Page 166 of Their Cruel Play
I swallow. I want to believe that, and that scares me almost as much as the idea this might be a joke.
“Why do those girls think that?” he asks.
I push up to look down at him. My eyes have adjusted to the dark, and I can make out his features, but I can’t read his eyes. “There’s this girl, Rebecca Forester. They apparently selected her sophomore year, like they picked me. They kept on her until she gave up her virginity. But then she transferred schools.”
“She isn’t you.” Nico tucks my hair behind my ear.
“There’s more to the story apparently. The girls said they humiliated her. That Eli had sex with one of these girls in front of her.” My stomach clenches and twists. I couldn’t handle that. I couldn’t watch any of them with another girl. Something inside me would die.
“Maybe that’s who they were a few years ago, but that’s not how they are now.” Nico brushes his hand over my cheek. “They want you.”
“How do you know? You don’t know them any better than I do. You’ve been gone. You don’t know the crap they’ve done. The punishments they handed out. The way they make all of us feel.” I shiver as a breeze works over us.
“But you know them now.” Nico pulls me down to rest on his chest again. “They want you, Harper. They aren’t going to throw you away. Why don’t you just ask them?”
“Like they’d tell me if they were just dicking with me.” Scoffing, I look up at the night sky as dozens of lights flash across it. “Butyoucould ask them.”
“Harper, if you want to know, ask. They have no reason to lie to you.”
“Unless they’re doing the same thing to me.” My insides twist. Those little moments might add up to real heartache if this is all a joke. “This whole thing is new, and I’m scared to let them in. I’m scared this is just another elaborate trap.”
He rubs my back. “If it is, I’m not in on it. Honestly, I can’t see them doing that to you.”
Drawing in a breath, I stare up at the sky, not seeing the meteors. I just can’t seem to match up the guys I’ve gotten to know with the horsemen from my nightmares. The guys who terrorized the school. The guys who tormented girls for fun.
They weren’t exactly nice to me at first. They still aren’t always nice. But they’re mine.
“If you don’t want to bring it up, I can.” Nico’s voice is quiet in the darkness. “I don’t like that it stresses you out.”
“I don’t know what to think about it. It makes sense with the way I’ve seen them interact with Rebecca like she’s no one.” Maybe that’s what has me twisted up inside. That one of them took her virginity and then barely acknowledged her when she waited on our table. That she wouldn’t look at Eli.
Will they be that way with me someday? Like I was a number. The last notch they needed to leave high school behind.
“You aren’t no one, sunshine.” Nico rolls me and leans over me. His hands brush my hair from my face. “You mean everything to me. And I know you mean something to each one of those guys.”
I cup his jaw. “Can we be okay now? Can we start trusting each other again? Will you accept that I belong to them as much as I belong to you? That I can’t just give myself to any one of you? I need all of you.”
He lowers his head and brushes his nose against mine. “You’re mine. You’re ours. I’m yours, sunshine.”
His lips claim mine, and for this moment, I’m just a girl trying to open her heart to this guy. And right now, that’s enough.
CHAPTER 46
The Point Man
Harper
“Hey.” I open the door and Luke steps in. School was normal today. Well, as normal as this school year has been. But nothing new on the Zach or Tanner fronts, and the Cheermonsters seem calm now that they have a pack of guys to call their own.
“Oh, good.” My mom brightens when she sees Luke. “I’ve got to go. You guys have a good night.”
Mom hugs me on the way out the door. I lock it and set the alarm. “No Caden tonight?”
When I turn, Luke is over in the living room. He sits on the couch and links his hands between his knees. Okay, this is weird.
“Is everything okay?” I walk over and sit in the chair beside the couch. He’s making me nervous, and it’s been a while since Luke made me nervous.
“I tried to get out of it, but...” He runs his hand through his hair, and his pale blue eyes lift to mine. “My father wants to have dinner with us. Just us.”
