Chapter 46

Larissa

"I swear to you, my mother thinks the Copelands had something to do with the murder," Barbie nagged next to Vivienna.

I rolled my eyes. This girl was the epitome of hysterical and spreading fucking fear around campus. To make matters worse, her friends were no better.

"Her whole face was scratched up... Doesn't that speak for itself?" Amber squeezed out with a dry laugh.

Bayla next to me looked at the two of them, as if she wanted to believe their brilliant words.

I looked at her dumbfounded, and she looked back in shame at my laptop, where we were looking at the pictures of yesterday's fight.

"Girl, he's hot," I exclaimed when we got to a picture of Nash running, his dark blond hair a little tousled from the wind.

I'd managed to get some damn good footage of the fight between Nash and Julian yesterday. And it looked like Vanderwood was the perfect place for hot footage .

"He's an idiot ," Grace just said, shaking her head and continuing to lean over the stone slab of our seat on campus.

She was in the middle of writing a campaign speech, and so far, only she and Vivienna had registered for the March elections.

"A hot idiot," I said to Grace, shrugging my shoulders. "We should vote for him if he's running, Bayla. Don't you think so?"

I knew Vivienna and Grace were looking at me like I had lost my marbles, but I didn't care.

"Or, how about this ? We vote for Emely!"

I was sure she would let her friends put her up for election. At least, that's what the rumors were saying.

Vivienna's jaw dropped.

"You're joking..." Kelly remarked next to her as she reapplied her pink lipstick.

"Julian, Nash and Emely... They're the last people I'd do anything with, if I were you," Vivienna continued, looking up from her phone. First, she looked at me, then at Bayla, as if she wanted to tell her something else.

"I agree with her for once. These are not the people you should be spending your time with, Bayla."

Grace looked at my best friend with a meaningful look, almost as if Nash and Julian were from some drug cartel, ready to make her pay for her complicity.

"Are they part of some gang?" I asked, remembering all those guys from Sacramento with their pocket knives and brown boxes full of smiley pills. One of the things I missed the least.

"Sort of..." Grace looked at me with hesitation. "You have to think of it like a gang dealing drugs. The Copelands are the head and the other members do what they're asked."

Bayla looked at Grace as if she had just exaggerated a little, so I asked, "And Julian?"

Grace looked at me, perplexed, but Vivienna spoke up.

"He's just as much a member of that pack, precisely because his family was in it once."

"Isn't it a bit unfair to judge someone because of their past?"

I looked at Grace, then at Julie, and finally at the other girls.

"People like them don't change. Trust me, we know what we're talking about," Amber snorted glumly.

I hadn't had a problem with anyone here so far. But this mass of prejudice, first toward the DeLoughreys, who actually seemed to be quite aloof and probably had dirt on them, and then toward the Copelands, seemed a bit off.

When it came to Bay's neighbor, I knew I was right, because he seemed pretty reasonable. And I didn't know a single guy who wouldn't have reacted with his fists if someone had said a bad word about his mother.

Bayla didn't quite seem to agree, either, because she sat there and gave the others one of her WTF looks .

"By the way, Vivienna, let's go to this new clothing store on the weekend. I've seen some really cool dresses there that I'm sure would look great on you at the party."

Amber played with one of her dark strands and looked at Vivienna expectantly.

"Oh my god, yes! I need a costume, too!" Barbie squealed in excitement next to her.

I only needed to hear the word party and my attention was fully present. For me, parties were something like complete relaxation. A place where you could just dance, let go and forget all the shitty shit about life. There was also good music and hot men .

The last time I'd been to a party was maybe two months ago, which really annoyed me, because what were you young for?

"What party?" I asked with interest, hoping it wasn't some kind of private thing.

All three girls looked at me immediately until Vivienna finally said, "If you want to have some fun, you should come to the biggest Halloween party in town. In two weeks."

I automatically looked at Bay, who quickly shook her head.

"Oh, come on. When was the last time we went to a real party?"

"Definitely not enough time has passed..."

I looked at her in mock horror. "How can you let me down like this?"

"The parties in this club are not without their problems..." Julie remarked, a little concerned.

The more I heard about this party, the more I was drawn to it.

"As if there's that much going on in this backwoods area," I remarked with amusement.

"The parties at this club are really popular." Grace looked at me. "But they often escalate a bit."

