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Corey

COREY DOES WATCH THE VIDEO. HE WATCHES IT AGAIN, AND AGAIN, and again. Alonso is still texting him, but Corey doesn’t bother to read any of his messages. He doesn’t want to be reminded that Alonso is right.

Dylan, you’re drunk!

Put her down!

This is what happens to sluts who try to steal my boyfriend.

This is why Penny smelled like alcohol—and why she was wearing Alonso’s T-shirt. When he realized the shirt was Alonso’s, Corey got so anxious he couldn’t even make eye contact with her. He shouldn’t care if they’re spending time together without him. But then there was that night at the hospital. Corey and Penny were up until midnight watching and rewatching their favorite episodes of Amityville High. It was the first time Corey had been able to relax in weeks.

So when Corey saw Penny in that too-big T-shirt, it triggered something unexpected in him. It was a dark urge to keep her as far away from Alonso as possible. She doesn’t need Corey’s protection, but for a second, he didn’t even care. And as the conversation progressed and he learned what Penny and Alonso had done, that jealousy turned to anger.

But the second he watches the video, Corey forgets all about that. He’s not sure how long he sits there with it on a loop, trying to comprehend what he’s seeing. His hands are shaking.

Penny didn’t tell him about this. She stood there and let Corey yell at her. She let him believe he was in the right.

Corey rears back and throws his phone against the wall with a loud crack .

This is all his fault. He could’ve broken up with Dylan or said that he and Penny were just friends. Instead, he lied to Dylan, and now it’s too late. The video already has over ten thousand views; by tomorrow, everyone in Idlewood will have seen it.

Corey can’t let that happen.

He barely registers the drive to Dylan’s house. He parks crooked in her driveway and doesn’t bother turning off his headlights. Her parents’ car is gone, and there’s an unfamiliar van in the driveway. Corey doesn’t think twice about it until, after ten minutes of banging on the door, a guy opens it.

It’s Royce Montalban.

“Hey,” Corey begins, and then he realizes Royce isn’t wearing a shirt.

“Oh,” Royce says. “It’s you.”

An unsettling feeling makes Corey look the guy up and down. “What are you doing here?”

A small hand alights on Royce’s shoulder. “Go back to bed,” comes Dylan’s voice.

The words make Corey feel cut open. Like his insides are suddenly visible.

Royce gives Corey a long look before disappearing into Dylan’s house. After Royce walks away, Corey says, “Bed?”

Dylan crosses her arms over her long nightshirt. The lights from Corey’s car land on her frizzy hair, her smeared eyeliner. She’s been crying.

“What is this?” Corey asks, his voice low.

Dylan shrugs. “What does it look like?”

“It looks like you slept with another guy.”

Dylan laughs. “It’s been going on for weeks, and you just noticed? Congratulations.”

Corey closes the distance between them. Dylan doesn’t back down. It’s like she wants his anger, and even though he knows it, Corey can’t stop himself.

“You know what? Sleep with whoever you want. Then they can deal with you.”

“But you think I’m so fun,” Dylan says, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Corey wants to scream. “What kind of person does what you did to Penny? Do you have any idea how difficult this summer has been for her?” He stops himself before he can go on. “Why do I bother asking? You don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

Dylan’s smiling, but her lower lip trembles. “That’s not true and you know it.”

“Really? Because between you sleeping with another guy and what you did to a girl who deserves none of it—”

“Why not?” Dylan says, her eyes shining with tears.

“I shouldn’t even have to explain this to you, but clearly you spend all your time thinking about how to make everyone around you completely fucking miserable.”

Dylan snorts. “God, you really think you’re that great after everything you’ve done?”

Corey loses his next words. Fear shoots through him—does Dylan know about the curse?

She steps forward, and Corey takes a reciprocal step back. “You’re the good guy , right? Everybody loves Corey Barrion, because he would never hurt people the way his evil girlfriend would. I make you look like a saint.” Dylan’s eyes narrow. “That’s probably the only reason you keep me around. Oh, and I make sure you get laid.”

“That’s not true,” Corey says, looking anywhere except Dylan’s face.

But Dylan doesn’t back down. “Do you know what you talk about when you get drunk?”

