Page 15 of Rot

Hmm. I wasn’t sure how to take that information.

When I heard a louder sound from Elias, I knew he’d found his release in her, and only then did I let my eyes open to the darkness. My heart still beat faster than it should’ve; no matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to get it under control again.

I peered around the tree, watching Elias take a step back from Dana and reach down to pull up his pants after flicking something on the ground. A condom, maybe? I was too far away to tell. He said not a word to her as he stormed away, didn’t even wait for her to fix herself before leaving, and though I wasn’t near her, I knew the expression she wore as she watched him go.

Dana was pissed. I supposed I’d be pissed too, if I had a quickie with a guy in the woods and he left like that after telling me he didn’t want to hear me while fucking me. How rude, right? Normal people cared about rudeness.

Me? I didn’t, and neither did Elias, apparently.

I waited until she fixed herself and stormed off after him, following him back to the party. It was only then that I let myself push away from my tree and walk over to the one they’d been against. I set a hand against the bark of the tree, laying it flat, feeling the unevenness of the bark digging into my skin.

It was warm. Warm from what had just transpired here, from Dana’s back against it.

I didn’t linger there for much longer, even though I wanted to. I made my way back the way I came, looping around so it didn’t look fishy. I’d already been gone for too long. When I made it to the party, I found Jordan had moved on to a group of guys, talking to them while drinking more.

Dana had found Carly near the fire, and with the bright orange flames dancing on her face, I could tell she was telling Carly all about what just happened in the woods. She looked the opposite of happy.

My eyes began to search for Elias, but a firm, strong hand came down on my shoulder and forced me to turn around. Elias stood there, a frown on his face, his black eyes narrowed at me. “I’m leaving,” he said, turning to head toward the car.

That was odd. I hadn’t heard him approach me. While it was true the rest of the people here were making an awful lot of noise, it still surprised me, mostly because I didn’t view Elias as the sort of person who could walk as quietly as a mouse. Maybe there was more to Elias than I knew.

All the more reason to dig deep and really get to know my cousin.

I followed him to his car, getting in. He didn’t move like someone who was drunk; I’d only seen him have one cup. Technically still illegal to drive afterward, but he wasn’t blackout drunk from it, so I doubted we’d get into an accident.

As he started the car up and got us going, I let my gaze fall to his lap. He was busy staring straight ahead, so he didn’t see me staring at his jeans. His dick wasn’t hard. No evidence of what had just happened.

I lifted my gaze to his face, staring at him. He was silent. He was acting like I wasn’t even there.

Let’s change that.

“I’m surprised you wanted to leave so early,” I said. “You looked like you were getting cozy with Dana.” We were driving on a dirt path back to the main road; the dirt path itself was pretty bumpy and uneven.

Elias let out a short chuckle. “I wasn’t the only one getting cozy. I saw you with Jordan.”

I blinked. I hadn’t expected that from him. Did that mean he’d been watching me during the party too, and I’d been oblivious to it? Huh. Maybe I underestimated Elias after all.

He went on, “You’re new. You’ll be everyone’s fascination until you’re not. The only thing they want from you is to see who you’ll let between those legs, first.” He stated it so matter-of-factly.

“Maybe he was just being nice.”

“He talked to you the whole fucking time. Jordan’s a douche.”

“How is that any different from you?”

Elias bared his teeth at the dirt road before us. “I’m nothing like Jordan.”

I shrugged, turning my face to the window. “I don’t know. I kind of like Jordan. And, not that you need to know this, but I’ve never actually been with someone before. Jordan seemed very athletic. I bet he could go for a while—”

I didn’t say it to get to Elias, but that’s what my words must’ve done, because in the next moment, he slammed on the brakes, stopping the car so suddenly my head nearly got whiplash. Slowly, I turned my head away from the window to look at Elias and found him staring at me with a dark, menacing expression.

“You’re not going to see Jordan,” he growled out.

“I am, actually. We’ll probably have a few classes together, if Blackrain really is that small—”

All Elias could say to that was, again, “You’re not going to see Jordan.” It was as if he thought his word was law, like he could control me or something. It was adorable, actually, him thinking he could tell me what I could and could not do.

“Why are you trying to tell me what to do?” I asked, unflinching as I gazed at him. That expression might cause other people to shrink away and let him get his way, but I would not be one of those people.

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