Chapter 6

six

LOLA

Kyle shifted on his sofa, a horrified expression on his face as I passed his phone back to him. The second his gaze dropped to the screen, his face went a weird shade of gray. "He's going to kill me, Lola."

"Hendrix is all talk. Just ignore him."

"All talk?" he squeaked. "He set Nikki's car on fire because… I don't even know why. Robert bought weed from him one time, told his mom where he got it, and Hendrix broke his nose with a lunch tray. And he thinks—" He puffed his inhaler. "He thinks I'm trying to do the horizontal wiggle with you."

"He's just being an ass."

He did think that, though, and even by the standards of Hendrix's wild imagination, that was ridiculous. It was Kyle. He had just called it the horizontal wiggle...

"The other day, he was standing at the urinals and told me he was going to eat my face. This is bad." Kyle swiped over his screen. "This is so bad."

I watched him pull up his privacy setting, scrolling down to unblock Hendrix.

"Don't show weakness." I snatched away the device. "It's what he wants. He—"

My phone dinged. A notification ribbon from InstaPic popped up. Message from DigBick69 . Hendrix. I should have just blocked him, too, but as always, curiosity won out.

I opened the message, pressing play on the voice clip.

"Unblock me, Kyle. Don't let a girl—especially that traitorous, blond Medusa—tell you what to do."

Kyle snatched my phone and pressed his finger over the screen. Oh, my God. He was going to send a voice clip. "Lola's not a traitor, Hendrix." His brows tugged together, his cheeks reddening. "You're…you're…"

I saw the desperation, the panic in his eyes. Bless him, trying to stand up for me.

"A stupid asshole." Then he dropped the phone to the sofa like it was on fire, his face washing white. "Now, you can't tell me I'm not going to die."

"Aw, thanks, Kyle—" The phone pinged again.

Hendrix's low breath rustled through the speakers. "Sticks and stones will break your bones because your stupid fucking words have pissed me off!" He sounded like a complete psychopath.

I'd always liked his crazy, though… A little too much.

"We have to leave." Pushing to his feet, Kyle grabbed his keys.

"Hendrix is not about to jump out of a closet."

"No, he'll jump through a window. He knows where I live." He snatched his inhaler from the coffee table, tucking it into his pocket.

"You're being ridiculous."

A sheen of sweat glistened on his forehead. "He pooped in the sandbox when we were six because I said he couldn't play with us." He ticked off a finger. "He put poison sumac on my chair in fifth grade because I got you and me matching Yoda shirts. And don't forget when he hogtied Isacc Isaccs to the railroad tracks in fifth grade because Isacc said you were pretty!" Okay, well, when he said it like that, Hendrix sounded mildly insane.

He headed for the door like his ass was on fire. "Robert said there's a party tonight at Rabbit Hill. Let's go."

"You hate parties, though. It's a weekday. And what if he turns up there? At least your house has locks."

"Robert has an invite. That means it's a geek party. Hendrix doesn't even know those people exist."

"Uh, pretty sure they just paid his mortgage this month. He knows they exist."

He puffed on his inhaler, so many times I lost count.

"Fine, fine. Off to the geek party we go." I let out a sigh and shoved my feet into my ratty Converse. "There had better be beer."

Oh, there was beer. And it wasn't just a geek party. Enough pickups to fill half of Dayton's parking lot were backed up to a massive bonfire, tailgates lowered. Hordes of drunk teenagers swayed in beat with the loud music blasting from a busted subwoofer.

Meanwhile, Kyle's friends all huddled around in a circle, clutching beers and playing Truth or Dare. It was wild. This would require a lot of beer.

Kyle's nervous gaze kept straying over the party. "The football players are here."

"And so is half the school. Told you we should have stayed at your house." But now we were stuck. The only way in and out was by way of a pickup, and the one that had dropped us off had gone to pick up another round of people.

"I did it," Robert said, dropping back into his circle of friends, cheeks red.

He'd just been dared to pay Jessica Masters ten bucks to kiss him. Once a slut, always a slut. I lifted my beer to my lips.

"Betty…" Robert glanced across the circle at a busty brunette in a tight tank top. "Truth or dare?"

Betty chewed at her bottom lip like this was some life-or-death situation and she'd just been asked to jump off a cliff. "Truth." Boring. Only pussies picked truth.

"Have you had sex?" Even in the dim glow of the firelight, I could see him blush.

"Twice." Betty tucked her chin with a smile. "With Hendrix Hunt."

The circle gasped, and my stomach bottomed out. I'd heard the rumors, but hearing what a manwhore my ex had become and having the evidence rubbed in my face were two very different things.

"You're lying, Betty," the girl next to her said. "Hendrix Hunt doesn't screw the same girl twice. Everyone knows that."

Robert looked across the circle in disgust. "Why would you sleep with him , Betty? He's slept with Carol Davis and Becky Brown. Samantha Thompson…the Greer twins." The list went on and on and on, and with every name, the urge to throw up got worse.

