Page 75 of Broken by my Bully (Lessons in Cruelty Dark Academia #1)

Haven

“Nope. Nuh-uh. Not gonna happen.”

Melissa catches my wrist as I try to leave, pulling me back. I’d have walked straight into the pair of girls that push through the flap, anyway.

“Here.” She hands me two small, round stickers.

“The fuck is this?” I snap.

“Now you won’t be naked.”

I scoff, pushing her hand away. The girls behind me are already stripping off their ball gowns, chattering about whether this guy or that one’s going to be at the party.

Trying to decide what UV body paint to put on.

Shoving their shiny little purses into one of the empty cubbyholes lining the wall.

Most are already full, and all I can think is how many cellphones, credit cards, and stacks of bills must be in there.

Not that I’d take any.

Just thinking.

My eyes keep going back to the translucent trash bag. The stacks of glowsticks .

The piles and piles of evening gowns tossed in a nearby bin. Even more shoes thrown in the one beside it.

“You’re wearing panties right?”

“Well, yeah, but?—”

Melissa snatches my hand, forces it open, and slaps the stickers down on my palm. “Then all you need are these and a shitload of body paint.”

“And the bags?” I hiss.

“In case it rains. Because if it does, and you don’t have one of those, you’ll definitely be naked.”

She’s already busy stripping. The girls behind me are starting with their body paint.

I’m just standing there, wondering how the fuck I ended up here when, a few minutes ago, I was ballroom dancing on my professor’s feet.

Agony Hollow sure likes its curveballs.

Melissa peels off a pair of stickers and smooths them over her nipples, then glances up at me and gestures wildly at my dress. “Come on. Hurry up. It’s only going to get more crowded in here.”

As if to illustrate her point, another girl old enough to be a senior half-falls through the flaps with a giggle. She barely hesitates before pulling her dress off her head.

She doesn’t bother with the stickers or the body paint. She plucks up one of the modified trash bags, yanks it over her head, and pushes her way past me and Melissa to exit.

I hear her yell, “Baby! Baby, I’m done! Baby, where are—“ before the pounding music swallows her voice.

Melissa is slathering body paint over herself. “This’ll go faster if you help.”

Groaning, I pull my dress over my head. But I admit, there’s a twinge of satisfaction as I dump the dress into the bin. Like I’m metaphorically dumping control-freak Bastian.

Then the cold hits me, and I wish I had the skimpy thing back.

“No one heard of pneumonia?” I mutter as I try to apply the pasties on my boobs. One keeps sticking to my finger instead, so I have to shake it off and try with a new one.

“Just keep dancing,” the girl behind me says as she and her friend push past us.

They let out a, “Whoop!” as they disappear into the night.

“That could have been us,” Melissa says, squirting me with a tube of body paint.

“What are you?—”

She slaps her hand onto my stomach, smearing the paint over my skin as she hands me another tube with a different color.

“Pink? Really?—”

She slaps her hand over my mouth, then my cheek.

“This had better be non-toxic.” I glare at her, spitting out body paint.

Then I squeeze a big gloop of pink paint into my palm and slap her with it. We have to stop our impromptu catfight when three girls come crashing into the change area, practically pushing us out.

Melissa snags two trash bags and a handful of glow sticks on the way, and I can’t believe I’m still laughing as I try to wrestle the thin plastic over my head.

It’s not like I’m naked or anything.

But it’s dark, no lamps to be seen, so it’s not like?—

My arms are glowing.

I hold them out, staring at the pretty pink and blue smears on my skin.

Melissa points up, her arm glowing just as brightly. There’s a purple fluorescent light glowing above us, barely illuminating anything except the UV body paint.

She wipes her hands on her trash bag dress and then manipulates a few of the glow sticks into a belt for my waist. Another for each wrist and ankle, and a final one around my throat. I help her do the same as we head for the music.

“Come on!” she yells, picking up speed. “There won’t be anything left! ”

Is she talking about food? Because I can eat.

The paint and the trash bag cover me up pretty well, but I still know I’m naked underneath it all. And while I hardly ever wear a bra inside my car when I’m just chilling out, it feels weird to be out in the open without one.

There’s a hint of ozone in the air. When I tilt my head up, not a single star is visible.

I don’t know if it’s the approaching storm or the approaching party, but there’s a charge in the air that’s making the hair on my arms stand up.

There’s a pair of guys wearing masks on the side of the trail up ahead, a kerosene lamp lighting them from above. As we come up to them, they reach into a cooler box and pull out two bottles of water.

Melissa grabs one and hands it to me.

But she pushes back the second one. “Gatorade.”

The guy glances up and down the path and then drops into a crouch, turning to rifle through a duffel bag hidden in the shadows behind him. He pulls out a Gatorade bottle and gives it to Melissa.

“Enjoy.”

“Thanks!”

“Can’t I have Gatorade?”

Melissa stares at me. “You want…I mean…are you sure?”

God, is she going to lecture me about how bad energy drinks are, too? Soda was bad enough.

“Yes, Mother.” I hand back the water. “Gatorade please.”

He goes back into a crouch. “Keep the water,” he says as he hands me a bottle of Gatorade. “You’re gonna need it.”

“Okay, thanks.” I shrug and start after Melissa.

She gives my bottles a quick frown. “Take it easy, okay? I’m not babysitting tonight.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I open the Gatorade and start gulping it down.

Man, I’m thirsty .

Melissa catches my wrist. “I said, take it easy !” she hisses.

I swipe the back of my hand over my mouth. “You worried I won’t be able to sleep tonight with all the caffeine in my…” I trail off when her eyes just keep growing bigger and bigger.

Fuck. I didn’t feel the seal crack when I twisted the cap off.

“What the fuck is this?” I yell.

Melissa rolls her lips together. There’s a smudgy handprint on the side of her face where I slapped her with pink body paint. I think I have a blue one to match.

“Molly?” she mouths.

A burst of panic hits me. “What?”

“You’ll be fine,” she says, laughing as she shakes her head. “Just stay hydrated.” She hesitates and then snatches the Gatorade from me. “With water. ”

And then we step into the clearing, and it’s like I’ve been transported to a bioluminescent alien planet.

Or, like, that big tree thing in Avatar.

Everything’s glowing. The trees, the people, the webbed awnings stretched between the forest’s canopy. They’ve even painted the DJ deck with UV graffiti.

“Oh my God, am I tripping already?”

Melissa looks back to laugh at me, and then hauls me over the dance floor to a bar nestled against some trees. “Two tequilas!” she yells over the music.

She hands me a shot, and we clink and toss it back.

I down half my water.

It doesn’t help.

An hour later, I’m fucked up.