Page 16 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

To be clear, I hated tequila.

It tasted bad no matter how much salt and lime you ingested with it.

It left a horrid taste on your tongue and felt like it was burning your insides when you swallowed it.

But Layla’s parents kept a massive store of the stuff in the basement under lock and key.

And Layla, being the sneaky ninja she’s always been, knew exactly where that key was kept, and exactly which bottles to take that wouldn’t ever be noticed.

So, tequila it is.

I grimaced as I downed my second shot, shaking as I made a face. “Ugh.”

“You aren’t allowed to drink tequila in front of anyone but us,” Layla said, watching me with apprehensive wide doe eyes. “I’ve never seen anyone make a scarier face than the one you just made.”

“Layla!” I said, chucking a t-shirt at her from the box of clothes Viv had plopped in front of me two hours before.

I was now dressed in jeans that fit snuggly around the waist, but that were just an inch or two too long.

They were brand name and nicer than anything I owned even though they had a tiny oil stain on the butt that Viv couldn’t get passed, but that I hardly noticed.

With it, I was wearing a shirt from the box that Layla insisted I had to wear.

It wasn’t really my style, but even I had to admit that it looked good.

Viv hadn’t even ever worn it, it still had the tags on and wasn’t really her thing, either.

It was low-ish cut in the front and accentuated my small breast. It was a deep navy fabric printed with the constellations on it that looked killer with my freshly dyed turquoise hair.

With the deep coal I let Layla put on my eyes and the deep plum color Viv lent me for my lips.

I looked like the night. Like the aurora borealis or deep deep space.

I always ended up overdoing it when I was out with them.

It was nice to be girly sometimes even though I felt more myself in looser fitting jeans, simple t-shirts, and hoodies.

Sometimes I forgot that I could be the pretty Allie and it was nice to see that she was still there after all the ugly I’d gone through.

“We should probably go outside soon,” Viv said, finishing styling her short blond hair with the little jar of wax on her desk. “The uber will be here soon.”

“Allie, I’m going to shove this in your bag,” Layla said as she opened the top of my pack to slide the bottle of tequila inside.

“Lay—”

Layla silenced me with a raised hand, and I froze, afraid she’d found something incriminating in my bag that I didn’t remember putting there.

Except, she wouldn’t be able to tell I’d been lying to them and living out in the woods just because I had some extra clothes and a bar of soap in there.

I was being paranoid, and I knew it, but when she drew out my cell phone with wide eyes, I worried for an entirely different reason.

Where I lived wasn’t the only thing I’d been lying to them about.

Shit.

Was it Devin?

Or…shit…

“Allie…” Layla breathed, pausing for dramatic effect to get the attention of Viv, too.

I shrank into myself.

“Why is Jared Stone wondering when you’re heading to Thompson’s?”

Viv dropped the jar of wax back onto the desk and whirled with an overly dramatic intake of breath. “I knew it,” she said in an accusing tone.

I tried an innocent smile, but I was sure it looked more like I was constipated or baring my teeth. “I—”

“Spill. Now.”

I was careful to dance around the truth.

He just offered me a ride, I told them. And we got to talking a bit.

He stopped by the shop the other day too and told Devin off for me.

I told them he wasn’t what I thought he was.

Not the standoffish super-hot guy who acts like he doesn’t have time for anyone but himself and his closest friends.

“He’s actually…really nice. Maybe too nice,” I told them, wishing I could hide my expression that I knew would be telling them all the things my voice did not.

I liked him.

I liked Jared Stone.

Not in the way they were thinking, or at least I didn’t think so, but I did like him. In fact, after bingeing the new Star Wars TV show with him the other night in companionable silence, I thought maybe we could actually be friends.

It would be annoying at first, with the all-girl Jared fan- club patrolling the halls, ready to lap up even the tiniest morsel of gossip related to him at any given moment.

I would be the butt of many a joke and scrutinized for being the only girl he cared to spend any time with, but I was starting to think maybe I could deal with that.

It wouldn’t last forever. Eventually they would see that Jared wasn’t into me that way and I would go back to being the invisible girl I wanted to be…just one friend richer.

“Nice?” Layla accused. “He’s nice? The guy is a total recluse.

I think he’s hiding something. He’s too pretty…

like—oh! Like those serial killers you see in old newspapers, the ones where people are so shocked that someone who seemed so nice and so well put together could do something so awful. Like that.”

I rolled my eyes to the ceiling. “Layla, I really don’t think he’s a serial killer.”

He’s part giant wolf, but I stopped seeing him as being dangerous over the past few days. I was starting to forget how terrifying his wolf form really was. In my memory, the vision of him had morphed from huge dog that could eat me in a few bites to something far less threatening.

“Well, either way, I don’t trust him.” I pursed my lips and nodded.

“You’re not into him, are you?” Viv asked, her face puckered.

I shook my head. “No. I mean he’s really good looking—anyone can see that, but I’m not attracted to him like that.”

Not even I fully believed that lie..

I cleared my throat. “He’s just a nice guy who I have some things in common with and who offered me a ride, that’s it. Besides, I’m still working through shit with Devin.”

I could barely rein in the disgust from coloring my tone.

Viv began to pull on some socks and tapped her phone to check and see where the Uber was. “You think you’ll work it out with him?”

“No,” I said, maybe too quickly. “No, I’m done with him. He turned out to be a royal dickhead.”

Viv’s thick blonde brows drew together and down, there was worry in her gaze. “What do you mean? I know he accused you of cheating, which is super fucking stupid and a total dick move, but that’s all that happened, right?”

I didn’t answer right away, and Viv didn’t budge, her gaze cold and calculating, daring me to lie to her.

My throat felt tight and my lips parted to tell her the truth.

To tell her what Devin did to me and how I didn’t want them to worry.

How I didn’t want to make a huge deal out of it.

Devin’s father was a judge. I knew if they forced me to go to the police, he would never be charged.

His father wouldn’t ever allow his precious boy to be slandered in that way.

“I—” I started, but was saved by the dinging of Viv’s phone as it notified her the uber had arrived and was parked outside.

Viv still didn’t move, her eyes searching mine for an answer I wasn’t yet ready to share. I dropped my head. “Yeah. That’s all that happened.”

“Come on,” Layla said, her voice a little more tense than it had been a moment before. “We should go before the uber takes off and we have to wait an hour for the next one.”

Viv watched me quietly as we all rushed to put on our boots and jackets and scarfs and run out the door.

After we called a goodbye to her mom who lifted her hand in a lazy Xanax wave in reply and shut the front door behind us, Layla ran to stop the uber from driving away and Viv turned to me.

I could tell she was reading the truth in my heavy stare.

Her face pinched.

“If that bastard comes near you again, you call me,” she said. “I’ll teach him to mess with my best friend.”

I reached down and squeezed her fingers in my hand. “Thanks, Viv.”

“Of course, Allie Cat,” Viv said with a warm smile and wink. “We’re family.”