Page 49 of Devils' Day Party
They're all wearing their masks, somehow even more macabre in the bright early morning light. When Calix turns and spots me standing there, his lip curls to the side in an angry sneer, and he starts toward me. The others follow along behind him like trained dogs.
“How fortunate for you to be standing in view of a security camera,” he purrs, schooling his face back to some semblance of cruel civility.
“Did you think that was unintentional?” I quip back, throwing years of worthy self-advice out the window. Don't draw the Knight Crew's attention. Let their insults wash off like water off a duck's back. Make yourself a target and you'll become one.
I'll admit, it's a challenge to look Calix in the face. I can still feel him inside of me, his hands on my hips, his breath feathering against my ear. And Raz … my eyes slip past Calix to find him grinning beneath his red devil mask, a perfect match to his eyes. But even if the slate of the world's been wiped clean, I'll never forget the way he looked at me yesterday.
Like I meant nothing.
Like I meant everything.
My hands shake as I lift my chin in defiance and Luke's brown eyes go wide. She's staring at me like I've lost my damn mind, pulling her goblin mask from her book bag and snapping the elastic against the bright blue of her hair. Sonja watches her for a moment before turning that sharp emerald gaze of hers to me. Barron watches me, too, sucking on the red lollipop he's had every day since we started this mess.
“You think you can hit my car and then walk away like it's nothing?” Calix asks, voice steady but laced with a cold anger that makes my chest hurt. Even yesterday, after he saw me cry, after I threw myself at him, I got nothing out of him. He may as well be carved of stone.
“You think you can bully me for years and walk away like it's nothing?” I return, cocking a brow. Luke whistles under her breath and shakes her head, but I can tell she's fighting back a grin as I stare the Knight Crew down. “Well, guess what? I'm fucking sick of it.”
I step forward and snatch Raz's mask from his face. He retaliates much quicker than I expected, snagging me by the wrist and yanking me in close. It's quite clear from his expression that he doesn't understand where I'm coming from or what I'm doing.
I like that.
Something about his confusion makes me feel powerful.
“I'll take my fucking mask back, Trailer Park,” he sneers, yanking the mask from my hand as I stare him down and Luke grinds her teeth in nervousness. Behind Raz, his minions titter behind their pretty masks. They're barely human on the best of days, their feral cruelty too much for even their ruthless families to handle. Add Devils' Day into the equation, and they're as wild as the spirits their masks are supposed to scare off. “You're awfully ballsy today. Something up that we should know about? Maybe your dyke mommies are getting a divorce that doesn't mean shit since they shouldn't be married in the first place?”
“Maybe you're so obsessed with me and all my weirdness because you're fucking jealous?” I retort, putting together a million insults, a million looks that I never bothered to interpret until now. Raz attacks my parents the first chance he gets. He attacks my love of art. My bat earrings. My rainbow pride shirt. The faerie mural on the front of my mothers' art studio.
Things he isn't allowed to have, to like. Because his father doesn't allow him to be who he wants to be. Raz lives inside strictly drawn lines, a box of his parents' making.
“Jealous?” he asks, throwing his head back with a laugh. Before I know it, he's swinging me around and slamming me into the row of gray lockers, getting in my face. His body is pressed up against the front of mine, a lean, perfect line of muscle and malice. He leans into me hard, crushing me against the metal wall behind us.
“Watch it, Raz,” Luke warns, her voice rigid but spiced with fear. She'll stand up to the Knight Crew, but she's not an idiot. She knows how fucking scary they can be sometimes.
“Crashed into Calix's car, fucked with me. What are you up to today, Trailer Park?” He shoves his mask back on his face as Sonja slithers up beside me like a serpent. She's always at Raz's side, like a sexy lesbian clone of the asshole himself.
“You must really like pain,” Sonja suggests, her perfume smelling of violets, lipstick a brilliant red that reminds me of the blood I cleaned off my face earlier. “A gazelle who prances before lions doesn't often last long.”
