She pats my butt.

  “Char!” I shriek and whip around.

  “Don’t be so modest. From what J and J say, you and he-who-shall-remain-nameless were pretty frisky,” she teases as she swirls her tongue around the rainbow straw.

  Where did she even get that?

  “It’s true; like that terribly catchy Sel G. song, they couldn’t keep their hands to themselves,” Jaimie says, literally popping out of nowhere.

  “What the hell? Where did you come from?” I swing my gaze from her to her dancing girlfriend.

  “Do you really want to know?” She squints her eyes at me.

  I shake my head no. “No, actually, I don’t.”

  “Stop avoiding the topic.” Char pinches me. “Lover boy over there is checking out our golden girl, and she won’t do anything about it.”

  Jaimie gasps and pinches me too. “Do something about it.”

  I open my mouth to reply, but Julia pinches me too.

  “Yeah, don’t be a wuss.”

  “Will everyone stop pinching me? It hurts!” I exclaim, raising my hands. “If I go over, will you guys stop pestering me?”

  They exchange looks with each other, look back to me, then nod and say, “Sure.”

  I roll my eyes at their smug faces and turn on my heel. I begin weaving my way through the gyrating bodies, getting whistles and lustful stares from guys and dirty looks from girls. I bet they don’t even know I’m the reason this party is happening. But they don’t matter. The boy watching as I emerge from the throng of rude guests does matter, though.

  “Hey,” I say, waving at him like an idiot.

  He raises a hand, and the boys surrounding him part like he’s Moses in the Red Sea, and he nods at me and gives me a wide, charming grin. “How are you enjoying the party?” His lips are wet from the drink in his hand.

  “It’s…” I’m cut off by a drunk guy sliding down the stair railing, planting his face on the floor; the crowd cheers like drunken fools. He laughs as I wince and say, “Kinda wild, I guess.”

  He pushes off the wall and towers over me, literally. “Maybe the problem is, you’re not wild yourself?” he suggests, raising his eyebrows as he takes a swig from his red Solo cup.

  “If you’re saying I should drink, that is a hard pass.” I throw up my hands defensively. “Liquor and I do not mix well.”

  You’re telling me, my subconscious murmurs.

  See? Even she knows.

  “Oh, come on,” he drawls, dimples like his arsenals, and they’re aimed straight at me. “It’s your nineteenth birthday. You can’t not drink.”

  “Technically, I’m not even legally allowed to drink,” I point out, and he narrows his eyes; I can’t help but laugh. “What? I’m turning nineteen, not twenty-one.”

  “Who cares? No one will tell, especially me. I’ll keep it hush-hush.” He even presses his finger to his lips and shushes himself.

  I laugh and watch as his eyebrows waggle suggestively. “Fine,” I finally break, and he pumps his fist to himself. “But one shot.”

  “I heard shot,” someone says excitedly in my ear.

  I jump against Noah’s side, and he automatically wraps an arm around me. “Stop doing that!” I scold Jaimie, who merely shrugs and grabs my hand.

  “Come on, it’s shot time!” she yells like a hardcore party girl, then drags us all into the kitchen.

  I gasp. “Mason!”

  He’s hovering over Mateo’s naked, ripped stomach, with a lime in his mouth and a vodka bottle in his right hand. He stops his actions, and I laugh, throwing my hand over my mouth.

  “Oh, hey, guys!” He waves us over, holding the lime in his other hand.

  I am a laughing mess as we all walk over to him, then he resumes whatever he was doing. I cheer him on as he sucks the lime and licks a line of liquor up his boyfriend’s muscled stomach.

  “We should go next,” Noah suggests in my ear, voice warm and sending the hair on my arms to rise.

  “No, thank you.” I laugh nervously and step back as Mateo jumps down.

  “Our turn, babe,” Julia hollers, smacking Jaimie’s butt.

  “Yay! Body shots!” Jaimie squeals excitedly and jumps up on the granite counter.

  If Louise ever finds out about this going down on our counters…let’s just say it wouldn’t end well.

  While that crazy couple do “body shots,” Noah hands me a Jell-O, and I look at it, confused.

  “Jell-O?” I question, and he chuckles, voice deep.

  “It’s a Jell-O shot.” He hits his with mine, and I giggle as they jiggle; he regards me with a butterfly-inducing smile. “It tastes good, trust me. On the count of three. One…two…three!”

  He and I gobble the surprisingly sickly sweet Jell-O.

  “Another!” I mumble, still chewing a bit, my eyes wide.

  He laughs as he pours vodka in two little shot glasses. “We should wash it down, don’t you think?” He flashes me a wicked smirk over his shoulder.

  Cheeks warm from the sparkling liquor goes down, I nod and take one of the glasses. It is my birthday after all.

  That is what I say for the next two hours as I down shot after shot, Jell-O after Jell-O. My good reasoning has left the building, and I find the silence in my head exhilarating. I dance and sing along without any thought, any hesitation. I
let myself be free and swirl against the bodies surrounding me. Most importantly, Noah. He holds my waist from behind me, his body feeling like the sun absorbing my sweat-slicked skin.

  I can’t see myself, but I know the goofy smile on my lips as I bop to the music is absolutely ridiculous. But he doesn’t seem to mind, as he mirrors the same expression. He pulls me closer so my chest is on his, and I can literally feel his heartbeat rampage against my own. I let out a string of laughter as he takes my hands and twirls me around. I’m sure I look like someone threw glitter on the sun, and I am revolving around him, the Earth, like we are a geocentric model.

  Out of breath and sweaty, I am curled into his arms, him behind me once again. That is until he twirls me one last time and tips my head back. The intensity clouding his glamorous green eyes causes my breathing to do a double take. It looks like he’s leaning in, and I am not moving away.

  Before his lips can reach mine, though, I am yanked away from him.

  “They’re playing a game! They’re playing a game!” Jaimie screams idiotically as Julia grabs Noah and pulls him in the same direction.

  Normally, I would decline and go drink some water to soothe the bright circles dancing in my irises, but instead I giggle and hop behind her.

  We end up in one of the many rooms on the first floor. There is a red bulb screwed in that makes the entire room dark and mystical. I giggle as I fall onto the floor after two girls make way for me, mascara streaking down their cheeks. Looks like they had a bit too much to drink like me.

  I just smile at them with a wide smile then cast my attention to a beer bottle on the wooden floors.

  “What are we playing?” I ask no one in particular.

  “Seven minutes in heaven,” the girl on my right announces, more like slurs. “I’m aiming for that hottie right there,” she adds, pointing at Noah, who is sitting across from me.

  I glare at her and jab my finger at her and whisper, “Back off hussy, he’s mine.”