I wondered if she did know, why she wouldn’t tell me or Travis. Or, hell, even the police. There was hardly anything the police could do without more evidence, except be on the lookout for a car that had a human-sized dent in it.
Her thin shoulders rose and fell once with a shrug. “That’s life. You can never really be sure about anything.” I had the feeling her words meant more than their face value, and I stood there in silence, watching as she returned to her friend in the bathroom.
What did she mean by that?
Ash might not be sure of anything, but I was. I knew for a fact I was sure about one thing—her. I knew I needed her; there wasn’t a doubt in my mind how much she meant to me. The world and more. I cared about her more than I did my own self, which might not seem like much, but it was. I’d slowly come back into myself after losing Sabrina, and Ash had made me feel more alive than I’d felt in nearly a year.
For almost a year I’d been a passenger in my own life, watching it go by, wondering why I had to be here and Sabrina couldn’t. Even though we were broken up at the time, her death still hurt me like a knife to the heart.
Kelsey traded places with Ash, and I saw just how dolled-up Kelsey had made herself. Her dark hair was in soft curls down her back, her black eyes lined with thick eyeliner and smoky eyeshadow highlighted in red. Her lips were painted a sleek and vibrant cherry red, matching the shirt she wore—which was very tight, not that I noticed. Or I tried not to, at least. She wore jeans that seemed to have paint splatters on them, along with a pair of black flats.
She was pretty, and a selfish part of me wondered how good Ash would look. Why couldn’t Ash stay here? Let her friend go out and party while Ash and I had the room to ourselves? It wasn’t too wrong of me to want that, was it? Not after what we did yesterday. That was…
Damn it, I shouldn’t be thinking about that while they were still here. I’d only get hard.
“So,” I started, causing Kelsey’s brown stare to snap to me. “What’s your costume?”
“Oh, yeah!” Kelsey snapped her fingers, moving to her backpack and pulling out two…stickers? “Almost forgot the most important part,” she muttered to herself. She grabbed a pen from Ash’s desk and scribbled something on both. She peeled the first one off and stuck it on her chest, right beneath her collarbone. When she turned to face me, I saw what it said.
Hello, My Name is…the Devil.
“Funny, huh?” Kelsey laughed at herself, and I peered around her to see that the other one simply said Hello, My Name is…God. So Kelsey was playing the Devil and Ash was playing God? I wasn’t sure if that was right.
Ash was a wonder, beautiful and entrancing, but wasn’t Lucifer the same? It’d been a while since I’d gone to church, but I was fairly sure the Devil was the kind of person—or angel, technically—you couldn’t trust. Ash, until recently, I thought was trustworthy, but it was hard to put my faith in her when she was clearly hiding something huge from me.
No, out of the two of them, I thought Ash should be the Devil.
Not like I’d ever say that out loud, though.
It wasn’t too long before Ash exited the bathroom, looking exceptionally gorgeous. Her grey eyes were lined in black, her eyelashes looking extra-long and thick. Her eyeshadow was grey blended with a silvery white, playing off the God angle. She wore a sparkly white shirt and torn-up jeans. God was grungy; who knew?
Her blonde head wore no beanie, for once, letting her hair fall free. She’d wear her signature Converse, too. Her usual style, just a bit more glammed-up. Just a bit…more. More beautiful.
I couldn’t stop staring, even after Kelsey handed her the other sticker, which she carefully set on her right breast. I should not be looking there, but I couldn’t help it. I’d touched those breasts not too long ago, and I desperately wanted to touch them again.
Hell, I’d seen them, too. I’d seen every inch of her.
Did she not know how crazy she drove me?
“Well?” Kelsey asked, turning to face me as she hooked an arm around Ash’s neck. Together, they were a sitcom version of God and the Devil, light and dark, good and bad. “How do we look?”
Ash’s unique, gorgeous stare looked at me, patiently waiting for me to say something. To get ahold of my tongue and stop my mind from wandering to places it shouldn’t. What the hell was I supposed to say? She already knew she affected me like no other, and to see her all dressed up to go to a party I wasn’t allowed to accompany them to was just insult to injury. Salt to the open wound.
