Page 10 of Boys Who Taint (Spine Ridge University #5)

Aspen

My phone buzzes, and I grin, picking it up again.

Grey: You’re the cutest when you’re smiling

Me: How do you even know? Are you watching me?

Grey: I wish. I just know when I text you in class, you always grin like crazy

Me: Stop. Player

Grey: I wish I knew how

I roll onto my back, still grinning like an idiot.

Me: You always do this with girls?

Grey: What girls?

Me: You know … previous …

Grey: Previous what? Say the word

I’m blushing like crazy.

Me: You know what I mean

Grey: Are you implying something, Miss Caruso?

Well shit. I guess he caught me.

Me: No. Of course not

Grey: But if you wanna call me your boyfriend, I’m all for it

I grab the pillow and squeal into it. But I definitely shouldn’t let him distract me from my questioning.

Me: You didn’t answer my question, though

Grey: I don’t have eyes for anyone else but you

Me: But I mean, before me

Grey: Like I said … what girls?

Me: What? You’ve never been with other girls?

Grey: I’ve never had a girlfriend before, no

Me: Wow

Grey: Is that so surprising?

Me: Yeah. With the way you look, I mean …

Grey: Are you calling me hot? Thanks

I’m blushing like crazy now.

Me: Stop it. Omg

Grey: Take a picture

Me: Why?

Grey: Do it

I do what he asks—despite the red glow on my face, and the cutesy pj’s I’m wearing, and half my face being hidden underneath the pillow.

Grey: I love seeing you blush, gorgeous

Me: For someone who’s never had a girlfriend, you sure know what to say

Grey: I just know what to say to the right person. And that’s you

Now my heart is really melting.

Me: I can’t wait to see you tomorrow

Grey: Same. But you need sleep, and I’m keeping you awake. So sleep tight, and we’ll chat again tomorrow xoxo

I place my phone on my bedside table and breathe out a sigh before I close my eyes. I’m so grateful Grey appeared in my life when I needed someone like him. He brings up my spirits like no one else can, with the flick of his fingers.

He’s sweet and thoughtful, and such a gentleman, that it’s hard for me not to fall head over heels. When I talk to him, I can just forget all about the terror that’s been taking over my life.

Or more specifically … Levi Torres and those dirty fucking hands of his.

I still can’t believe he actually trapped me in some classroom just to have his way with me.

And for what? He doesn’t even like me. He made that very clear.

So then why was it still so goddamn hard for me to push back?

I turn around in bed, trying to keep the thoughts from swirling in my mind, but it’s tough when all I can think about are those devilish fingers rolling around my most sensitive area.

He did that on purpose. He wants me to know how much he despises me, how much he can control every aspect of my life.

First, he kills my sister, doesn’t even deny that he did, and then he has the gall to mess with me like that?

I’m biting my lip so hard I taste blood.

“Goddamn him and those goddamn calloused fingers of his,” I mutter to myself. “He’s just a fucking bully, that’s all. Nothing more, nothing less. He’s not your friend. He never was, just like he said. It was all a game to him from the start. So don’t let him mess with you, Aspen.”

I sigh out loud and roll around again.

Whatever his reasons, I can’t repel him if I don’t have the energy, so I’d better sleep despite the thoughts still churning in my mind.

If I close my eyes, maybe it’ll be easier. If not, at least I’ll have rested. Even if only for a while … until the memories seep right back in.

The funeral is bleak. Mavis would’ve hated all of these flowers. Hated them because they’re not black. Hated them because she would’ve preferred skulls and inverted crosses to adorn her casket instead.

She was a rebel. A lover of all things dark and unholy.

Someone who would raise her middle fingers, stick out her tongue, and go out with a bang.

I stare at her casket as it’s slowly being lowered into the ground, wondering if she’s gonna break out of there any second now.

Silas grabs a handful of petals from the basket and throws them haphazardly into the hole in the ground, his nostrils flaring. He probably expected her to go out with a bang. We all did.

Xavier is next, and he throws the bundle of petals onto the casket without even looking at it. Not because he doesn’t want to, but because he’s breaking down in front of us.

The moment he’s done, I catch him and hug him tight.

“Mavis …” He cries in my arms.

My other half sister, Melody, goes next, and she scatters the petals one by one like it’s a giant art piece she wants to lay down.

“I miss you already, Mavis. I hope you’re talking with your ghostly friends up there,” Melody mutters. Then she goes to her knees and gently places an actual painting she made these last few days onto the wood. It’s Mavis, surrounded by the stars.

