Page 18 of Devils' Day Party
“Leave them alone, and do whatever you want to me,” I say, feeling lightheaded and dizzy as I try to avoid Luke’s penetrating stare. You lied to me, is what she’s saying, but I didn’t, right? I didn’t seek the Knight Crew out. No, it was the other way around. All they had to do was leave me alone and none of this had to happen.
Sonja grabs for my arm, and I tear myself from her grip, the band on my black tourmaline bracelet snapping. Black beads fly everywhere as I clutch my arm to my chest, eyes narrowed, breath coming in violent pants. Some small part of me is excited by her red-rimmed, leaky eyes. Bet that pepper spray hurt, I think, but I’m not a violent person. I don’t like to have to fight all the time. I don’t like feeling scared all the damn time.
“Eye for an eye,” Raz growls out, his own eyes even more red and swollen than Sonja’s. He’s finally caved and taken his contacts out, his blue eyes feverish with anger behind his glasses. “Too bad it can’t be literally this time.” He’s holding the pepper spray that I dropped in one hand, but when he goes to spray it, nothing comes out and he chucks the pink container. “Where’s the key, Karma?”
“I don’t have the key,” I lie, beginning to shake as I scan the Knight Crew’s unforgiving expressions. I drew blood tonight, and I imagine I’m not getting out of here without them doing the same. I just don’t want Luke and April to pay for my choices.
“Let’s find out,” Barron says, grabbing me around the waist and trapping my hands against my sides with his strong arm. With his other hand, he searches my pockets, fingers sliding into the back right one to find the key. He lingers a bit too long there as I struggle, gritting my teeth as Luke’s eyes widen with fear. Barron cups my ass and presses his lips to the skin just behind my ear. “Clever, pretending to kiss me, so you could get ahold of this.” His breath smells like watermelon from those stupid suckers he’s always eating, and when he finally lets go of me and pulls away, I’m left with a smear of charcoal across my midsection.
“It didn’t have to be this way, Karma,” Calix says, his mask sitting on the top of his head. Black streaks run down his face on either side, making him look even more ghastly in the firelight. “But I can’t protect you now.”
“Protect me?” I choke out with a laugh. He smirks at me, and my temper flares. “What’s your problem with me anyway? Is it because I’m poor? Because my moms are gay?” I shouldn’t fan the flames, but I can’t help myself. Now that I’m standing here, looking into Calix’s dark eyes, I think I know why I hit his car. I snapped. I broke. There he was, at the gas station with his awful, awful friends, lounging next to a car that costs more than some people make in a decade. And yet … he looked miserable to me.
That’s what really pissed me off.
How can someone who has everything look so damn miserable? Calix is handsome, smart, rich, connected, normal. He fits into society like a puzzle piece while people like me and Luke and April, we’re singled out and cast aside like extras, like pieces to a puzzle that nobody wants to finish.
That’s why I hit his car.
And look where it got me.
“We were going to lock you in the treehouse, the one where you gave it up for Lix,” Raz sneers, circling me like a predator homing in on his prey. “But I think I like your idea better.”
“Put the others in with her, for company,” Sonja suggests, looking straight at Luke as she says it. Luke’s shoulders tighten, a familiar disappointment clouding her face. With all the subtle hints, the flirting, the gift this morning, Luke thought Sonja might actually like her. But it was all a bunch of bullshit. I wore that same look on my face when Raz and Barron stumbled on me and Calix, naked together in the treehouse. I remember watching his expression, marveling at the change in his face, even as my heart broke into pieces. It was like watching the moon eclipse the sun, cutting off all the light, plunging me into darkness.
“April’s pregnant,” Luke says, like the crowd gathered around us doesn’t already know. “It’s cold and wet in there. Your prank will be a hell of a lot less funny if something happens to her.”
“She’ll be just fine,” Sonja says as the demon-faced girls drag April toward the cave. She doesn’t fight them, which is probably for the best, but panic settles in my chest as I turn back to Calix. There’s something just behind his eyes that makes me want to plead, like maybe I could crack through to the other side where he hides all that misery I saw on his face this morning when he thought nobody was looking. “We’ll let you out in the morning, won’t we, Raz?”
