Page 404 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

Nowthere’sa handsome face. But still not as good-looking as Jude. Not even a little.

Fuck. Why can’t Jude be here? Wait…that’s the last thing I want. I can’t even imagine what he’d do if he found out about this. Which he’s bound to, what with all his so-called friends from the football team.

Sean leans in. His breath warms my face. “Can I kiss you?”

I nod.

He moves closer. “You sure?”

I smile and sit forward a little, closing my eyes. Instead of lips, his thumb brushes my mouth. My eyes pop open, and my body goes lame at the look on his face.

“You’re gorgeous, you know that?” his hand cups my face, holding me still. “Fucking gorgeous.”

I barely feel a thing when our lips touch. It’s as if my face has been numbed by whatever I smoked. I never knew weed was so strong. How often do these kids smoke that this shit doesn’t affect them like it does me? Despite how numb I am, tingles still course through my limbs, congregating at my core. I lean into Sean, doing my best to kiss him back. The sensation at my core intensifies and becomes long, hard strokes.

“What the fuck are you doing?” someone demands from above.

I reluctantly open my eyes, and quiver with dull surprise when I see Sean’s hand between my legs, cupping over the seam of my jeans. It’s not right, I don’t think, but it feels so good that I don’t care.

“You’re being a fucking cunt,” the stranger adds.

I tip my head back and squint up at the guy standing by the couch. There are more people behind him, but they’re indistinguishable blobs.

Sean slides his hand out from between my legs. “Fuck off, Alex. Who even invited you?”

Alex stabs a finger toward Sean. “This is fucked up. I’m taking her home.”

Then everything blurs. I fall onto my side, close my eyes, and curl into a ball as the noise and shouts wash over me. But before I can succumb to the warm oblivion that keeps beckoning me, a pair of strong arms grab me, lift me.

Sean’s face blurs into Jude’s.

I grab his shirt, terrified and aroused at the same time. “Are you mad?” I whisper. “Please don’t be mad.”

“I’m right as rain, babe,” he says.

Wait, that’s not right. Jude would never call mebabe.

I free-fall for a split second, and then bounce onto something soft. I roll over onto my side and then my tummy. Deliciously soft and silky sheets. A red light shines in one corner. I can make out sharp lines of furniture blurring into softer shapes as my eyes threaten to close again. A hand tugs at my clothes, and I moan, twisting away.

Something’s wrong. This room, the way I feel, the hands tugging, yanking, pulling.

“Go away,” I mumble. “Go away.”

“I’m not going anywhere, babe,” Sean says, and then laughs. “None of us are.”

Chapter 23

Jude

I open eyes groggy from too little sleep. For a moment, I just lie there, trying to claw back the memory of what woke me. Then my phone vibrates, and I snatch it from my nightstand with a grunt. A glare at the screen shows me two things—the time, and that I have sixteen missed calls. I sit up in a rush, one hand in my hair, the other unlocking my phone with the swipe of my thumb.

“Jude!”

“Alex? What’s wrong?” I grate out as I shuffle to my en-suite bathroom to take a leak.

“It’s Harper.”

I nearly miss the fucking toilet. “Harper?”

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