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At least my annoyingly in tune sense of touch kept the nightmares at bay for the first night since they began. I’m getting real sick of dying every night.
Metaphorically, of course.
“Okay, bend a little and step in.” Justice’s tone tears through my memory. “And what’s with the bandage on your hand?”
“Cut it on some rocks yesterday.” I shrug, dipping into the car.
“You should be more careful,” he chastises.
“You should let me worry about her and move to the driver seat, assuming you’re the only one we’re making fools of ourselves for,” Ben claps back.
I smirk. I fucking love my best friend.
I hear a door close and then another, so I reach across the seat, finding Ben’s arm to make sure he’s there.
“It’s me,” he confirms, already knowing. “So how far is this party, Jus, and please tell me everyone is pulling up with a blindfold on?”
“Yeah, yeah, all the Giftless—I mean, all the people invited were, uh, Gifted with blindfolds, so yeah… yeah, they’re all showing up like this,” he stutters as he speaks and Ben squeezes my thigh. “But don’t worry, you can take it off before we go inside. You just have to wear it on the drive over, but once we’re through the shield, or I mean the, uh, shielded gate, you know, that hides the house from the street and stuff, you can take it off.”
“Dude, did you pop some Adderall or something?” I laugh, and Ben chuckles with me. “You sound like you’re on one.”
Justice laughs, then clears his throat. “Sorry, it’s been a long day.”
I nod, dropping my head back on the seat and blowing air through my lips, making them vibrate. “Any party favors in here? I’m way too sober for it to be ten o’clock already.”
“Slow and steady wins the race, babe,” Ben whispers against my ear.
“Says the guy who ends up in second place, Benny, but don’t worry, this won’t be a blackout-and-wake-up-to-you-pulling-me-out-of-the-town-fountain-naked kind of night, promise. Jus?”
Justice scoffs, likely assuming I just popped off with some random shit I came up with, but nope. I’m the worst kind of hot mess, living with a sense of loss of purpose and in skin that doesn’t feel like it fits. That will do that to you. With the help of a handful of Jager bombs, of course.
“I have something, yeah…if you’re sure.”
Oooh, sounds like Justice came prepared with that good shit. “I’m sure.”
“Wait, what?” Ben snaps, and I can hear him shuffling, as if he’s looking back and forth between us even though he’s blindfolded. “What is it?”
Fingers tap my chin and I take the cue, opening my mouth. Something powdery, yet sweet, like a Pixie Stix, falls over my tongue, and when I swallow it, it leaves a coating of detergent at the back of my throat.
“Tell me what it is before you give it to her,” Ben demands angrily.
So damn bossy.
Feeling slightly guilty, I run my tongue all around my mouth, and my brows flicker when a tingly, heated sensation trickles along my veins, taking with it every thought and feeling outside of peace.
The stresses of moments ago wash away and I sigh, relaxing into my chair while leaning my head on Ben’s shoulder. “It’s okay, B.”
Ben tenses, and even to me, I hear the change in my voice, the airy, dreamy-like sound that’s now laced with whatever he just put in my mouth. I vaguely register the thought of how gross it sounds, but I’m just too damn alleviated to care.
“Fuck, you gave it to her already.” His shoulders fall with his heavy sigh. “Give it to me too.”
“Are you sure?” Jus asks him carefully.
I want to rip this blindfold off. Do I trust Jus? Sure. I’ve known him since I got here and he hasn’t given me a reason to not trust him yet, but he needs to not question my best friend.
“You didn’t fucking ask her that, man,” Ben snaps. “And you gave it to her anyway, so yeah, I’m fucking sure.”
Silence, and then his heavy weight presses into my side.
My lips curve up. “Scoot over, big brute.”
“I can’t. My body feels like it does after a loss and Coach hands it to our ass on and off the ice.”
Weird.
The drug is affecting us differently. I feel nearly weightless, calm, and all those other giddy feelings you get when you’re in your happy place, like when the moon is at its highest and the owls come out to whisper their secrets into the night.
“Don’t worry. The powder wears off pretty quick,” Jus tells us, and my bottom lip drops a little. I’m Zenned the fuck out and loving it.
Just then, I’m jolted forward as a wave of energy slaps against my skin before softening, like the feathers of a bird tickling the tip of my nose as if to sniff me out and say hello, which sounds fucking crazy. In the next second, that welcoming kiss grows, and it’s like walking through a waterfall. All at once, it washes over me, minus the dowsing wet part. The sensation begins along my knees, bent over the edge of the seat, fanning out in perfect sync until my body is swallowed whole as if I’m the moving part and I’ve left the feeling behind me.
