Page 18

OBLIVION

MILA

I really don’t want to be here.

If it weren’t for my promise to Patience, I wouldn’t be. Between Marco, Oxy, Alex, and the cryptic threatening text messages from an unknown phone number, I’m at my limit.

But if I let myself succumb to this—to let this be what breaks me—I’ll never get answers. Which is how I find myself standing outside Sigma House with my phone in my hand, forcing the smile I know people need for reassurance.

Patience

How is Alex?

Mila

I’m sure he’s fine.

Patience

You haven’t seen him this week?

Mila

I’ve been busy. Why don’t you focus on LA and forget what’s going on in Bristal for five seconds? How’s the hot professor?

Patience

I never said he was hot.

Violet

He’s hot.

Teal

Can confirm.

Mila

When did you meet the professor, Teal?

Teal

When Declan was tricking me into marrying him.

Violet

So romantic…

Teal

I’m making him redo the wedding while we’re in Paris. I’d like to actually know what I’m agreeing to this time.

Violet

As you should.

Patience

I’m leaving this group text if relationships are all you plan on talking about this summer.

Mila

Maybe if you thought about relationships a little more often, you wouldn’t be so worried about your brother. Have you considered working out the tension with this hot professor of yours?

Patience

I never said there was tension.

Violet

There’s definitely tension…

Teal

I’m sure he’d be more than happy to help you remove that stick from your ass if you asked him to.

Mila

Maybe he’ll even replace it with something else…

Patience

I’m done with this conversation. Let me know when you see my brother. I’ve got to go.

Mila

You’re so boring. Fine. I just walked up to Sigma House. I’ll send proof of life when I have it.

Patience, unsurprisingly, doesn’t respond to that. But she doesn’t leave the group chat either. Violet said she’s been happier and less irritated with Kole since they arrived in LA, so I hope this summer is doing her some good.

Tucking my phone into my pocket, I let myself into Sigma House. The door is wide open anyway. Between that, the blasting music, and the random people wandering around, I doubt anyone cares.

It’s been one week since everyone left—one week since I’ve been in this very spot—and the effects of summer have fully settled in.

The crowd is a quarter of what it usually is, and somehow, less evolved.

Over the summer, everyone stops giving a shit entirely. Pretenses are abandoned. Coffee tables are lined with drugs, and alcohol bottles are on every surface. Passing one of the many living rooms, I spot two guys sharing a girl on the couch.

I’m too sober to be here.

Instead of looking for Alex like I promised Patience, I beeline for the bar. I’m going to need a drink to face him anyway.

While I’ve come to terms with the fact that he’s just another Sigma Sin asshole who only has time for me when it’s convenient for him, I haven’t fully forgotten the moments we spent together at Montgomery.

His hazel eyes.

The tick of his jaw when something is on his mind.

The journal that contains all his secrets.

A breeze tickles my neck when a group hurries past, and for a second, I let myself imagine it’s his fingers grazing my neck like they did right before he slammed the door in my face.

The sound still haunts me.

I stop at the bar and scan the selection of pre-poured shots sitting on the counter. Knowing Sigma Sin, there’s probably drugs slipped into them, so I don’t take my chances. I snag a bottle of vodka from the back instead, drinking straight from it .

Because fuck them.

“Prepping for some fun tonight, babe?” A smooth voice that used to make me melt comes from my right.

I set the bottle on the counter and glare at Marco. “Not with you.”

“That’s too bad, I was hoping we could have a little party. Just the three of us.” He winks at another girl as she walks by, insinuating he wants to involve me in whatever threesome he’s concocting this evening.

“Charming.” I take another sip, swallowing more this time.

If I thought Marco was insufferable when he was trying to win me back with lies, then his trying to make me jealous is worse. Not that I’ll let it show.

Marco spins so his back is to the bar, his elbows rest behind him while he looks down at me. “You gonna pour me one, beautiful?”

The smile that stretches his face draws out his chiseled jawline. He’s good-looking to a fault, with dark eyes that nearly match his pitch-black hair. Not a girl in here would consider him physically unattractive. But when I look at Marco lately, all I see is the ugly layers beneath.

“Pour your own.”

Marco starts to slide closer when an arm reaches between us.

Electricity sends a cool chill down my arm as skin brushes against me. Without turning, I know it’s Alex. Only one person vibrates every molecule in the room with his presence.

And I hate that almost as much as I hate him.

Glancing up over my shoulder, I offer Alex an even worse glare than I gave Marco. He ignores it entirely as he steals a shot off the bar .

Like always, he’s wearing a plain T-shirt. But unlike at Montgomery, tonight I consider how it puts his scars on display. He wears his scars like a badge of honor in the place that inflicted the pain.

A statement I respect, regardless of my feelings for him at the moment.

Alex watches me with a face that, a month ago, I would have considered expressionless. His lips are a firm line, and there’s not so much as a furrow to his eyebrows. But in our time together, I learned how to read the shadows in his eyes. And right now, his pupils drink all color.

He’s irritated.

“Should you be drinking on your medication?” My tone has bite.

Alex answers by drawing the glass to his lips, downing it in one swig, and not breaking my stare.

Maybe he’s not actually on anything. Why should I care?

“Okay then.” I roll my eyes and take another drink of vodka straight from the bottle. “Good to see you too, Alex.”

This man is infuriating without saying a word. At least with Marco, he gives me plenty of reasons to be pissed off. With Alex, it’s nothing.

A blank wall.

Alex backs up, but Marco doesn’t try to come any closer. Marco’s glare confirms he doesn’t like Alex any more than I do right now, but since Alex is sitting on the new Sigma House Council with Declan, Kole, and Maddox, he won’t say anything.

“I almost forgot…” Setting the vodka bottle down, I pull my phone out of my pocket and turn to Alex. “Your sister wants proof of life.”

Without asking permission or caring, I hold my phone up and switch to my camera app. Alex doesn’t try to stop me from taking the picture. But he does dip his chin the slightest, forcing his dark-blond hair to fall over his eyebrows as his gaze avoids the camera.

He didn’t seem to mind getting his picture taken when he was younger, but maybe that’s another thing that changed while he was in a psychiatric ward.

Opening my texts, I send the picture to Patience.

Mila

Your brother is fine.

Even if he wasn’t, I’d be a good friend and say he was. She deserves a summer of not worrying, especially when there’s nothing she can do about it.

“And my job is done.” I give Alex a snide bow, shooting him a smile that’s more venom than anything.

“You’re not actually leaving, are you?” Marco inches closer, stopping when Alex pins him with a glare. “I’m just saying it’s early. Stay and party.”

Alex probably hopes I won’t take Marco up on the offer. It would make his life easier if I left. Then he could stop hovering like an annoying watchdog.

But I came here for a reason, and it has nothing to do with getting a picture of Alex for his sister. While Sigma House drinks and drugs themselves into oblivion this summer, I’m going to get the answers I’ve been looking for.

I’m going to figure out who killed Remi.

“Of course not.” I smile sweetly at Marco, not missing that it makes Alex clench his fists. “Let’s party.”