RIOT HOUSE (Crooked Sinners #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,146
fucking tree if I let her anywhere near me. I have to swear that we’ll spend the rest of the night naked in my room back at Riot House in order to appease her.
We laugh and joke as I gun the engine, eager to get back. Everything feels so light and fucking free. That is, until we’re thirty minutes outside of Mountain Lakes and I catch Elodie crying out of the corner of my eye. Fat, desolate tears course one after the other down her cheeks, and my heart seizes in my chest.
“Jesus, E. What the fuck? What—what did—did I do something? What’s wrong?” I will literally kill myself if I’ve fucking hurt her already.
“What you—did—to my—father,” she stutters, fighting for each word.
Fuuuuuuuck.
Everything sinks.
It was a risk, I knew that. I was prepared to deal with the consequences if she hated me for what I did. But the fear that wraps around my windpipe, choking me as I try not to veer off the road feels like it’ll be the end of me.
“You flew across—the world—” she gasps. “On your—birthday—”
“Elodie. Fuck.”
“And you hurt—a very dangerous man—because he—hurt me.”
“I’m so fucking sorry.”
She takes my right hand off the wheel, lifts my arm, and scoots into my side, hiding her face into my chest as she cries even harder. “Don’t be sorry. It’s the—most romantic thing in the—entire fucking world.”
36
ELODIE
One Week Later
The invite's black, flocked with a plush velvet design that feels like sin beneath my fingertips. The gold scrollwork etched into the thick card is gorgeous. I hold it up to the light, wondering when he slipped this under my door. Wren made no mention of inviting me to the party. There’s chatter all over the academy about it, but for some reason it hasn't even come up between us.
The residents of Riot House cordially invite Miss Elodie Stillwater to their fancy dress party, this Saturday at their humble home. 8 pm. Prizes for most creative costumes.
No R.S.V.P. required.
I hide the flocked card underneath a book on my desk when I hear Carina wailing my name down the hall. “Elodie Stillwater, let me in immediately!”
I open the door, and there are dark circles under her eyes, which look puffy like she's been crying. She marches into my room and slumps onto my bed, groaning as she throws herself back against my pillows.
“Hey. Whoa, what's going on?” I clamber up onto the bed beside her, stroking her hair back out of her face. She screws her eyes shut, whimpering.
“Andre. He—we're through. He dumped me.”
“What the fuck? What happened?”
“I don't know. Everything seemed to be going so well, and then yesterday he bailed on dinner. And then this afternoon I get this weird, vague ass text, telling me that he can't hang out anymore because his workload just tripled at college. Hang out anymore! Like we were just screwing around. He told me he was in love with me a week ago, Elle. How can a person fall in love and out of love in such a short space of time? That's a motherfucking record.”
“That’s so weird. He didn’t seem like that kind of guy.”
“I know! He isn’t that kind of guy. Which is how I know Dashiell had something to do with this. I know it, Elodie. It’s so like him, to interfere and meddle in other people’s affairs. He can’t stand anyone else being happy.”
“Have you confronted him? Asked him if he said anything?”
“No.” She sniffs. “It wouldn’t help. He’d just deny it, anyway. That asshole! And all I wanna do is binge Netflix and eat pizza, but I have so much work to catch up on,” she moans. “I'm gonna have to pull an all-nighter if I want to get my English and my Science projects completed for tomorrow.”
“You want me to come work with you? I'm really good at the whole moral support thing.”
She drags a pillow over her face, moaning again. “Please don't take this the wrong way, but I'm not the type of girl who wants to be around other people when she's hurting. I'm about to descend into a shame spiral of epic proportions. It's better if there are no witnesses.” It's surprising how well I can understand her with the pillow covering her mouth. “If you come and hang out in my room, all I'm gonna do is cry and rage, and that won't be a fun time for either of us. And I really have got to get this work done.”