It was as if we were back in high school.

Same old people, same old party scene. Only now, I was in a secret relationship with the town's Golden Boy. How surreal was that?

"Girl, you're in a so – ro – ri – tyyy!" screamed Milo, shaking me senseless. His green hair was now pink.

Brooklyn whooped, raising her fists.

Halo burst out laughing. "I love that for you."

"Don't you think it's weird as hell?" I asked.

"Nope." She shook her head and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they twinkled. "It's like you're finally blossoming into who you're really meant to be."

I tried not to laugh. "A sorority chick?"

"A strong woman," she claimed firmly.

I raised an eyebrow, skeptical. I figured she was drunk because that didn't make any sense. I could be a strong woman without joining any organization or club.

"Are frat guys really fuckboys?" asked Brooklyn curiously.

"Not all of 'em," I answered, spotting Scout in the crowd.

When he saw me, a knowing small smile appeared. It took all of me not to go over there and kiss him. God, what had he done to me?

"Ooh, deets!" Milo clapped enthusiastically. "Have you dated one?"

Brooklyn got in my face. "Are you dating one?"

"Can't wait to get into college, can you?" I smirked, subtly turning the spotlight on them instead of me.

"Of course!" scoffed Milo, putting a hand on his chest. "I love high school, but I'm also sick of high school. I'm so ready for something new."

"Yeah, you'll love college life." I laughed, and nodded to Halo. "You're moving in with Oz next year, right?"

She was going to attend University of Florida and follow Oz. They could handle the long-distance thing very well, but what couple wanted to be apart?

She grinned, biting her bottom lip and looking nervous. "I'd like to think of it as us being roommates."

I snorted. "Roommates who share the same bed."

Halo's cheeks flushed, looking embarrassed as fuck. I laughed out loud at her reaction. She was still very shy talking about sexual shit.

"What're the classes like?" asked Brooklyn suddenly.

I grinned at their eagerness. It was cute. I guessed since they were graduating next May, they wanted to be prepared as much as they could.

And so, I continued to tell them more stories about my college life – excluding a certain redhead who played a big part of it, which was a struggle.

"There you are!"

Without so much as a warning, Kurt put an arm around my neck and started dragging me away from Halo and the others.

"Sorry, y'all!" he called over to them, not sounding sorry at all. "Kidnappin' the birthday girl! Leggo, brownie bud," he drawled, adding the last part to me.

"Ugh." I struggled to get away from his grip, hitting the side of his body with my fist. "I haven't been your brownie buddy since last Christmas, you big doofus."

"Tragic, ain't it?" He laughed.

I rolled my eyes, giving up. "Where are we going?"

"Beer pong table. Need a partner, and we both know you're the motherfucking undefeated queen."

I was not about to tell him that Scout destroyed that title months ago.

"Well, thanks for asking me nicely," I said. "I totally appreciate you dragging me by the neck."

"Oops, my bad," he snickered, letting me go almost instantly.

"Why didn't you get Frisco?" I asked, rubbing my neck.

"Against Alfie?" he snorted. "Nuh-uh."

"We're playing against Alfie?" I frowned, before turning to him and crossing my arms. "And who?"

He stopped and nodded down to the other side of the room. "Goody-two-shoes over there."

Fuck. Me. Sideways.

I already knew who he meant before I looked to where he gestured to. But laying my eyes on Scout still caused my heartbeat to go insanely crazy. And standing next to him was my mischievous best friend – also my ex-boyfriend.

"Got my partner!" declared Kurt.

"Took your ass long enough."

I gave Alfie a hard look, to which he only returned with a leer. He was done interrogating me last night, but he wasn't done with Scout just yet. Far from it.

What the hell was he up to?

"Hey, Anderson," greeted Scout.

"Crimson."

"Still on a last name basis?" remarked Alfie, a mischievous grin forming on his lips. "I thought you guys are friends now."

Scout shrugged. "Nicknames."

"Huh."

"Who'll start?" asked Kurt.

"Hold up," stopped Alfie, raising a hand. "Let's make this interesting."

My eyes narrowed at my jackass best friend.

"How 'bout a wager?"

Kurt chinned up. "Keep talking."

"If we win... I dunno, maybe we get a kiss from the birthday girl?"

Scout visibly tensed and I glared at Alfie, relishing the thought of skinning him alive. He caught my look, broadening his grin.

"Nah, that's too simple." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then turned to Scout. "Any ideas, partner?"

"If we win, they'd have to do a keg stand."

He was so cute. He clearly didn't know how these assholes played.

Alfie burst out laughing. "Aw, you're adorable." He faced us again. "If we win... do a body shot on someone you wanna fuck tonight."

"Deal!" cheered Kurt.

It wasn't a big deal for Kurt because he wasn't the one Alfie was baiting. My dickwad best friend was after me.

"What if I don't want to fuck anyone tonight?" I asked.

He sneered. "Not my problem."

I was going to fucking crush him.

"Fine. But if you lose, you'd have to kiss each other." I raised an eyebrow. "And not just some kindergarten peck. You'd have to make out for a minute, with tongues."

Kurt's laughter boomed across the room, while Alfie looked so disgusted that he looked like he wanted to barf. If it was Oz or anyone from the crew, he'd only laugh and say bring it on. But since it was Scout, the idea was his worst nightmare.

Scout, on the other hand, only shook his head in amusement.

I looked at Alfie, daring him to refuse. But of course he wouldn't. This was Alfie. He never backed down from anything.

"Deal."