It wasn’t fair was what it was. Totally not fair.
“You look amazing,” I said, staring at Ash. “Are you sure I can’t come?”
“Nope.” Kelsey answered for her, “We got this, dude. Take it easy tonight. Watch some porn with the speakers on. Do whatever it is guys do when they’re alone.” She turned her head to Ash, whispering, “I honestly have no idea what they do. They’re like aliens. Sexy and cute, but still aliens.”
I felt my cheeks redden. Even after being in her vicinity for almost a day, I still wasn’t used to the things Kelsey said. She had no filter, for sure. I chose not to address the porn bit, instead asking, “Where are you guys even going?”
“Stanton,” Ash said. “Nowhere in Hillcrest, so you don’t have to worry about us running into anyone.” Though she spoke no names, I knew who she was referring to: Sawyer. Whether it was Ash’s idea or Kelsey’s to go to a party at Stanton, I didn’t know, and I didn’t care. All I knew was that Ash was going to be too far from me.
This wasn’t going to work, but I couldn’t exactly force them to stay here. They were each adults, able to make their own decisions…and their own mistakes. I hoped Ash wouldn’t make any mistakes tonight, and I prayed that nothing bad would happen to her.
Still, I knew better than to leave that up to chance. Once they were gone, I had a call to make.
“Just…please,” I said, “when you get there, text me the address. Just so I know where you are, in case something happens.”
Kelsey moved her arm off Ash, rolling her eyes as she said, “Yes, Dad. Will do.” She grabbed her phone and put it in her back pocket. “Come on, let’s blow this popsicle stand.” She took Ash’s hand in hers and tugged her toward the door.
I watched them go, feeling an emptiness inside once they were gone. I waited a moment before moving to lock the deadbolt in the door; a habit I’d started after that night. It was hard to feel safe when you never knew what lurked around the corner.
I moved to sit on my bed, pulling out my phone. Best give him a heads-up, I suppose, in case he was busy. I knew it was wrong, but I wished he’d be with another girl, something to show that he wasn’t so serious about Ash. But, of course, he wouldn’t be. Travis was just as serious about Ash as I was, and it sucked.
Dialing his number, I waited for him to pick up.
“Declan,” Travis’s voice broke through the phone, and I felt my jaw clench involuntarily. We might’ve been working together when it came to Ash, but I still wasn’t a fan. Not after what he did. Forgiveness didn’t come easy, and sometimes it never came at all. “Is something wrong?”
Yes, because I’d never call him normally. We weren’t friends anymore. At this point, I wasn’t certain whether we ever were friends.
“Ash’s friend came over,” I said.
“Yes, I’m aware.”
How the hell he was already aware of it, I didn’t know. We didn’t see him today on campus, unless he was stalking her. Which I wouldn’t put past him. “They’re going to some party in Stanton,” I muttered, my free hand clenching into a fist. The sleeve yanked up, revealing my scar. I tried not to look at it. “I told them to text me the address when they get there—”
“Smart, but they don’t need to.”
I got up, starting to pace. “Why?” Turned out, I shouldn’t have asked.
“Because” was all he said for a moment. Then, “If your window was on the west side of the building, you’d be able to see why.�
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My feet halted, and I shook my head. “You’re outside? You’ve been watching?” It really shouldn’t surprise me, but it did.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to her,” Travis said. “I’ll follow them to the party, keep my distance. They won’t even know I’m there.” How in the world he thought he could blend in—at a costume party, with all those tattoos—I had no idea. But it was better than me going and facing Ash’s wrath.
“If you see anyone suspicious—”
Travis was a deadly kind of serious as he cut in, “I’ll handle it. I’m on watch now, so don’t worry. Everything is going to be just fine.” And then he hung up without so much as a goodbye.
I couldn’t say why, but his last words only made my stomach harden in unease. I wouldn’t say I was a very anxious person, but lately it was impossible not to be. Anxiety crawled over me like a swarm of insects, making me feel sick.