Corey turns around to walk back to his car, but Dylan runs around him, blocking the stairs with one hand on each railing.

“You talk about your grandpa,” Dylan says. “You say that he uses everyone around him, including you. He’s got an idea of how he wants people to see him and the rest of your family, and he plays you all like pawns to make sure nobody on the outside knows how fucked-up and depressing you all are.”

“So what?”

Dylan leans in, her eyes unblinking. “You do the exact same thing.”

Corey grits his teeth. “Get out of my way.”

“I don’t think any of your friends know the real you, and I don’t think you want them to. But you let me get too close, Corey, and I see everything .”

Corey’s throat is tight and his heart is racing. “Like what?” he says, even though he doesn’t want to know the answer.

Dylan gives him a mean, sad grin. She’s crying again, her smudged mascara running in rivulets of gray down her face. “Like the way you’ve spread rumors about Alonso.”

Corey’s anger falls away, and it’s replaced with something bright and sharp. Panic. “What are you talking about?”

“I was the one who told you what happened in PE class, when Eric Lim broke his arm. They ran into each other. It was an accident.”

“It wasn’t,” Corey says. “You told me it wasn’t.”

“No. You decided it couldn’t have been an accident. And when the football guys were talking about it the next day, you said Alonso had wanted to break Eric’s arm. Suddenly, everyone in school was talking about it as if Alonso had attacked him. That was because of you.”

Corey’s hands were in fists, but now they’re limp at his sides. Dylan is lying to mess with him. He remembers her saying Alonso was… he was…

“I’ve seen you start fights with him,” Dylan says. “But somehow, Alonso always gets the blame, and I’m not sure he deserves that.” She steps closer to Corey, angling her face so that he has to meet her eyes. “How many of the rumors about Alonso came from you? The fights, the spells, the bad blood between your families—is any of it real?”

“Of course it’s real,” Corey says, but Dylan barrels on.

“How hard have you worked to ruin his life, just like I’m ruining Penny’s?” Dylan laughs. “Maybe we’re meant to be after all.”

Corey is unsteady on his feet. He came here to put Dylan in her place, to tell her to stay away from Penny. That he would never do the kinds of things Dylan has done.

Except he has. He already lied about Penny’s feelings for him to get Dylan off his back, and he didn’t think twice about it. He knew Penny could get hurt, but if it meant saving himself, he was willing to do it.

This really is Corey’s fault.

“You always say Alonso is so dangerous,” Dylan says. “But I think you want to believe that.”

“I’m not like my grandpa,” Corey mutters, running his hands over his hair. “I’m not. And there’s so much you don’t understand about Alonso’s family.”

Dylan throws up her arms. “Maybe I would understand if you opened up to me! But every time you look at me, it’s like… it’s like you’re looking through me. Like I’m a placeholder.”

“Is that why you hooked up with someone else?” Corey sneers. “To get my attention?”

Dylan gives him a bitter smile. “Did it work?”

She looks exhausted. Desperate. Broken. Was Alonso right when he said Corey was bulldozing through people’s lives? Did he do this to her?

“You need to take that video down,” Corey manages to say. “Now.”

Dylan’s face is blank. But after a moment, she takes out her phone and opens her feed. He watches her delete the video, and he should feel relief, but he can’t. He’s numb.

“I should’ve told Penny what kind of guy you really are,” Dylan says. “She’s wasting her time.”

The words almost pull the truth from Corey’s mouth, but Dylan sees it written on his face before he can say a word. “Oh god. Was that a lie, too?”

Somehow, Corey makes it down the stairs.

“You never would’ve shown up at someone’s house in the middle of the night to protect me ,” Dylan calls after him. “I guess this means you really want her, right? Penny is that special?”

It doesn’t matter what Corey thinks of Penny. He doesn’t deserve her. He doesn’t even deserve Dylan.

His head is pounding, threatening to split apart. He gets in his car. Turns it on. Drives away, leaving Dylan standing barefoot in her driveway, the headlights casting skeletal shadows across her face.

Corey doesn’t know where he’s driving. All he knows is that he can’t go home. Above him, the stars are bright, and he wishes he could fall into the sky.