15. Mallory #2
The hallway disappeared. Everything narrowed down to the pressure of his mouth, the warmth of his breath, the way his thumb stroked once across my pulse point. It was the single hottest thing I’d ever experienced.
“All better, Hales,” he said huskily, releasing my hand.
I was not better.
I fucking needed CPR or something to make me start breathing again.
I swallowed and tried hard not to look like I was internally combusting, like every nerve ending in my body wasn’t lit up and buzzing. “Will you be at the party?” I asked, tucking my hands behind me.
“Where else would I be?” He stepped back slowly, putting distance between us that felt simultaneously like relief and loss.
“I’ll see you there?” I asked, suddenly feeling so unsure and awkward.
“I hope not.”
I frowned at him, confusion cutting through the haze. Why did this boy make absolutely no sense?
He took another step back, already turning away, his shoulders tense beneath his shirt. “Don’t forget,” he said over his shoulder, “masks are mandatory, Hales.”
Slumping deeper against the lockers, I watched him walk away and toss my rose into the trash.
I made a noise in the back of my throat, contemplating whether or not I was going to stomp over to the garbage and pluck the flower out.
Had he really needed to throw it away? What a waste of a perfectly beautiful rose.
I touched my finger to my lips without thinking. It still tingled where his mouth had been.
I was in serious trouble of falling for the wrong guy. I doubted my mother would approve of me dating someone like Maddox Corvo, someone who walked the line of darkness my mother crossed often. She didn’t want that life for me, and yet my heart seemed determined to go down that path.
I came downstairs to the soft chiming of my mom’s bracelets and the smell of her warm, floral perfume.
She lifted her gaze, eyeing me from head to toe.
“Where are you going?” she asked, her eyes lingering on the black tights covering my legs, the laced boots that came up to mid-calf, and the short black dress hugging my curves before flaring slightly at the hem.
The fabric was thin, clingy in all the ways that made me feel sexy and exposed at once.
I prayed it wasn’t windy tonight because a single gust and I’d be sharing more of myself with the world than I was comfortable with. Shrugging, I retorted casually, “To a party.”
“Hmm.” She bumped her hip to the side, leaning it against the counter while one hand came up to fidget with the clasp of her necklace. “Did I approve this?”
My eyes rolled skyward, exasperation bleeding through even as affection warmed my chest. “It’s not a big deal. Don’t you have a date or something?” Better to deflect than have her focused on what I was up to.
“I do or something,” she mocked, but the little crinkles around her eyes didn’t smooth out. Her eyes were saying more than her mouth. She wanted to tell me to go upstairs and change, but she’d never censored me a day in my life. “How are you getting to this party?”
“Paisley is driving me,” I replied, which was mostly true. I left off the part where Paisley wouldn’t be coming inside the party with me. A lie by omission? Maybe. But necessary.
I’d never had a curfew, never needed one, and now, it was a little too late, but she was still my mom. Worry lived in her bones, maybe more so than your average mom due to the trauma she’d endured. I saw it in the tightness around her mouth. “All right.”
“That’s it?” I asked, my eyes narrowing. “No interrogation? No demand for addresses and emergency contact numbers?”
She stepped around the counter, her heels clicking softly against the hardwood, and grabbed her purse from where it hung on the back of a chair.
Then she leaned in and kissed my forehead, lingering just a second longer than usual.
“Don’t have unprotected sex,” she said, pulling back with a grin spreading across her face.
I groaned, heat flooding my cheeks. “Mom.”
“Have fun, Malibu, but not too much fun,” she said over her shoulder, sauntering down the hall.
The door shut behind her a second later, leaving me alone in the quiet cottage.
Just me and my reflection in the hallway mirror, dark dress, dark tights, dark boots.
Everything black except for the pale column of my throat and the uncertainty written across my face.
Oh, and the black raven stamped on my wrist.
I lifted my arm, turning it so the mark caught the light. It looked like a tattoo, and I liked it. Cute and dainty with dark undertones.
Kind of like me.
My phone buzzed, a text from Paisley, letting me know she was nearly at my house. I took a deep breath and closed the door behind me with a finality that felt like stepping off a cliff.
Paisley pulled into my driveway. The late-evening air was cool against my bare legs as I briskly walked to her car, goose bumps traveling up my thighs.
