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“Where is he?” I growl, but he shrugs.
“Who?”
“Chase, don’t fuck with me right now. Where is he?”
“Who’s your friend here?” he asks, ignoring my question, and turning his attention to Clover at my side. She squeaks and dips behind me, but I feel her look around me, up at him.
“Chase!” He blinks, his blue eyes, the same shade as his sister’s, widening as he looks back at me, then promptly away again. “Where. Is. He?”
“I don’t know,” he huffs. “I’m not his keeper.”
“Relax, slutbag,” Oli hollers.
Clover gasps, shuffling back a step. “Language,” she mutters. Chase lets out a low laugh.
“Well, aren’t you a cute little thing?”
“She’s sixteen,” I snap.
His smile immediately falls as he spins on his heel. “Bye!”
“Just have fun,” Oli whines.
“Isaac—”
“Will never know,” she says, grinning as she bumps her hip with mine. “He’s out of town. It’s not like he has a camera in the house or something.” She laughs at the thought, but my face stays serious, my stomach still in a tight knot.
No, he doesn’t have cameras in the house. If he did, he would’ve already learned about my camming and killed me. But he still has ways of finding things out, and he’s definitely going to find out about this.
“I just need to talk to him,” I mutter.
“Check outside,” Oli breathes reluctantly, running her hand through her hot pink wig. “He’s probably smoking.”
“Being inside hasn’t stopped him before,” I grumble as I pull Clover toward the couch. It’s surprisingly free, so I gently push her down onto it. “Stay here. I’ll be back, okay?” Her brown eyes are massive as she nods, her head barely moving.
It’s all the confirmation I need before I take off back through the crowd, aiming for the front door. If he’s not out there, I’ll have to comb through the people filling my house until I find him.
Then I’m going to punch him right in the dick for doing this.
The air is cool against my heated skin as I step outside. My head swivels, my eyes scanning the empty porch. There are people by Barry’s, some hanging around the tire swing, but there’s no one on the porch.
Almost no one.
My gaze catches on the burning red tip before I notice his massive shadow hidden in the darkness. His forearms are braced on the railing, his body leaning over it. Some of my previous fire fades as I step forward, pausing at the click of his lighter, the flame bursting to life, illuminating his face.
“Ro?”
Darkness envelops us again as the orange glowing life is snuffed. My body feels too heavy to move as I watch him let the flame flicker to life before letting it die again.
“What are you doing?”
Nothing. Not even a glance over his shoulder at me. It’s like I don’t even exist, like my words are nothing more than the wind.
I take another hesitant step forward, bracing myself for whatever he’s about to say. But, still, he stays silent. When I get to him, I rest my elbows on the railing beside him, letting the old wood settle something deep inside me.
“Why are you out here?” I whisper, my attention catching on a girl not much older than me squeal as she runs from a guy. He grabs her, throwing her over his shoulder, making her let out a deep belly laugh. The sight warms my chest, but it’s not enough to thaw the icy man beside me.
“Why are you?” His voice is raspy, like he hasn’t spoken in a long time. Or maybe it’s from the cigarettes he keeps chain smoking. Either way, the deep roughness of it does something stupid to me.
