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I hear the laughter of my friends, the shriek of the girl holding my hand as we fall.
I’m not afraid anymore.
I feel free. I feel joy. I feel alive.
I feel the shock of slicing into the cold water from the warm night. I feel a jolt go through me, a wrenching sensation as our hands are torn from each other’s.
I see blood in the water. All I see is red.
“Stop, you asshole,” Gloria screams, throwing both arms around Duke’s hips and hurling herself backwards. He stumbles back a step, and I break his grip and spin around, the drop swimming sickeningly as I do. Without thinking, I lurch away from death and throw my arms around any anchor that’s more solid than air.
It takes a second for my brain to kick in and realize I grabbed Duke, the person who was just trying to shove me over. I cling to his neck, breathing so fast my head spins. I want to throw him over that edge, to kill him, and kiss him, and shake him until he stops being such a fucking psychopath all the time. He tries to shove me off, but I can’t let go yet. I can still feel my feet starting to lift from the ground.
“Get off me, you freak,” he says, punching my stomach and ribs until I’m forced to release his neck. He steps back, his harsh breathing dank with whiskey fumes. He looks as confused and freaked out as if he just woke up, and I know he’s not in demon mode anymore. He’s just a kid who’s high and realizing he almost killed someone.
And I’m the freak who just freaked the fuck out—in front of two of the last people on earth I want to show my weaknesses.
“We should get down,” Gloria says, glancing at the sky.
I’m so relieved that she’s not going to drag me for what just happened that I almost feel guilty about how I treated her earlier. Unlike Dixie, who pounces on any opportunity to make me feel like shit about myself, Gloria spares me for now, just like she spares me the humiliation of explaining why I just hugged Duke like I wanted to fuck him after he tried to kill me. Instead, she nods to where dawn is just starting to lighten the east.
The game is still going. Distant zombie-like groans echo onto our rooftop from somewhere on the far side of the factory.
“I don’t think hecanget down right now,” I say, tipping my head toward Duke, who’s holding his arms toward the sky and staring at his palms, transfixed. “He’s all kinds of fucked up.”
“Shit,” Gloria says, taking out her phone.
“What are you doing?” I demand.
“Texting Baron,” she says. “He’ll know what to do.”
“So he can kill me?” I ask. “Besides, there’s nothing to do but wait it out. When he comes down, we can climb down.”
She looks back and forth between us, a frown creasing her pretty brow.
“Or call him,” I say with a shrug. “I’ll climb down and go. I think Duke’s past his murderous impulses for now. You should be fine up here with him until Baron gets here.”
“No, it’s okay,” she says. “You’re right. He can’t climb down like that even if Baron is here.”
Shaking my head, I take a seat a little further from the edge than last time, so Duke won’t have it so easy if he tries to drag me back over. Now that my life is not flashing before my eyes, adrenaline is pooling inside me, making me feel light and stupid. I’m so fucking relieved that Gloria’s not bringing that up that I decide to play nice while we’re stuck up here together.
“Are you telling me you’d rather hang out with me than Baron Dolce, your number one boyfriend?”
She rolls her eyes and stomps over in her pink boots, dropping beside me on the roof. “He’s not my number one boyfriend. I got back together with Rylan at Homecoming.”
“I’m surprised Baron’s content being second to anyone,” I say, leaning back on my hands. “The rumors must be true.”
“What rumors?”
“That you have a golden pussy.”
She winces. “Can we not talk about that right now?”
I chuckle. “Sure. What do you want to talk about, Butterfly?”
“I told you not to call me that.”
“Whoops,” I say, smirking at her. “I keep forgetting. Must be all the brain damage.”