"Bayla and I are from Sacramento . I think we know what a badass party is," I laughed, pretty convinced that a little fun couldn't hurt.

"Larissa, really... I don't think I'm that into it."

Typical Bayla.

I looked at Julie and Grace, but they were both shaking their heads.

"They're wimps. If you want to experience something, come with us. You'll have fun, I promise."

Vivienna looked at me with her icy blue eyes. She was the only one who seemed to be in the mood, even if I didn't like her.

"I'd love to," I said, earning a few questioning looks from Grace and Julie and a Seriously, Larissa? look from Bay.

"Well, if you guys don't like fun, I guess I'll have to find other friends."

It had been a joke, but Bayla seemed to take it a bit more seriously and looked at me with a disbelieving expression.

" Them again..." Amber sighed with a worried undertone, as if she had seen a ghost. She had her eyes fixed on the campus.

In the distance, I recognized three very familiar figures.

Immediately, I pulled out my camera, focused on my target, and pressed the shutter release.

" For fuck's sake , Larissa! What are you doing?" Grace exclaimed hectic, and pushed my camera down.

"What?" I asked. "Don't worry. They won't notice, anyway."

I put my camera back up and looked through the lens.

As if they had noticed me after all, all three men looked at me.

I felt a little uneasy, but I didn't bother to press the shutter again. It was as if I was playing with fire.

"They're heading toward us. Let's get out of here," Vivienna hissed, and all three girls immediately stood up.

Sure indeed, the DeLoughrey men came walking straight toward us, which worried me, but I wasn't alone. This time Adrian couldn't act out.

Our last encounter had been intense. Just thinking about it made my skin tingle warmly. At least until I remembered that he had simply thrown me out of the window at the end. That arrogant asshole.

"Well done, Larissa. Now you've lured them to us."

The three men came to a halt in their fancy suits right in front of our table, and Miles gave Grace a challenging glare, which made her look at him all the more hostile. But he didn't seem to care.

It was Adrian, however, who caught my attention completely.

"What do you want?" I asked in a firm voice, trying not to sound nervous.

"You like playing with fire? What?" he murmured in a low voice, looking down at me intently. His left collarbone seemed to stick out a little more than his right, his chin was freshly shaved, and his eyes sparkled in an unusually playful way.

His attractiveness made me block out all the unpleasant encounters.

"Delete the pictures," he ordered coldly.

And he was an ass. Couldn't he just enjoy being the center of attention like his brunette buddy?

"That's not going to happen," I said firmly.

No one would ever be able to forbid me to do what I loved. My camera, my rules.

"Larissa..." Grace grabbed my shoulder, her expression a little frightened. "Just do what he says."

Why was she so scared of this guy? Just because he drove a fancy car and ran everywhere with his lapdogs like he owned everything, like he was some kind of God?

"You should listen to the Blairs. They have smart thoughts, for once," he responded in a patronizing way to Grace's words.

They seemed to know each other... But from where?

I looked at him challengingly.

"Or what ?"

He didn't seem to be used to people contradicting him, because for a moment he dropped out of his unapproachable fa?ade and looked at me, slightly annoyed.

But it didn't take long before he came closer, leaning with his hands on the table past Bay so that we were only half a meter apart.

His eyes were dark, like the night, black as wet wood so that they formed a strong contrast to his pale skin. Then there were the ravens circling in the sky behind him, like predators.

Adrian leaned forward a little more and my body tensed.

"You'll regret talking to me like that."

I sucked in the air lightly through my lips. His gaze seemed to linger on them for a moment.

If the others hadn't been here now, I would be lying on this table with Adrian pressed against me, just like in the art room.

The thought turned me on. I didn't know why, but it sent a pleasant shiver down my spine. He was frightening, and yet a part of me desired his dark nature.

Adrenaline spread through me. But that wasn't a bad thing. On the contrary. He was right. I loved playing with fire. And I loved the danger even more.

"We have to get to the lecture, Adrian," the blonde reminded him and Adrian pulled away from me.

He looked at me one last time, his eyes full of desire, as if he wanted to make my fantasy come true. As if that hadn't been our last encounter.

A strong feeling, a longing, pure desire spread through me. And I knew that this wouldn't be our last encounter.

Deep down, I wanted him to come and take me into his dark little world, kidnap me piece by piece.

I stared after him as he walked in the middle. And in that moment, I knew. He would come for me. Whether I wanted him to or not.