by J Bree
Avery doesn’t seem concerned about being crushed to death as she struts into the party and heads straight for the drinks table. There’s a couple of guys playing bartenders and the drunk girls ordering drinks are paying them in kisses, which are getting more and more explicit as we stand there waiting. When Avery reaches for a bottle of snobby bubbly the guy raises his eyebrows at her and she gives him a ball-shriveling smirk. He looks away pretty quickly and focuses on me instead.
“Mounty! What’s your poison? It’ll only cost you a quick fuck. Just lay back and think of the Queen.”
He’s pretty cocky with a table between us but I’m limber when I need to be and I could jump it to smack him out. Avery watches the plans form in my brain and laughs as she grabs a bottle of whiskey. “Such a glowing review of your skills, Rafe, but rest assured, you couldn’t handle Mounty pussy.”
I cannot believe the word pussy just came out of Avery Beaumont’s silver spooned mouth. I snatch the whiskey from her and take a few big gulps straight from the bottle, just enough to take the edge off and make this cluster fuck bearable.
“Let’s dance for a while. We should be able to find Joey while we do.” Avery shouts over the music and I give her a sharp nod.
The dance floor takes up the entire bottom floor of the cottage and the only people who aren’t dancing in someway are those waiting to grab drinks. The DJ is at the bottom of the staircase and he has a joint dangling from his lips precariously. Avery throws her head back to sip at the bubbly as she sways and grinds to the music. I’m too distracted by the pressing crowd and my own surveillance to really get into it but it’s still fun to dance with her.
It takes three songs to spot Joey and he’s practically skipping up the stairs with two barely dressed girls under his arms. I’m sure they’re holding him up more than anything.
I signal to Avery and we move towards the staircase.
The music is so loud there that I’m sure my eardrums are going to start bleeding and I hurry to flee upstairs. I manage two steps before Avery’s hand clamps around my wrist and I look back to see Blaise standing over her with a frown. He’s fucking gorgeous in tight jeans, biker boots, and a band tee. His eyes are glazed and he’s all sweaty from dancing. I force myself to look away from him before I embarrass myself.
Avery taps a message on her phone and then turns it to me.
He’s wasted. He said he’ll call Ash if I go upstairs because it’s practically an orgy up there.
I take the phone and reply.
Stay here and dance. I’ll get what we came for.
Avery purses her lips at me and gives a curt nod. I try to smile reassuringly but she’s glaring at Blaise and misses it. I wait until she tugs him back into the crowd and then I start back up the stairs.
Upstairs is definitely not one big orgy.
It’s six different orgies, spread throughout the rooms.
I get some raised brows at the landing and one guy tries to coax me into the bathroom once he recognizes me. I raise a fist with a warning look and he backs off pretty quickly. He is completely naked so he probably thought I was going to punch him directly in his dick.
It was definitely my intended target.
I move slowly and quietly from room to room while I look for Joey. No one involved in the group sex notices me, thank god, because it’s much easier to be impartial when you’re not making eye contact with the girl who sits in front of you in Health Ed while she’s being eaten out by her blonde, cutesy best friend.
I make it to the ensuite bathroom at the very end of the hall before I find Joey.
He’s sprawled out on the floor making out with a girl and twisting her bare nipples while the second girl rides his dick. The girl he’s kissing keeps flinching away from his hands and I know she is not enjoying the pain he’s causing her but she’s kissing him all the same.
I take a few photos and a little video before I leave them to it.
Avery has finished the bubbly and is letting off some serious steam on the dance floor. As I make it over to her Blaise throws his head back and roars with laughter at something she says to him, though the music is too loud for me to hear it. He’s drunk. He’s fucking plastered and when I spot the bottle of whiskey Avery had snatched for me I see he’s finished it off. Fuck. He’ll be lucky to survive the night without choking on his own vomit.
Avery grins when she sees me and then I join them both for a few songs, dancing and twirling and sweating my heart out. I could stay there all night with them both but then Blaise turns green and lurches away, stumbling outside to puke on the steps.
