Page 4 of Eternal

He’s made my life hell since my first day of elementary school. While I got one year off from his torture when he graduated high school a year ahead of me, the second I stepped foot on the Briar campus, he picked up where he left off. And this past year and a half, he’s been even more unbearable, like he’s trying to make up for the one he missed.

“Scared, Tealene?” he whispers in my ear.

I grab his wrists and shove him off me. “Fuck you, Declan.”

He laughs as he stumbles back a step, circling the bench until he drops down beside me, giving me no space when his arm wraps around the back of it. “In your dreams, Teal.”

Tonight, he’s wearing his signature uniform—a black T-shirt and jeans. It’s fitting, given they match his midnight hair and morally black soul. And I hate how the dark clothes make his eyes stand out even more, piercing through the night. Cool-gray orbs that scream louder than stars when they look at me.

He brushes his knuckles over the side of my cheek, and I swat at him. While an outsider at a distance might think he’s playing nice, I know him. He isn’t nice when it comes to me.

Over the years, he’s taunted me, spread rumors about my stint in a psychiatric ward, and stalked me to collect every bit of dirt he could to help fuel his father’s war against mine. It’s cruel and exhausting, and I hate him.

We aren’t friends. We don’t hang out. I’ve never spent more than five minutes in Declan’s presence without him making me regret my existence, so I can’t wrap my head around why he’s sitting beside me right now.

“Whatcha listening to?” Declan snatches one of my earbuds out of my ear and pops it into his own.

“Give me my earbud back.” I hold out my hand.

“Interesting song choice.” He ignores my demand, positioning his body to face the couple across the courtyard from us. “What is it? Mood music while you enjoy the show?”

The girl from my calculus class is now giving her boyfriend a sloppy blowjob against the side of the building, moaning like she’s actually enjoying herself. While her boyfriend is tipping his head back and probably picturing whoever he’s fucking behind her back.

The scene fades from the twisted manifestation of my imagination to reality. A lame, public display of sex in the middle of an empty campus when my version of the scenario had the potential to be so much more interesting.

Albeit sick, given my fascination doesn’t reconcile how I should feel about the need for consent. Especially when I use it to try and bury the trauma from my childhood.

I’ve tried to understand it.

One time, I snuck a couple of Violet’s psychology books out of her room to see if there was anything in there that could explain why I’d be drawn to the very things that haunt me when I close my eyes. My therapist calls it a coping mechanism, but I think it’s because I’m broken.

“What do you want?” I grit my teeth, refusing to face Declan.

I watch him from the corner of my eye. He’s focused on the couple fucking in front of us, and his eyebrows pinch when the guy pulls his cock out of her mouth and spins her around to fuck her from behind.

Declan breathes out a chuckle, shaking his head.

“Unimpressed?” I narrow my eyes, knowing better than to engage him. “Or are you jealous it’s not you?”

Declan’s gaze snaps in my direction, and a grin lights the corner of his mouth. “Are you really asking me if I wish I were fucking that girl, Teal? Didn’t know you cared.”

“I don’t.”

“Sure you don’t.” His face splits with his wicked smile, and I hate that the intensity of his attention is so magnetic.

“Don’t you have better things to do tonight than bother me?” I change the subject. “A party to grace with your presence? The minions of hell to command? Souls to feed on?”

“That’ll have to wait until tomorrow, I guess.”

I roll my eyes.

“You should save the judgment, Tealene.” Declan leans closer, toying with a piece of my hair and flooding my senses with the smell of the spearmint gum he’s chewing. “You’re the one watching people fuck from the shadows like a pervert.”

“Says the guy who hosts orgies at his frat house.” I glare at him. “Besides, I was here first. If they want privacy, they can go somewhere less public.”

There’s no way the couple doesn’t know we’re here at this point. Declan wasn’t discreet when he snuck up on me, and our voices aren’t lowered anymore.

Clearly, the couple isn’t bothered by being watched. The guy continues to fuck his girlfriend like he’s starring in his own pornographic fantasy, and she’s screaming like it’s her life’s mission to put on a show, even if she’s clearly faking her building orgasm.

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