It was so much worse than I'd imagined. The boy who'd been nervous as hell his first time, the boy who had promised me it would only ever be me, had moved on from me with half the school.

I downed the rest of my beer, then snatched a bottle of cheap vodka from the lap of the guy beside me and chugged it. The burn did little to erase the gross images circling my mind.I just wanted them to stop talking about him, for the curse of Hendrix Hunt to stop following me everywhere I went in this stupid town.

"All right, Betty. Your turn," I announced before swigging more vodka.

"Lola." She arched a brow. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare." Obviously.

"I dare you to kiss Kyle." She looked so damn proud of herself.

Kyle looked like he wanted to pass out before the ground opened up and swallowed him whole.

"Really?" On a sigh, I grabbed the back of Kyle's neck and wrenched him close.

He let out a little squeak before I kissed his cheek.

"Are you trying to get him killed?" Robert sounded panicked. "Hendrix will put him in a locker and leave him there until he dies of starvation or—" Robert's attention darted over my shoulder, his eyes popping wide before he crab-crawled backward on the dark grass.

I knew it was my ex without even looking. Of course, my touching Kyle would summon him like a séance with the devil himself.

Sighing, I raised a middle finger above my head. "Fuck off, Hendrix."

"What are you dipshits doing?" His deep, rough voice washed over me, and I tipped more vodka down my throat in an attempt to numb myself to it.

No one in the circle answered him, their stares all fixed on the big, bad bully looming behind me.

"Maybe you should answer me, Obiwan- Star Wars -Wookie fucker," he said, undoubtedly to Kyle.

Alcohol blurred my vision when I glanced over my shoulder. "Don't you have better things to do? Bins to dive in?"

"You're a thorn in my side, Medusa." He shoved Kyle to the side before plopping down between us.

The scent of pine and citrus combined with the bonfire was like a crack to my Hendrix-deprived senses. "I'm not the one forcing myself on people who clearly don't want you here."

Hendrix glanced around the circle, a Goliath amongst everyone else as the distant flicker of firelight played on his face. "Who doesn't want me here? Raise your hand."

Of course, I was the only one who did. I hated him. Almost as much as my drunk self liked the way he pressed against me right then.

"See. It's a you problem." He thumped my forehead like a prick, then threw his arm around Kyle. "You gonna tell me what you assholes are doing or what?"

"Pla—" Kyle wheezed out a breath. "Playing Truth or Dare."

His gaze came right back to me. "Let me guess, someone dared you to kiss the sack of shit?"

I didn't even fight the smug smirk I knew was on my face. At my core, I was jealous and possessive, and that had never been a problem when he was mine. "Watching, were you?"

"When have I ever not watched you, Lola?"

The admission took me back for a moment, but then I caught the scent of cheap whiskey on his breath. Of course.

The only reason he would admit to that would be if he were drunk. His gaze held mine as he yanked Kyle closer. "Whose turn is it, Chewbacca?"

"Lola's."

I glared at my ex, wanting him to go stick his dick in a wasp's nest until it fell off and he could never fuck another girl ever again. "Truth or dare, Hendrix?"

"You wanna dare me to do some stupid shit like go stick my cock in a tree. So, truth it is, Medusa." He wasn't far off…

"You know damn well only pussies pick truth."

"And you damn well know I'm anything but a pussy. This, on the other hand…" His hand clamped down on my thigh, fingers sweeping dangerously close to the hem of my shorts.

My entire being focused on that soft caress. "Fine." I slapped away his hand. "How many girls have you fucked since I got sent away to foster care, Hendrix?"

I deliberately worded it that way, maybe to try to make him feel guilty. To remind him that, while I had been forcibly taken away and bounced from home to home, pining for him, he was here banging everything with a pulse.

A blip of something I wanted to believe was shame surfaced in his eyes. But then it shuttered, replaced by his cocky fa?ade. "I don't know," he said.

I wasn't sure why it made me angry or that I really actually wanted to know a cold, hard number. Perhaps I just needed him to drive the final nail into the coffin of my dying heart, to break what we'd had, once and for all. "You don't know?"

"I answered the question" His uncaring gaze met mine. "Truth or—"

"Dare." The last thing I would ever do was spill any truths to Hendrix.

He jutted his chin in the direction of the lake. "Go jump in, swim to the middle, and tread water for two minutes."

My stomach sank. Hendrix knew how much I hated that lake. I'd been terrified of it ever since they had found a dead hooker in there years ago, half-eaten by God knows what.

I glanced at the ominous, black hole that lingered at the edge of the field just beyond the reach of the bonfire.

"What's the matter, Lola?" Hendrix leaned in, his warm, whiskey-tinged breath caressing my neck. "Scared?"

"You know I am, you asshole." I absolutely did not want to do it, but scared or not—I wouldn't let him win. I kicked off my shoes, not realizing how drunk I was, until I pushed to my feet.