Charming, I think but my infatuation with him doesn’t falter. I need therapy.
Avery tucks herself under one of his arms and starts to lead him back to the school but she struggles underneath his weight when he stumbles. His eyes are closed and he’s mumbling incoherently under his breath, a shiver running through him as the night air hits the sweat on his skin. I watch her take two steps before I sigh and duck under the other arm to help out. I breathe through my mouth, absolutely determined to not drown in his scent, and Avery shoots me a grateful look. She can guess at how much I do not want to touch him.
It’s fine. I can feel his muscular arm across my shoulder and his chest is half draped over my back and I feel like I’m dying but it’s fine. Totally fine. I’m fine.
We make it to the tree line uninterrupted. My leg is starting to protest the extra weight and I make a note to take something to stop the inevitable swelling before I pass out. I’m busy keeping my brain preoccupied so I don’t notice Annabelle until Avery abruptly stops.
I glance up at her and curse viciously under my breath.
“Move, Summers.” Avery snaps.
Annabelle’s face is flushed and her eyes are hazy. She’s wearing a red bondage dress and absolutely ridiculous heels, honestly I’m surprised her ankles haven’t snapped yet.
“Give him here. We came together and we’ll leave together.”
Avery huffs and adjusts her hold around Blaise’s waist so he doesn’t fall. He’s gently rocking on his feet and making us both rock with him. I’m glad I didn’t drink much because it’s already making my stomach protest. I can tell Avery is about to lose her cool and go full Beaumont on the bitch’s ass.
“He’s done for the night. We’ll see him back safely.” I say and Blaise chooses that moment to tuck his face into my neck and mumble nonsense into skin. The greatest achievement of my life so far is suppressing the shiver that threatens to take me over.
Annabelle looks at me like she didn’t even notice I was there to begin with. “You? Fuck no, if he goes home with you he’ll be tied to a fucking bed and forced to play out all of your stalker fantasies.”
“If he goes home with you, he’ll wake up naked and an expectant father. Now fuck off.” Avery hisses at her and starts to walk again. Blaise’s legs stumble, like he’s startled that we’re on the move again, and when Annabelle starts screaming at us he lifts his head and yells out to her, “I told you to leave me the fuck alone, Summers.” Then he tucks his face back into my neck and sighs.
My leg is shaking as we enter the school building and by the second flight of stairs Avery declares that she’s going to gift the school an elevator. Blaise is snoring and his feet are dragging along behind us as I fumble to get our door open. Avery is looking sweaty and disheveled and when I grin at her she pokes her tongue out at me.
Blaise is dropped unceremoniously onto the couch and Avery flings a thin blanket over him.
“Fucking rich kids.” I say and Avery laughs all the way to the bathroom.
Chapter Five
When I was living in the group foster home there was a girl there who had been forcibly removed from her home by child services because her step-brother had been molesting her. She was older than me, seventeen and on her way to aging out of the system, and her step-brother was the same age. He’d convinced her, as a fourteen year old, that they were married like their parents were and that
she belonged to him. She was forced to cater to his every whim and he would get violent with her if she disobeyed him.
One night we were woken up by the sound of him trying to kick in the door. It was locked, bolted, and had a safety bar across it so it didn’t budge but we had to sit and listen to the enraged asshole kick it and shove it with his body while we waited for the police to arrive.
Three hours after we passed out from the party I wake to the sound of a different but equally enraged asshole attempting to kick our door in.
I shoot out of bed and grip my knife. Avery slaps her hand out to turn her bedside lamp on and reaches for her phone. The biggest shock is Blaise’s reaction.
For a guy who couldn’t even stay conscious long enough to carry his own body weight back to our room he’s pretty quick to leap to our defense. He’s up and charging for the door before I realize he’s awake and Avery yells out to stop him but he ignores her completely.
He rips open the door to find Joey, raving and deadly, with his leg raised to kick out again and Blaise jumps on him, taking him to the ground. Joey’s movement becomes even more frenzied and he bucks wildly to try to flip Blaise off but the rocker is a better fighter, even drunk off his ass.
