Fuck.
I hated this place.
“Do you remember the first time we came here?” Lottie asked. “I was fifteen, you were sixteen. Geoff and Alaric were high on coke or something.”
“Sounds about right,” I said, trying not to roll my eyes.
She played with the fabric of her dress, working the sheer black material between her fingers.
“Someone spilled their cocktail all over my white dress,” she said. “You gave me your shirt and told me not to tell anyone.”
My brows drew. “You remember that?”
“I remember everything about you.” She lifted her head, and our eyes locked. “I can’t stop thinking about our kiss…I’ve been looking at your orchid every night.”
“The one next to your bed?” I arched a brow, throwing her a half smile. She didn’t return my joke. She looked up at me through her thick, dark lashes.
“Yes.”
Fuck.
I reached into my pocket for a blunt—I needed more than a fucking lollipop to distract myself. I lit it and inhaled, trying to get my fucking mind focused on the beautiful girl beside me.
“I have a present,” she said suddenly.
I leaned back on my elbows as she reached into a glittery purse, pulling out a green pen. It wasn’t anything fancy, not some Montblanc or S.T. Dupont bullshit. It looked like something you’d get at a gas station.
She handed it to me.
“I meant to give it to you a while ago, but things kept getting in the way.”
“Why did you get this for me?”
Lottie blinked, looking like a kid with their hand in the cookie jar. “Don’t you like it?”
“Yeah, babe, just wondering how that mind works.”
She blushed, which should’ve driven me wild. Instead I looked for Snitch. She was still settled against the wall, looking bored.
Lottie doesn’t deserve this. Doesn’t deserve someone like me, whose heart is halved.
Why the fuck did Snitch have to be the one I grabbed? Why wasn’t Lottie in that fucking room?
Some dildo movie star wandered up to Snitch. My eyes sharpened on him. That guy had a reputation for taking pictures of girls who were too “sleepy” to know better.
“I don’t know,” Lottie said. “I just had a feeling.”
Snitch looked like a missionary among the heathens. Her eyes were wide, starstruck, as the dildo leaned forward to brush something off her shoulder. She laughed. Who the fuck is vampire boy and where does he get off touching her?
“Gray? Do you want to get a drink or something?”
I tried to shake out of it, give my attention back to Lottie, but Snitch lifted off the rock as if to follow the asshole. I stood up quickly, tossing my blunt into the water. Some mermaid in the process of dumping her margarita yelled at me for littering.
“Where are you going?” Lottie asked.
I squeezed her shoulder. “Need some air. I’ll be right back.”
STORY