Page 24 of Did They Break You

He smiles against my lips, his piercing brushing my bottom one, his tongue twirling around mine.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” he says, his words echoing on my mouth. He pulls back, nipping at my bottom lip, tugging it between us.

That warmth in my core turns to molten lava as he bites me, my eyes wide, but I don’t want him to stop.

His hand comes to the back of my neck, and he’s still kneading my breast. I know my nipple is hard beneath his fingers.

“You’reabsolutelysure you want to go to this party?”

I’m panting, my face flushed, but I push myself closer into him. “I’m sure,” I tell him, breathless.

He laughs, his nose lined up with mine. “But you’re staying tonight, yeah?”

I nod, trying to force the fear of Silas finding out from my mind. But the idea of sleeping with Cortland, of being wrapped up in his arms, in his bed, it’s too good to resist. Besides, our lives change next week.

Who knows what’ll happen when he has more girls fawning over him in college?

But maybe I can convince him to stay with me.

It’s a girlish thought. Maybe a naïve one. But I can’t help but cling to the magic of this moment.

“Good,” he says, his tongue tracing the outline of my mouth as his palm glides over my chest, gripping my other breastwhile I whimper again. “I don’t want you out of my fucking sight tonight.”

“One shot, Rems.”Van holds out a red plastic cup, flashing a white smile. “Just one.”

Sloane tips back her own cup, swallowing everything in it down. Then she raises it in the air, doing a little dance, her black skirt twirling as she spins. She tosses the cup into a big black trashcan in the clearing of Hyde Park, then turns back to me.

“Take it, Remi,” she says, planting her hands on her hips. Her hair is pulled up in a high ponytail, accentuating her cheekbones. She darts her eyes from the cup Van is offering up, to me. “Right now. Take it!”

“Take it, take it, take it,” Van chants, pounding a fist against his thigh with the cheer.

I swallow down my nerves and run a hand over my braids, shooting my gaze around the clearing.

There are a lot of people here. Probably a hundred or so, and the music is loud, so they’re louder. I see a lot of orange and black—EU colors—but I don’t see him.

Haven’t seen him since after therapy yesterday.

And I still haven’t told Sloane I saw him. She hasn’t mentioned him. Van probably wouldn’t notice. He hates sports, and although I confessed everything to him when we got high in the cemetery one night last year, he’s from Pennsylvania. If Cortland Adler walked right by him, he wouldn’t recognize him.

I reach for the cup and swipe it from Van’s hand.

I’ve had a couple of drinks since that night, in the dorm with Sloane when she sneaks alcohol in. But the smell of vodka splashed with pineapple juice makes my stomach flip.

Even still, I know I won’t enjoy tonight if I don’t get a little buzzed. And I don’t want to ruin this for Van. Or Sloane.

Van’s talking to some chick named Ryann he met in his biology class last year who “accidentally” DM’d him some nudes over the summer while he was in Greece. Sloane keeps glancing over her shoulder, looking for the boy she’s seeing, Asa.

I tip my head up and glance at the canopy of trees over the park.

I think of Cortland.

Me in his lap.

Letting him kiss me.

I take a breath and down the drink.

Fuck him.

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