Blaise smashes his fists into Joey’s face, over and over, and I scramble to watch. If Joey brought some of his flunkies I’ll need to step in and help. I hear Avery snarl orders down her phone so back up must be on its way.
Joey’s arms finally fall down to his sides and Blaise shuffles until his legs pin them to his body. Doors have started opening down the hallway and there are girls poking their heads out to see what’s going on. I cross my arms and glare at them until the doors all shut again. No one wants to deal with Joey when he’s high and destructive. I know I don’t.
Blaise stops hitting Joey and his chest is heaving, his lungs screaming for air.
“Mounty, I’m gonna fucking puke.” He croaks and I scramble to find him a bucket. I shove a large bowl under his chin just in time to save Joey’s face from the whiskey bile. Blaise wretches into it again and I take pity on him. I find a washcloth and wet it to scrub it over his sweaty face. He looks pretty pathetic by the time Ash and Harley arrive.
“What the fuck, Morrison?” snaps Harley while I’m tentatively rubbing Blaise’s back. Avery is emptying the bowl down the toilet and gagging at the vile smell.
“This is what death must feel like.” Blaise moans and I scoff at him. Oh joy. Here comes the signature Morrison dramatics.
Ash glares at us both as he grabs Blaise under the arms and pulls him off of Joey’s unconscious form. Avery appears in the doorframe, her robe tucked tight around her body, and wipes Blaise’s face with a clean washcloth with the efficiency of a seasoned mother. “If Blaise wasn’t here Joey would have gotten in. Lips would have had to stab the asshole.”
I mutter under my breath at her, “I fucking would’ve, too.”
Harley’s glare hasn’t eased off at all. He gives Avery a quick hug and then he grabs Joey’s legs to start dragging him down the hall. He holds them with the same enthusiasm you’d grab a pile of shit with bare hands. I watch with satisfaction as Joey’s head slams into every bump and chair leg on the way. I swear Harley is picking the most damaging path. I like his style.
“I’ll stay here with you.” Ash mumbles into Avery’s hair as he hugs her tight. Blaise is still slumped on the ground, taking deep breaths that make me think he’s gearing up for round two of emptying his gut.
“There’s no need. Go help Harl’s and we’ll make sure Blaise doesn’t have liver poisoning.”
Blaise moans, “I do. I definitely feel poisoned. Someone put me out of my fucking misery.”
I roll my eyes at him and help him up, stumbling and lurching back into our room. I give him a gentle push towards the couch but he stumbles towards the beds instead. I glance away quickly when he starts to strip right down to his boxers. Thank fuck he wasn’t commando. I may have died.
Our beautiful, ornate bay window is already showing signs of the sunrise, destroying any chances of me getting back to sleep. I turn the coffee machine on and start fussing with cups. I need an IV line of caffeine at this point. Today is going to suck.
“I’m too fucked for this shit.” Blaise moans and crawls into Avery’s bed. He pulls a pathetic looking face and she scoffs at him as she locks the door behind Ash. I pour out our drinks while Avery scrubs the bowl and her hands until I’m afraid she’s going to scour away her skin to the bone.
I hand her a cup and then we both sit on the couches, listening to Blaise snore as he sleeps away his hangover. My mind wanders for a minute while I process the night we’ve had.
“What did you mean about him waking up an expectant father?”
Avery’s eyes narrow, flashing dangerously, and she blows into her coffee while she seethes. “Last year she told Blaise and Ash that she was on the pill and that they didn’t have to use condoms anymore. Didn’t say it to Harley though. That makes it pretty obvious she’s lying and wants a rich baby daddy.”
I grimace. That’s something I’ve heard heaps of Mounty girls do to get out of care homes and away from abusive families. “They didn’t, did they?”
“Lord no! Those three don’t trust any girls they’ve ever fucked. Besides, they all talk to each other and when they figured out she’d left Harley out they knew what she was after. So obvious considering he was her favorite. If she wanted to have more intimate sex she would want it with him more than the other two.”
