Page 26 of Vying Girls (Girls of Hazelhurst #2)

Tilda

The TV’s blaring but it’s a whisper against the roar of the storm.

I slide further down the sofa as it batters the windowpanes, the glass flexing like it’s made of plastic.

I’m not sure they should be doing that. Feel like they’re going to implode any minute, and I’ve already had my fair share of glass-related injuries.

They got the timings wrong. The storm landed a lot earlier than five.

Final lectures were cancelled, but it was still a treacherous hike through the forest back to the lodges.

Those spindly trees aren’t made for winds like this.

There’re rumours a student’s already been killed by one falling, but everyone seems a bit given to hyperbole today.

I usually adore storms, as rare as they are in this part of the world, but this one has me restless. I think it’s a combination of a few things—the absolute battering this glorified log cabin is receiving, the fact there’s a psychopath out for my blood if Nic doesn’t give him hers.

And then there’s the small issue of Nic still being out there, supposedly on her way with her tent. Lockdown started an hour ago, but I guess the same rules don’t apply to her. They said they’d enact punishment on anyone found breaching them, but who’s going to out there patrolling in this?

The lounge illuminates with a flash of white, and I swear I see a man’s face in the window. I slam my eyes shut, damning this paranoia.

Thunder cracks a split second later, sounding like a bomb.

In the kitchen, Haz whoops. ‘Get away from the windows, baby!’

She’s cooking up a batch of chilli in there. I’ve already been threatened with cheese grating duty.

‘Yo, taste this.’

I sit up as she comes at me with a spoon. I open my mouth dutifully, letting her tip in the red sauce.

I nod enthusiastically. ‘Lush.’

‘Fucking right. Best I’ve ever made.’ She sticks the spoon in her mouth, eyes straying to the windows when lightning flashes again. ‘It’s giving end times.’

‘Better repent then, ye gay.’

‘You too, baby. On your knees.’

There’s a split second where I’m tempted. Haz still stands before me. If I was to kneel, I’d be at perfect deepthroating height.

‘Where’s your usual taste tester, anyway?’ I ask.

‘Drawing dicks. Leave her.’

I cackle, imagining Elly in her room finishing her Life Drawing pieces. ‘Bless her.’

‘She’s nearly done. Dinner too. Just waiting on that other shitting idiot.’

Thunder cracks again, the wind shrieking like a hundred banshees. Something unseen slams into the lodge wall, making me jump.

‘Ten more minutes and I’m going out there,’ Haz says.

‘No, you’re bloody not.’

‘Gonna stop me, princess?’

‘I’d follow you.’

‘Into the abyss.’ She launches herself next to me, kissing my shoulder and then my neck. ‘Would you really?’

‘Really, really.’

‘For me or Nic?’

‘Both.’

She grunts, easing off. ‘You two have gotten pally.’

‘Still not sleeping together.’

‘Way you say that, makes it sound like it just hasn’t happened yet.’

‘And it won’t. Not in this universe. We’ve just got catching up to do. Years and years and years of catching up to do.’

‘Yeah. Guess you do.’

‘Thanks for telling Elly, by the way.’

Haz leans back to regard me. ‘Are you being sarc-y?’

‘Just wish you’d left it to me.’

‘Thought she knew, to be fair. You two like to gas. Or are you too busy fucking each other’s brains out?’

‘Jealous?’

Haz shakes her head, eyes straying back to the kitchen. ‘Nothing I can’t do better.’

‘Prove it.’

She faces me again with narrowed eyes. I grin as she slowly climbs on top of me, immobilizing me with her substantial weight.

‘Now isn’t the time to get bratty.’ Pinning me between her knees, she seizes my wrists, rubbing her thumbs along the ridges of them. ‘Nic’s on her way—if she isn’t dead under a tree already—Elly just upstairs.’

‘Sounds like the perfect time to me.’

I run my eyes over the underside of her body, the shadows her shifting biceps make, the flash of olive skin below her t-shirt. The drawstrings of her joggers drag on me. I take them into my hands, tightening them, encouraging her closer.

‘Yeah.’ She leans her face close to mine. ‘Maybe you’re right.’

My eyes flutter shut as her lips brush mine. I tickle that swatch of bare skin, smiling when her muscles quiver. My hands graze the waistband of her boxers.

She rubs into me with her kiss. Always zero to a hundred with her.

I wonder if she even bothers with foreplay.

There’s something hot in the thought that she doesn’t.

The thought that, when the time comes, she might just shove it in, any resistance be damned.

It’s getting to the point where I don’t care, so long as she takes me.

She puts her tongue in my mouth, her kisses always so hot and open. Not slobbery like Elly said. I smile at the memory of that comment. The plumpness of Haz’s lip offsets any slobber there might be.

