Chapter 5 #2
Decorations, not the main attraction.
And that’s when a squeal peals out among the girls on the dance floor.
Hailey sprints through the waves of pink as Aiden makes his way toward the drinks. He doesn’t even seem to notice her. And when they’re near enough, I catch the end of her question, “Didn’t dress like Danny? I thought you said—”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry,” Aiden mumbles dismissively, but then halts as he reaches the bar. His eyes scan my bare legs, my knees, my hips disguised by the crinoline under my skirt, then my tits before landing on my face. If I thought that muscle in the back of his jaw couldn’t work harder, I was wrong.
The iceberg on his face melts as his lips curl into a nefarious grin. He tosses his lengthy arm over Hailey’s shoulders, pulling her into his side. She bounces with excitement and plants a kiss on his neck like it’s hers.
I can’t help how rapidly my chest expands with a sharp intake of breath. Sick. I’m fucking sick. Even worse? He guides her to the tray of dessert shots and takes one, then taps his moistened lips to her temple.
While he’s still got his eyes on me.
Let him watch.
Without hesitation, I swivel on the stool, jump off, and aim toward the lumbering fool pumping his fist in the air off beat to the pop-y Tyla Silk song. Landon smells like condoms and cinnamon gum. Hopefully, he tastes like the latter.
His dazed eyes can’t even capture my body as I saunter up, turn around, then drop it down, letting my ass slowly climb up his formidable body until I’m bent over in front of him.
With a glance toward the bar, I kiss my palm, smack my own behind, and smirk at Aiden, whose eyes have turned a shade of glowing fury behind his mask.
True to form, Landon grips my hips and tugs me into his waist. As suspected, he’s not hard, but he’s easy. He shifts with me in an awkward side-to-side shuffle, and I writhe my hips rhythmically against his large frame.
“Fffuck yeah, darlin’. Where’d you come from?”
“I fell from Heaven,” I say, loud enough for Hell to hear me lying.
Eyes still on the man of the hour, I catch him flipping around to toss Hailey onto the bar top.
She giggles as he lays her back, a palm pressing on her abs.
The girls nearby hoot as she rolls up the bottom of her shirt and squirms under everyone’s attention.
He sprinkles salt around her flat torso.
With a brutal glance at me, he lets the tequila bottle drizzle over her alabaster skin.
My sisters and Greek brothers circle the pair, chanting for Aiden to take the shot. Even Landon tries to slink past me, lured by the mob’s hysteria, but I snatch his wrist and pull him back.
A sneer on his upper lip, Aiden leans forward with his gaze transfixed on me. His tongue slips between his lips to lap up whatever he spilled on Hailey.
Blood flashes behind my eyes.
A siren wails in my skull.
I spin, grab Landon by the throat, and crash my mouth against his like I’m silencing a scream.
One of his rough palms clamps onto my ass as I force the kiss deeper, until I’m choking on the stale taste of cigarette ash and cheap beer.
His limp dick grinds against my belly as he moans, languid and clueless.
When I pull back from him with a smack, he’s so dazed, he almost falls over. But I don’t slow down. No.
Instead, I march straight to the bar, where Aiden’s wiping his chin with the back of his hand. Hailey hops down, a smile still cresting across her face.
I snatch the neck of the bottle he used and hurl it—mainly toward the wall—but near enough it shatters next to Aiden’s head, showering him and Hailey in liquor and shards of glass. People flinch, scream, duck, and scramble out of my warpath.
“Ashlyn!”
“Holy shit, she’s gone crazy!”
“I told you she’s got something wrong with her!”
Even the DJ skids the music to a stop as everyone gapes at me. My heart pounds so viciously, I think I’ll vomit up Landon’s saliva.
“What the fuck?” Aiden demands.
“Happy birthday,” I say with fire in my eyes but a shrug in my tone. “Thought you could use another dirty shot.”
Instead of replying, we stare each other down as the crowd goes silent. His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows. Slowly, a brittle smile reforms at the corners of his lips. He leans down and licks the tequila residue off Hailey’s shoulder, still watching every disgusted twitch in my face.
I’ve seen enough.
Without a word, I flee toward the foyer, heels popping against the marble like a gunshot. Let them keep watching. Let them guess how close they came to seeing me shatter.
They won’t get that from me.
He doesn’t deserve it.
The Omega House door slams behind me as I storm out, glass crunching beneath my boots. Cool night air hits my face like ice water.
Before I reach the parking lot, I halt. Julien leans against the stone archway, one leg bent, a cloud of vape smoke curling around his head like a halo made of sin and detachment. Deep-set brown eyes follow me, calm as a ghost.
“That was entertaining.” His voice is as flat as his affect.
“I didn’t put on the show for you.”
He coughs on a laugh, then tucks his pen away. “You know…” White mist covers most of his face with his slow exhale. “If you were any more iconic, I’d have to get your name tattooed on my ass.”
