But I don’t stop watching.
Not until she’s out of sight.
LILAC
The air tonight is uncharacteristically chilly, but I like it. The cold clears the noise in my head. After today in the rink, after Callum's eyes on me, I need it. I need the sting in my lungs to remember where my body ends and where he stops filling my mind.
I tuck my hands deeper into the pockets of the hoodie Callum forced on me, but I secretly love wearing. I throw him an attitude any time he tries to cover me up, but I wear this thing almost every day when I don’t think I’ll run into him. It’s giant just like Callum, and the waistband dusts low on my thighs. My leggings are tight, my boots are warm, and my hair’s up in two low pigtails. My comfy trifecta.
I only agreed to come on this hair-brained adventure tonight because I didn’t want to be in my dorm in case my parents dropped by unannounced again, trying to drag me home to play nice with Vincent Warshaw. The sooner they accept that I have zero interest in being auctioned off to the most eligible bachelor, the better.
If I’m honest though, the friendships I have with the girls on my figure skating team are really surface level. There’s nothing I can pinpoint as to why I don’t feel like I can bond with them. Thevibes just aren’t there, and I can’t push myself to confide in any of them. They invite me to events or fun places, and I find myself looking for reasons to say no.
I’ve met Callum’s friends, Madi and Winter a few times. They’ve had a front row view of him accosting me from parties or bonfires. If there’s one thing that’s true about Callum Grey, it’s that he is a fun sucker extraordinaire and legend has it that if he hears me laugh joyfully three times he’ll materialize out of thin air. I really like the girls though, even though I don’t know them well. They just seem genuinely nice, even if their boyfriends are complete psychos.
I hover by the edge of the parking lot while we wait for everyone to show up. If it’s one thing about the skating girls at Castlebrook, they like to travel in large packs and literally everyone is invited.
Lexi is bouncing on the balls of her feet, half from excitement and half to stay warm. Her boyfriend, Ryan I think, lingers behind her, arms crossed, earbuds in, looking unimpressed with everything. I can’t really blame him. When Lexi told me that the super fun activity of the night is going to scope out the old Whittaker mansion, I almost bailed. Adam called and texted me three times about coming home to meet Vincent, so that’s why I’m here waiting in a parking lot to maybe commit a felony. Is trespassing a felony or a misdemeanor? It doesn’t matter because either way I don’t want to marry Vincent.
Mina, the queen bee of our little group, is already checking her reflection in her phone screen, looks up and says, “Why do you always wear that sweatshirt? It does nothing for your figure.” Her tone is just a little too sharp. A little too snotty.
“It’s comfortable,” I say. My gut reaction is to justify it, to say that wearing Callum’s clothes brings me comfort in a way that nothing else does. I bite my tongue because I’m fairly certain that will make things way worse.
Wren, the only one of us who can land a backflip on skates, swings her designer handbag and jumps in with, “Are we seriously going to the mansion? Likethemansion? Can’t we just go get sushi?”
“The one on the cliffs!” Lexi says. “It’s totally haunted.There was that guy who disappeared after trying to film the inside. No one ever found him.”
“Does anyone even really live there?” Mina adds. “I know Professor Whittaker supposedly moved there and became a recluse after he was fired, but he can’t possibly still live there, right? He has to be what? Eighty?”
I smile politely, but my stomach twists a little. The more I think about it, the more I realize what a bad idea agreeing to come here tonight actually is. Cursed or not, what if people really do live there? What if they call the police? What if it’s not old professor Whittaker, and it’s some weird cult that wants virgin blood to do rituals? If it’s the last one, I’m cooked, but maybe if I join a cult, my parents will leave me alone.
Just then, a guy I don’t recognize walks around the side of the building and steps up to our group. Mina immediately flutters closer to him. Knowing Mina, he could literally be her boyfriend, her hook up, someone she met at the gas station an hour ago.
“This is Eric,” she says brightly, and I get second hand embarrassment by the way he shakes her off when she tries to wrap what seems like her entire body around his bicep. “He’s coming with us.”
Yeah. I caught that part.
Eric flashes a grin and looks me over a little too slowly. There’s something odd about him. Judging by his jacket, he’s a football player, so maybe I’m just on edge because he’s my brother’s teammate. “Lilac, right?” he says stepping forward and I instantly step back away from him and it doesn’t slip by me the way Mina’s glaring at me instead of him.
I raise a brow. “Do I know you?”
He shrugs. “I listen when beautiful girls get talked about.”
Mina giggles, which throws me off, but I’m relieved when she pushes up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.I fake a smile and look down at my boots, hoping a response to what he’s said will fly up out of the blacktop. I know any response I come up with will just make everything more awkward. I open my mouth to say I forgot I have a paper due or that my roommate texted me that fell in the shower and I have to go save her…
But then?—
That sound.
Low. Growling. Familiar.
It’s my fucking favorite sound in the entire world.
Callum’s 1986 Chevy Deluxe pickup truck turns the corner, headlights flooding the lot. He parks like heownsthe space, hops out, and heads straight toward us.
How did he know I’d be here? I swear if he talked to Adam about the Vincent situation and he’s coming here to convince me that it’s not a bad idea, I’m going to throw my phone away and change my name.
Eric’s still babbling about hearing things about me and I think this must be some sort of karma? Like was I a terrible person in a past life? Callum doesn’t say a word as he reaches me, instead he wraps an arm around my waist, picks me up, and spins me.
