Devils' Day Party: A High School Bully Romance - C.M. Stunich Page 0,75

air in her lungs.” Luke makes a sound of protest, but she doesn't stop Sonja's ugly words. The very same words Calix gave me that day I tried to join the Knight Crew, the ones I told to Pearl. The ones that made her kill herself. I struggle to think how I'd feel right now if I hadn't witnessed this all before, if this was my very first Devils' Day. “Tell her that the whole world would be happier if she were dead.”

“I can't say any of that,” Luke whispers, shaking as she stares at Sonja and then turns back to me. Now she looks as if we've both betrayed her. “I would never speak to anybody like that, especially not somebody I love.”

“Well then,” Sonja says, standing up as Raz leans his shoulder against the wall and grins, watching me with the dark eyes of a hungry predator. Such a change from yesterday, when we shared a tub of chocolate ice cream and cuddled. Fuck my life. “Guess I'll just have to take this with me.” Sonja grabs her phone from what looks like a charging station on a shelf, and proceeds to flash the screen at us, showing a still from an explicit video.

I don’t see much, just Luke’s bare breasts, but it’s enough for me to understand what’s going on here.

Sonja's been recording them.

My stomach knots up as I turn to look at Calix, my breath coming in heavy pants. I mean, for the Knight Crew to have arranged this meeting, that means they planned it. So they must’ve planned what happened with me and Calix, too, right? They really did engineer the whole thing. Raz seemed to think so yesterday. My head spins as a momentary bout of dizziness overtakes me.

All this time, every single day for three hundred and sixty-five fucking days, this asshole has been telling the truth? He was pranking me, that was it.

That's all it ever was.

Deep down, I wondered if he were harboring secret feelings for me. If he changed his tune because his friends had shown up and caught us.

But that wasn't the case.

That wasn't the case at all.

My knees feel weak, and I end up putting a hand on the wall to steady myself.

Calix … I'd always thought that Calix liked me. But all along, it was Raz? My mind is blown.

“Are you going to post this at the same time you post the other one?” I snap, turning sharp eyes on Sonja. The look of confusion in her face is almost believable.

“Sonja …” Luke starts, her voice soft and almost tender. It kills me to hear her sound like that, like I did last year when I fell into Calix's arms like a fool. “What's going on?”

“Happy Devils' Day, bitch,” Sonja says, yanking her blazer and skirt on and gathering up the rest of her clothes from the floor. As she does, I swear I see something melancholic flash in her green eyes, but it’s gone in an instant and I’m left wondering if I imagined it. “Thanks for the cherry, baby.”

Sonja storms out the cabin door and Raz follows, sneering at me as he goes.

I can’t even begin to decipher the way that sneer makes me feel, how empty and sad and lonely. So I don’t bother, pushing the emotion down, burying it in the shadows of a broken heart.

“Lock them both in here,” Calix says as he slips past, moving out the door and avoiding my stare. He has a triumphant smirk on his face, but he doesn't look at me. Not even once.

“Why?” Luke whispers, looking down at the blankets as Barron steps up to me and grabs my chin. He stares into my face for a moment before giving a small half-smile and pulling the golden key from his pocket again. He places it in my palm before pushing my face away.

“Maybe don't come to school today?” Barron suggests, stepping past me and closing the cabin door behind him. He disappears, leaving the sweet scent of cherry candy and laundry soap in his wake.

I turn back to Luke and find her sitting with silent tears rolling down her cheeks.

Whereas I'd abandoned her and April to be with the Knight Crew, she didn’t make the same mistake. Luke stuck to her guns, to her heart, and she is a vastly better human being than me—even if she lied about Sonja. I will not forget that.

“Are you okay?” I whisper, feeling guilty, wondering if she'd be