Chapter 17
Skully
“WELL, SINCE YOU’RE free now tonight, the only option really is for us to find the best party to go to.” Baylee shrugs her shoulders and takes my hand, ushering me back toward my room.
“Bay, I don’t know.” I sigh, feeling a slight headache coming on.
“Skully, you’ve been missing out on the full River Falls University experience.” She stands in my room, her hands on her hips. “Stupid Madden and his games he likes to play.”
I scoff, my feet shuffling over to my bed where I sit and watch as she ransacks my closet. “With the night off, I really should catch up on my paper for my journalism class. It’s rare to have this much free time.”
Baylee turns to me and points her finger. “That’s exactly why we’re going to use this opportunity to have some fun. I admire you, Skully, but you can’t keep living on waiting tables, going to class, and studying. You need some you time to unwind.”
She turns back to the few hangers in my closet, her lips turning down in a frown.
I fight the urge to laugh at her almost pouting.
Compared to Baylee’s closet, mine is bare bones.
Jeans, hoodies, some shirts and t-shirts, and a few leggings and skirts in my dresser.
Just my things from home, nothing fancy or worthy of a party here.
My dad assured me I had access to my closet at his house, but I refused.
After seeing the pictures Baylee showed me of how I dressed when I last was home, I knew nothing there was my actual style.
“How about borrowing something of mine?” She turns to me with a hopeful smile on her lips.
My brow lifts as I take in the outfit she currently has on. A light blue t-shirt dress that flares slightly at her hips. Her legs are bare, and she has a pair of silver heels on her feet. “I can’t pull that off.”
With a small huff, she goes back to rummaging in my closet. “Okay, hear me out…”
Not liking the slightly higher pitch to her voice, I sit up on my bed again. Her hand pops out of the closet, and she holds out a hanger with an all-black, long-sleeve, crop top.
“This and...” She turns back to my dresser and pulls out the only decent skirt I own, that I was actually saving for future job interviews. “...This.”
Baylee lays the outfit on my bed. It starts to form in my mind, imagining the band of skin around my waist that will show with how cropped the top is and the way the skirt sits.
“It might be a little chilly.” I glance at my best friend and see the way her eyes flare with a challenge.
“Give me one second.” Baylee dashes out of my room, and I hear her rummaging around in her own drawers.
I use the time she’s gone to slip into the outfit she’s put together and take the time to admire how it looks. I have to hand it to Baylee, she did a good job. It’s sexy and edgy while also managing to be classy.
“Problem solved!” Baylee shouts, her lips turned in a grin as she waltzes back in my room. She holds out a pair of black stockings.
Taking them from her hand, I sit on the bed and slowly drag the material up my legs.
Excitement swirls in my stomach when I realize how thick the material is, enough to keep my legs somewhat warm, and the stockings reach my thigh.
With the length of the skirt, there’s only a sliver of skin on my thigh that will play peek-a-boo every time I move.
“You look amazing, Skully!” Baylee gushes and moves to hug me. For the next few minutes, we take a few photos together before heading out the door.
“Where are we going?” I ask, while she locks up behind us.
Baylee glances at her phone, her teeth biting her bottom lip. “Ah, Olympian Row.”
“What is that?” I ask, watching her wince.
“It’s the row of houses where all the sport team houses are,” she explains like she’s breaking bad news. Her arm loops with mine, and it’s clear she’s trying to keep me at her side. “It’s not the swim house, though. I promise.”
“Which house is it then?”
A sly grin plays on her glossy lips. “The football house.”
It takes twenty minutes to get to the other side of the campus, where the housing for athletes is. The buildings are similar in size, color and style. All have a front porch and various cars parked in the driveway or on the street.
“How do they get away with parties where they’re so close to campus?” I turn to Baylee, speaking low enough that only she can hear.
“They’re athletes. They get away with just about anything.
Plus, we’re off campus, so the campus security can’t touch them, and as long as the law isn’t being broken, River Falls PD won’t even come this way.
I’m also pretty sure the fierce four have the majority of the PD in their pockets. ” She laughs, shaking her head.
