Page 62 of The Vipers and Their Vendetta

“Try it. It’s gorgeous. I asked him to go light on the shots and heavy on the sugar, so you shouldn’t get too wasted if you have some.” She smacks her lips.

Knowing I won’t win this battle, I stick my straw into the drink and suck. Sugary, cold goodness bursts on my tongue. I must admit, the barman here makes a mean cocktail. This is delicious. I have tasted fish bowls before, because sometimes the girls at the club bar will ask for them. They’ll sit around drinking and giggling, and a few times I’ve had a taste—when my Dad or any of his sergeants aren’t looking my way, of course.

The vodka hits with those club ones way before anything else, whereas this really is sweeter. It tastes like the nicest slushy you could ever imagine, and it’s way too easy to drink. I end up sucking up more than I’d intended before I stop myself. Leaning back with a soft laugh, I shrug. Maybe Angelica is right and I should let my hair down.

“That’s delicious.”

“Told you,” Angelica says. “The bartender knows how to make it just how I like it. You can share this with us and not have to worry about getting too drunk. None of us like to be hungoverthe next day. Just relax, and we’ll have a little drink, and we’ll have a little dance, and by the time we go home, the world will seem right again.”

To my surprise, she reaches across the table and takes my hand. She squeezes twice then lets go.

“I really would like for us to be friends,” she says. “I love those two reprobates out there.” She jerks her thumb to where the girls are dancing and grins. “But three can be a crowd, you know? Four is a more even number. We’ve just never met anybody else we really liked. There are so many weird people here. Dangerous people, too. A lot of the girls are stuck-up as well, which always makes me laugh. I mean, we’re all from the same kind of background aren’t we, ultimately? None of us exactly have upstanding parents.”

I’m starting to see her in a different light. I’ve always been wary of Angelica out of the three. Tonight, though, she seems to be trying to be my friend. I could do with one as well.

Being here is lonely, despite the Vipers shadowing my every move. In fact, in some ways, perhaps it’s because of them that I’m lonely. It’s as if, from the moment I stepped foot here and saw Zane standing outside smoking, they owned me. In doing so, they carved me out from the rest of the college and kept me as their own. They’ve warned me away from these girls, but why should I listen to them?

They’re only doing that because they want me for themselves. None of these girls have done terrible things to me, called me nasty names, or threatened me with a damn knife.

The reality of some of the things the Vipers have done hits me full force, and I sit back in my chair. I realize with a sickening jolt that their actions have been completely insane and abusive.

“Hey, none of that.” Angelica taps the back of my hand with one glamorous nail and shakes her head. “I can see you’re getting all up in your head again. You overthink things, youknow? You’ll drive yourself crazy if you analyze every tiny thing. Faith’s a bit like that.” She glances behind her at the dance floor and then back to me. “She’s got a heart of gold and would do anything for anyone, but she seriously thinks way too deeply about every aspect of life. Take another drink. That will take your mind off it.” She winks then gives me a cheeky grin.

The bar door swings open, and I glance across the dance floor.

My heart stutters.

Saint strides into the room, dressed like a prince from a fairy tale, and heads to the bar. He’s so strikingly handsome that even in this place full of hot, young men, he stands out by a mile. Hating the reaction I have to him, and struggling to control my rising panic, I pick up the straw and do as Angelica says.

I drink.

Right now, with one of the Vipers here, I feel like I want to drown in that cocktail, never mind take a sip. How the hell do they affect me so deeply?

Merely by entering a room, Saint has changed the whole trajectory of this evening for me. A few moments ago, I was beginning to think I might be able to relax and enjoy myself for one night, possibly even have a dance with my friends, if they ever stop playing this awful dance music and put something decent on. Now he’s here, and I’m going to be self-conscious and hoping he doesn’t spot me sitting in this corner.

Faith and Jarena return to the table, giggling as they sit down. Picking up their straws in tandem, they take long drinks from the cocktail bowl.

They start chatting, and they include me in it, but a lot of the time they talk about things I’m not interested in. Faith is hugely into nineties music, but mostly dance music and the like, which I don’t know anything about. Jarena talks about clothes and fashion and hair, and the handbag she wants to spend fivethousand dollars on. Angelica listens but mostly watches the world go by as she passes judgement on everyone near us.

I don’t know any students to gossip about. I’ve never really been into fashion and that kind of stuff, and the music I listen to, I don’t think any of these girls would like.

The music changes suddenly, and it’s a track I love. As the Red Hot Chili Peppers blast out, I find my legs itching to move.

“I hope they’re not going to play much of this crap,” Angelica says. “Fuck it, I’m going to make a request.” She gets up and walks across the floor to the DJ booth, beckoning him until he leans down close. She cups her hand around her mouth as she speaks into his ear.

“I love this song. Will anybody come and dance with me?” I ask the other two. The urge to move my body is riding me hard, and whatever Angelica has requested is probably not going to be my kind of thing.

My hips are still stiff, but this might loosen them up.

Jarena shakes her head, but Faith nods.

“I’ll dance to anything,” she says with a laugh. “Come on.”

She grabs my hand and pulls me toward the dance floor. I was going to stay around the edge near our table, because Saint has taken a seat at the far side of the room and, from where he is placed, the bar would obscure me from his sight. But Faith has hold of me, and she drags me right into the center of the floor.

I don’t even look in his direction. Hopefully there are enough people between us that he won’t notice me. Losing myself in the music, I let my body move side to side and realize I’ve missed this. Sometimes, when all the club members were at Church—which is the name for the meetings they’d have—I’d blast music out in the empty bar, dancing like a crazy person because there was no one else around.

What’s that saying?

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