Page 32 of My Forever Sin

I don’t know whether I should tell him why Jordan hates my fucking guts because I don’t know if it would make any difference. I’d probably prefer to suffer that in silence. It’s a miracle I managed to keep it from them this long. As for where she went… even I can’t answer that.

“You should go and catch up.”

Metal scrapes on concrete when he grabs a chair and sits next to me. “You’re never usually this down. When did she come back?”

“Yesterday.”

He huffs air out of his nose, and I snap my attention towards him. “What?”

“Did she find someone else?”

I tense at his question, the green-eyed monster beginning to rear its head out of the bog. I didn’t even consider that as a possibility when she arrived back, not that she arrived with anyone, but…

No. Impossible. Not after all the nights she told me she wouldn’t marry anyone else but me. “No,” I say, though it’s laced with doubt.

“Then where was she?”

He’s probing, and annoyingly, he has a way of pulling information out of people without much effort—normally by eliciting rage. He’s a quiet one yet has his ways.

“Look what showed up in my letterbox this morning,” Asher interrupts us and offers me a reprieve in the shape of a black envelope with a barely visible upside down cross embossed into it.

I take it from him, already knowing what it is.

“What is it?” Jordie asks. Her fluffy socks appear in my vision, right by Asher’s, and my eyelids flutter from the force it’s taking me not to look at them.

“It’s an invitation to the yearly Halloween party at the Blackcastle church,” Blake explains.

Pulling a black piece of paper with gold writing over it out, I see that it’s addressed to Asher.

“Blackcastle ball? That’s soon, isn’t it?” Jordie asks.

Blake snorts. “It’s not like the Blackcastle balls. Nothing like them.” He pulls a joint out of his jean pocket and lights it. The smell of herbs immediately wafts around us.

Jordie sighs immediately, my guess is at the smell. Things have definitely changed for her. We didn’t all use drugs. We’ve all aged. It’s a change she’ll have to get used to.

“Did you get one?” she asks Blake.

“Pretty much everyone our age in town has.”

My muscles clench with how much I’m hoping they don’t tell her the party is hosted by Lacey every year. And every year the church is littered with drugs, alcohol, skimpy outfits, and sex. And yet, somehow, she still hasn’t been caught doing it. We haven’t been caught.

“What are you all smoking?” Jordie asks with a fed-up lilt to her voice, eyeing Blake’s rollie when I finally dare a glance at her.

“Drugs.” Asher grins. “Wanna try?”

Jordie’s face twists in response. “I’ve watched enough films to confidently say no.”

Asher chuckles in response.

“I don’t know if I’m going,” Blake says.

Asher stands behind Blake and grabs his hair, pulling his head backwards to look at him from above. “Are you scared?” he teases.

Blake swings his arm upwards, shooting out of the chair and causing Asher to let go of him immediately, laughing as he jogs from Blake’s warning stance. “Fuck off, you weirdo.”

It makes Jordie giggle and the sound travels straight through me, gripping itself around my heart and squeezing tight. “You guys haven’t changed at all.”

Blake passes me the joint and I grab it almost desperately. The herby essence enters into my lungs, creating a delicious, calming burn. I’m gonna fucking need it if I have to watch Jordie love on these two.