The freshman needs to go.
Chapter Four
Blaise
Ash’s sour mood about the Mounty only gets worse as the weeks go on.
He comes back to our room from the fight club each night pissed that Lance won’t show his face there, and there’s nothing on this Earth that Ash hates more than a coward. I think it comes from Joey being a gutless little fuck, hiding behind Senior’s money and wielding it against his siblings like the fucking psychopath he is, so the freshman’s behavior just won’t fly.
It takes Avery’s social campaign wreaking havoc on his life before Lance shows up at the fight club and Ash fucking pummels him into the ground. Harley peels him off before there’s too much permanent damage, which confuses the fuck out of me until I realize Ash hasn’t told him that this whole fucking thing is about the Mounty.
Harley would probably slit Lance’s throat in a jealous fit.
He’s getting more and more pathetic over her, chasing her tail around the school grounds, and when Ash brings it up, telling him he stinks of ‘pick-me’ energy, Harley takes a swing at his cousin for only the second time in his life.
The first time was over his mother’s locket and Joey.
Ash loses what little of his mind he has left.
I bounce.
There’s absolutely no point in getting between the two of them because this is something they need to get out of their system. Harley needs to let the Mounty go, because I don’t see Ash changing his mind about this and we all know that at some point Ash will change Avery’s mind about the girl. The twins have never disagreed on something like this.
There’s a party held at the groundskeeper cottage at the start of every year and the music is usually decent enough, but it’s the copious amount of weed and alcohol that I’m after tonight. Anything to drown out the noise still ringing in my head about the Mounty and everyone fighting over her.
It’s fucking boring but it also keeps reminding me about my own tangled mess of feelings for her.
She’s too fucking… nice. I mean, she’s not nice but she’s nice to me without ever asking anything from me in return which is… nice. Fuck. How can I write entire albums about the trauma of my father and hopelessness of the world but I can’t fucking unpack what the Mounty is doing to me except to say she’s fucking nice?
Beers and bongs.
That’s what I fucking need.
I’ve used that shit to run away from my feelings since I was nine; this is the party trick I’m good at and I need it so I head down to the party by myself, dodging the invitations and hands of the girls heading that way as well because that’s not what I’m here for tonight. The thought of fucking one of these girls just doesn’t sound appealing right now.
I’m not going to think about the whys of it.
I get absolutely fucking trashed in the first hour. There’s a table outside and more than enough drugs around that if I wanted to attempt something stronger, then tonight would be the night, but Joey has put me off of any interest in experimenting.
I’m clutching at a bottle of beer and weaving my way onto the dance floor when I spot them.
Avery and the Mounty.
I could ignore them, I would ignore them, except they’re heading towards the staircase that leads to the sex rooms and no. Nope, absolutely not. Avery goes up there and Ash burns the school to the ground in his rage.
I’m stumbling a little but I manage to get to them before Avery’s feet hit the staircase, a hand around her arm to stop her but there’s no way to grab the Mounty without tipping Avery over.
My brain feels as though it’s working in slow motion, like the sight of the girls talking to each other on the screen on Avery’s phone is coming in delayed so by the time I realize they’ve agreed to split up and the Mounty is still going upstairs, she’s already gone and Avery is tugging me over to the dance floor.
Fuck.
Stay with Avery and stop anything that might happen to her, or go up after the Mounty and get her out of the rooms of debauchery. I’m not a prude or against the orgies that happen up there but the thought of her around them has me feeling fucking sick.
Or it’s the beer.
Totally the beer, I don’t care about the Mounty. Except for her tutoring me better than literally any of the many, many highly paid educators my parents have thrown at me. Or the fact that she has defended me with that sharp tongue and acidic wit of hers. She saved Avery from being raped and beaten even when Avery was tormenting her. I can’t think of a single girl in this fucking hellhole who would do the same.
I frown down at Avery, ready to drag her upstairs with me to go after the Mounty so we could drag her back down here where I can keep them both safe, but she smirks at me and holds up the bottle of champagne for me to take.
I’m not proud but after two giant gulps, the pressing need to rescue the Mounty isn’t such a big thing anymore. Fuck, she’s a big girl. She can take care of herself and getting involved with her while Ash is raging out and Harley is panting after her? Not smart.
We swap the bottle back and forth a few times and when we’ve polished it off Avery hands me another bottle of whiskey she’s found somewhere. By the time it’s done I feel fucking invincible and suddenly the Mounty appears, safe and untouched from what I can see.
I feel a hell of a lot more relief than I have any right to, throwing my head back and roaring with the type of drunken laughter that feels just a little hysterical.
Tonight isn’t going to end well.
But for right now we just dance and, fuck me, the Mounty can move. Avery is all sorts of grace and poise but Lips is… fuck, she’s languid and swinging hips and her ass is fucking out of this world. The dance floor is crowded enough that she brushes against me a few times and it’s only because of the drunken delay I have going on that I don’t do something about it.
Too fucking tempting.
I guess I’m lucky that the drinking finally catches up to me and I have to puke. I stumble outside to puke all over the steps, my stomach cramping like fucking crazy as the girls out there squeal and yell at me for getting it on their shoes. Joke’s on them, I couldn’t give less of a fuck about any of them.
I barely register anything happening around me until Avery wedges herself under my arm, helping keep me upright as we stumble through the trees toward the school. My feet aren’t working right at all and I know I’m leaning too heavily on her but I just can’t keep my balance.
Until I can.
The Mounty smells too good, too inviting, too alluring to my completely fucked state and with my eyes shut like this there’s nothing else to focus on except the way that she’s tucked in tight against me. Thank God my words are all fucked up because no matter how hard I try to tell her that I want her, that I’m sorry for being such a dick to her, and that really I’m the one desperately hoping she picks me, they never come out right.
Just a long stream of mumbling sounds and grumbling.
Neither of them take any notice of me or anything they might be able to decipher from me, though I’m sure Avery will call me out for shit later. She’s been around me enough when I’m trashed that she might know what the fuck I’m saying.
Thank God Ash isn’t here, he’d read me like an open fucking book.