Page 11 of Pretty Pink Poison
“Don’t you dare say you want a bigger butt, Angela, or I’ll kill you,” Cora threatened.
“Would both of you quit?” I sighed, still not turning from the window. “If Angela smolders us with a look, we’re going to melt. Cora, you could go butt naked onto a runway for the first time ever and not one person would comment on you needing to lose weight. They’d be inaweof you.”
“Not if you were on the damn runway next to me.” She blew a raspberry and came over to wrap one of my curls around her finger. “You went over-the-top with this outfit. I don’t think anyone will even recognize you. You look fucking evil… Do my makeup?”
I smiled at her description and got up to go stand over the vanity where I pointed for her to sit. My curls were laying just right after drying them and adding cream. My skirt was short, and my fishnet leggings were ripped, the combat boots gave me a bit more height. And my makeup was a very heavy smoky eye with blood red lipstick.
We both looked in the mirror, and I pushed her straight blonde hair forward over her shoulders. “What do you want to look like tonight?”
“I don’t know…the bloody vampire look is a whole vibe.” She pointed to the red makeup dripping from my mouth. “But maybe just the smoky eye you have?”
I nodded and grabbed the eye shadow, loving this part of the day. Adding a mask that could make you extenuate every feature you had helped lift spirits. “Opting for pretty rather than gruesome? Got it. Some of us don’t want too much terror in our lives.”
“I’m not goinginto the damn fun house.” Angela sniffled in the security detail’s arms. He was supposed to only be her bodyguard, but she’d told Cora and me in very specific detail how his dick looked.
“Oh Ang.” I patted her back. It seemed the corn maze had been a bit too much considering she’d decided to go through with only him. That meant all the attention was on them as one couple the whole way through and she’d finally come out of it crying in Mr. Bodyguard’s arms. “You should’ve gone with all of us. I’m going to talk to them about toning it down.”
She grabbed my arm. “No. It’s fine.” She pointed a pink fingernail toward the exit with Drake who was in my lit class coming out laughing and the girl with him timidly smirking. “People like it. I’m just a baby. The actors in there were intense.”
I sighed, not sure I’d made the right decision with the killer theme. Everyone was vetted, of course, but fear was personal and addictive for some. Every person going through the maze had to sign a liability waiver. My father had made sure of it. Imean, people had to sign an NDA just to be here. But even still, the actors were never supposed to break character. The thrill was inevitable and intoxicating.
I had an unhealthy sort of relationship with it and even if I wanted to feel it every now and then, it didn’t mean others enjoyed it.
“Let’s get you some food and a drink.”
“Alcohol, please,” Angela clarified, and Cora rolled her eyes, “No, really?”
Neither of them were twenty-one, but my father was a people pleaser along with a show-off. Alcohol would always flow at my parties now.Nineteen was old enough,he’d scoffed and said if I couldn’t be responsible now, I’d never be.
We walked through the first floor of the home, taking in the menacing decadence, while I welcomed everyone and said my hellos. Candles were lit for ambience rather than lights. Cobwebs filled the corners of the cathedral ceilings and the chandeliers had been draped in black lace. Fog was thick in the air and curled around us from hidden machines. Creepy clowns wove among us, holding glasses of champagne that had red bubbles.
Every element was designed to unsettle, and it made my heart beat faster as I took in every guest and the way they jumped now and then with a bit of fright when they saw something that scared them. The music was low and thrumming, heavy enough to rattle bones, while the shadows moved as if alive.
I knew most of the costumed guests and cataloged who had all showed up the best I could. Some were indistinguishable from the hired phantoms lurking in corners, and the air itself seemed charged, as though tonight something darker would be let in.
Tonight didn’t just feel like my birthday or Halloween. It felt like a reminder that I was stepping into an adult worldthat wasn’tonlydecadence. To get decadence, there was always danger that came along with it.
And danger made itself known as Ezra and Rafe Black walked in wearing dark suits and masks. They moved through the crowd or rather the crowd parted for them to make their way to me. Most were whispering about how good they looked, how they commanded the room, how I was lucky to be promised to one of them.
I felt none of those things.
The only thing I immediately felt was disappointment at seeing that Bane hadn’t shown.
Rafe leaned down to kiss my cheek and murmured, “You look beautiful, Bianca.”
The words felt canned and like an easy compliment. Still I smiled, “You look creepy. That what you’re going for?”
“Why not? I’ll take it.” He shrugged.
I hugged Ezra and told them both it was great to see they made it. “Your brother couldn’t come?”
It was a logical question, I hoped, and Rafe didn’t seem bothered by it. “His date is probably just late. Morgan is never on time.”
His answer hit me harder in the gut than the man who’d walked by me with a sledgehammer could have. Yet, my response was a small nod while Cora whined that she’d hoped he wasn’t bringing a date and Angela offered her hope for it as well, much to her bodyguard’s disapproval.
I couldn’t complain. I didn’t have the right. “Right.” Of course. It wasn’t like Bane would come to a party without one, like he didn’t have prospects even after what he’d done to Vinny or what he’d done to me in the locker room.
No one knew about that. Not even Angela who was happy to share all sexual encounters. Mine was too forbidden. Too taboo.
