Page 69 of Their Cruel Play
I slicked my hair straight and put on red lipstick and dark eye shadow. Eli insisted I wear my collar tonight, so I changed into a black dress with a swing skirt and put on my boots again.
My gaze roams the party, looking for the familiar blond head, but I haven’t spotted Luke.
“Hey!” A female voice yells, and I turn to see Penny and Nat heading our way.
“I need to talk to them,” Eli whispers in my ear, sending a little shiver of awareness through me as his lips brush my earlobe.
I smile encouragingly at the approaching girls. Penny grins and tugs Nat along.
“We found a space outside that’s nice.” Penny’s gaze drifts from me to Eli before returning to me. “If you guys want.”
When Eli nods, Penny dances on the balls of her feet and turns into Nat, who just shakes her head slightly. Caden gestures for the girls to lead the way and turns to follow them.
Outside is noticeably cooler, and there’s a pool with people in their underwear playing in it. Someone tosses a beach ball into the middle and they all pile after it.
“Do you want a drink?” Nico taps me on the shoulder.
I meet his dark eyes. “Just a soda tonight.”
Jack and Nico take off back into the house. Someone screams and a splash cuts it off. My head jerks toward the sound. A girl in jeans and a t-shirt surfaces in the pool.
“Fuck off, asshole,” she yells. Makeup streaks down her face. Her blue eyes are livid. Her soaked brown hair is plastered to her head. She swims to the side, and someone holds a hand down to help her out.
That sucks. Also glad that wasn’t me. I don’t want to show everyone my underwear again.
Eli guides me toward the place the girls have picked out. Patio furniture is spread out over a covered tiled area near the pool.
Caden takes my hand and pulls me down on his lap while Eli gestures to Nat and Penny with his head, and they sit on the couch. He talks to them in a low voice I can’t hear, but they both listen intently.
“Figuring out what Sidney and her group know,” Caden murmurs in my ear. “He doesn’t want to approach Ashley directly.”
That makes sense. I relax into Caden as my gaze scans the party. Luke isn’t here, but he knows where to find us. What if he’s in trouble? What if someone found him alone like they found me alone?
“Can you track Luke to see where he is?” My lips brush Caden’s ear as I ask him.
He tightens his fingers on my thigh. “No, but Jack can if we need him to. I trust Luke.”
I meet his eyes. “I do too, but what if he’s in over his head?”
Caden’s lips press into a thin line, and he nods sharply. I might not be the only target for whoever is playing with me. The guys are usually together, but what if they found him alone?
Jack and Nico come and pass out drinks. When Jack sits next to Caden, Caden leans over to talk to Jack. Nico sits on Caden’s other side and hands me a Cherry Coke. My gaze jerks up to his, and when he smiles, I see my friend again.
My chest aches, as I open the soda and drink it. We haven’t talked about what happened. I don’t know who he is anymore. It hurts because at one time we were each other’s worlds. Best friends. We did everything together as kids. Now, I’m not even sure I knew him back when we were kids.
He never told me he was friends with Luke, Eli, Caden, and Jack. Even if he said he was hiding me from them and not the other way around, the kid who was my friend didn’t hang out with the most popular boys in school. He hung out with me. And I thought he’d always have my back. Always be on my side. But things were changing when he left. Maybe I only saw what I wanted to see.
It also makes it harder to just go on like I would with the others. I thought I knew Nico. Even when he came back, there was still this feeling of friendship like he never left.
But he did.
Maybe I don’t need to forgive Nico. Instead, I need to get to know who he is now.
“Get Eli’s attention,” Caden turns to say to Nico. Caden lifts me to my feet, and everyone stands.
“We’ll be back,” Eli says to the girls, and they nod.
Caden takes my hand and leads me into the house. We climb a set of stairs before Jack holds a door open for us. The room is a bedroom that isn’t currently being used by teenagers, which is a little surprising, given the sounds coming from the other bedrooms we passed.
