Devils' Day Party: A High School Bully Romance - C.M. Stunich Page 0,182

to take away their babies. I’m sure they have a lot to talk about. “I had April deliver your message since she’s in the same math class as Pearl; they’ve been thick as thieves all day.”

A smile takes over my lips, and I exhale, closing my eyes against the flickering orange fingers of the fire for a moment. When I open them, I find Luke staring at me strangely. She can’t know how hard all of this is for me, how fucked up it is that I’ve finally managed to master my environment—just like she said when I told her about the time loop—when everything has to come to an end later.

The universe does not allow things to be tied up in a pretty bow.

Everything is going right which means … something must go horribly wrong.

Balance.

Sacrifice.

I try not to be sad, but the pain clogs in my throat anyway, turning this night into a hazy dream, one that I know I’ll always remember. Whether I live another life, or I end up in heaven or hell, I’ll hold onto it, keep it close to my soul and cherish it forever.

“How did you know about me and Sonja though?” Luke asks, blinking rapidly before turning her attention back to the boys. Barron's flipped his sketchbook open, and this time, he doesn't bother pretending that he isn't drawing me. His tongue runs over his lower lip, making it really, really hard for me to look away. “They told you, didn't they?”

“They didn't, actually,” I tell her with a grin, pouring some cranberry juice into a plastic cup. I don't even have to grab the vodka; Raz turns his bottle over, filling my cup to the top.

“What are you two whispering about over here?” he asks, wrapping his arm around my waist and smirking at Luke. “You know your girl here confessed her love to me this morning?”

“She … what?” Luke chokes out, but then Sonja appears, throwing her own arm around Luke’s waist and kissing her on the mouth. “Sonja,” she grinds out, flashing a look of panic my way.

“I know you guys think you were subtle about your relationship, but I saw the way you looked at each other. I’m not surprised that you’ve been sleeping together.” I give Sonja a look. “But if you hurt her, I swear to god I will come for you.”

“Oh, will you?” Sonja quips, flashing me a saucy smile from beneath her red leather mask. “That’s quite the challenge. How about I promise to leave you be if Raz promises to leave Luke alone?”

“I hear she paints tiny orc figures and stages mock bottles with them,” Raz says, squinting like he can’t quite remember when or how he heard that before. I smile, hoping that’s not the only memory of me from the time loop that he can recall when he thinks about my face or my art or our back and forth quips to one another. “So, that’ll be a hard promise to keep, but I’ll sure as fuck try.”

“You better try hard,” Sonja purrs as Barron and Calix step up to join our group.

“Shall we take this to the train car?” Calix suggests, wearing a crown made of purple flowers and thorny twigs. Today, he’s got on an emerald green velvet coat, black jeans, and white boots with bones hanging from the laces.

“Let’s,” I say, making a small sound of surprise as Raz scoops me up in his arms and carries me over there. I let my head fall back, opening my arms wide and laughing as the smell of bonfire smoke curls around me. Barely visible through the trees, Cami Alhambra and her friends chant around a spell book, several of them dancing in voluminous skirts and nothing else, their breasts bare under the moonlight.

I wish them the best of luck with their magic as Raz carries me up the steps of the train car and sets down, pulling me into his lap. Barron sits beside us, his sketchbook open to a page I well recognize: the one of me on the podium, his head buried between my thighs and beneath my skirts.

“That’s a pervy thing to draw,” Raz tells him as Calix takes a seat on his other side, and Sonja and Luke stretch out on the floor, cuddled up together with a bottle of whiskey.

“I could think of worse things,” Barron drawls, flipping to a drawing of us on the school bus, the four of us naked and connected in