Page 69 of The Casualty of Us (Philosophies of the Heart Duet #1)

Chapter Thirty-Five

“God,” Lisette groans from where she’s lying out on one of the couches at the Ruins and dressed in her angel outfit. “I’m making freshmen do the setup next year in exchange for getting to come.”

I snort in the chair beside her, taking a sip of the bottle of champagne we’re passing back and forth, while musing tipsily, “Do you remember how pissed you were when I showed up last year?”

Apparently a few months of sobriety has made me a lightweight again.

“Vaguely.” She squints, her gaze moving up and down over the devil one she forced me into at the end of setup. “I was pretty drunk already from all this.” Her hand waves around the room carelessly before snapping at me for the champagne. “Which is why I didn’t make a big deal out of it.”

“That wasn’t a big deal?”

“Not even close.”

She smirks as I pass the bottle over, making me roll my eyes before looking over the crowd and checking the time on my phone to see that it’s already nine thirty.

“Where’s the boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend.” I drop my eyes to the phone with the empty words and resist the urge to check on where they’re at. “Which I’ve told you.”

“Repeatedly,” she snarks back before the bottle appears in my periphery. “And it sounds about as true as it did the first time.” A beat passes before she pushes. “Why are you being weird about this? Is it the stalker thing?”

“Maybe.” I give her a shrug with the vague answer and look back up to grab the bottle. “Hey, are you messing around with my brother?”

“Um, no.” She throws me an amused look before adding cheerily, “But from what I’ve been hearing, he’s definitely not lacking in the company department these days.”

“Ugh.” My nose scrunches up at the information, and I turn my head to scowl out at the crowd of Halloween partiers. “He’s being all tight-lipped about it and saying it’s not a big deal, which means it’s gotta be someone I know.”

“Maybe it’s really not a big deal,” she counters. “From what I’ve heard, it’s more like a revolving weekly door.”

“That’s even worse,” I scoff, taking another sip of the champagne.

“I’ll probably end up having to make a spreadsheet with testing schedules and all kinds of shit for him with that kind of lifestyle.

” Her laughter starts to fill the air before I’m even done, and I mutter weakly, “Yay me, Liz, yay me.”

“You kill me.” She giggles as my bladder gives a sudden and urgent protest to the amount of liquid I’ve been forcing it to hold for the past several hours.

I set my phone down on the chair. “Shit. I have to pee.”

“Best of luck with that.”

“Thanks,” I shoot back, passing the bottle to her and standing only to realize while looking around. “Wait…where is it?”

I’ve never had to pee here before.

“Behind whatever tree looks the best,” she supplies unhelpfully. “There’s a nice forty-year pine out there that I prefer—”

“Bitch.” I cut her off without any heat, and she immediately looks at me with concern.

“Want me to come with you?”

“No.” I shake my head, fighting off a frown and sighing instead. “No, I’ll be right back. I just want to get it over with before everyone else gets here.”

“You mean the boyfriend.”

“Not listening!” I call back, making my way through the crowds scattered throughout the old church and to the front door.

Hurrying as my bladder starts to protest the longer I’m on my feet and already looking for an acceptable location by the time the cool night air hits me.

The moon and the lingering glow from inside the Ruins give me just enough light to aim for a small alcove of trees off to my right.

Away from the direction most people will be coming from, thankfully.

I’ll figure out the lack of wiping materials later.

I’m about ten feet from my destination when movement catches out of the corner of my eye, and it has me freezing instantly with my heart kicking into high gear and adrenaline rushing through my veins.

Screaming at me repeatedly that there’s a threat as I try to find it.

Brain rapidly processing the shadows I’m rolling my eyes over and looking for—

There.

Maybe twenty feet down the treeline from me.

My heart trips over itself at the confirmation, and I’m about to run back inside to beg Lisette to walk back to the dorms with me when I realize it has to be two people. Probably a guy and girl from the size and shape of them. Especially considering he’s kind of holding her—

Wait. What?

“Hey!” I shout, gut and adrenaline and screaming in my head coming together to push me hard. “Hey! Are you okay?”

I’m already taking a step toward them by the time a guy calls back, “All good! She’s just sick!”

A faint moan comes then, making my brows drop and me pause, wondering if I’m being ridiculous but—

“Ollie! Wake up!”

Nope. Fuck that.

“Hey!” I take another step and then another, squinting while coming up on them and stumbling over a rock. Trying to make out who it is. “If she’s sick, then maybe I can—”

“I said we’re good.”

