Page 4 of No Way Out
For sure.
I stood up, brushing some stray hay from my clothes as we made our way to the corn maze.
“Okay, but can we circle back to Harkins’ class today? That new guy was hot as shit! Did you see those lip rings? I love a pierced guy. That almost always means they’re pierced down below, too.” She raised her eyebrows and licked her lips at the same time.
“You’re impossible.” I hit her with the back of my hand, and she faked injury, opening her mouth widely in shock as she went full drama. “I’d ride his face though.” I grinned, giving my best friend exactly what she wanted.
I’dwatchedherthroughoutthe entirety of class, averting my eyes and pretending to stare somewhere else anytime the heat of her gaze caught me. It was difficult to pretend not to be interested, to act like she wasn’t the most beautiful person in the room.
Yet here she was again, within my reach, as if neither one of us could bear to stay away. She was a magnet, and I was the metal, drawn to her by the sheer command of science.
I’d been forced into this stupid costume. The scarecrow mask resembled more like the one fromThe Dark Knightthan it did the things perched out in the fields. I slipped it over my head as I made my way to the center of the maze, making sure to keep track of which right turns I took and counting one, two, three, lefts before every right. It was the only way to find the center, and there was only one way out from there.
They’d paid some super genius fifteen year old who was getting his masters in coding to calculate the hardest possible maze, charging over a hundred bucks per ticket in the name of fundraising. The first person out of the maze would win five hundred dollars.
Not bad, but they were hoping no one would make it out in the end. At any point, they could call for help, admit defeat, and be escorted out by any of the scare volunteers. There’s a good amount of us hiding in the field, in the wall of corn that blocks anything from view. I heard Naya Costa’s scream in the distance, knowing it wouldn’t be long until I got my first chance to encounter the raven-haired girl I couldn’t erase from my head.
I climbed onto the post, taking my place up high where I could see a large portion of the labyrinth, and prepared for the night, unsure of what would happen once I made my move.
If she didn’t want me…
I didn’t know what I would do.
Camila Machado wasn’t from this world. She couldn’t be. She was soft but sharp, dark with madness but filled with a radiant light. Her obsidian-black hair reflected blue in the moonlight, those dark, hooded eyes slathered in charcoal-like makeup with little care, smudging in the corners and somehow making her look even more radiant.
She was wearing a black mesh shirt, buttoned all the way up to the collar, with nothing but a black bra underneath. A dark gray and black pleated skirt barely covered her ass, and matching striped socks stopped at her knees. She finished the look with leather boots; perfection.
With a sigh, I stilled my body, doing my best to contribute to the illusion that I was a mere prop for the visitors’ Halloween experience.
“Whydoyoukeeplooking around?” I finally asked her.
“What do you mean?” Naya played dumb, like she didn’t understand what I was asking.
That made her look even guiltier.
“Bitch, you literally keep looking over your shoulders every five seconds like a goddamn cokehead in debt.” I set my hands on my hips as she gave me a weird smile that reeked of guilt. “You fucking didn’t.” My jaw went slack in disbelief of her audacity.
“I mean, how could I not? Don’t be mad!” she whined, hugging onto me.
Just as I pushed her off I heard him approaching from behind.
“Hey, mama.” Kyle Danvers tried his best husky voice on her, and I bit back a laugh at him trying to sound like he had any sort of charm at all.
He dropped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in for a kiss. I peeled my upper lip up but immediately corrected, feigning niceness for the sake of my best friend.
I knew Kyle, and his type was just another flavor of my ex, Noah Corinth. They were all exactly the same, printed in the same factory and shipped out in the same batch. Kyle Danvers was there, cheering Noah on while cheerleader after cheerleader stood in line to suck his best friend’s dick. I was forced to hold in my tears last night, forced to pretend like the last three years had meant nothing to me while his fraternity brothers blocked me from leaving the room, trapping me and giving me no choice but to listen, my eyes drifting anywhere they could to avoid watching my ex getting his cock deepthroated just inches away.
The lesson apparentlywasn’tfor me; I was just collateral damage.
Kappas don’t dwell on the past, and the only way to prove it to his brothers was to humiliate me.
Kyle Danvers thought fucking with girls like us was nothing but a joke, something to pass the time until the next entertaining thing happened. For three years, he treated me like a punchline waiting to drop, and when it finally happened, he couldn’t wait to laugh in my face.
“Is it cool if we kick it with you ladies?” Kyle handed Naya a red plastic cup filled with beer, and his buddy tried handing me another.
“No, thanks.” I waved it off, shrugging at Kyle’s request, knowing damn well I was going to come off like a bitter asshole if I said no to them hanging out with us.
“You don’t drink?” His friend asked. I’d seen him before, but he must have been a year or two younger, because I couldn’t for the life of me remember seeing him in any classes.
