Page 33 of The Fallen Ones

“Here.” He held his hand out to me.

I stared down at the two Satan’s Hollow tokens in his hand, confused on how he got them.

“How?” I asked, looking from the tokens to his face.

“I talked to Olivia. She told me you were having trouble getting them, so I made some calls to a few guys I know. They got them for me.”

“You’re going too?” Something about knowing he’d be there and take someone back to a room made my stomach twist withsickness. I knew Caleb slept with women, but it wasn’t like it was something we talked about. He tended to keep that side of his life private.

“No. I’m working. These are for you and Olivia. So take them.”

I reached out and grabbed the tokens from his hand.

“Caleb, wow. Are you sure you don’t want to keep them? I mean?—”

“Lil bit, take them. You need this. Go have a good time, OK?” He gave me a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

“Wow. Thank you. Olivia is going to be so excited.” I threw my arms around his neck and held him tightly. He hesitated for a moment before holding me against him.

“What about you?” he asked as I pulled away from him.

“What about me?”

“Are you excited?”

I bit my bottom lip and contemplated his question.

“Yes and no. I’m always scared of doing new things. You know that. And this is, well, really wild and way outside my comfort zone. I know I need to just leap in and try to get over all of this crap in my head. I’ve thought about what you’ve said, and I think you’re right. I need to do this.”

“I’m glad.” He smiled again and got to his feet. “I need to get going. It’s late.”

I jumped up quickly and blocked him from leaving. He gave me a surprised look.

“You can stay. The night.” I fidgeted nervously with my hands in front of me. “Like when we were kids.”

“You want to have a sleepover?” He chuckled softly.

I nodded. “I do. In case… things change. Will you? Stay?”

His smile faltered. “Yes. I’ll stay, but just so you know, nothing is going to change between us. I’d never allow it.”

I knew he meant well, but something about our friendship status never changing really stung me. Instead of being upset over it, I forced another smile onto my face and pushed him back onto the couch before crawling next to him.

He chuckled softly again as I rest my head against his chest and grabbed a throw blanket and covered me before surfing my streaming app for more movies to watch.

The tokens for the party dug into my palm, but I held them tightly, vowing things would change.

No matter what.

Chapter 12

Damien

Caleb: I've got everything we need.

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