Travis said everything would be fine, but I knew, deep down, it wouldn’t be.
Chapter Twenty-One – Ash
Kelsey’s plan was literally just to drive to Stanton, the local community college, and find whatever frat house or sorority house we could that was throwing a party. Just stumble along one and hope for the best. If it was too lame, she said, we could always leave and find another one.
I was the designated driver, though. Kelsey already warned me she wanted to drink and lose herself and all of her worries tonight. She also wanted to hook up with a guy she’d never see again, someone whose dick could help make her feel better about her troubles back home.
Whatever happened, I didn’t really care. I wasn’t here to hook up. Have a little fun, maybe. Get my mind off of everything going on in my life. No more Sawyer, no more Travis, no more Declan and Will. No more Ray. Just me, being a college student in America, trying to live the best life I could before I graduate and step into a world of uncertainty.
It wasn’t too much to ask, was it?
“And,” Kelsey went on, pulling the rust bucket off on the side of the road. We were on a side street near Stanton’s main campus, near the Greek houses. “If it doesn’t happen to be a costume party—which I so hope it is, because Halloween is in two fucking days and I need to fuck a vampire—we can take these off and boom! Normal outfits.”
I watched her put the rust bucket into park and turn off the ignition. “You want to fuck a vampire?”
Her dark eyes seemed lighter, now that they were lined in black. More of an amber than a straight-up brown. “Don’t act like you’ve never thought about it. I mean, if vampires were real and, you know, out like they were in True Blood, I’d definitely be a fang-banger.”
I let out a laugh. A laugh so long and deep I felt tears starting to well in my eyes. Oh, God. I got out of the car, letting the cool night air wrap me in a hug.
No crying, even if it was because of laughing. It would only mess up the makeup.
Kelsey got out of the car, locking it, even though there was nothing in it to steal. And even though we were at Stanton and not Hillcrest, it was still the most beat-up car around. “I am being one hundred percent serious, Ash. I don’t even care if he looks like Edward Cullen. Give me Dracula, give me Edward, give me Spike or Angel—I don’t care. I really don’t.”
“I know,” I said as we moved to the sidewalk. A few houses down was a party. You could tell by the strobing lights coming from the house and the people hanging out in the front, sipping from beer bottles and red plastic cups.
And, yes, they were in costumes, much to Kelsey’s happiness. Although, I had to admit, I didn’t think anyone would understand ours. The night was still young, but it looked like alcohol was flowing, and when booze and college students collided, rational thought processes died off.
Kelsey glanced down at her nametag. “The Devil and a vampire. The perfect combination.”
I said nothing as we headed to the house. I worried what would happen if we walked in and someone asked us where we went. Should we say we were Stanton students? Saying I went to Hillcrest was probably not the best idea, and Stanton was a big campus, having more students in general than Hillcrest. Hillcrest was the elite, while Stanton accepted anyone who averaged a C in high school.
Eh, no one would ask. No one cared. They’d all be too curious about our outfits and our stupid nametags.
God. I was God. Go fucking figure.
Kelsey was the first to walk up to the house, giving her best smile to the students lingering outside. They didn’t care that they didn’t know who she was, or me, for that matter. They waved at us and rose their drinks in the air in a welcoming gesture.
“Just remember,” I spoke, “no taking drinks from strangers, and if you set your drink down, just get a new one.” She wanted me to be her wingwoman, but I really knew that just meant to gather her up at the end of the night and make sure nothing bad happened to her. I knew the drill. This wasn’t our first college party. We’d snuck into quite a few during our high school years.
No one was getting raped tonight. No one was going to get drugged. If there was any fucking, it would all be consensual, providing Kelsey didn’t plaster herself right away.
“I know, I know,” Kelsey muttered. We stood before the front door, which was closed. The Greek symbols of whatever house this was hung over the door, and I had no idea what they meant. Alpha…something, something. “And, in case you’re going to lecture me on safe sex, you don’t need to.” She patted her pocket.
