Devils' Day Party: A High School Bully Romance - C.M. Stunich Page 0,70

going to be okay. But it isn't, really, not for me. I will never forget the things I said and did today. A universal reset does not absolve me of my own actions.

“I'm with Raz,” I whisper, shivering as the night air finally seems to settle across my overheated skin. “We're at my Aunt Donna’s place. We've … I think we like each other.”

“You … what?!” Luke shrieks as Raz rips the phone from my grip and hangs up. He's panting for breath, looking at me like I've lost my damn mind. But then he seems to notice the tears glinting on my cheeks.

“Who was that?” he snaps, squeezing my phone in his fist.

“Luke. She said Pearl killed herself at the Devils' Day Party tonight. My name was mentioned in a suicide note, and the cops …” I trail off, letting my honesty pour forth. What does it matter? It’s night already, and I’m certain that our evening has a time limit. Midnight, is my first guess.

“Jesus Christ,” Raz hisses, putting his fingers in his blond hair for a moment. He looks up at me, almost like he's … feeling sorry for me? “Over this morning? Seriously?”

“You should always be nice, Raz, because you never know when someone's so full of pain they might snap. Maybe one kind word could've saved her?” I move past him and into the house, heading for the kitchen and hoping there's food in the fridge. Sometimes renters leave it when they go, unwilling to throw out the unopened items they bought for a trip and didn't need.

I really don't expect to find a container of unopened chocolate ice cream, but there it is, beside an open bag of popsicles. I take it out, grabbing a spoon and heading upstairs to my favorite room. When we stay here with Donna, she always lets me have the master. Teenagers need their own bathrooms, damn it. The words of my aunt ring in my head, making me smile briefly through the tears.

Doesn't last long.

As soon as my ass hits the upstairs bed, I feel the tears again, stinging my face.

Raz appears in the doorway just a few minutes later, his academy-issued slacks pulled on but left unbuttoned.

“Do you need me to take you back?” he asks, narrowing his eyes in irritation. “I left my spare key with Sonja; I can make her drive out here.”

“I'm going to stay the night,” I say, resting my chin on my knees, the ice cream probably melting as I clutch it in my hand. My gaze slides over to Raz as he stands with a forearm against either side of the doorjamb. “But you can go if you want. I'll get a ride back … tomorrow.” My eyes close, but I know I'm not going to sleep tonight. I need to see how long I can go before I'm sitting back inside my little yellow car with blood smeared across the wheel.

Raz hesitates for a moment before retreating, and I feel loneliness and sorrow sweep over me again.

Weirdly enough, he actually comes back with two fresh cups of coffee.

He hands one to me and sits down on the other side of the bed. After a strange span of tension, we both end up properly getting on the bed and leaning into the mountain of pillows, our bodies just inches apart.

I open the ice cream and swallow a spoonful before offering it up to Raz. He curls his lip at me, like I've lost my damn mind.

“You just came inside of me like, three times,” I say, gesturing with the food and utensil. “What's a little saliva between friends?”

Nostrils flaring, he takes the ice cream, our fingers tangling briefly and filling my belly with heat. It's hard not to stare at the long, lean length of his exposed torso. He has a few tattoos, too, nothing quite like Barron’s ink, but sexy, nonetheless. Raz digs in, swallowing a massive spoonful of chocolate. The way he's staring down at the food makes me wonder if he's actually exposing himself to deep thought in that cruel head of his. He looks a bit shaken.

“I've never come in a girl before,” he says, taking another bite of ice cream before handing it back. Like marijuana etiquette: puff, puff, pass. Only this time, it's chocolate ice cream etiquette: lick, lick, pass. “My dad doesn't believe in abortion.”

The leap of logic between those two statements makes my eyes widen and my head spin.

I turn to look at