Page 37 of Envy

If anyone looked good in one, it would be him.

“You like the hat?”

“It’s different. Kind of like your name.”

His gaze drops to my beer, already getting warm. “Do you like beer?”

I shrug. “It’s what everyone is drinking.”

I tilt the bottle and wince at the bitter, lukewarm taste.

He chuckles, grabbing it from my fingers and tossing it in the trash. “Let’s get you something that doesn’t taste like piss.” He flips the lid from a nearby cooler and hands me a Coke can. “I like my girl sober.”

His words wrap around me like a warm embrace. For a moment, it doesn’t matter that I have an ugly past. Or that after tonight, I will never see him again. He is a moment. Normal in all the ways I couldn’t be.

So when he asks if I want to dance . . .

I don’t hesitate.

GARRET

“Yo, Garret?”

I turn my head to the left. It’s Clay from the team.

“What’s up?”

I face the tiles, the hot water from the shower easing my aching muscles. I’ve been drowning out my conflicting emotions about Rose in the pool, punishing my body because there’s no way I can look her in the eyes. I can’t take the words back—the ones that replay in my head like a badly written song.

“You going to the Ohio frat party tonight?”

“Nah, man. I think I’ll pass.”

I continue to stare at the tiles, pretending to listen. The last thing I want is to go eat shit at an Ohio party. I texted Rose and almost flung my phone against the wall when she didn’t respond. It’s like I can’t demand anything from her—not after what I learned.

“Some of us are going,” Clay drones on. “Prey will be there.”

Luke laughs. “Yeah, man. You don’t want those fucks from Ohio to get dibs.”

Some of the guys in Ohio are part of the Order. They don’t have power like I do or like the sons of Kenyan, but they follow the same rules and are rewarded handsomely for it. They also have dibs on Prey, and the guys love to show them that we have the power to show up and do whatever the hell we want.

“Like that girl you bring to school,” Clay says.

My vision narrows like I’m going through a tunnel. A loud sound goes off in my head, like nails on a chalkboard.

“What did you say?”

“That girl,” Clay says, glancing at the other guys in the shower. Some look away. Luke swallows hard, his face almost healed from when I hit him after he talked about Rose.

“What about her?” I growl, shutting off the water and snatching my towel.

Clay’s throat moves slowly as he swallows. “She went with that girl in her lit class. I overheard them talking about it in the hallway.”

“Are you sure?” I press, imagining some asshole touching her, breathing in her scent, not caring if she wants to or not. Getting her drunk enough to sleep with her.

My vision goes red, the piercing sound of my rage boiling in my ears. I barge out of the shower, grabbing my bag from my locker, the metal door slamming shut like a cannon going off.

“What the fuck? Is everything cool, man?” Clay asks tensely. “Did I say anything wrong?”

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