Chapter 18

Rowena

For the first time in a while, I walked into the house without Eric. I dropped my bag by the door and kicked my shoes off—maybe a little too angrily, because my mom heard me.

“Rowena? Honey, is that you?”

I sighed and wandered over to the kitchen where my mom was preparing dinner. “Hey, Mom,” I said as I slid up onto one of the stools at the counter.

“Hey, honey.” She stirred the pasta in the water and tapped the wooden spoon on the side of the pot. “Carbonara for dinner tonight. Your favorite.”

Normally, the idea of my mom’s homemade carbonara for dinner would have gotten me excited; but I hardly had an appetite today after my fight with Eric. “Thanks,” was all I could manage.

My mom shot me a surprised look. “What’s wrong?” she asked, then glanced around. “Where’s Eric? You two usually seemed attached at the hip lately.”

I shrugged and rested my cheek in my hand as I idly flipped through a magazine that was sitting on the counter. “I don’t know where he is.”

“Are you two fighting?”

There it was: my mom’s maternal instinct. She could read me like an open book. I couldn’t help myself from admitting it, either. “Yeah. We are.”

My mom sighed. “Wanna talk about it?”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” I said a little more harshly than I intended, snapping the magazine shut and sliding down off of the stool. “He’s just an asshole. Nothing more, nothing less.”

…

I laid in bed that night, staring at the unanswered text on my phone screen.

“I’m accepting Adrian’s invitation to the homecoming dance, whether you like it or not.”

I had sent the text over an hour ago, but there was no response. It wasn’t like Eric to ignore my texts; he usually responded within a few minutes.

With a sigh, I shut my phone off and set it down on my bedside table. He must be giving me the cold shoulder, I thought to myself. Jerk. Just because he’s my older brother doesn’t mean he has the right to be so possessive.

I let out a small scoff at the thought and rolled over. Possessive indeed. What did he think he was, my dad, whose job it was to drive bad guys away from me? As if.

Still, though, I couldn’t deny that a part of me almost wondered if Eric was trying to protect me. Maybe he just didn’t want me to get rejected by Adrian, and thought he was helping.

Either way, it wasn’t his decision to make.

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of my alarm and grabbed my phone off of the bedside table; one notification.

Eric.

“Okay, whatever. I’ve decided I’m going with Heather anyway.”

Heather? Seriously? The very mention of her name filled me with betrayal and anger; how could he invite her after the way she and her sister treated me? I knew he was upset about Adrian, but…

It wasn’t as if Adrian nearly drowned me in a pool!

“Whatever,” I huffed to myself as I climbed out of bed. “I’m accepting Adrian’s invitation anyway.”

…

“You look beautiful.”

I couldn’t help but smile a bit at Adrian’s compliment. The dress I had picked out—a soft periwinkle color with a slight glimmer to the fabric, and off-shoulder sleeves that accentuated my collar bones—seemed to match my hair and makeup perfectly.

Of course, since Eric and I had been avoiding each other for the past few days, I didn’t get his special treatment before the dance.

I wound up doing my own hair and makeup, and I actually thought I did a pretty good job; I put my hair into an updo and wore glittery silver eyeshadow to match the silver in my shoes, which really brought out the blue in my eyes.

I also managed to put my contacts in, too, although I still preferred my glasses.

The past few days had been tense, though, to say the least. I didn’t see Eric at all, not even in passing. If I heard his footsteps approaching at home, I would always duck into another room to avoid him.

In the mornings, I’d always make sure to leave for school after him, too. I couldn’t bear to look at him, let alone ride in the same car.

After all, he had decided to have a cold shoulder war with me. Yeah, well, two could play at this game.

But my mood had worsened with each passing day. I hated to admit it, but I missed him.

And now, as I walked into the dance hall with Adrian on the day of the homecoming dance, I sort of missed my brother even more.

“You excited?” Adrian asked as we walked into the dance hall, where the music was already pumping and the lights were flashing.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

But I wasn’t. I should have been excited to be going to the dance with the guy of my dreams on my arm, but I just felt… bored? As if, even though I had finally achieved everything I wanted, there was no real joy in it.

It’s just because of Eric, I thought to myself as Adrian led me over to the bar for a drink. He wanted to ruin the day for me. I shouldn’t let him.

That was what I had been telling myself lately. I wasn’t going to let Eric ruin the dance for me. I wasn’t going to think about him all of the time like he clearly wanted me to.

And yet, as I saw him enter with none other than Heather on his arm and an all-white suit on his frame, I felt my hands begin to tremble.

“Here.” Adrian handed me a glass of punch and clinked our glasses together with a slight smile.

“Thanks.” I took a sip, savoring the sweet punch. Just a little more of this, and I’d feel better. That was all I needed.

Adrian led me to the dance floor, where a huge group of warriors were already writhing around. He put his arm around my waist and pulled me close, moving against me. But something was wrong.

My eyes should have been on Adrian as we danced; he was, after all, my dream date.

And yet, my eyes were only on Eric, who was moving across the dance floor with Heather. Just seeing them together made my stomach twist.

“Hey,” Adrian said, his voice in my ear snapping me back to the present. “You good?”

I nodded and offered him a weak smile. “Yeah. Just getting into it, you know?”

Adrian shot me a disbelieving look, his gaze momentarily following mine to where Heather and Eric were dancing before he grabbed my chin and turned me to face him. “Just focus on me, okay?”

I took another sip of my punch to steady myself, trying to focus on the movements between us as Adrian said. It became a little easier, too; the lights started flashing dark blues and purples and reds, the strobes creating an alluring scene. The music swelled and filled my ears, and Adrian’s hands found my waist…

But then, during a spin, another pair of hands found my waist, too. Those hands spun me away from Adrian.

And I found myself being violently pulled into another person’s arms.