I snort. It comes out broken and hot. “Don’t tempt me. I’ll design it myself.”
His smile softens the gravity in his eyes, but the nod—a reassuring one meant only for me—sends a wave of pride straight down my spine. “That’s my girl. Head up. Shoulders straight. Keep being that bitch.”
No one has ever encouraged me like this. And I hate that it matters to me.
But with a small wave, I do as he says. Keep walking.
Heart pounding.
Hands shaking.
Still standing.
The only comfort of going home to my parents’ mansion in Gnarled Pine Hollow is the solitude during the hour trip and the silence of my room, now that all my sisters have their own places, and it’s only my little brother left.
But Wyatt won’t bother me unless he wants a nightmare he can’t wake from.
Mom’s too busy planning my sisters’ weddings to pay me attention because I’m too much of a disappointment to her.
The girls got ceremonies.
I got scars to celebrate.
And Dad? Well, he’s focused on his next round of fights at the casino, pulling in cash, and how I don’t need to waste time with those rich assholes over at Northview University.
“Thinking they’re better than you because they have a degree.
Don’t end up with one of those pieces of shit, Ash, you hear me?
They aren’t tough enough for a woman like you. Pansies with delicate hands…”
I don’t think Dad ever realized how very rich we are. Mom says it’s because of all his previous debts; he’s lived with the mindset that he’s one play away from being broke.
But everyone who’s anyone in the card circuit comes to White Wolf Lodge and Casino. That’s where the sharks swim. And the blood on the chips is real.
Yes, my dad and I always play poker. We don’t show feelings. We bet with them.
And for some reason, as I think about the cards in hand, I remember…
The way I taught Asshole how to play. Tells. Antes. Flipping the rivers.
“You’re just a baby.”
“I’m not a baby!”
“Here, baby girl,” he says with a smirk, standing a good two feet above me. I hate that I’m so short next to him. “I made you this.”
“Trash? You made me trash?”
He doesn’t acknowledge me as he puts the threaded necklace over my head. “Bottlecap art. One of a kind.” In that casual way he has, where I never know if he’s serious or not, he shrugs. “Like you.”
I glance down at it. “It says AIC, your initials.”
“Yeah, well, I made it in my crafts class.”
Something tingles inside, and I have no idea what it means.
But I really, really like it.
His shoulder taps mine as he gazes out at the shimmering lake. We’re not supposed to be here. Not at this time of night, but after escaping my last solitary, Aiden was here. Right at midnight. Waiting with a loaf of bread, a package of bologna, and a box of Sweet Tarts “For the sweets.”
“I’ll write about it in my stupid journal,” I say, trying to keep my voice steady when everything in me is shaking. Like I just became human. Is this what it’s like to feel good?
He huffs. “They still make you girls keep it?”
“Yeah. But they don’t give it to me in the closet.” And I’ll never let the elders know how much I actually want that damn thing in my grasp. My only friend. The one way I can survive these summers. Writing down the memories so I never forget.
Do I document every breath he takes like I’m observing a religious miracle? Of course.
But he can never know.
“Did you play cards with your cabin while I was gone?”
Using his fingers, he pinches his plump bottom lip and nods at the dark horizon. “Yeah. But it’s not the same as winning against you.”
“Ha! Right. You lose, like, half the time…”
The lightness of the moment suddenly fractures.
“I beat up Joey Kincaid.”
My breath stutters, and I stare at the side of his face. Aiden was in for the same reasons as me. We were the “violent” kids. “Because you lost at poker to him?” I ask with a quirk to my mouth.
His Adam’s apple bobs before he answers with a creak in his throat. “Because he threatened to take something that’s mine.” Eyes dipping down, he tells me from a side-long stare, “He won’t say shit to the counselors.”
He goes still, quiet for a long minute, thinking something I don’t want to name. Because if I focus on it for too long, I’ll break.
“Two days for you this time…” he murmurs, the sound carried off on the summer breeze.
Chest aching, I stuff another soft, stale slice into my mouth. “Two days.”
The air intensifies when he turns to me, jaw clenched, and eyes almost white in the moonlight. “If they stick you in again, I’m tearing down the door and getting you out.” He says it with such conviction, I almost believe him. “You hear me, Ashlyn?”
If my heart weren’t beating so hard, I think I could respond. Instead, I can only nod.
Then lean against his hard body, letting myself finally get a moment of peace. Of comfort. A tiny hint that the skin on my back isn’t searing in pain.
And as I close my eyes and take a deep inhale of his cedar scent, I feel myself drifting off into a snug place where I can be taken care of.
His arm slips around my shoulders.
Pulls me in.
And just like that, I’m warm.
Safe.
Seen.
“Rest now. I’ll protect you, baby girl.”
He made it sound like a promise back then…
Now, he spits the name like a curse.