Evanescent - By Addison Moore Page 0,5

not to groan.

“We’d better get back out there,” she whispers. “I have a feeling it’s time for me to start on that ‘homework.’”

I peer out the door and find the kitchen empty, so I usher us back out to the party. I let Laken ditch into the crowd a minute before making my way out the carnal gate.

Fallon has her top off and she’s dancing full throttle in her black lace bra as if Flynn weren’t uploading it to YouTube right this very minute.

“Coop!” Laken barrels through the crowd and lunges into me.

“Hey!” I stumble backward before catching my footing. “Can’t get enough, huh?” I grin as I catch her by the waist.

Her face contorts in horror, her eyes wide with fright.

“What the hell’s going on?” I pull her in with total disregard as to who might be watching. “You look like you just saw a ghost.”

“Laken!” Jen appears and spins her sister out of my arms. “You are amazingly rude. Do you know that? I was right in the middle of introducing you to your new house sister! What’s the matter with you? It’s like your hormones are on overdrive and you can’t control it for one freaking minute. And with Cooper? Really? You have no shame, Laken.” Jen turns to me. “No offense, Coop, but she has a boyfriend.”

“I’ve been told.” Twice tonight, to be exact.

I look past Jen at an all too familiar blonde with her hair curled under her ears and a crooked smile that holds more than its fair share of secrets.

Shit.

She comes up on us, and Jen pulls her in.

“Hattie, this is my sister Laken and her friend, Cooper Flanders. Cooper is Ephemeral’s star football player.” She throws in the promo like she’s ready to auction me off to the questionable girl standing before us—questionable because I’m pretty damn sure she’s not human.

“Hattie Tobias.” Her eyes widen an eerie shade of black, no pupil, just one dark unnatural circle. She shakes Laken’s hand and nods over in my direction as if formal introductions to the dead were a regular occurrence—and knowing Ephemeral, they just might be.

Jen clears her throat. “It looks like I’m going to score the den mother’s room in the basement.” She beams. “It hasn’t been used in years, but rumor has it, its huge in comparison to the rat-hole they have us trapped in. No offence to Austen House.” She dips when she says it. “Anyway, she’ll be your new roommate as soon I clean it out. In the meantime, she’s bunking with Carter and Fallon.” Jen flips her blonde mane as if to punctuate her point. But I can’t take my eyes off Hattie, haunting us here, live and in the flesh.

Wesley struts up like he owns the place—like he owns Laken and wraps an arm around her while pressing a kiss against her cheek. He glares over at me a moment before spinning her into him. “You ready to blow this Popsicle stand?”

“You bet.” Laken looks over at Hattie, filled with suspicion.

Jen dissolves into the crowd, and an awkward silence crops up in our circle.

Laken offers a forlorn smile before perking to life again.

“Catch you later, Coop.” She pulls her cheek back with a dissatisfied look as if she were speaking in code—telling me she’d rather eat a plate full of greasy worms than hang out with Wes Paxton. But I know that’s just wishful thinking. Laken loves Wes—even if I wished she didn’t.

“Later man.” He socks me in the arm before pulling me in. “There’s a bowlful of condoms under the bathroom sink. Help yourself, bro.” He nods over to Hattie. “Have fun.”

Have fun.

I watch as Wes escorts Laken right out the front door. You’d think he were rushing her out of a burning building the way he manhandled her to the exit. He’s partially right. Something is definitely burning between Laken and me, and it’s very damn real.

“So what are you doing here, Hattie?” I ask my long-dead friend. “And where’s your other half?”

“Other half?” She cuts her dark eyes over the vicinity. Hattie takes in the modern day teen population as they lose it to the music blaring over the speakers. You would think an orgy were about to break out the way some of the girls just went into full throttle stripper mode. “You want to know why I’m here? Don’t you?” She gives a placid smile as if it were rehearsed, as if she had only heard of the concept, and initiating it took