Devils' Day Party: A High School Bully Romance - C.M. Stunich Page 0,73

in hesitantly toward the pair of us.

“Are you okay?” she asks as I sigh and turn to look at her, remembering the script from day one.

“I'm okay.”

“Should I call the police?” she inquires, right on schedule.

“That won’t be necessary,” Calix replies, again sticking to the usual script. But what if we flipped the script on its head? I wonder. What if I throw a wrench so strange in their routine, they have no choice but to react? My eyes slide toward his dark ones, as depthless and unreadable as an abandoned well, its stone sides crumbling, moss emerging from between the cracks. “We're classmates; I won't be pressing charges.”

Calix leans down toward me, much the same as he did on the first day.

I kiss that poisonous mouth of his before he can spew venom, throwing an arm around his neck and knowing that at least partially, the reason I'm doing this is because of Raz. Because I'm too raw to face him just now and see him reject me. Last night, it felt like I'd really and truly found the one thing I'd been looking for in my life.

Calix rears back, looking down at me like I've shattered his entire existence.

“Calix, I feel like you're hiding something from me. Like, you're lying to yourself. Do you like me? Did you mean what you said last year at the party?”

“What the … fuck?” he whispers, almost in disbelief. I definitely do not expect him to essentially drop me on the hood of his car. “Get off of me, Karma.” He shoves back from me with a violent, cutting sneer on his face.

“What the hell?” Raz asks as I hear the sound of a plastic grocery bag hitting the concrete. I turn to find Barron staring at Raz with an intensity that makes me uncomfortable, like he sees something in his friend's shocked face that he's never understood until just now. Barron then cants his head back to look at me, the white hood of his sweatshirt pushed up over his rainbow hair, dual eyes shining with fascination. He sucks on his red lollipop, staining his mouth with what looks like blood. “Did you just kiss each other?”

The hidden layer beneath Raz's words makes me feel like I might just throw up. He sounds like I've just sucker-punched him. His red gaze jumps from Calix to me, the anger in his eyes amping up to dangerous levels—and fast. From zero to a hundred in a millisecond.

“Oh, fuck this,” he snarls, coming across the parking lot like a predator. I scrabble off the hood and back away from him, suddenly afraid of what he might do.

Calix steps aside, perfectly coiffed in his Crescent Prep uniform, his dark hair shiny and swept to the side, ebon eyes darkening. He leans in as Raz gets close to me.

“You two deserve each other,” he whispers, smiling wickedly as Raz pauses above me, opening the drink in his hand and dousing me with it. “Grab her, Raz.”

My lips part to scream as Raz scoops me up off the ground and throws me over his shoulder, opening the back door of the Aston Martin and pushing me in before he joins me on the seat.

“You're kidnapping me, really?!” I shriek, torn between crying and laughing hysterically. “What fresh hell is this? And all because you're jealous of each other?”

“Jealous?” Raz barks in an angry laugh. The way he looks at me now, it feels impossible that yesterday actually happened. It seems like just moments ago he was holding me in his arms, speaking to me in soft whispers under the cover of a starry night. This isn’t fair. It isn’t fair, and it fucking sucks. “You've got to be kidding me. We've had a plan for you all week, Trailer Park.”

Calix and Barron get in the front seats, starting the engine and peeling us out of the parking lot, dragging Little Bee along the pavement behind us. I glance out the rear window and then turn back to the luxe interior inside the car.

I did not expect to ever end up inside Calix's stupid Aston Martin whatever-the-hell-it-is.

“Coffee?” Barron asks, sliding his lollipop from his mouth with a sharp popping sound. “Caramel or mocha, those are your choices.”

“What's happening right now?” I ask as I look between the three of them. When Barron actually offers me up a pair of coffees to choose from, my eye twitches and nausea rises in my stomach. This moment is truly surreal. I