Oh, God. Kelsey had even brought a condom. She was that desperate, huh?
Well, alright. Let’s get my friend buzzed and hooked up.
Kelsey pushed inside, and it was…an almost stereotypical scene. I guess I’d grown used to the parties at Sawyer’s house, and the people who came to them. This was…just…like a scene from a TV show. So many bodies, all close together. The girls wearing slutty costumes that all looked the same, even if some were nurses or angels or cops. Some people didn’t wear costumes, but the ones that did vastly outnumbered those that didn’t.
I watched my best friend tug at her red shirt, pulling it down somewhat and exposing her cleavage. She was bigger-chested than me, and I was kind of jealous. She always complained she couldn’t lay down on her stomach, though, without the feeling of her boobs pressing against her lungs and making it uncomfortable.
We walked through the house, getting to know its layout. Most of the partiers were in the front room, dry humping and dancing away. Another small crowd lingered near the stairs, laughing as they drank. The kitchen had some food, but where was the booze?
Kelsey headed outside in the back, finding half a dozen large coolers arranged in the grass, along with a bonfire—which I honestly wouldn’t trust drunk kids with. Kelsey just laughed when she saw it, muttering, “Awesome.” She went to the nearest cooler and pulled out a beer. “Let’s scope some hotties out—”
We needn’t have looked far, for a tall man came up to us, grinning. His blonde hair was combed to the side, and he wore a…a hotdog suit. A funny guy, apparently. Not my type of guy, nor was he Kelsey’s type. She much preferred those with muscles and brawn over dumb tomfoolery.
He zeroed in on Kelsey, tossing a quick look to me. “Hello, Devil,” he said, flashing us his teeth. “I’m—”
“Sorry, buddy,” Kelsey said with a shrug. “Not tonight.” She hooked our arms together and brought us back inside.
“At least he understood our costumes,” I muttered. It was probably more than she’d get from any of the meatheads that she’d want to sleep with.
“I know, but I don’t care. I just want a vampire.”
So much for a guy who could make her laugh, huh? Right now she just had dick on the brain.
As Kelsey disappeared, snaking into the dancing crowd, I looked all around for Ray, still feeling like he was going to pop up and say boo! Miss me, amorcito? I hated that I could hear his accent perfectly in my head, despised the fact that he still had so much hold on me. I’d never escape him, I’d come t
o realize. It was stupid to try, but I could at least attempt to have some fun.
I peered through the dancing horde of people, finding Kelsey squeezing her way between a girl in a sexy army uniform and a black-haired vampire with a cliched cape on his wide shoulders. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew he had to be at least decently attractive for Kelsey to have stepped in like that.
You go, girl. Get that dick like you’ve never gotten it before.
I couldn’t see what was going on because I was so damned short, but since there were no fights immediately breaking out, I figured it was safe to meander back outside. The fire was calming, and I really needed to clear my mind anyway.
I moved through the kitchen, leaving through the backdoor. The bonfire had a few seats around it, most of them taken. A girl and two guys. They sat on the log that had been pushed near the bonfire, leaving a few chairs on the other side vacant. I plopped myself down, sighing. The heat from the fire warmed me up, and I threw my head back and stared at the dark, starry sky.
Travis liked to stare up at the night sky, at the stars…
Wait a moment, I was forgetting something, wasn’t I? I stuck my hands in my pockets, suddenly remembering that I’d told Declan I’d text him the address. Pulling out my phone, I asked, “You guys don’t happen to know the address of this place, do you?”
I didn’t think they’d know; I just didn’t want to get up.
A smart-alecky tone answered me, “No, we don’t live here. We just came for the free food and alcohol—” Though flippant, he sounded remarkably sober.
I looked up, meeting the brown-haired kid’s gaze. His green eyes sparkled orange with the fire, and he wore a dimpled smile. He wore a costume from Star Wars, and so did the girl beside him. I watched as the girl sitting beside him swatted him in the stomach.
Skank: A Dark College Bully Romance (Hillcrest University Book 3) Page 17