"You can change it to truth if you want," Hendrix shouted behind me as I wobbled through the dark toward the muddy bank. "Pussies are allowed that exception."

"Fuck you."

Ignoring the terrified skip of my heart, I kept wading the tall grass until my foot touched the edge of the wooden pier. Then I froze.

How many bodies were at the bottom of that lake? How many half-eaten hookers?

Swallowing, I tugged my shirt over my head and stared out across the dark water. One hundred and twenty seconds in the stagnant body soup. That's all I had to do.

God, this level of petty was so stupid. I shoved my shorts down my legs, tripping as I kicked them to the side.

Uneven, heavy footsteps came from behind me. "Damn at that ass…"

In any other situation, I might have been smug about that comment. But I was too worried about him coming up behind me. Knowing Hendrix, he'd probably shove me in.

I whirled to face him, the moonlit world around me blurring.

That feral, lust-drunk look he had aimed at my exposed body was almost enough to make me forget my fear for a moment.

"You know," he said, his gaze dropping to my chest. "You could forfeit."

"I'm not forfeiting."

I stumbled to the edge of the pier and reached for the ladder, the scent of fish-tainted swamp nearly unbearable. I made it down two rungs before my toes sank into the warm water.

"Dead hookers, Lola." The wooden boards groaned when Hendrix stepped onto the dock. "Bloated, rotting corpses."

My grip on the metal poles tightened. I tried not to picture them lurking right beneath the surface, half-eaten and decaying. Then I forced myself to descend another rung of the ladder and another until the warm water lapped at my shoulders.

I shoved away from the pier, fighting my panic as I swam out. Only a few feet from the bank, something slimy touched my leg.

I flailed. "Something touched me!"

"Calm down before you drown yourself. It's just a fish."

The cannibal kind that ate bodies, or—it was a body.It touched me again, and I screamed, limbs freezing.

My face sank beneath the murky surface right before I sucked in a lungful of water. Panic consumed me as I pictured a zombie grabbing my ankle and dragging me down to the depths of the lake.

My uncooperative limbs flailed uselessly as I sank farther. I was going to die because I had an overactive imagination and Hendrix Hunt had dared me to jump into this stupid lake.

I barely had time to freak out before someone wrenched me to the surface.

"Breathe!" Hendrix pulled me tight against his warm, hard chest as I coughed up gross water.

I clamped my thighs around his hips like I could climb my way out of the lake to safety. It was pure, meaningless survival instinct, right up until I registered the way every inch of me was plastered against every inch of him. I suddenly forgot all about the water and the fish and any dead bodies.

Water lapped around us as I stilled, watching the moonlight dance over the sharp angles of his face.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah…"

He brushed a damp strand of hair behind my ear, and for a single, pure moment, he looked at me the way he used to. Like he loved me. Like he was terrified of losing me.

The lost, broken part of me wanted him to kiss me, to breathe oxygen back into lungs that had been starved far longer than the last few minutes. But he couldn't be that for me anymore. I'd tainted him, turned him into something toxic and poisonous.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, stroking a wet trail along his jaw. An intimate touch I had no right to but couldn't seem to stop myself from taking. "For everything."

His eyes closed. His hold on my waist tightened. His dark brows pinched together. "Don't fucking do this to me…"

I touched my damp forehead to his and breathed in his pain until it clawed and stabbed at my insides. My trembling fingers trailed from his jaw to his lips, brushing over them the way I wished I could with my mouth. "Hendrix—"

"I swear to God!" Wolf's voice echoed over the open water. "If you're fucking Voldemort in that lake, you will never hear the end of it."

We both shoved away from each other like we'd been caught doing something bad.

My face burned when I swam around Hendrix toward the pier.

"Man, I'm not fucking her. She almost drowned." No thanks to him.

When I reached the ladder, Wolf folded his arms over his massive chest. "Poor Kyle. But, once a cheater…"

The insinuation boiled my blood. Kyle was my friend.

"Fuck off, Wolf." I hoisted myself onto the pier. "Like I would ever touch Hendrix again." The lie nearly choked me.

Wolf tipped his head back, staring at the sky. "Please, for the love of God, put on some clothes."

"Grow up. I know you've screwed far worse."

He groaned. "I forgot how annoying you are."

Hendrix hauled himself out of the lake. It took everything in me to turn my gaze away from the wet T-shirt clinging to his carved muscles.

When I bent over to reach for my clothes, a massive splash came from behind me.

"Dude," Wolf coughed. "What the hell was that for?"

"Looking."

When I turned around, the conflicted expression on Hendrix's face nearly killed me, but I couldn't study anything that had happened tonight too closely.

"Thanks for not letting me drown in body soup." I wanted to say more, and that was the problem. There was too much between us that couldn't be said.

Don't fucking do this to me.

I'd hurt him, and I would keep hurting him. That was why I walked off and kept going. Why I needed to keep going until I was nothing but a distant memory in Hendrix's life.

I'd already done enough.