Page 42 of Devils' Day Party
“Damn,” Luke says, her eyes wide as she studies me. “If this is all true, you've been living a pretty shitty day on repeat, huh?”
Tears prick the corners of my eyes, but I force them back. There has to be something else I can tell her to seal the deal.
The Devils' Day Committee.
That's it.
“You bought me a black tourmaline bracelet for today,” I tell her, my heart thundering as the leaves rustle in the trees above our heads. “And I bought you one. We both bought one for April, so she'll get two.”
“Whoa.” Luke blinks back at me in surprise, but there's enough hesitancy in her gaze that I know I haven't won just yet.
“April will send us both red velvet cupcakes, and Sonja will send you an emerald ash borer encased in resin as a brooch.” At this point, Luke has gone completely speechless. Probably because she doesn't believe there's a chance in hell that Sonja would ever send her a Devils' Day gift. But still. “I'll get a butterfly necklace—a Diana fritillary in orange and black—from a secret admirer. The girl with the raven hair and ice-blue eyes that always clings to the Knight Crew's coattails will give it to me.”
“Jesus, Karma,” she breathes as I exhale and swipe both hands over my face.
“If all that comes true, is it enough?” I ask, because most of what I told her, I could feasibly know about some other way. But right now, it’s all I’ve got.
“Let's just see how it goes, okay?” she says, but she looks skeptical. That's a good thing. Skeptical means she's considering the possibilities. If she were resolute, I'd have cause to worry. “Should we go back to class then? I bet we could make it in time for the committee?”
I'd rather have bubble tea, but …
“Let's go,” I say, because I need her to believe. I need her help.
I don't know if I can survive this alone.Luke leans over, breathing hard into a paper bag and trying to control the sudden wave of nausea she felt at seeing Little Bee with her windows smashed, her tires slashed. Calix stormed past us with his jaw clenched, like he was furious. Barron was as neutral as always, and Raz was positively radiant with malicious joy.
If the universe wanted to break someone, why not him? Why me? I'm just … average. There's nothing special about me, no reason for this.
“Everything was just like you said it would be,” Luke whispers, staring down at the black tourmaline bracelet on her arm. “Did you bribe someone in the committee to tell you what I'd bought? What I was getting?”
I give her a dark look that she returns with a shake of her head, looking over at Little Bee with a desperate sort of skepticism. Luke wants to believe this is real, that I'm telling the truth, but she isn't sure if she can. If she should.
“Of course not,” I spit, hating the Knight Crew more than I ever have before. They saw me at my lowest this morning, and they didn't give a shit. It didn't inhibit their cruelty in the least, now did it?
“This is insane,” she whispers as April comes down the front steps, one arm banded across her belly, a straw stuck between her lips. She sips on her water as she comes over to us, groaning and rubbing at her lower back.
“Where did you two disappear to this morning?” she asks, and then nods her chin in the direction of my ruined car. “I'm guessing this the Knight Crew's work?”
“It is,” I reply, looking to Luke to help. “I'm having a really hard day today.” I gesture at my ruined uniform and shrug my shoulders. Luckily it was Devils' Day today or I'd have been written up for it. “I just needed to talk.” April nods in understanding. She's an integral part of our group now, but she knows that Luke and I sometimes need our moments. “Oh, and by the way, Calix wants me to meet him at the Devils’ Den after school.”
“You're shitting me,” Luke snorts as she gives April a sideways glance; it takes me a minute to remember that in this timeline, April doesn’t know about me and Calix. I mean, the whole world will once that video drops, but for right now, my secret is safe. “He must think you're stupid. Either that or he must believe you have amnesia. Why on earth would he even consider asking you that again?”
“I'm going to go,” I say, feeling my stomach clench in knots. Today's going to reset anyway, so why not? Why not go and confront Calix the way I always should've? He owes me an explanation, at the very least. “I have nothing to lose.” I look Luke right in the eyes, but she's already shaking her head and backing away.
