Devils' Day Party: A High School Bully Romance - C.M. Stunich Page 0,159

she's in here while Mama Jane's outside in the studio; she's a much less forgiving or understanding person. “But I can see that maybe I was wrong.” Barron pulls two more lollipops from his pocket, offering them up to my sisters. Emma snatches one right away, but Katie doesn’t lift a finger.

“Maybe? You're a jerk. You made her cry.” Katie looks over at Raz and Calix. “You all made her cry, and you should be ashamed.” She turns on her heel and heads down the hallway as I do my best to fight back a grin.

“She's almost as feisty as you are,” Barron says as he stands up and Emma cocks her head to the side in careful contemplation.

“If you date three boys, do you get three penises?” Emma asks, and Cathy groans.

“Alright, go, outside. You can work on your mural.” Cathy shoos my sister down the hallway and then casts the boys an apologetic look. “Tea is on the counter. Help yourself to teacups from the china cabinet. And I'm sorry about her, she's a little … blunt sometimes.” Cathy disappears down the hall, and I hear the giggling of my sisters outside.

“Your sisters look a lot like you,” Raz says, almost like he's confused. “How? Aren't you all adopted?” I give him a look over my shoulder.

“Nope. My moms ordered sperm online, got it delivered on dry ice, and impregnated each other.” I smile. “They made sure to use the same donor for my sisters as they did for me. So, surprise, surprise, we're all blood related!” I grab a set of teacups with little Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland characters printed on the inside and put four of them around the table before I collect the teapot and a tin of homemade shortbread.

Barron takes a seat without being asked, pouring himself a cup of tea, and dropping in a half dozen sugar cubes. Raz is next, sitting on the other side of me and looking so uncomfortable, I'm fairly certain he'd crawl out of his skin if it could grant him an escape from my house. Calix … he hangs back, like he isn't sure he's welcome here. Or if he is, that he isn't sure he should be welcome here.

“Come sit down,” I tell him, pushing out the chair at the end of the table with my foot. After a brief moment of hesitation, he complies, folding himself into the chair like an insouciant faerie prince with a crown of thorns. Without asking, I pour both him and Raz a cup of tea and push the cups toward them.

“This is weird, isn't it?” Calix asks, sounding like he's having a bit of an out-of-body experience. “Us, sitting here in your house.”

“Why? You came to see me, didn't you?” I ask, doing my best to ignore the memories from last night. Erina is clearly unstable, a grenade with the pin dangling precariously, ready to blow. “So my family invited you in, and now we're hanging out. What's weird about that?”

“We've never 'hung out' before,” Calix says, blinking slowly as he stares at me from those crow-black eyes of his.

“And whose fault is that?” I retort, snapping the end off a piece of shortbread with my teeth as I muse over the time loop stories. My eyes scan the three boys sitting at my table. If this had happened on the first day, I'd be shocked as shit. After living through a time loop, nothing so mundane as having tea with my bullies/love interests is going to shake me. “You three treat me like garbage, so hanging out has never really been an option.”

“This is fucking ridiculous,” Raz snarls, but more to himself than to me. He swipes his hand down his face and closes his eyes for a moment before flicking them open and turning his glare on me. “What the hell did you mean this morning? You can't run from that shit forever.”

“You mean about loving you?” I respond, and I swear, all three of them lean back in their seats like they've just seen a nuclear explosion and are trying to avoid the fallout. “I meant it. I wasn't sure at first, but … life is short. Lying to other people is insane; lying to yourself is suicidal.” I push the rest of the cookie into my mouth as something occurs to me, niggling at the back of my mind.

There's one constant through all the time loop stories I just studied.

One constant that I don't want