Page 25 of Roses & Ruin

“Welcome,” Delia says with a grand sweep of her arm, “to Notorious. A themed bar featuring the ten most notorious crimes in all of Fairford’s history. Ten booths, ten crimes.”

“Holy shit,” Charlie breathes, “this place is real?”

“Everything about this place is real,” Delia says. Bianca’s mouth drops, and Naomi narrows her eyes.

A chill runs through me. It’s grotesque, but I’m no stranger to the grotesque. My whole life, I’ve been alone in my own personal horror show, after all.

Charlie’s reading the newspaper articles, delighting at the grisly details. Naomi and Bianca are discussing some of the murder items, looking horrified. I look over at Delia, whose eager eyes are on me, expectant.

“This is so fun,” I say sincerely. “Which booth should we take?”

Delia points to an empty one nearby, and we all take a seat. Our booth’s lamp displays a dirty silk ribbon with a few questionable splatters.

“Ah.” Charlie nods, pointing at the stains. “So that’s oxblood.”

As a thanks for everyone being so game, Delia buys the first round of drinks.

“How?” Naomi says when Delia brings back four sweaty pints of cold beer. With a flourish, she shows us her fake ID. Bianca seems impressed, and Charlie brays a laugh.

“Gertrude?”

“It worked, didn’t it?” Delia sniffs. “You guys can Venmo me for the next rounds.”

“Dude, I saw you dancing with that cute sophomore at Autumn Fest,” Naomi says to Delia, as if suddenly remembering. “Did you get lucky?”

Delia and I exchange looks and start laughing. I actually didn’t get a lot of time to debrief with Delia the morning after her night out with Amber. We went straight to the dining hall after she returned from Amber’s apartment, and all I had the chance to do was tell her a little bit about Julian before Charlie and Naomi plopped down beside us.

“Let’s just say I changed her life.”

“Oh! So are you two dating now?” Bianca asks.

Delia does a literal spit take right into Charlie’s face.

“Bro,” Charlie growls, wiping the beer out of her eyes.

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just…no.” Delia wipes her mouth. “No, we are not dating, Bianca.” Delia pats Bianca’s hand. “We had fun, but I’m…not really a monogamous kind of gal. Tried it for a while.” Delia takes another gulp of beer. “Not for me. Life’s too short. You gonna ever try that beer, Ro-Ro?” She turns to me, her eyes glittering with amusement.

“Oh yeah. Sure.” I’ve never really met a beer I liked. But maybe this one’s different? I take a big gulp. Ugh. Nope. Definitely not.

Charlie gets the next round. Mojitos this time. These taste way, way better.

“You should try wine sometime,” Delia says, tapping her chin with a shrewd look on her face. “You seem like a red wine kind of girl.”

“Rose,” Bianca says, “how are you feeling about painting class? Seems like Julian’s been leaving you alone lately, at least?”

“Not anymore,” Delia crows. “Ask Rose who she watched the sun rise with the other morning.”

Charlie and Naomi look at me, curious. Bianca’s eyebrows disappear into her hairline.

“She’s not talking about Julian…is she?” Bianca asks.

My face burns. I drop my eyes, tracing the outline of a painted blood splatter below my mojito. Ever since that morning in the studio with Julian, he’s been inexplicably on my mind. His smile, his charming accent. It’s almost been enough to keep me distracted from thoughts of Hayden, whom I haven’t seen since Autumn Fest.

Almost enough.

“He sort of apologized for that first day, actually,” I say. “He was…super nice?”

Bianca leans forward, her eyes huge. “He is literally the hottest guy I have ever seen.”