A pool party. A pool party full of Gifted, Bonds and Bonded. The Council. Riley and Giovanna and North and fuck knows who else?! It feels like a recipe for disaster.
Sage shrugs at me. "Apparently it's a rite of passage. I didn’t want to come, but apparently this is supposed to be something we’ll look back on, years from now, and be so thankful we attended.”
I can literally tell which one of her parents had said it to her because Maria is so freaking obsessed with Sage being ‘normal’. She’s all torn up over the idea that Riley rejected her and now she’s hanging out with me, what will that mean for the good Benson name?
It’s fucking stupid and Sage deserves better.
“We should go find the drinks table, hopefully something is spiked strong enough to get our buzz back.”
Sage chews on her lip, shooting me a half-smile, but it’s clear that seeing Giovanna here has ruined her entire night. I’m suddenly overwhelmed with exactly how bullshit the entire situation is because Sage has literally done nothing wrong. Nothing.
As loath as I am to admit it, at least my own Bonds have a reason to hate me, and even if they’re blaming me for something out of my control, it’s not like I can tell them that.
The water around me ripples.
No one else notices, thank God, but it’s a good reminder to me to settle the fuck down. So I stop looking at Giovanna and I stop thinking about Gabe and the burden I am to him. I stop thinking about all of the things wrong with this stupid freaking party and I have fun.
I drag Sage and Sawyer over to the other side of the pool where there’s a waterfall and a slide. We sit on the edge and Sawyer manages to convince a couple of the seniors to grab us some beers. Sage is still quiet, but some of the gloom around her lifts and we can actually enjoy ourselves for five goddamn minutes.
When the crowd starts moving towards the food tables being laid out by the caterers, because of course this college party is being catered, we take stock of how we’re feeling and decide food isn’t a good idea right now. Well, the food is a great idea, but attempting to walk around isn’t.
Gabe offers to grab me something, his shitty attitude over with, but I brush him off, watching as he hauls himself out of the water and walks over to the tables without bothering to grab a towel or cover up. Jesus, he really is too hot for words.
“You’re drooling. Are you sure you can’t just fuck him?” Sage whispers far too loudly at me and I splash her with the water.
Sawyer rolls his eyes at us both from where he’s perched on the side of the pool. “Not without bonding to him and apparently that’s off of the table.”
I nod, pulling my face into the picture of seriousness. “Absolutely not, no bonding.”
I glance over at Gabe and find him standing there with North, talking together before they both turn as one to look over at me.
Goddammit.
“Fuck yes, Grey just got back. We need to leave here, now,” Sawyer says, standing up and waving his hands at Sage.
She giggles as she tries, and fails, to pull herself out of the water, and it takes both her brother and I to get her out. The beers had given me my buzz back, but not so much that I can’t get my shit together.
“I have to wait for Gabe, just to let him know you guys are getting me home safe… you are taking me back, right?”
Sawyer scoffs at me, “Of course, we’re not leaving you here drunk and vulnerable.”
I laugh at him, happy at how easy it’s become between us now, he doesn’t wince at my mere presence anymore.
“What a rack! Reject, I can see why you’re so popular.”
I freeze at the sound of his voice and when I finally turn around, yup, sure enough, it’s fucking Martinez. Sage scowls at him but I hold out an arm to stop her from doing anything about him.
I just want to leave, some coward’s opinion of my character or body means less than nothing to me.
“What the fuck did you just say to my Bond, Martinez?”
I turn and instinctively shove myself into Gabe’s heaving chest. It’s a bad move because we’re both practically naked and my own bond has a freaking field day at all of the skin-on-skin