SIXTEEN
SKYLER
After walking through the numerous rooms upstairs, I found myself back inside the living room with the others. This night never ended. The hours ticked by, but dawn never came. Alice and Harper danced and fucking danced. They never stopped. I stared out through the window, waiting for something to happen, waiting for absolution to find me.
Lily watched me warily from her spot on the couch.
Crouched in front of the coffee table, Evelyn used her bank card to arrange lines of cocaine on the table while Nate tracked me with his dark eyes.
Turning around, I frowned. Pills were one thing, but cocaine? What the hell were they doing?
Evelyn looked up at me as she rolled a piece of paper. “You can’t have any of this. You’re already tripping.”
“Fuck off,” laughed Nate, kicking his shoe up on the table, dangerously close to the prepared lines. “Let her have some, too. It’s not like she can go crazier than she is now.”
“You want to test that theory?” Evelyn asked, quirking her brow before leaning over and snorting a line. She fell back onto her ass and wiped beneath her nose, her teary eyes finding mine, alight with amusement. I didn’t recognize the girl in front of me. “Come have some.”
I quickly shook my head. “No, thanks.”
Harper stopped dancing, then sauntered over to me and slowly walked her long nails up my arm. She smirked, pausing at my shoulder. “I think you should have some.”
“I think you should fuck off,” I bit out.
Barking a laugh, she whirled around and whipped me in the face with her long hair. “Hear that?” When she turned around, all traces of humor were gone. “I’m telling you to have some.”
Alice made her way over to us, her eyes falling down my body dismissively. “You should listen to Harper.”
I ignored the way her red-painted lips peeled back into a sneer and shouldered past Harper.
She hurried after me, blocking my way out of the room. “It’s not up for debate, sweetheart. We’re here to have fun.”
I looked between them, then let my gaze drift to the others. “It stopped being fun a long time ago.”
Harper mocked concern, tilting her head. “That’s a shame.”
Behind her, Alice’s grating laugh rang out, while the others watched the scene unfold with rapt interest. I tried to walk left, but Harper followed.
“Where are you going?”
I stepped to the right.
Harper blocked me. “I don’t think so. We’re here to party.”
I regarded them, the cruelty in their gazes, how they closed in on me. Warning bells rang out, tightening my chest and urging me to leave and never look back. There was something very wrong with this house, something that watched and waited, something that fed on fear.
“Fine,” I bit out, walking to the table.
Evelyn shifted over. Her blood-shot eyes peered up at me from beneath her long, wispy lashes, and a dusting of powder clung to her nostrils. She made no move to wipe the mascara streaks on her cheeks.
Her eyes closed as I stepped up to the table, and she laughed under her breath.
The haunting sound grew in volume, thickening the air and playing hide-and-seek with my mounting fear.
Nate dropped his foot to the floor with a loud thud.
Turning on my feet, I ran for the door.
If I snorted that line, it would be game over for me. Every nerve ending in my body knew it.