Devils' Day Party: A High School Bully Romance - C.M. Stunich Page 0,45

was hallucinating or that I was dreaming, but Luke, it's happened five times already. Five. And on one of the days, you died.”

“I died?” she asks, rising to her feet and slipping her hands into the pockets of her own blazer. “Is that why you called me in a panic this morning?”

“Luke, you … we crashed your car. We crashed and you were dead, and then I … somebody hit me.” I swallow again and look her straight in the face. “We both died, and then I woke up.”

“I'm not really sure what to say,” she replies honestly. “I mean, I believe that you believe that …”

“Oh, fuck off,” I snap back, exhaling sharply. “I know it sounds fucking crazy, but I can prove it to you.”

Luke considers this for a moment, her otaku nature taking over.

“You can prove we're in a time loop?” she clarifies, and my lips part.

“A time loop?”

Luke grins, clearly pleased with the direction of the conversation. This is her wheelhouse, after all, fantasy and sci-fi shit.

“A time loop is a storytelling device wherein the main character experiences the same day over and over again.” Her eyes shimmer as she explains this to me. “The character masters their surroundings, their environment, and even the people in it, thereby learning life lessons they can use to break the loop. It's pretty brilliant, actually.”

“Learning life lessons?” I choke out. “What lesson am I supposed to get out of this? Wouldn't the universe be better served by teaching a lesson to someone like fucking Raz?”

“Maybe we all go through a time loop at some point and then just don't remember after it's done?” Luke suggests, but the thought makes my head hurt, so I don't bother examining it. “Look, I'm not saying I can't be convinced, but it'll take some work. You know I'm open to limitless possibilities.” I roll my eyes, but Luke's willingness to accept that the world isn't quite so narrow as it seems is the only reason I might actually have a chance at getting her help here. “Tell me something that'll happen later today. Anything.”

Fuck.

I choke back a lump and close my eyes.

“Somebody—I don't know who—is going to post a sex tape of me and Calix online, from last year's Devils' Day Party.”

“What?!” Luke shrieks, storming over to grab my shoulders. “Who? The Knight Crew?” I shake my head because I don't think it was them, much as I want to believe that. The way Calix looked at me that first night, I'm damn near positive he'd rather cut off his own finger than show the world that tape.

“I don't know, but … that'll happen sometime this evening. And before that, my moms will call you and ask about it.” Luke's brows come together as I take a breath and forge on. “On the first day, the Knight Crew smashed Little Bee's windows, popped her tires, dragged her into the woods, and used her like some sort of fucked-up throne for the party. They may very well do that again today.”

“Damn,” Luke says, her eyes wide as she studies me. “If this is all true, you've been living a pretty shitty day on repeat, huh?”

Tears prick the corners of my eyes, but I force them back. There has to be something else I can tell her to seal the deal.

The Devils' Day Committee.

That's it.

“You bought me a black tourmaline bracelet for today,” I tell her, my heart thundering as the leaves rustle in the trees above our heads. “And I bought you one. We both bought one for April, so she'll get two.”

“Whoa.” Luke blinks back at me in surprise, but there's enough hesitancy in her gaze that I know I haven't won just yet.

“April will send us both red velvet cupcakes, and Sonja will send you an emerald ash borer encased in resin as a brooch.” At this point, Luke has gone completely speechless. Probably because she doesn't believe there's a chance in hell that Sonja would ever send her a Devils' Day gift. But still. “I'll get a butterfly necklace—a Diana fritillary in orange and black—from a secret admirer. The girl with the raven hair and ice-blue eyes that always clings to the Knight Crew's coattails will give it to me.”

“Jesus, Karma,” she breathes as I exhale and swipe both hands over my face.

“If all that comes true, is it enough?” I ask, because most of what I told her, I could feasibly know about some other way. But right now, it’s