Devils' Day Party: A High School Bully Romance - C.M. Stunich Page 0,139

bags filled with green flower, pre-rolled joints, and chocolate chip cookies. I’m assuming even the latter is laced with THC. “The others are going to be pissed.”

“Screw them,” Raz says, his eyes on me. “We don’t need them to have a good time.”

“No, all you need is some of that mystical Karma pussy,” Sonja suggests, and Raz chucks a bag of snack cakes at her face. She laughs as she catches them, tearing the plastic open with her teeth and then gesturing his direction with a single cake. “But you get to deal with Calix and Barron tomorrow, when they’re whining about how you stole their girl.”

“My girl,” Raz corrects, pointing at my name on his hip. He glances my way and I lift my beer in salute. We clink our bottles together as Luke rolls her eyes.

“Don’t get too excited, okay? This is your first day trying things out. It doesn’t have to work. It might, but it doesn’t have to.” Luke gives me a sympathetic look. “It takes more than one day to know you’ve made the right decision.” If only she knew how many days it’s really taken. Three years, plus three weeks on repeat.

Trust me: I know.

We hang out as a group for a while before April wanders off to take a call from Thad, and Luke and Sonja end up sitting together on one of the stone benches, passing a joint back and forth and talking in low, husky tones.

“They’ve got some chemistry, don’t they?” I ask, watching them as my head is muddled with drink and joints. Technically, the rule is to smoke first, drink later, because alcohol amplifies the effect of weed, but that’s okay. We’re here to have a good time today, right?

“I’m surprised you’re not pissed about Luke lying to you,” Raz says, smoking a cigarette. He’s leaning back on his elbows, that chiseled midsection of his catching my attention. It’s impossible to ignore the fact that he’s unbuttoned his slacks, letting them hang far too low on his hips. “I would be, if Sonja had lied to me.”

“How long have you known about them?” I ask, scooting a bit closer. We’ve kicked off our shoes and socks, tossed our blazers and ties. It feels nice, to sit and relax for a while. Dragonflies buzz across the surface of the water and music plays from Luke’s car stereo, just barely drowning out the chatter of the birds in the trees.

“Since last year,” Raz says, turning onto his side so he can look at me. “Sonja sucks ass at keeping secrets. She kept telling us she was going to use Luke, string her along a bit, and then dump her. Actually …” Raz starts and then pauses, shaking his head. “Never mind.”

“Oh, come on,” I say, reaching out and grabbing his red leather devil’s mask from the grass. I slip it over his head, using the opportunity to play with his hair again. But as soon as I take my hands away, he pulls it off, like he just can’t bear wearing it. Not today. I appreciate that more than he’ll ever know. “Just tell me. We’re past lies and bullshit now, right?”

“Yeah, but when you hear this, we might just fall right back into it,” he says, glancing over at the water. But I know what he’s going to say: Sonja was going to let the boys use her relationship with Luke to fuck with us both. Little do they know it never works. Never. I went through that scenario several times, and we handled it well every single day. “If I promise to tell you later, can we forget about it for now? The point is, Sonja is full of crap. She likes your weird friend, and I can’t even judge her. I like you, and you’re just as weird. Maybe weirder.”

“Me, weirder?” I ask with a laugh. “Luke paints tiny orc figures and sets up mock battles with them.”

“Well, shit, why did you tell me that? It’s gonna be impossible not to make fun of her now.” Raz takes a drag on his cigarette and then stabs it out into the dirt.

“You can’t make fun of her, period,” I tell him, reaching down for the buttons on my shirt. Raz watches hungrily as I undo them, nice and slow, lifting my eyes up to meet his gaze. “We once climbed into a tiger cage at the wildcat refuge.”

“You’re shitting me,” he replies with a sharp-edged grin. “You and the