Devils' Day Party: A High School Bully Romance - C.M. Stunich Page 0,123

and wanting and broken, I can only imagine the pain he must be feeling.

Words sit on the tip of my tongue, desperate to escape, to bridge the gap between us. Remember when we had breakfast at the Mud Street Café? Then we went to the hotel, and you skimmed my bare arms with your fingertips. You even mentioned a ghost you saw as a child, and you owe me that story! We fucked on those crisp, white sheets, and you looked down at me like you would never leave.

Instead, I say nothing.

Unless my intuition is completely broken, then I know today is not the final day. I'm not sure how or why I know that, but there will be another repeat of Devils' Day waiting for me on the other side. My only trepidation comes from knowing that somewhere, deep down, Calix will remember this hurt and pain.

“It's just a car, bro,” Raz says, grinning that sharp grin of his, red eyes bright with mischief. “As far as pranks go, you've got to admit: Karma has some balls.”

“Ovaries,” I correct automatically, my eyes sliding over to Barron's dual-colored ones. “I'd be the Rose to your Jack,” he'd said. I'm dying to know what he might draw today, what images of a timeline he can't quite remember. Or if, perhaps, confessing my love to Raz has changed everything and he might not draw me at all.

My head fucking hurts; the ripple effects of my actions on everyone around me are clear as day now.

“Yeah, sure, big ass fucking ovaries,” Raz says, looking down at me as I study Barron. He's stripping off his white hoodie and slipping into his purple Crescent Prep blazer, with the moon, knife, and rod symbol on the breast. When he sees me looking, he returns my stare. If he doesn't have his sketchbook, he most definitely can't draw me, now can he? I look back toward Raz, knowing that I'm playing a dangerous game of balance here. He throws an arm over my shoulders as Calix's nostrils flare and his dark eyes flick up to Raz's red ones.

“Ovaries or not, I'm pissed. Maybe you should stay home tonight, Karma? Skip the Devils' Day Party.” Calix turns and heads for the front steps as I feel a hot, itchy anger coming over me. This fucking sucks! I think, wishing I could just slap my hands over my face and scream until my throat gives out.

“If Karma wants to go to the party, we'll go to the party,” Raz growls dangerously, and Calix pauses on the top step, looking back at Raz like there's something he needs to say. Only … he doesn't. He just scowls and continues on inside. Where Sonja is, I have no clue. Usually, if the boys don't take me to the cabin, they pick Sonja up on the way to school.

The familiar sound of Luke's car on the gravel drive draws my attention, and my brows go up as I see Raz's redheaded bestie sitting in my bestie's car, April in the backseat behind them. Luke spots me right away, her brown eyes going wide as she pulls into the space on the other side of Little Bee.

“This should be entertaining,” Barron says mildly, and I cringe inwardly, knowing he's about to come down on me with all of that darkness and shadow he keeps locked away inside. “I won't hurt you again, Karma.” Does he even know what a goddamn liar he is? “Sonja is fucking Luke; Raz is fucking Karma. And none of us ever knew.”

Raz just throws his head back in a braying laugh, cupping his hands together over his mouth before dropping them to his sides.

“Oh, we haven't done it yet,” Raz says, giving Barron a look that's overflowing with cocksure energy. “But I'll send you the memo once we do. Bitterness doesn't look so good on you, bro. Why don't you fuck all the way off?”

Barron pauses and then dips back into the car to grab something, but I'm too distracted by Luke and Sonja to see what it is.

“Karma …” Luke starts, getting out of the car with her palms raised toward me in what's either a form of surrender or protection, I'm not sure. “We need to talk. Now.”

“Talk about what?” Sonja asks, tossing her bloodred hair over her shoulder and smiling with pretty, venomous lips. “That you and I have been fucking for a year? Oops, or maybe I shouldn't have said that?”

“If you two