30. Maddy
30
MADDY
I was still at Traine’s house, sitting on the couch in the corner of the room.
Coming here hadn’t been the smartest move. I needed to head home. I needed to stop drinking, but I was still sitting here. And I was still holding a glass I’d filled with my personal concoction. It was highly alcoholic and highly delicious.
Aurelia had gone hours ago, but others replaced her. Now I wasn’t sure who was here. I stopped paying attention. Phone in my hand, I was going through Max’s social media like a good little stalker.
Steele also sat on the couch, but there was a wide space between us. He’d been weird since finding out who my dad was—well, and maybe since my interaction with Aurelia. He’d been giving me long looks all night. What was his deal? Aurelia’s two friends stayed when she left. Amber tried hitting on him, but he ignored her. When we moved to the basement, she tried sitting on his lap. He’d rolled his eyes and shoved her off. “ Go fuck the others ,” he’d told her.
So, she had.
She was in the other room, servicing Traine, Axel, and another guy who showed up after Aurelia left. The door was wide open. Anyone and everyone could see. Things were different here, including the sexual activity. No one even blinked at Amber on her knees with Axel thrusting into her from behind, Beltraine’s dick in her mouth, and the other guy getting a hand job from her. They’d already switched places a couple times.
Nea had disappeared into one of the back bedrooms with a guy. They’d reappeared a few minutes ago with Nea giggling as she wiped the back of her hand over her mouth. The guy was zipping up his pants.
There were a few other girls here, but they were in the back, dancing and grinding against whoever else was back there. The only person I wanted to grind on wasn’t here, so I’d been chilling on the couch.
Steele landed next to me, and we’d been sitting like this, not saying a word, for the last hour.
I should really go home, but first, I asked him, “What’s your deal?”
He looked my way, his face impassive. “What?”
“Why are you sitting here?”
He didn’t blink. “Why are you here?”
“Because I’m too drunk to drive home.” Oh yeah. That’s why I was still here.
He raised an eyebrow.
I rolled my eyes. “You’re not drunk. You’ve only had water. I watched.”
He smirked. “You watched, huh?”
“You wouldn’t be sitting here, not doing anything, not saying anything, if I weren’t here. Why are you sitting with me like this?”
“Maybe I like you.” He looked at me, long and hard.
There was no interest in his gaze. I’d considered that option, but there was no way he was interested in me like that. I shook my head. “I don’t like liars. They’re scum to me.”
“Scum?” He laughed. “Is it so hard to believe I might be into you?”
“Yes.” I didn’t say that because I was insecure and needed a guy to say all the pretty things to me. It was the truth. Guys were either intrigued by me, scared of me, or really into me. There were guys like Beltraine, who thought I was cool and treaded carefully around me. I’m sure if an opportunity happened where he could slide inside me, he’d take it, but he had no interest in anything more. Axel, on the other hand, was nervous around me. Not in the way where he liked me and was self-conscious. It was in the way of ‘I’m nervous about this creature that I don’t know what she is’ kind of nervous. He didn’t know how to operate around me.
And Steele… I’d asked because I couldn’t figure him out. He didn’t land in any of the previous groups. He wasn’t insecure enough to be intrigued by me, only to find out he couldn’t dominate me and get mad. Those were usually the guys intrigued by me. The guys who were really into me were worse than I was—like, real criminal types. They thought they found Bonnie to their Clyde. Maybe I’d fall for one of those guys in another life, but in this life, I knew who it was for me: Max.
I got him because I’d wear him down. I knew it was going to happen, and so did he. I liked to think we were in the pre-negotiation stage, before we started the real negotiating, that was going to end tomorrow. I already had a plan.
I said, “You’re not interested in me. I know the look. You don’t have it.”
Steele laughed. “It’s not you that I find interesting. Let’s just leave it at that.”
I frowned, not liking that answer.
But I got distracted because I was having a hallucination. I began laughing because my first hallucination ever was seeing my dad and uncle coming into the basement as if this were their house. My dad’s eyes found mine and locked on. He was not happy. His jaw clenched.
Uncle Logan glared at me too, but his eyebrow shot up as he caught sight of the four-way happening in the other room. He said something under his breath.
I continued to watch them, curious to see what else was going to happen. Maybe Max would stroll in behind them. I watched, eager to see if it would happen.
“Ho—” Steele jumped to his feet. “Put that camera away! Who the fuck are you?”
A few people screamed. Some guys shouted.
Beltraine and Axel scrambled to put their dicks away. Amber was still in a haze. The other guy’s head was back and his eyes closed, fully entranced in the hand job.
A few of the others tried making a run for the basement door, but Uncle Logan blocked them. He was the one with his phone up, and while there was an evil grin on his face, his eyes did not match it. He was pissed. “Thanks for putting your dicks away, gentlemen. Wouldn’t want to get that on my video. Before anyone is allowed to leave, you will be handing over your names, your parents’s names, and their contact info, because we’ll be calling each and every one of them.” He smirked. “Yes, children. We are those types of assholes. Since we’re now the adults on the premises, the responsibility falls to our shoulders.” He smiled, not batting an eyelash as protests rose. “Now, now, children. Don’t piss me off or I can make things go badly, very badly for you. Then again, if you don’t believe me, call my bluff. Please. I get off on this type of shit.”
“Fucking with teenagers?” a guy sneered.
Uncle Logan swung his phone to aim right at the guy, who now paled and seemed to be rethinking his comment. “No. I get off on ruining people’s days, and it’s a two-for-one situation here. I get to ruin yours and your parents’s. It’s just up to you how bad my destruction gets.”
My dad came to stand in front of me, scowling darkly down.
I blinked up at him a moment, still trying to decide if he was real, before I registered the looks on the others’s faces. Amber was blushing and checking my dad out. The guys were pissed, but there was also fan adoration in their gazes.
Oh. This was real. This wasn’t a result of too much alcohol or stress or grief. I couldn’t help my smile. “Thank God. I was getting disappointed in my first hallucination. I would’ve hoped for something more fun like a grizzly trying to eat the four way that was happening. Can you imagine the terror and bloodshed?” My dad and uncle had totally crashed this party. I sighed at the look of murder in my dad’s eyes. “Guess I’m still grounded.”
My dad opened his mouth but couldn’t speak. That’s how mad he was.
Uncle Logan snorted, taking down information. “Niece of mine, you are so grounded you’ll be lucky if you get the tracker taken out of your hip by the time your last prom gets here.”
“I don’t have a tracker in my hip.”
He lifted his head, his gaze finding mine. “Not yet.” He smiled.
I sank down on the couch and looked back at my dad. There could’ve been steam coming out of his ears.
“You, me, and your mother are going to have a very, very long discussion in the morning.”
Well, that sealed my prison sentence.
He was bringing Mom into it.