Page 106 of Riot House
“The person who collects the fewest flags, however…”
A hush descends over the gathered flock of students.
“…will become a Riot House shit-kicker until graduation. You’ll cook for us. You’ll clean for us. You’ll be the lowest of the low. The choice is yours. Live here, unchecked, unbound by pointless, stupid rules, or become our whipping boy. You don’t have to play, but if you do…there will be consequences.”
“Well that’s new,” Carina breathes besides me. “Last year…” She trails off, looking uncomfortably down at her hands.
“Last year what, Carina? What was the game last year?”
She won’t meet my eye. Not that I expected her to. Her cheeks color bright red. “Last year, everyone had to fuck as many people as they could before the end of the party. These things always involve sex. This is the first time…”
She doesn’t get to finish her statement. I turn my back on her, disgusted by the implications of what she’s already told me, sick to my stomach and not wanting to hear the rest of it.
“You have until three a.m.,” Wren shouts over the renewed hubbub of noise. “Until then, happy hunting. And be warned. There will bewolvesout tonight, hunting downtheirprey.”
Pax’s eyes flash murder. Dashiell’s face is unreadable. I don’t care about either of them, though. I only care about Wren, as he stoops down and picks something up from the step in front of him. The wolf’s mask is hideous—a contorted, snarling beast’s head that looks like something out of a nightmare. He slowly lowers it down over his face, and blood drips from the creature’s exposed teeth.
Carina makes a strangled sound. “God. Looks like I was wrong.”
“Wrong about what?”
She glares at Dashiell as he picks up a mask and places it over his head. “When a Riot House boy talks about hunting down prey, Elodie, they’re most definitely talking about sex.”
43
WREN
“Just what thefuckdo you think you’re doing?”
My back hits the wall before I get a chance to respond. Pax is in my face, glowering with open rage. “You don’t get to invite people to live here without clearing it with us. What the hell, Jacobi? Where the fuck is this person supposed to sleep?”
I laugh, because his anger just looks plain stupid on him with his bowler hat cocked at such a jaunty angle. “They can have my room for all I fucking care. I’ll go sleep in the back room at Cosgroves’. No big deal.”
“You arenotmoving out,” Dashiell hisses from the other side of the room we use to play Call of Duty. I was dragged up here by the collar of my shirt the moment people started filing out of the house to begin the hunt. “What the hell’s gotten into you, man? You’re not the guy we started this thing with. Frankly, I don’t recognize you anymore. If you hadn’t thrown in that last clause with the wolf masks, there was gonna be fucking hell to pay.”
God, he’s so fucking predictable. A Riot House party isn’t a proper party unless there’s a whole fuck-load of anonymous sex. “I wasn’t going to add that part.” I shove Pax away. “But I knew you’d both feel cheated if you didn’t get your dicks wet.”
“We’reallgonna get laid tonight, Jacobi,” Pax spits. “You, included.”
Laughter bubbles up the back of my throat again. “What, are you gonnamakeme fuck a conga line of girls? Seriously?”
Pax wheels on Dash, throwing his hands in the air. “Goddamnit, you deal with him. I’ve had enough.”
Dashiell doesn’t say anything. He stands with his hands in his pockets, watching me quietly for a second. Then he says, “This is about Elodie, isn’t it?”
I stare back at him defiantly. “Yes. Of course it’s about Elodie. Who else would it be about?”
“You’re in love with her.”
“Yes.”
“God save us!”Pax roars. “You are not in love with that girl, Wren. She’s fucking nothing. She’s just some little French who—”
Pain rockets up my arm, screaming in my shoulder joint. Pax hits the ground ass-first, sliding across the floorboards. In half a second flat, I’m on top of him, grabbing him by the throat, winding up to hit him again. I’m deadly calm. “Say it. Go on say it. Finish that fucking sentence.”
Pax throws me off him, scooting out of my reach as he scrambles to his feet. “This has gone far enough. We agreed. No girlfriends. Ever. Is that what you think she is, Wren? Because you know neither of us are gonna stand for it.”
I look to Dashiell, waiting for him to back up Pax’s threat. He remains noticeably silent.
