Page 9 of Lips of an Angel

Raleigh’s face scrunched up. “I’m sorry, Angel. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have gone out.”

“I don’t need a babysitter.”

“Did I say that?”

I didn’t respond. Raleigh hooked a finger under my chin, gently redirecting my attention to his deep blue eyes. I swallowed hard, tamping down the butterflies in my stomach. “I don’t care how old we get. If you don’t want to be alone, tell me. I don’t give a shit what my plans are.”

“Even Kali?” I was only half joking.

“Even Kali,” he confirmed. “You’re more important to me than anyone.”

My heart thumped in my chest, even though I knew Raleigh didn’t mean that in the way I truly wanted him to. I threw the sign for “thank you” at him, and he gave me a soft smile.

“Get some sleep. We have…” he paused to check the time, “… approximately four hours before there’s some alcohol-related crisis that needs our attention.”

I snickered but rolled onto my side with my back facing him. He shuffled around until we were back-to-back. Simply knowing that he was on the other side of the bed was enough for my body to relax. There was a barrier between me and the door, and that barrier happened to be my best friend who would throw himself into a fire to save me.

Still, I wanted to be closer. I wanted him to turn over and put his arms around me like he used to. He’d stopped out of respect for my relationship when I started dating Elijah, and though I loved Elijah, I missed those intimate moments with Raleigh.

I clutched an extra pillow to my belly, willing my worries away. I liked to be surrounded by pillows, so even though Raleigh only used one, he kept extras around for nights when I couldn’t sleep in my own bed. I shimmied backward, enough to feel Raleigh’s back to mine when he took a breath. Closing my eyes, I finally drifted off to sleep.

* * *

“Guys,I’m not so sure about this.”

All those years ago, I lingered at the back of the group, as I often did. I was shy and quiet, the polar opposite to my best friend. The only reason my so-called friends kept me around was out of respect for—or, more likely, fear of—Raleigh. Which is how I found myself sneaking out of my parents’ house on that fateful Friday night—something I’d never done before.

Something I’d only ever do once.

It was fall, and unseasonably cold for Georgia. Wishing I’d grabbed a hoodie, I pulled my arms tighter around me. I’d followed Raleigh out of my bedroom window, carefully replacing the screen and leaving one corner popped out so we could easily get back in. He, on the other hand, had done this before. We walked down the street, a group of our friends—hisfriends—pulling up alongside us in a car I didn’t recognize to take us to some exclusive party the next county over. There were six of us and only five seats, which left us so crammed together that I was all but sitting in Raleigh’s lap. A fact I fought hard to ignore. We’d only made it a few blocks when I realized something wasn’t quite right with the driver, Austin. Although they’d been pregaming while they waited on us, he assured us that he was still good to drive.

The situation felt unsafe. Alarms bells blared in my mind. I was ignoring everything I’d ever been taught about avoiding situations like these.

Then Raleigh put his hand on my leg and whispered in my ear that I would be okay, and my concern faded away.

Until the car veered into oncoming traffic.

Austin swerved the car back into our lane, then slammed the brakes when he realized the light ahead was red. I held out a hand to stop myself from ramming into his seat, and Raleigh’s arms tightened around me.

“Sorry!” Austin laughed.

My heart was racing. The situation wasn’t just unsafe; it waswrong.

“I want to go home,” I muttered.

The words were intended for Raleigh, but Austin overheard them. “Dude, no! Don’t be a buzzkill.” And hegiggled.

I hadn’t spent much time around him, but I knew he didn’t ordinarily giggle. Looking around the car, I noticed everyone else wore worried expressions too. Austin’s girlfriend, Sarah, was in the passenger seat, head lolling back against the headrest. She rolled to face him, brow scrunched in confusion. “Babe, you good?”

“Fine,” he snickered, pulling onto the highway. “Why do you ask?”

The car sped up, and my heart leapt into my throat. “Something’s not right,” I whispered to Raleigh.

At the same time, Sarah arrived at a similar conclusion. Sitting forward, she studied Austin’s face. Something she saw had her eyes widening. “Are you high?” she screeched. Austin’s eerie giggle was all she needed to confirm. “What did you take?”

Immediately, the other two people crammed in the backseat with us leaned forward to interrogate Austin. I held on tight, with one hand on the back of Austin’s seat and the other on Raleigh’s shoulder. He was trying to convince Austin to let him drive while the other two tried to get Austin to pull over.

The speedometer kept climbing.

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