“Beautiful,” Alistair, her father, says as he thumbs away a tear.

“Thank you,” my mom says, smiling at her, before looking at me. “Aspen …”

I scatter some petals on the wood beneath the earth, but I wish I could’ve painted them black just so Mavis would be surrounded by her favorite color.

I should’ve told Mom.

I look up at the dark forest surrounding this cemetery, wondering if she’s floating nearby. Instead, I spot two bright red eyes glaring right back at me.

I sit up straight in bed, panting like crazy, sweat dripping down my body.

It was just a nightmare. A reminder of a memory I can’t seem to shake.

I focus on my room, with its blue butterfly wallpaper, and all the objects on my desk, such as my lamp and laptop covered in stickers, and all my study books, to ground me in the moment.

But a sudden knock on my window makes me stop breathing.

I wait and listen to the howling of the wind outside.

PANG!

Something just flitted against my window.

Was it a branch from the nearby tree?

I push the blanket off and approach the window, barely pushing aside the curtains. In the middle of the night, I can barely see a thing outside, except for the small streetlight up ahead.

The cold makes me shiver.

Or maybe it’s the set of eyes blinking behind an eerie white mask.

I release the curtain and take one step away, my heart skipping a beat.

PANG!

It’s the same sound as before.

Something—no, someone is throwing rocks at my window.

Even though I know I shouldn’t, I can’t help opening the curtain to look again.

The masked man is right there beside the streetlight, staring right at me from underneath a black hoodie.

This time one step closer.

One blink.

And he’s closer again.

Penetrating eyes still home in on my window.

And the first thought in my mind is to jump right at him.

I bolt out the door and race down the stairs to the common room, ripping open the front door, unafraid. Despite the fact that it’s cold and dark outside, I grab the bat propped next to the door and head outside on my bare feet.

But the masked man is nowhere to be seen.

“Where are you?!” I scream, looking around with the bat held up high. “Show yourself!”

I march toward the streetlight, but the man who was there is gone.

Vanished, as if he never existed in the first place.

And the more I scan the area, the more I’m beginning to question my own damn sanity.

Was it all a figment of my imagination?

I walk away from the light and peer into the darkness beyond, where nothing moves except the leaves on the pavement guided by the wind. There’s no one. Not even a guard or a squirrel.

What the hell?

Unsettled, I head back to the sorority house, but when I glance to the side of the building, something on the ground makes me do a double take. I walk over and pick up a bunch of pebbles that I’m sure weren’t there before, and I gaze up at the sky.

My window is right there, and my blood runs cold.

With the bat held high, I backtrack my way into the house so I don’t get caught off guard. When I’ve finally closed the door, I place the bat back down and head back upstairs, my mind still reeling from what just happened.

I close my bedroom door and breathe out a ragged breath while I wonder if I’m losing my mind.

Until I spot the open window.

My eyes widen.

I rush to it and slam it shut, turning the lock.

Shit, shit, shit!

I look around the room and grab the first thing in my sight: my lamp.

“If you’re in here, say it now, or I swear to God I’ll hit you in the face with this!” I growl.

No answer. Not even a peep.

I waltz to my closet and open it up, but no one is inside even though I fully expected to catch the perp.

What is going on?

Suddenly, I spot something new on my desk: a piece of paper.

Frowning, I take a closer look and pick it up.

Do you want me to kill Levi Torres?

Come to the bonfire this Saturday.

Place this paper on the wooden stool nearest to The Edge.

And I will show you the price.

Your Ghost

I stare at the paper, which shakes in my hand.

So I wasn’t imagining things at all.

He was really here, in my room …

My Ghost.

Oh God.

Ghost

It was too easy to distract her.

The second she stepped away from the window, I knew I had my one and only shot, so I ran up to the side of her building, climbed onto the fire escape stairs, and made my way up to her window. It was easy—child’s play.

Just that one paper on her desk is all she needs.

No words need to be exchanged for what I’m offering her … What I’m willing to give.

I pull my balaclava and mask back up again and stare at her window from down below, wondering if she’s going to take the bait.

And when that dainty little creature with her perfect red hair and button nose finally appears in the window … God, I can’t help but smile.

That’s it, Aspen.

Look at the ghost that will haunt you for the rest of your life.

Because you and I both know you already made your choice when you realized the truth.

You hate him.

And you will always hate him for what he’s done.

So you’re going to be an obedient girl and destroy the one thing that kept you tethered to your life as you knew it.

Levi fucking Torres was the end of you.

But me? I will be your beginning.