Summer was quickly shifting into fall, and I already missed the warmth of the sun.
The woods breathed softly around the cottage, leaves rustling in a breeze.
My gaze drifted to the trees as I walked, and a shiver crawled up my spine. I couldn’t see anything, but it didn’t erase the feeling of being watched. The little chill bumps covering my body intensified, as did the voice in my head urging me to hurry and get in the car.
I quickened my pace and slid into the passenger seat, grateful for the warmth.
Paisley took in my appearance. “You look good. Too good. They are going to eat you up.”
I pulled the seat belt across my lap and clicked it into place. “Thanks, I think.”
“I still think this is a horrible idea,” she said, her hand moving to the gearshift and putting it into reverse. “It’s not too late to change your mind. We can go inside, sneak a bottle of wine, and binge The Bachelor.”
“Tempting,” I replied, fidgeting with my clutch sitting in my lap. “But what if something happens tonight? We could end this.”
“You’re right. And I don’t know if I could sleep tonight knowing we didn’t try. Fine.” She sighed and started driving. “Atlas is going to be pissed when he finds out.”
Better to ask forgiveness than permission. I did feel bad leaving Atlas out. I didn’t want to be the cause of a fracture or wedge in their friendship.
She cut through town, taking side streets I’d never been on. The headlights carved tunnels through the woods, twin beams cutting through darkness.
I might be going in alone, but I wouldn’t be alone. Paisley would be there, listening in on the other side of my phone.
Paisley cleared her throat. “If we’re going to do this, let’s make sure we have a plan. You’ve got the necklace on?”
I touched the small pendant resting just above my collarbone. It looked harmless. It wasn’t. I nodded. “Yeah.” Weirdly, she hadn’t asked why I owned a pendant with a recording device inside, but I had an explanation ready to roll off my tongue if she did.
“Keep it on the whole time,” she ordered, her eyes flicking from the road to me and back again. “No matter what happens.”
“I will,” I assured, smoothing my hands over the fabric of my dress, trying to settle the nervous energy vibrating through my limbs.
Her lips pulled into a worried frown. “And you’re calling me the second you get out of the car. I need to hear everything, make sure you’re safe.”
I wasn’t sure what she would do if anything happened to me. Did she plan to bust in? Regardless, I nodded because it seemed as if she needed reassurance. “Okay.”
The trees pressed in on both sides, their branches forming a canopy overhead that blocked out the stars. “You don’t have to do this,” she said again, almost pleading. “My offer for The Bachelor still stands. We can turn around right now and figure out some other way.”
How did I tell her I didn’t want to abandon the plan without hurting her feelings? “We’ve come this far. We might as well take a shot.”
The trees thickened as we turned onto a narrow, barely paved road, pitted with potholes. The car bounced and swayed, no buildings yet in sight through the dense press of trunks and undergrowth, but it was close.
Paisley pulled to a stop a little way from the clearing, killing the engine. The sudden silence felt profound, absolute except for the ticking of cooling metal and the distant thump of bass. “You ready?”
I smiled, doing my best to put her at ease. “This will be a piece of cake.” If she only knew. It couldn’t be worse than some of the shit I’d already seen and done in my seventeen years on this earth.
“I just don’t want to lose another friend. We’re just getting to know each other, and I really like you.”
“Same.” She had no idea how important her friendship was to me.
Going to Daily Dose that first time had been the best decision I’d made since moving to Elmwood.
Making friends had always been hard for me, but with Paisley, it had been effortless.
We just clicked. Her taking the initiative helped, gave me confidence, and made me feel as if I wasn’t as out of place as I often felt.
“I don’t know what I would do without you and Atlas.
Starting a new school is stressful enough. ”
“If you feel unsafe at any time…”
“I’m out,” I promised. I pulled out my phone and dialed her number. She answered on the first ring even though she was sitting right beside me.
“Make sure to mute on your end,” she said, her voice coming through the speaker pressed to my ear. “And don’t drink anything out of the Solo cups.”
“I won’t,” I said, slipping the black lace mask over my face, the silk ties brushing against my hair as I knotted them.
Here goes nothing.
I opened the door, the night rushing in, smelling of wood smoke and pine. I cast one last glance at my reflection in the window, at the girl I barely recognized.