Page 53 of Charming Cruel Boys

“Yup. You’re justsosmart, Remi, aren’t you?“she says, sounding pissy for some reason.

“Not ever smart enough, according to my father,” I mumble with a frown. I’ve been acing my classes this year, but calculus is dragging me down. I’ve barely managed my B+ in there, thanks to Knight’s help, but daddy dearest isn’t having it.

“Boo! No talking about sad shit. Let’s dance! Just stay close to me, okay?” Sara says, already leading me to the living room, where all the expensive-looking leather furniture has been pushed out of the way for the makeshift dance floor.

We dance for maybe an hour, bumping and grinding and screaming out lyrics as a heavy buzz flows through my veins and makes my body feel warm and loose. I keep looking around for Duke or Knight, but there are too many people here, the lights are dimmed, and there’s a fog machine pumping out thick smoke. I can’t see anything.

Every inch of my skin breaks out in a cold sweat and my head is spinning. All the colors in the room seem to glow and pulse to the beat of the music, and there are chords in the songs that I’ve never heard before.

“Whoa,” I whisper, standing completely still in the middle of the crowd, admiring the brightness all around me.

“How are you feeling?” Sara says in my ear.

“Weird. I don’t know. It’s hot.” I start pulling at the neckline of my dress and fanning my face. Then I laugh because Sara’s white-blonde hair is shining and moving around her shoulders like a living thing.

“Let’s go find somewhere quiet for a minute to cool off, okay?”she says, taking my hand and pulling me from the dance floor.

I nod, my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. I let Sara pull me behind her as I bring my fingers to my lips and push them into my mouth. My teeth are funny. Slick and hard. And my tongue is the opposite. Not hard, not at all. It’s squishy in there and really wet. I laugh as it reminds me of a limp dick.

“Sara, there’s a soft penis in my mouth!” I shout around my finger.

She looks back at me and rolls her eyes. I take it as a sign to shut up about dicks and cocks and penises.Maybe she’s lesbian?Wait, no, she was pumping Duke’s thingy in her hand all those weeks ago.Haha, thingy. I snicker under my breath, trying to keep quiet.

“Where’s Duke?” Jesus, it feels like we’ve been walking for freaking ages. Ages and ages and ages. How old am I now? Surely, we’ve been walking for a long, long time. “Do I have gray hair?!” I ask in a panic, grabbing the knotted strands and holding them up to my eyes.

“Shut up!” Sara hisses at me, throwing open a plain white door and pushing me inside.

I stumble over the death traps strapped to my feet and fall to the floor. But then,oh, the carpet is so soft and plush. Like a dog. I lay my face down, rubbing my cheek against the floor as I think of dog names. Spot, Cash, Max, Otis, Jelly Bean. Huh! I want Jelly Beans.“I’m hungry,” I groan into the carpet.

“Jesus Christ,” Sara mutters, sauntering past me after closing the door. “I think I gave you too much.”

“You haven’t given me enough! You haven’t brought me any food at all,” I tell her, sitting back on my butt and fighting to take off my heels. My limbs feel like wet cement. Oh my gosh, that would be fun! Find a slab of wet cement and plop down on it. Then there’d be a Remi butt on the sidewalk forever.

“Oh, Remi. I’m sorry it had to come to this,”Sara says, drawing my attention away from my cement plans.

“What?”Has she been talking? I have not been listening. Oops.

Before she can answer, a phone starts ringing, and I shimmy along with the ringtone.

“Yeah, did you get him?” Sara says into the phone.

“Who are you talking to?” I question, blinking at her through the offensively bright lights in here.

“Shh!” Sara tells me, holding a finger up to her lips.

I nod and zip my lips closed, throwing away the key.Dang it.I’ll need to find that again later.

“Bring him up here. I’m in Andrew’s room.” A pause. “Yes, I’m alone. Who do you think I would let in to see this?” She hangs up with a huff and smiles down at me. But the smile stretches too wide, it’s like it’s curling all the way up to her eyeballs, splitting her face into something horrid.

I widen my eyes and shake my head, scooting back on the carpet.Where’s that key? I need to speak!

“You wanna play hide and seek, Remi?” Sara asks, crouching down next to me, her creepy smile somehow gone.

I stare at her for a long beat, cataloging her face. Her brown eyes— or wait, are they brown? Hmm, no, they’re black. I blink, and then they’re golden. So weird. So, so freaking weird.

“Nod your head if you want to hide before our guest comes in. It’ll be lots of fun,” Sara promises.

A grin tugs at the corners of my lips and I nod. I’d very much like to play hide and seek. And it’ll be so easy to stay hidden since I can’t talk! I’ll for sure win.

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