Page 179 of Play Dirty

Grayson stood beside me, scanning the room like he didn’t trust it. Like he didn’t trust anything, anymore.

Finally, he elbowed me.

“You coming?”

I wanted to loop my arm through his. Dispel that broody stare, and get him half-drunk so he could smile again.

But I also wanted to keep up appearances.

“Let’s go,” I bumped him back. “All that beer’s not gonna drink itself.”

The heat hit me first. Then the smell — grease, beer, and something fried to within an inch of its life. Zack waved me over from a table already covered in chicken wings and french fries.

“MAXWELL!” he announced to half the planet. “You need to come try this!”

With Zack, that was never a good sign.

I looked down at what he was holding. It was… something. Brown. Possibly breaded. Possibly alive, at one point.

“What is that?” I asked.

He grinned.

“Deep-fried chili cheese… something,” he laughed. “They wouldn’t tell me.”

I stared at it. It might’ve even moved.

“You’re going to die.”

“I am not going to die.”

“You are absolutely going to die,” I reiterated. “Or at least the rest of us are, once you get back to the house.”

Ares came up behind me. His body language said everything.

“We’re boarding over the bathrooms,” he growled. “If you eat that.”

Zack took a huge bite. Everyone at the table watched, completely enraptured, as cheese, grease, and something that looked like special effects from the Alien movie franchise oozed down both sides of his mouth.

There was a beat. Then another.

Then—

“… oh, no.”

Sebastian leaned back, already laughing.

“Oh no.”

Zack’s face went through at least four stages of regret in under three seconds.

“I made a mistake,” he said hoarsely.

“You think?” I laughed.

He pushed the plate away.

“That’s going to come back later.”