We follow a few other students making their way to the second largest house on the block. My gaze instantly goes to the largest, the one on the end, almost apart from the rest of the row. “Is that monstrosity the swimmers’ house?”
Baylee snorts. “Gee, what gave it away?”
We both laugh, and I trail behind her up the porch stairs. A random guy in a white hoodie with a red, knit practice jersey on over it holds up a hand stopping us.
“Ladies, any cell phones on you?” His voice is slightly high-pitched, and he looks young. Probably a freshman on the football team if I had to guess.
Baylee does a little spin. “Do you see anywhere I could tuck a phone on this dress?”
The poor kid’s cheeks blush, and he shakes his head. “You?”
I glance at him and run my hands over my skirt and shirt. “Nope.”
He nods and hands us each one of those red plastic cups. “Have fun.”
Baylee grabs both our cups and I follow her inside.
The second I step into the room, it’s like being engulfed by heat.
Suddenly, Baylee’s insistence that we didn’t need coats makes sense.
The main area looks maintained for a football house.
Music is playing somewhere in the back of the house.
A few kegs are lined up in the kitchen and the sofas are pushed to the walls to make room.
Various groups of people stand together, some just talking, others playing what looks to be an intense game of Tippy Cup.
“Drink first, then dance?” Baylee turns to me, and I nod, going along with whatever her plan is.
I had my share of fun in California, but the parties were not like this when the students all mostly lived at home with family or had families of their own.
The most exciting nights were spent at the roller rink or at the live music venues.
We make our way over to the keg and Baylee fills up our cups before handing me mine.
Once that’s done, we move through the crowd of bodies to where the music is playing.
Baylee screams and waves to a group of girls I recognize, her friends I met at The Deck.
The girls all hug me, and we make small talk about classes as best we can.
Eventually, the music changes, and I’m being pulled to the dance floor.
“Come on, Skully!” Baylee laughs and maneuvers us to the middle.
It takes a few beats, but soon my body relaxes, the alcohol sends a rush of warmth through my veins, and I move my hips to the music.
My body falls into the rhythm and then I’m singing and moving with the girls.
The dance space becomes crowded, and I don’t even mind the various elbows that graze against me every once in a while.
My lips hurt from smiling and watching Baylee’s antics.
It’s not until her eyes widen do I feel the first flare of panic run down my spine.
Large hands land on my waist and a firm chest hits my back. “Nice moves, little devil.”
My spine snaps straight and the good feeling I had vanishes. Spinning around my eyes clash with a very familiar pair of dark ones. His reddish lips are tipped up in a grin, and his long blond hair is messy, like someone has been running their hands through it.
“What are you doing?” I step out of his hold, creating some distance between us.
Killian’s gaze flares with humor, but his voice is laced with a certain chill. “Just checking on a friend.”
“I’m not your friend,” I mutter, pushing past him out of the sea of people. My heart hammers beneath my rib cage, and I suddenly feel suffocated. My feet carry me to the hallway where I lean my body against the cool drywall.
“You should stay away from him,” a light, melodic voice that I recognize says next to me.
My head lifts and I find Lily standing in front of me.
She looks slightly out of place in a long, flowing pink skirt and white button-up cardigan.
Her long, blonde hair is pinned at the sides and curled to perfection.
“I didn’t search out Killian, he found me,” I tell her, feeling the need to defend myself.
Her blue eyes sharpen, and for a split second her face shifts, dropping the innocent sweetness she usually carries. “I’m talking about Madden. Stay away from him.”
A small throb needles against my temple, and my heart flickers with pain again. “Maybe tell him to stay away from me?”
“He’s drawn to your voodoo magic,” she snaps, her lips curling in a sneer. My brows lift.
“If you have the hold on him you claim you do, then you should be able to keep him away from me, right?”
Her face turns a shade of red that sprawls down her neck and under the collar of her shirt. Her hand twitches at her side, and for a second, dark, gray magic starts to extend from her fingers.
“Lily.” Aero cuts the tension, his hazel eyes moving from her to me and back. Lily steps back, her back straightening before she releases her shoulders and looks again like she needs protection.
“I’m just worried about him, Aero,” she says quietly, her hand resting gently on his arm.