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I heard the light ticking of Brent’s watch against the light tapping of the keyboard. Brent’s daggered glare had me sweating. I turned to say something to Jai to break the silence, but Mari crashed through the door before I could formulate words.
“Shit guys, I am so sorry I’m late.” There was a disgruntled Mrs. Whitcomb muttering about her use of language. That woman was everywhere. She closed the door behind her and dumped her mess of schoolwork onto the table. She looked between Jai and me with a questioning eyebrow.
“What kept you?” I wondered aloud.
“Nothing important, I can assure you. I was just talking to Steven about the party this weekend. We officially got another invite!” She smacked down a small flyer with the event details, and that piqued Jai’s interest. His fingers stopped moving across the keys.
“You know I could get you guys invites, too?” Daniel piped up from his corner of the table. I had completely forgotten he was here. I continued to ignore his presence as I focused on Jai.
“Are you going?” I was talking to the side of his face, and without uttering a word or taking his eyes off the screen, he shook his head no.
“I’ll be there!” Brent was all too happy to share.
Mari clapped her hands excitedly. “Wonderful! We can go together!” I schooled my face at Mari’s plan and plastered a smile on instead.
October 17, 2020
Bexley
Was it too much to ask that Brent forget this entire arrangement? Absolutely. He had met up with us at the quad of the off-campus complexes before we walked down toward housing. Mari had chosen a different costume this time, but I went with the same Catwoman getup. I couldn’t deny that part of me was excited purely for the chance of encountering Ghostface again.
Would he want to see me?
Guilt pulled at my chest when my mind decided to push images of Jai’s stolen touches over the secrets I shared with my masked guy.
“You look exceptional tonight, Mari,” Brent drawled out. Her heels were clicking in time with mine as we strutted toward the overpopulated frat house. Music poured out of the old building, and there were students gathered on the small lawn drinking and littering.
We walked through the doors, and I immediately started scanning faces and costumes.
“Bexley!” Daniel shouted from off the entryway. “I was hoping to see you.” He bit at his lower lip as he approached me. Weeks of politely turning him down had done little to deter his advances. “I know you just got here, but we could take it upstairs—” he murmured as he gestured between our waists.Classy.
“I don’t think so, Daniel. I’m not here for your ego tonight. I have no interest in any dates. If you’ll excuse me, we’re looking for refreshments.” I dismissed him and turned to a proud Mari who was more than ready to be out of his presence. We moved through the rooms and on more than one occasion, Brent’s hand lingered on my arm. Call it ex-boyfriend trauma, but even when you merely liked someone, was it not frowned upon to touch other women in their vicinity?
When we reached the kitchen, Mari asked, “Are you searching for your ghoul boy?” I whirled around in embarrassment.
“No, I’m just observing. That’s it.” I tried to play it off, but the roll of her eyes told me she wasn’t buying it.
“Who’s ghoul boy?” Brent questioned as he gave us two cups of punch. I waved the cup off, but he kept shoving it into my hand.
“I don’t drink communal drinks, and he’s just someone I met last week. It isn’t a big deal.” Brent withdrew the drink and looked into the cup.
“Come on, you can trust me. I wouldn’t spike your drink with all these people around.” He gave a breathy laugh of astonishment and went to push it back out to me, but a large hand reached over my shoulder and grabbed it from him. A capped beer slid over the opposite shoulder; its icy chill permeated my suit. I shivered at its touch and the man behind me.
I took the beer and let my fingers dance over his.
Brent’s mouth popped open, and his eyes tracked Ghost’s hand.
“She doesn’t take opened drinks. Fuck off.” His voice was loud and deep, causing a few people to glance our way. One of those onlookers happened to be Daniel, who stood outside the doorway. Ever the stalker.
“Brent, let’s go out to the patio and see what kind of games they’ve got set up.” Mari pulled on a confused Brent and threw me a wink over her shoulder.
Trouble.
“So, are we going to make this a tradition?” His voice cut through the music, and I faced him.
“What?” I didn’t have time to fully process his question before he captured me and threw me across his shoulder with my ass high in the air. “Ghost! What are you doing?!” He swatted my ass in response and picked up his pace toward the staircase.
I didn’t fight him on this because I wanted it as much as he did. It was freeing to have no connections or awkward moments seeing your strictly-hookup partners on campus.