Right. So his declaration of stopping their…arrangement last year had nothing to do with me. My stomach sinks and I get angry at myself over it. I clear my throat and try to pull myself out of the little pity party that’s threatening to start in my head. “Was Harley into her as well?”
Avery laughs and shakes her head. “Annabelle was easy. She was so eager to have the guys attention that she didn’t care that they weren’t after a relationship. If they wanted to chase someone they’d go out, if they just wanted to fuck they’d go see her.”
I screw my nose up at her and drink my coffee. I shouldn’t be enjoying hearing this but, fuck me, I am. Annabelle was always so smug about being with them and I know most of the girls assumed they were offering her some sort of commitment.
The bitch wouldn’t want to call me a stalker again.
I make it through my morning classes but only because I’m used to withstanding and overcoming pure, unadulterated torture.
Avery looks polished and perfect, and I look like someone backed over my dead body with a semi and then resuscitated me to force me to class. I tell her that at lunch and she smirks into her grilled salmon like a bitch. She’s lucky I’ve decided to love her.
Ash joins us and sneers at me the entire time. I ignore his shitty attitude which only makes it worse. Avery tells him about her classes, her plans for Lance, the pose she’s perfecting in her ballet class, and he treats her like she’s the centre of his universe. It’s sweet. She gives me an apologetic look and I brush her off. I know how much she hates the distance he’s put between them because of me.
I drop Avery off to her literature class on the way to my own. I turn into the hall and find myself shoved into an empty storage room. I’m about to start swinging when I hear Ash snap, “Calm down, I just want a word with you.”
For fucks sake.
I turn on my heel to glare at him. “We just ate together, you didn’t have to hurt me to speak to me.”
His eyes dart down to where I’m rubbing at my shoulder and he winces, slightly. “I didn’t think I’d pushed that hard.”
He hadn’t. It was an old injury. I’m a walking mess of scar tissue, crookedly healed bones, and nerve damage. I just do my best not to let anyone know that. “Whatever. What did you want to speak to me about?”
He straightens, his shoulders rolling back which made his chest double in width, and the look in his eye is the same one he’s given me everyday when he sees me with Avery. He loathes me and he’d cut
me out of her life the second I prove my disloyalty.
“Stay the fuck away from Blaise and Harley. I don’t need you poisoning them with the same shit you’ve fed Avery. You’re a Mounty slut with an agenda and I’m not falling for your little act.”
Wow. I don’t know why I’m so shocked but my mind is stuck on the words Mounty slut. “I’m not trying anything with them. I’m actually actively avoiding them both. And don’t you ever call me a slut again, I think the ongoing bet proves I’m not.”
He scoffs at me and crosses his arms. “That’s why you sit with Harley in every class? And Blaise was in your room last night? You really are working overtime to get them. Just because you’re picky about the dick you want doesn’t make you any better than any other Mounty.”
I squint up at him and wonder if he’s had some sort of break from reality. Maybe Joey’s hit him too hard too many times and his brain has finally decided to tap out.
“Seating in all of our classes is assigned. He’s Arbour, I’m Anderson, we can’t change that unless he decides to go back to being an O’Cronin and I think we both know that isn’t happening. As for Blaise, I helped your sister carry him back last night. Then I helped him out while he spewed. Should I have handed him over to Annabelle instead? Are you ok with your friends being raped while they sleep by gold digging tramps? Or is it ok for her to fuck you all, even if you’re not conscious and consenting, because her family has money?”
Ash’s eyes have become scathing but he doesn’t answer me. I wait a minute before I scoff at him and storm out of the storage room right as Harley strides past. He frowns at me and then when Ash steps out after me he scowls. He opens his mouth to snarl at me and I cut him off. “You need to keep him the fuck away from me until he decides to get his head out of his ass.”
Ash scoffs, marching down the hall away from us both, and calls out over his shoulder, “Stay the fuck away from my friends, Mounty.”
I seethe during the rest of my classes. Harley doesn’t speak to me and he only looks at me when he thinks I won’t notice. My skin itches and crawls with irritation and I’m going to have to throat punch someone to calm the fuck down.