Page 8 of Apathy
“Fuck off, Kane.” I lifted the cigarette, placing it in my mouth, and lit the lighter, illuminating the space. I dragged the first smoke in, loving the burning going through my throat, all the way to my lungs.
“I thought you stopped smoking?” His voice was nearer now, but if he came any closer, he was going to get punched in the face. My hands still shook from the adrenaline surge and the prank they pulled on me, so the cold shoulder it was.
“And I thought you stopped being an idiot.” I finally turned around, taking another drag of the cigarette. “But I guess not.”
I sat on the bench, still looking at Kane. He didn’t say anything else, but I could see the twitching in his left eye, and when I looked at Danny and Rowan, neither one of them could look me in the eye.
Good. Fucking amazing. I should’ve listened to Dylan when he asked me to carry that pocketknife he bought for me, but I always thought that nothing bad could happen to me here. Not that anything happened, but somebody else could’ve ambushed me like they just did, and instead of sitting here, smoking my cigarette, I could’ve been in some creepy van, on the way to God knows where. As soon as I got home today, I was going to put that fucking knife in my bag.
Winworth was full of creeps, and with my track record and the number of times I sneaked outside during the night, it was better to be safe than sorry.
“We’re sorry, Skylar,” Danny mumbled as Lauren strolled in, followed by Beatrice.
“What are you sorry for?” Lauren asked, looking from me to them. Kane turned on one of the lamps in the corner, while Rowan fumbled with the other one, illuminating the room. “Danny?” she looked at him again, waiting for an answer.
“Yeah, Danny.” I smirked. “Tell her what you did.” I leaned down, placing my elbows on my knees, dropping the ashes from the cigarette on the floor.
“Sky,” he groaned, avoiding Lauren’s eyes. “Come on.”
It wasn’t a secret that Danny liked Lauren, who liked playing the game of hot and cold with him. I felt sorry for him, but I knew why she didn’t want to get involved with him. Lauren had a worse track record with guys than I did, and that was saying a lot, considering that my first boyfriend ended up cheating on me. I dumped the second one because I started liking his friend, and the third one… Let’s not get into what happened to the third one.
“Skylar?” She looked at me now as she moved the hair from her face. Danny’s eyes pleaded with me, and for some reason I didn’t want to destroy whatever he was trying to build with her. I knew that they hooked up a couple of times, but Lauren kept avoiding the whole talk he wanted to have. We both knew that if she knew about what took place today, she wouldn’t give him the time of day.
“Nothing, babe.” I smiled, still looking at Danny. “I’ll tell you later.”
She narrowed her eyes at me, but I shook my head, not wanting to get into it again. My hands finally stopped shaking, and I threw the cigarette on the floor, extinguishing it with my booted foot. She approached me and sat on my right side, while Beatrice went to Kane, who sat down on one of the fallen pillars.
“Where’s Hailey?” I asked as Rowan started playing “High” by Zella Day on his phone, keeping the volume low. The acoustics here were strong enough to keep it at that volume, and I wanted to laugh at the meaning behind that song.
“She’s coming,” Beatrice responded instead. “She’s apparently bringing somebody with her.”
Fuck, Hailey.“Another stray?”
“I don’t know.” Beatrice shrugged. “You know how she loves including people.”
Yeah, I did know. She loved bringing new people to our parties, but this was the first time that she wanted to bring somebody here. We were extremely careful about this place, and bringing a stranger was a one-way ticket to a disaster.
“Do we know—” Kane started, but before he could finish the sentence, a smiling Hailey appeared at the door, looking at all of us.
“Well, aren’t you guys poster children for gloom and doom?” Her singsong voice echoed around the crypt, and Lauren snorted next to me, shuffling through her bag.
“It could be worse,” Rowan started. “You’re lucky we’re still coherent.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She brushed him off and came to his side, taking his phone from him.
I looked at the door, expecting the person she was bringing to appear, but there was nobody. “I thought you were bringing someone?”
“Oh, he’s coming.”
He? Who the fuck did she get involved with now?
I didn’t have to wait too long to see who was coming, because as soon as she said that, a familiar body filled the entrance, and the dark abyss I was getting lost in this morning captured me again. Dark, disheveled hair, chiseled cheekbones, but the hoodie he wore wasn’t on him anymore. It was tied around his waist, while a black t-shirt hugged his upper body. Without the hoodie covering his arms, I could see all the tattoos climbing from his hands toward his shoulders. His eyes traveled over the crypt, meeting everyone’s eyes, even Kane’s, until they landed on mine.
“Hi.” One word. One simple, fucking word, and my insides felt like they were burning all over again.
Did it have to be him, for fuck’s sake?
Skylar
