Page 14 of Devils' Day Party
“Karma, listen, I … don’t expect you to believe me.” Calix turns away, his face tight, raw with emotion in a way I’ve never seen. Either he’s a really good actor or else … “But I never hated you.” He looks up at me with a burning intensity, one that steals my breath away, makes my heart pound like thunder. “I’m in love with you.”
I choke on shame and guilt, my hands curling into fists at my sides.
“Hey, let’s not start tonight off with bad thoughts,” Luke says, outfitted in a sequin dress shirt, black slacks, and boots. If it weren’t for the hideous goblin mask on her face, I’d say she was as handsome as I’d ever seen her.
“This is fascinating,” April murmurs, her green eyes sparkling behind her glasses as she takes in the scene like a grad student might observe subjects for their master’s thesis. “It’s so … wild.”
“Hedonistic, isn’t it?” Luke asks, flashing a sharp grin. “Full of debauchery? A bed of licentiousness? Heathenish? Corrupt? Primal? Pagan?”
“Okay, Luke, we get it,” I say with a small laugh, feeling a bead of sweat drip down my spine. I can’t believe they dragged my car over here, I think, seething on the inside, wondering how the fuck the Knight Crew managed that one when I couldn’t get a tow truck myself. My initial response is to freak out, and I’m pretty sure Luke knows it.
“Look, you crashed into his car, this is their retaliation. Don’t react to it. That’s what they want you to do.” Luke looks askance at the Knight Crew, luxuriating on the remains of my car like it’s a chaise lounge in a faerie palace. I have to close my eyes to keep my murderous thoughts at bay. “My parents always give in at Christmas and send me money; I’ll buy you a new car.”
I open my eyes and glance over at Luke and April, both of them watching me with wary expressions, like they’re prepared for me to fly off the handle. Because the three of us are Crescent Prep outcasts, bullied by the Knight Crew, always hiding in one corner or another, I sometimes forget that even among misfits, I’m the pariah. I’m the only one at this school who’s poor, who gives a shit about a five hundred-dollar junker.
“Luke,” I start, but she cuts me off, putting her hands on my shoulders and giving me a squeeze.
“I can you get a much nicer car than Little Bee—as much as I appreciated her lovely eyelashes.” She grins and I make myself smile back, even though that’s not what I want. I don’t want charity. I earned the money for that car by working at my mothers’ shop.
Instead of saying any of that aloud, I just smile and give Luke a hug that she returns before pulling back and looking me over. I’m wearing black skinny jeans, painted with glitter, and an oversized red sweater that shows off a bit of midriff. Some of the girls here are dressed in designer gowns, their shimmering trains dragging through leaves and sticks and mud, and not caring that the outfits they’re destroying cost thousands of dollars.
“I’m not up to snuff on the dress code, huh?” I ask as Luke cocks a brow, throwing a glance back at April, who’s still dressed in her school uniform. Her parents sent her to Crescent Prep with two pairs of pajamas, two PE outfits, and every possible combination of the academy uniform—the sweater vest, the blazer, the bow tie, the silk tie, the fur-lined boots, the Mary Janes. But that’s it. They won’t give her a cent for maternity clothes—or anything else for that matter—until she agrees to give up her baby. Clearly, they don’t know April as well as Luke and I do because, even though we’ve only known her for a few months, it’s clear she has every intention of keeping her child.
“You look edgy, too cool for school,” Luke declares, turning back to me with another smile. “It’s April who’s not up to snuff.”
“I’m pregnant,” she says with a loose shrug of her shoulders, slipping on a delicate pixie mask with sparkly antennae on the top. She’s cut out the bit between the eye holes, leaving room for her glasses. The effect is … interesting, to say the least. “I don’t have to participate; I just get to observe.” She takes off before Luke can stop her, wading into the fray. Most of the other students go out of their way to avoid her, unsure how far, exactly, they can take the bullying of a pregnant girl. Looks like some of my fellow students have scraps of morality still clinging to their hollow, wicked bones.
“I’m gonna keep an eye on her,” Luke says, already nervous at the distance between them, and I nod. She gives me one, last look before she takes off after April, and I get the sense that I’m about to be admonished here. “Don’t go looking for trouble tonight, okay?” I just stare back at her and Luke hits me in the shoulder, a little harder than necessary. “Karma, please?”