I sigh when her hand finds my throat, her other arm resting above my head, blocking us in. I wrap my legs around her, squeezing her with a sense of urgency. I’m aware of the chilli bubbling on the hob, the knowledge that we’ll probably be joined by someone else soon.

I rake my nails along her sides. When we’re doing this, I try everything I can to let her know just how much I want her, that I won’t run off once we’ve gone all the way.

It feels like such a fine line between letting her know and feeling like I’m pressuring her.

I’m not sure where the line is, but I trust Haz not to do anything she’s not ready for.

Unlike me, unable to count just how many sexual encounters I’ve had solely to please the other person.

Also unlike me, Haz has the confidence not to get herself in such straits.

Thankfully for her, we’re interrupted this time by the sound of the front door slamming open.

We turn our heads as Nic enters the lounge.

Haz sits up with a glare. ‘What the fuck, man?’

Nic drops her stuff and leans against the wall, a yeah-that-was-fucking-dumb smile on her face. ‘Bit breezy out there, boys.’ She mops back wet hair, something alive in her face. Guess a near brush with death will do that, especially to someone like Nic.

Retrieving her spoon, Haz returns to the kitchen, making sure to shoulder Nic on the way.

I flash Nic a smile as she heads to the stairs with her tent. It’s not returned, leaving me feeling flat. I shouldn’t be surprised. I knew her casualness on Wednesday night was just a result of the drugs. Still didn’t stop me hoping that we’d taken a step forward though.

Oh, well. I slouch back on the sofa with a sigh. At least the asshole’s alive.

When I emerge from the kitchen after washing up, it’s to the sight of Elly and Haz arranging sofa cushions on the floor.

‘What are you two doing?’

‘Hurricane party, baby.’ Haz grins, another cushion thudding at her feet. ‘Go grab the booze, will you.’

‘But England doesn’t get hurricanes,’ I call back, grabbing the giant bottle of house rum and an unopened Coke.

‘Just go with it, Tilda. Fuck’s sake.’

I hand her the bottles with a smile. ‘Haz, you’re adorable.’ I peck her lips. ‘Wanting a girly sleepover.’

‘That’s me. Regular girly pop. Wanna get your duvet? Pillows too. Just chuck them over the railing.’

‘Aye aye, Captain.’

I screw my nose up at the mess on my bed when I enter my room.

I need to do a reset. Maybe even a deep clean since I’ve got nothing better to do this weekend.

Between the nights I spend in Haz or Elly’s bed, my own room has become nothing more than a dumping ground, pretty much how it was before I moved in.

I toss my pillow, leaning over to scoop up the pile of uni crap on the duvet. A notebook and a couple of pens slip to the floor, but I’m too focussed on saving my tablet from the same fate.

I get the bedding into the corridor, kicking it to the landing railing.

‘Incoming,’ I warn as I push it over the edge.

It lands with a thunk on the cushions. As Elly arranges it along with her own, I dash back to my room to change into my pyjamas.

I’m sick of wearing a bra, ready to snuggle down in the giant bed they’re making.

It’s a cute idea. It really is a blast living with those two.

Once I’ve changed, I quickly pick up my things from the floor. Now we’re pretty much done with filming, there’s only the coursework side of things left, mostly from She Means Business and my other modules. So much notetaking. So many random pieces of paper I doubt I’ll make sense of again.

A notecard near my bedside table catches my eye. I don’t recognise the floral embossing, nor the handwriting on it. It’s definitely not mine, the words chilling me to my core as they register.

Tell Nicole time’s ticking.

–D

I glance at the window as a gust of wind shakes it. I close the curtains quickly, adrenaline coursing through me.

This is from him? But how the fuck did it get in my room?

I look around, searching for some kind of clue. Has he been in here or was it slipped into my bag at uni? Both options are terrifying.

I run upstairs with it, groaning when I find Nic’s room empty. The scent of shower gel permeates the corridor and I hear the pattering of the shower.

I bang on the door. ‘Nic!’

There’s no response. The shower carries on running.

With a sigh, I return to her room and sit on the bed, prepared to wait.

I run my eyes over and over the short message. I felt threatened before but this has just increased things by a thousand. I eye the darker corners of her room, for the first time feeling unsafe in the lodge. It’s a big place; he could be anywhere—if he was even here at all.

Eventually the shower shuts off and the door opens, steam whipping down the corridor. Eyes meeting mine, Nic enters the room and closes the door. She’s dressed in pinstriped pyjama bottoms and an oversized t-shirt, towel drying her hair with one hand.

‘Where’s the fucking fire?’