I narrow my eyes at the sound of the voice this time.

Something about it familiar enough to have me trying to match it with a face in my head while closing the last of the distance between us.

I come up on him just as he turns around, giving me a clear look for the first time, and my stomach drops as I stop suddenly with his name slipping out.

“Thomas.”

“Ophelia.” He looks me up and down quickly in a way that makes clear he’s not my biggest fan before snapping, “I said we were fine.”

“Right.” I frown, looking past him and only making out a head of black hair before another moan fills the air. “And like I said, if she’s sick—

“God, I said we’re fine.” A hushed laugh leaves him that has my heart missing a beat. “Now why don’t you go back inside and stop being such a nosy little bitch?”

I suck in a sharp breath, adrenaline feeding the pumping of my heart until my hands are shaking, but I still force my voice out to spit back, “I’m not the little bitch here.” Reaching past him, I grab the girl’s arm to pull at her, getting enough traction to see—

Oh, fuck. It’s Bethany.

“What the fuck is your problem?!”

He pulls back on her with the angry whisper, and my gaze whips up to him, bile immediately shooting up my throat because I know she wouldn’t come out here with him. I just know it.

Plus he cares enough to still whisper. Me on the other hand…I fill my lungs with as much air as possible before screaming, “Give her to me!” Hoping that we’re still close enough to draw someone’s attention from the Ruins and quickly doing it again. “Help!”

He drops one side of her, grabbing my wrist before I can suck in my next breath and ordering roughly, “Shut the fuck up.”

“Let go of me!” I try to pull away, but his fingers just tighten more, making me gasp before planting my feet and screaming again. “Help!”

And when he tightens them again, I can’t help the little whimper that escapes as he calls out over it in a panic. “Just shut up and you—”

“O?”

Kyler’s voice hits my ears, and this time when the bile works its way up my throat, I can’t quite tell why at first. Only that it has me tugging on my wrist hard enough to feel the bones grind while trying to grab for Bethany and still scream. “Fucking help!”

Everyone’s limbs seem like they’re everywhere as we all stumble a step, and I gasp as something in my wrist twists.

“O, wait—” Kyler tries to calm me down, voice coming closer but still not visible yet. “Be quiet. Don’t freak out—”

“Help!”

“What the fuck is going on out here?!”

Lisette’s scream has my body sagging with relief for a beat before I renew my fight, grabbing for Bethany just as Thomas looks back into the forest, and it suddenly clicks. Exactly why Kyler’s voice bothered me so bad. It’s the direction it’s coming from.

The direction is wrong.

My wrist slips free on the next tug, and I immediately grab for Bethany’s other arm just as Thomas jerks back around.

Somehow ending with me taking his elbow to my cheek just as he lets us both go, and we fall to the ground.

The rock I tripped on making a second reappearance in my Halloween night to hit me hard on the back of my head.

Knocking me the fuck out to the sound of Lisette screeching like the hounds of hell. “Those are my girls!”

Quickly followed by Graham shouting a second later as everything goes black. “Someone get me Oliver Fitzroy!”

“I will fucking kill you!”

“Calm down—”

“You hear me!?” Ollie’s voice hits my head like a blow. “You’re fucking dead!”

Loud. So, so loud.

“Not if I kill him first.”

So loud and so angry.

“And I’ll make it fucking slow too! Make sure you feel it like the piece of—”

“Oliver, please remember there are cameras in this school, and I will not tamper with evidence for you.”

I scrunch my nose at the shouts before something feathers over my brow and a soft rasp fills my ear. “Freckles.” The air from his breath tickles over my skin and makes me sigh before he adds, “You’re scaring me, baby. Please, I need you to open those pretty eyes now.”

His voice is all low and gravelly and makes me scowl because I don’t like him upset—

“Ow.” I crack my eyes at the twinge of pain in my cheek, dropping the scowl to try and stop it, but a sting from the back of my head quickly takes its place. “Oww.”

The featherlight touch on my face lifts, making me repeat the whole process over again as a pair of hazel eyes fill my vision and immediately demand, “You’re okay?”

I blink at the harsh light coming from behind his head, focusing enough to see the tension lining his face before taking stock of myself.

Finding that besides the cheek and head giving me some trouble, nothing else seems to be amiss except some throbbing in my wrist. I’m even still in my devil costume which, by the looks of things, is kind of awkward considering that—

“Ophelia.”

I blink again at the bite in his voice before giving a little nod. “Yeah, I think so—”