Page 85 of Lavender Lake
“I don’t have a drink,” Cas said.
“Me neither,” I remarked, sliding out of the booth. “I’ll get us another round, and then we can cheers to me.”
“We need another round, too,” Cole said, lifting his beer that only had one more sip. He quickly downed it.
“I’ll help you,” Cas said to me.
We headed toward the bar. “I need to use the restroom real fast. You order the drinks, and then I’ll help you bring them back,” I said.
“Sounds good.”
I wove my way through the crowd toward the bathroom at the back of the bar, but the unmistakable, grating voice of Amber Winston filtered through the noise to hit my ears.
“I mean, seriously,” she intoned. “Can you believe she got pregnant? Like, oh my God, keep your knees closed. So it’s no wonder they’re having a shotgun wedding.”
“She looks happy,” one of Amber’s friends said.
“Yeah,happy. I’m surprised he put a ring on it. He already got the milk for free. It’s not like he has to buy the cow.” Amber sniggered. “And in a few months, she’s going to look like a cow!”
Rage swept through my veins, obliterating everything—including my frontal lobe’s ability to regulate my emotions.
I marched up to the table where Amber and two of her friends were sitting. One of them widened their eyes when she saw me. The other let out a squeak.
I stood behind Amber’s chair and crossed my arms.
Her blonde friend gestured with her chin toward me.
Amber’s spine snapped straight and she slowly twisted her body and faced me. She peered up at me with cornflower blue eyes. Her hair was raven-wing black. She would’ve been gorgeous if her heart wasn’t so ugly.
She flashed a fake grin. “Hey, Salem. Long time no see.”
“Not long enough,” I remarked. “I heard what you said about Hadley.”
“I wasn’t talking about Hadley,” she lied. “I was talking about someone else.”
“Who?”
“Who?”
“You sound like an owl. Yes. Who? If you weren’t talking shit about Hadley, whowereyou talking shit about?”
“A girl from Silver Springs,” she said, tossing her long hair over her shoulder.
“Uh huh.” I leaned forward and pressed a finger to her eyebrow. “Your eyebrows never did grow back fully, did they?”
Anger mottled her face, turning her skin a blotchy red.
“You bitch!” she yelled, standing up so fast her chair crashed to the floor.
I grinned. “How does it feel to have peaked in high school?”
The woman lunged for me. Her nails raked down my arm, leaving long trails of red on my skin.
There was a reason it was called a bitch fight. Screaming, clawing, and hair pulling ensued.
Rage was all I saw.
I got in one good face punch, but then I felt arms wrap around me and pull me close. I breathed in, recognizing Cas’s scent. I took deep, gulping breaths.
