Devils' Day Party: A High School Bully Romance - C.M. Stunich Page 0,39

I could steal the key. “You want to lock me in the treehouse where Calix took my virginity. Whatever. I’ll be back. I just want to talk to Luke.” Barron’s eyes widen slightly, and he flicks a glance in Calix’s direction.

“Who the hell told you that?” Raz asks, but Barron is releasing me, and I’m stumbling away and falling into Luke’s arms with a laugh.

“Karma, what the actual fuck?” Luke growls out, dragging me into the shadows and doing her best to steady me. Doesn’t work. I end up sitting on my ass in the leaves, still dressed in my stuffy Crescent Prep uniform. I tear off the purple blazer, loosen my tie, and unbutton my shirt to the navel, just like Calix. “Shit, I knew I shouldn’t have come here tonight.”

“Why did you?” I slur, trying to squint up at her.

“Because I was worried about you,” she says, frowning and then sighing. “Rightfully so it seems, since it looked like you were ready to stick your tongue down the Knight Crew’s throats.”

“Where’s April?” I demand, wishing I had another drink. I feel like I’m losing my drunk, and I really don’t want that. As soon as that happens, I’ll have to face reality, a reality that feels more like a nightmare than anything else. Something surreal is happening to me, something wrong. But how can I tell Luke that? I told my moms and they rushed me to the ER and still, nothing happened.

“I convinced her to stay home,” Luke says, and I frown. That’s not in the script. April is supposed to be at the party. “Which is where you’re going. Now, can you get up or do I need to carry you?”

“I’m supposed to suck their dicks tonight,” I say, even though I never planned on doing any such thing. “The Knight Crew is expecting me.” I sweep an arm in their direction, indicating the glittering cruelty of their licentious little court.

Luke curses under her breath again and then sweeps an arm around my waist, attempting to haul me to my feet. She’s unsuccessful, and I’m far too drunk to stand up on my own. Shame sweeps over me, hot and itchy beneath my skin.

“I’m sorry, Luke,” I murmur, my eyes watering of their own volition. Don’t cry here, Karma. Don’t do it. They’ll see you and you’ll never live it down, no matter how many todays you have to live. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” she says, standing up and sweeping both palms over her hair as she looks around for a friendly face. The thing is, there are no friendly faces at Crescent Prep. There are even less friendly faces in the masked gathering that makes up the Devils’ Day Party. We may as well be on an island in the middle of the sea.

Barron appears, stepping from the firelight and into the shadows, and my heart sinks. I’m going to end up drunk and helpless on a bed in a treehouse, and then … I don’t want to think about what could happen if the Knight Crew manages to get me away from Luke.

“I know you don’t like her, but she’s way too drunk to be fooling around,” Luke says, glaring up at him from behind her goblin mask. Barron’s red leather devil mask sits on the top of his head and as he stares down at me, he very carefully pulls it back into place. “I’m honestly worried she’s going to get alcohol poisoning, or like, pass out and choke on her own vomit.”

“Luke,” I start, realizing suddenly that I still have my phone on me. Everybody else’s has been put into the net and hauled into the tree. But not mine. That must mean Luke—who didn’t have her phone on night one—talked to my moms before she found me at the party. “Did you get a call from my parents before you came here?”

My best friend freezes up, going perfectly still, like a deer caught in the headlights. She doesn’t even breathe as she drops her eyes to mine. Fury fills me in a vicious, violent wave, and even though I know I should keep my mouth shut, I don’t.

“You talked to them about the sex tape?” I hiss out, my voice thick with alcohol and menace. Luke cringes and glances sidelong at Barron, like I should know better than to have this conversation in front of him. But even if this day were to end when I fell asleep, what would