Chapter Twenty-Nine

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The first thing she did when she woke was reach for him. Because yeah, sure, she could tell herself to be careful. She could stop and consider that nothing had been said about what this meant—beyond wanting to fuck the living daylights out of each other, of course. But her semiconscious self didn't really care. It wanted to cuddle up to him. And she didn't really have the wherewithal or even the need to fight it.

She just did it. She was even disappointed, when she found nothing but an empty bed. And an empty, cold bed at that. Like he'd been gone for a long time, even though she was pretty sure it wasn't late in the morning. Gray light filtered through the windows. Six-thirty sort of light.

So she sat up and listened. She tuned herself in to whatever sounds he should have been making. The splash of a shower, the opening of a fridge downstairs. Even though she had no idea if he had a shower, or a fridge. She only discovered that he had one of them when she went to pee in something other than a sex stupor, and actually noticed the shower curtain around the bathtub.

And discovering the other appliance took until she got dressed, and made her way down his death-trap staircase, to the room that passed for a kitchen. Then there it was in the corner, actually hum ming away. She even found a block of cheese in there and a gallon of milk. A box of Cheerios, too, in one of his cupboards. And bowls, he had bowls, mismatched and one of them chipped, but usable. She got them out and set them on the counter, ready to pour them both some cereal.

And that was when it struck her.

It was kind of weird that Seth wasn't around to eat that bowl.

As in, what if he went out to get breakfast and they've done something to him? weird.

And hoo boy, did that thought take her from fuck-drunk to scared in about five seconds flat. She jumped up from the table and went out onto the sagging front porch. Called his name into the early-morning light. But all that replied was birdsong, and the chill fall breeze, rustling the trees.

And it was followed by an even stronger sense that something had gone very wrong. They shouldn't be able to even see him, she told herself. But she couldn't help wondering if they'd gotten around her potion somehow. If there was a spell she didn't know about or a trick her research hadn't turned up.

Or if it was something Seth had done.

Because that was a possible thing, she knew. If someone chose to be seen, they would be. Though she struggled to imagine why he would. She couldn't think of a single reason he would want to let the Jerks take another shot at him. Why he might see them and think, sure, let's just stroll up and say hi .

And she continued to think that, right up until she got back inside, and grabbed her phone from the place she had left it on the kitchen counter, and saw the message waiting for her. A selfie, it looked like, and when she opened it, sure enough. There he was, in 4K.

Only it wasn't the Seth she'd come to know over the last few weeks.

Or the Seth she'd been friends with as a kid.

No, this was a different Seth. A smug-looking Seth, who leered out of the screen at her, fingers curled into an OK sign. None of which would have meant anything to her, if it had just been the photo. But it wasn't. On either side of this brand-new Seth were three similarly amused, smug little faces, bold as brass, and all too familiar.

One of them belonged to Jay. The other to Tyler. And the third was clearly Jordan.

Then underneath, a caption:

Surprise, fatso.

You didn't really think this was a thing, did you?