Stuck With The Four Hotties

When has that line ever lead to something good? Without a doubt, I know that whatever Zack’s going to tell me, I’m not going to like it.

My eyes dart from him to Tristan and then to Creed as Zayd’s arms tighten around my waist, and he pulls me closer. It feels good, having him touch me like that. I use that as an anchor against the anxiety churning in my stomach. “Marnye,” Zack begins again, closing his eyes. “I’m just gonna come out and say it. It’s better if I tell you than they do.” He lifts his eyes again and looks right at me. “You know how I treated you in middle school, we don’t have to relive that; we both know how horrible it was.” He glances away and then turns back to me again, but it looks like it’s taking him a concentrated

effort to hold my eyes. “Did you ever wonder why I did it?”

I can’t say anything. My throat is too tight, my pulse is beating too fast, and I feel like I’m going to be sick.

“I made a bet.” Zack exhales sharply and then grits his teeth together. The way he looks at Creed, Zayd, and Tristan makes me think that he’d kill them if he could. When he looks back at me, his expression is much softer. “To get into the Infinity Club, I had to make a bet. The group wanted to taste blood, and they …”

“The girls were the real masterminds behind this one,” Creed says, but he doesn’t sound happy about it. He’s wearing a deep frown that looks etched into his face. When he lifts his blue eyes to mine, he looks apologetic. “Because he’d been cut off from his trust fund, they really wanted him to prove himself to the group. They bet him he couldn’t make somebody kill themselves.”

My heart literally stops. I can’t breathe. The room seems to tilt and spin on an axis.

Lizzie opens the sliding door and walks in, pausing when she notices Tristan. She seems to sense the tension in the room, and her shoulders tighten.

“What’s going on here?” she asks, looking from me to Tristan to Zack and back again.Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“Oh,” Tristan says, folding his arms over his chest, his drink still clutched in a tight fist. “We were just telling Marnye about that bet you made with

Zack.” Tristan’s face tightens up as he stares Lizzie down, and I have to wonder if he’s doing this as much for revenge against her as he is to get rid of Zack. Maybe he’s doing it for me, too, so I can finally know the truth, but it’s hard to see it that way.

Lizzie’s amber gaze slides over to me, and her mouth opens but nothing comes out.

“We were much younger then,” Zack whispers, rising to his feet. His voice is pleading, begging me to look at him. I do, but when our eyes meet, all I feel is sick. “Marnye, what I did was wrong. It was … it was fucked. It was Lord of the Flies type shit.” He grits his teeth and glances away sharply. “Hanging around with this club, with these people … they’re fucking snakes.”

“Oh please,” Zayd snarls, squeezing me even closer. “Don’t act like we had anything to do with this. The three of us weren’t even around when you originally made this bet.”

“No,” Zack snarls, taking a step forward. Tristan moves between us, like he thinks he might need to protect us from him. “You might not have been here for that bet, but you’ve been around for worse. This is not out of line with something you’d do.”

“Just tell Marnye you used her to get into the Club, and that you only saved her because Lizzie changed her mind and said that was enough.” Creed stands up from his side of the table, his face lit with the same determination I saw when he attacked Derrick Barr over Miranda. Only this time, he’s fighting for me. I’m not sure whether to be happy about it … or, no

… I’m too sick to be happy.

“Marnye,” Lizzie begins, drawing my attention around to her. It occurs to me then that she knew exactly who I was when she came to the party a few months ago. She looked across that room and she knew exactly what she’d done to me. That was the ‘connection’ that she’d felt between us. “I really do like you, and I meant it when I said I wanted to be friends.”

I stand up, but my knees almost give out, and Tristan grabs me around the waist to keep me from falling.

“Please,” Zack starts, but I’m already shaking my head.

“I just …” Tristan lets me go, and I manage to keep my feet, but my gaze keeps bouncing between Zack and Lizzie. I feel betrayed from both sides, from my past and from my future. Now it all makes sense, why Zack started

picking on me for no reason. All for some stupid club. Years and years of pain …

It makes even more sense why he didn’t want to tell anyone that we were dating back then. And Lizzie … I feel like my whole friendship with her is a sham.

“I just want to be left alone,” I blurt, pushing past them all and heading down the hallway. I end up in the bathroom with the door closed, and I turn the hot water on in the shower, climbing in and huddling underneath it with my hands over my ears.

When someone knocks, I don’t answer, I just sit there until the hot waters run cold and my teeth are chattering. Then I climb out, grab a towel, and step into the hallway where Zayd is waiting.

He doesn’t say anything, just leads me into one of the guest rooms and tucks me in the bed. He gets on top of the covers, curls around me and holds me there for the rest of the night.