Page 3 of Dirty Little Secret
SAVANNAH
I didn’t want to come to this party, but this is the only place that Blake can’t avoid me. He still hasn’t responded to my calls or messages, but tonight, I am ending things with him, party be damned. Music blares through the speakers, some song about wanting to be someone’s vacuum cleaner bouncing off the walls, and I search the familiar crowd for signs of Blake or his teammates. Everyone is dressed in some elaborate costume, and the dark, smoky lighting gleaming through the fog machines makes it hard to recognize who is who. The smell of sweat, cheap beer, and dollar-store cologne hangs in the air as I push through the drunken bodies grinding against each other.
I skipped last year's party, deciding I’d muchrather spend Halloween watching horror movies alone in my dorm room with my good, old faithful vibrator, instead of partying with a bunch of college students dressed up as slutty vampires.
There's nothing like a man wearing a ghost mask, chasing you with a knife to get you going, am I right?
Or maybe that’s just me.
From what I can already tell, I would have been better off doing the same thing again this year.
“Yessss, bitch! You came!” A drunken, high-pitched voice cuts through the music, and I turn my head just in time to catch my best friend, River, throwing her arms around me. I stagger back a little, my own arms wrapping around her just in time to stop us from collapsing to the floor. This woman is absolutely feral, but I love her for it.
“Hey, Boo Boo.” I laugh, holding her steady. River’s vampire fangs are crooked in her mouth, and her fake blood is now smeared across both of us.
“First of all, what the hell have you come as?” she asks, her perfectly tweezed brows rising in approval, examining me from head to toe. I didn’t have much to work with, so I settled on the only thing I could find in my closet that looked halfway decent.
“Vampire slayer,” I supplyas she turns to facesomeone, and pries what looks to be two freshly poured beers in red solo cups from his hands.
“Thanks, Connor,” River says, batting her lashes at the poor guy dressed as Superman, who smiles down at her like she hung the moon.
That's my bestie, ladies and gentlemen.
We’ve been best friends for as long as I can remember, and she knows me better than I know myself. She’s the only one who knows about mysecret,and believe it or not, River has been the one begging for me to pursue something with them, all three of them, since high school.
My eyes scan the party, still searching for Blake, when something catches my eye in my periphery. I turn to see him, hidden within decorative cobwebs in the corner, sucking face with Molly fucking Akers. His hands are on her waist, pinning her against his body, her arm is wrapped around his neck, her free hand in his hair, and I wait for the anger to come, but it doesn't. I don’t feel anything but sheer annoyance at myself for even wasting my time with that fucking prick.
I take a step forward, then another. I’m not sure what I even plan to do at this moment, but before I can decide, the music stops. The lights go out, and we’re shrouded in darkness. A voice comes upbehind me, River’s voice, and she links her arm with mine, pulling me away.
“It’s party time, babe.”
Wait, this wasn’t the party?
River weaves through the crowd, her arm still tangled in mine as everyone makes their way toward the back exit.
“Where are we going?” I ask as we cross the backyard and into the woods behind the frat house. Everything is dark, save for the neon glow of the moonlight, and it’s obvious that I didn’t get the memo that we’d be taking the party elsewhere. If I had, I probably wouldn’t have come at all. River just laughs, tugging me along as we tread through the thicket of trees with the rest of the party-goers.
“The real party is in the woods, Savannah! That’s where all the fun is,” she says, garnering a few cheers from nearby drunken listeners.
I have to admit, it’s givingHalloween vibes, so I guess partying in the dark makes sense. I reach into my pocket for my phone with my free hand and shoot off a text to Blake, because at this point, that's the only goodbye he deserves.
Savannah:
It’s over, asshole.Lose my number.
I don’t bother waiting for a reply, knowing he’s otherwiseoccupied, and switch my phone off.
Fuck him.
Leaves crunch beneath my Doc Martins, and I’m grateful for my leather jacket as the temperature drops the further into the woods we go.
“Aren’t you cold?” I look over at River’s exposed shoulders, almost gleaming in the dark.
“Haven’t you heard, thot’s don’t get cold, babe,” she replies through a chuckle.
“You’re incorrigible.”
The deep rumble of motorcycles echoes through the trees, and River shoots me a glance, the shadows doing fuck all to hide her knowing expression. A wave of nervous anticipation ripples over me, before a familiar heat settles low in my stomach.
