Devils' Day Party: A High School Bully Romance - C.M. Stunich Page 0,138

nose in disgust and glancing over at Sonja. The way Luke’s brown eyes take her in makes me realize that whatever it is they have going on, it’s more serious than Sonja would like any of her fellow Knight Crew members to believe. I look at her, stretched out on the blanket, bloodred hair thrown back, emerald eyes staring out at the water, her skirt scandalously short. When she catches me looking, she scowls, but she doesn’t say anything. The look Raz throws her says she better leave me the fuck alone.

That makes me smile, thinking he might actually stand up to his other half for me.

“You want to stay here all night?” Sonja asks, blinking confusedly back at Luke. “If so, we should call the cavalry and get a real thing going. Calix will be pissed, but then, what’s new?” She gives a caustic laugh and shakes her head, grabbing a beer and opening it before passing it to Luke.

“We hired that band and everything,” Raz comments, cocking his head to one side in thought. “Besides, this is our last Devils’ Day party. It’s senior fucking year. We can’t pass it up now.”

“If you ask me, the Devils’ Day party is overrated,” I say, pulling my mask from my pocket and slipping it on. “It’s the same every year. We could do much better out here.” I down my beer in just two gulps before starting on another. The alcohol leaves me with a pleasant buzz, turning the landscape into a watercolor dream. Surreal, perfect, unattainable.

“Should we call the others?” Sonja asks, and I assume by others she means the Knight Crew. Specifically, Calix and Barron.

“Please don’t,” I say, even though this morning didn’t go all that badly. Honestly, it went surprisingly well—minus, you know, the catfight with Erina. But at least I know now who has the video. It’s a relief to discover that the boys are innocent in all that. “Let’s just … hang out here.” I gesture toward the clear waters of the spring, and all its strange statuary. April mentioned that this was a place of reflection. Well, I can feel it.

A butterfly flitters through the air near our picnic blanket and then settles on the arch near the water, folding its orange and black wings up as it comes to rest. Fuck. It’s a Diana fritillary again. My throat gets tight and I down another beer.

The universe is very clearly sending me a cheeky hello. I’d like to send a very cheeky fuck you in response.

“You know, Karma’s right. We’ll go back, and it’ll be a bunch of politics and bullshit. Let’s just hang here, get high, eat, and swim.” Raz leans in toward me, brushing his lips against my ear. “Besides, I don’t fucking feel like sharing your attention with Calix and Barron, not today.”

A small grin splits my lips as he leans back, his eyes as red as a demon’s, his heart as dark as a devil’s. But there’s nothing inherently wrong with darkness, now is there? Light is only beautiful in contrast, the shimmer that chases away the shadows. Raz doesn’t have to be my sunshine; he can be my moonlight instead.

“I didn’t bring a swimsuit,” Luke says as she studies the rainbow-colored tattoo on her arm. It reminds me of Barron, and my heart clenches. My eyes turn up to the butterfly again, just sitting there, taunting me. I see you, universe, and I’m trying. Can’t you see I’m fucking trying? “Besides, I know Abigail said these new wraps she used on us are waterproof, but should we really test fate?” Luke traces her nail around the edge of the plastic cover protecting her tattoo. Sonja glances down at her own ink, this small black heart on the left side of her chest, just above her breast. It has red stitches around the edges, and an arrow that makes the heart bleed where it punctures it.

Darkly poetic.

That’s how my heart felt after Calix punctured it last year, like it was bleeding and would never stop.

“I’d rather not swim, but I’m content to stay here for the rest of the night. I can always go to the next Devils’ Day party, after you guys graduate and leave me here for two more miserable years.” April unbraids her hair, letting it hang in loose waves around her shoulders.

“Good thing we brought the weed with us then,” Sonja says and then laughs, kicking over her book bag and spilling out several large freezer