Page 3 of Locke

I whacked her hands away as she approached to check. “I’m just not in the mood to dress up.”

“But Eric might be there.”

I stilled. “That is so random.”

“I could be right.”

I shot her a suspicious look as she grinned back at me with that mischievous look in her eye. “Oh, my God, Syl, don’t tell me you did what I think you did.”

“You mean, did I happen to let him and Warren know that we were going to Labyrinth to party it up tonight? Maybe. Maybe not.”

Oh, my God.

I twisted away, pacing the kitchen now in search of a paper bag to breathe into. “Shit, Syl, what have you done?”

She crossed her arms, looking giddy. “I invited your year long crush to the club, so what? You guys have been floating around the same group of people for how long now? And he’s always so shy, he is going to need a little steering at this point.”

“You should have told me.”

“You would have said no.”

“Damn you!”

“It’s done, girl.”

My eyes widened as the realization finally hit me. “I can’t go looking like this!”

“Exactly!”

“Oh, my God.”

“I know.”

“What have you done?”

“I’m naughty, what can I say?”

“Damn you!” I cursed again.

“You won’t be damning me when he’s balls deep in you tonight—”

I practically fell to the withered linoleum floor in a fit of giggles as she roared over me; we laughed until tears were streaming down our faces.

“I want to kill you,” I said, catching my breath.

She knelt down to my level and brushed the dark hair from my eyes. “And you will—after we have a good night.”

*

Sylvia was adamant I dress into something eye-catching, specifically from her closet because mine looked like a “blind nun” owned it.

I knew when I slipped on the white bodycon dress that she had stolen it from some high-end store downtown. I didn’t know how she did it, either. Those shops were hard to thieve from, and nobody dared to because they were owned by Max Locke. Apparently, if you were caught stealing from one of his stores you ended up in a ditch, but that was just crazy talk. The guy was hardly ever in town, and when he was, I was sure he had more important things to worry about than us poor girls stealing dresses out of his rich ass store.

I curled my never behaving hair and applied red lipstick on my face. Against my black skin, the colour popped out of me. I grabbed my ID and a clutch I bought at the thrift store, and we left.

We caught two buses into downtown and waited in line for an hour outside the club. I kept a look out for Eric, scanning the sea of young faces for him.

“You think he’ll show?” I anxiously asked Sylvia.

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