AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then he plants both hands on my shoulders and pushes me into the pool.
Mackenzie
The cold water hits me like a freight train, forcing the air from my lungs. Icicles puncture my skin, piercing my organs. My net flies out of my hand, and I flail under the water, twisting my body to avoid impaling myself on my trident.
I struggle, gulp in water. I break the surface, gasping.
Gabriel dives in beside me, dog-paddling toward me. He smiles. “That was brilliant.”
“What did you do that for?” I shriek. And in a moment, Gabriel has undone it all, the way being with him undoes me. He’s peeled off the makeup and the fancy haircut and the designer costume, and laid me bare for the whole party to see. And they see, and they point, and they laugh, and they remind me with every peal of laughter that I’m not one of them. Anger seethes through me, irrational but justified.
Gabriel reaches me and tries to embrace me. “You looked like you need cooling off.”
There’s that smirk again. I know he’s playing with me, keeping his promise to not get too deep. I raise my hand and slap it off his face.
“Fuck you, Gabriel.” I swim to the side, trying to push myself out of the pool. The dress clings to my body, weighing me down. I slip back into the water.
Cleo stands over me as I try to shove myself out again. She grinds her stiletto into my hand. I scream and fall back, spluttering as my head goes under.
“Cleo, you bitch.” Gabriel splashes her. Cleo shrieks and leaps back, but she’s giggling. Any attention is good attention.
My lips still tingle from Gabriel’s kiss, but the burn of humiliation in my cheeks overpowers it. Gabriel sends another wave of water over the side of the pool, but Cleo’s too far back now and all he manages to do is drench the waiter who’s offering drinks. He doesn’t even apologize.
“Mackenzie, wait.” Gabriel dog-paddles toward me. Behind him, the waves of laughter cascade over my head. It stings worse than the freezing water.
“Leave me alone.” I dive away from him, ducking between entwined couples. I swim to the steps at the other end, kicking a guy in the chest as he tries to grab me. He leers up at me, his eyes bloodshot from some cocktail of drugs.
It’s too much.
I see red.
The red of rage, the red of losing control.
The red of blood staining my reflection.
I run toward the house, the laughter following me. The logical part of me knows on some level they’re not laughing at me. They don’t know me. But logic can’t force its way through the blood—
SMACK.
I slam into something hard.
The impact sends me sprawling across the patio. A fresh wave of laughter ripples through the crowd. My head swims. At first, I think someone has closed the glass doors on me, trapping me outside. But then I focus on the shape looming over me.
Noah, his eyes blazing, his hands curled into fists at his sides.
“Get out,” he hisses. “You don’t belong here.”
You don’t belong here.
“I was invited,” I snap back. It takes all my self-preservation to keep the sob from my voice.
Someone’s behind me. Warm hands lift me under my shoulders, hauling me to my feet. It doesn’t feel comforting with Noah bearing down on me. It makes me feel weak.
I’m not weak.
“Fuck, Mackenzie, I’m so sorry.” Gabriel’s silky voice caresses my ear. A note of distress creeps into his words. But it’s an act. I know it’s a fucking act. Gabriel pulls pain out his ass on stage every night, and we all believe it’s real.
I believed it was real.