The game started right after that, and it wasn't long before Alfie and Kurt realized that Scout was really good at this. It made me wonder what it would've been like if Scout wasn't in the basketball team in high school. Would we all be friends?

To no one's surprise, Alfie and Scout won.

"Sorry, Kurt," I mumbled to the big guy.

"No biggie." He shrugged. "I get to do a fucking body shot, Con. Who's the real winner here?" He winked at me before taking off to find the lucky girl.

Ah, gotta love the easygoing doofus.

"I'm waiting, Con."

I glared at Alfie, while Scout silently watched me.

With their eyes on me, I grabbed the salt shaker along with the bottle of tequila. I walked over to where they were, Alfie's eyes narrowing as he tried to figure out what I was about to do. I shook the little bottle and put salt on my forearm, before licking it and taking a huge gulp of tequila straight from the bottle.

Scout looked down, but not before I saw his grin.

Alfie tried to protest. "Hey, that's—"

"You said 'anyone,'" I reminded him. "I wanna fuck myself."

My best friend stared at me in disbelief for a second, then a smile broke out and he rubbed his face in amusement. "Fuck, I should've known."

"Yeah, you should've."

With that, I turned around and left for the kitchen. I found Oz leaning on the kitchen doorway with a red cup in hand, watching Alfie from afar.

"He really has it out for you."

"Tell me about it," I grumbled, walking past him to get myself a glass of water and something to eat.

"So what's up with you and Crimson?" he asked so casually, it was like he was discussing the damn weather.

"We're friends." I grabbed the bowl of Cheetos and started munching, as I mounted myself on top of the island counter.

"Drew isn't convinced," he countered, whirling around to face me.

What the hell? My brother really couldn't keep his mouth shut, could he?

"And you believe him?" I scoffed.

"That's why I'm asking you," he said, with a piercing gaze.

Yeah, tough shit. His intimidation tactics wouldn't work on me.

"I already told you."

He cocked his head to the side. "Funny, that's not what I'm seeing."

Bullshit. Scout and I hadn't even talked once all night.

Oz was bluffing. He liked to act as if he knew everything about everyone. But more often than not, he was only about seventy-five percent right. I was pretty sure that this time was part of the thirty-five percent.

"Yeah, you tell yourself that."

He tilted his head. "You seriously think I haven't noticed you two look at each other all night? With those little shy smiles?"

Okay, so maybe this was the seventy-five percent after all. No way was I going to give in easily, though. I wasn't ready to tell them yet.

It might seem childish. Like, they were my best friends. Why couldn't I just tell them? But with the crew's history with Scout, plus Alfie's reaction, I wasn't sure they would handle it well.

I shrugged nonchalantly. "I guess you've been hanging out with Halo long enough to start imagining things."

Oz started to smile. "When did it start?"

I sighed in exasperation.

"I could just ask Scout, you know," he threatened, nodding outside. "It'll be a helluva lot easier for me, too." He gave me an innocent smile. "We both know he's not very good at dodging my questions like you are."

I rolled my eyes, thinking about it.

He wasn't the type to blab. At least, if I told him now, that was one less person to freak out. I just hoped he wouldn't flip out like Alfie did. Oz was good at controlling his emotions, but I just had no idea how he would take this.

I looked around, checking in case someone would overhear. It was clear. People far away enough that they wouldn't hear what we were talking about.

"It wasn't official until last week," I mumbled, avoiding his eyes.

I waited for the explosion, for him to blow up.

But silence met me.

"Crazy how we can't help it, huh?"

I raised my head and looked at him. "What?"

He looked so calm that I could only stare at him in surprise.

"Us dark creatures can't help but be drawn to the light. The pull is so much stronger with us because we need it the most, even if we refuse to admit it."

I never looked at it that way.

"He's good for me," I admitted.

Oz walked closer to where I was and leaned back on the counter opposite to me, before saying, "I know. I'm happy for you."

Wow, this was weird as shit.

"Are you?" I asked.

"Of course, dummy." He chuckled. "I wish for my best friends to have what I have with Halo."

"You don't think I had that with Alfie?"

A sigh escaped his lips, and his eyes traveled to his cup. "You and Alfie were both grenades, waiting to go off on each other. With all the shit we've been through, we need the calm – not the chaos."

I looked at my Cheetos. "He won't take it well."

"He won't," he agreed, nodding. "He still deserves to know."

"I don't want to hurt him," I muttered.

Oz rubbed his face. "Look, I love Alfie – he's my brother. But I love you, too. That's why I'm telling you that you need to think about yourself and what's best for you. Tell him. Draw the line. He'll survive."

"Easier said than done."

"Where are your balls, Con?" he teased.

I let out a small laugh. "I've been getting soft lately."

All because of a certain redheaded Golden Boy.

Oz snorted. "No shit."

"Excuse me." I raised an eyebrow at him. "Weren't you the one who referred to us as 'dark creatures?'"

He blinked in realization, groaning as he squeezed his eyes shut. "Halo's been into fantasy novels lately," he explained, as if that answered everything.

I burst out laughing, and said, "Influence of the light."

Funny how things turned out.

_____________

This was barely revised. I just finished watching Scarlet Heart Ryeo and it was really hard to get into the mood and edit this. T_T

I know y'all wanted to see more of Oz and Halo together. I'll do that in a future chapter. Don't worry! You'll see the crew again.

Next update: Sunday (April 19)

Coming up next..... Chapter 31: Mad Hatter
10 chapters left!

#SavageMeWP