Chapter 6 The Hole
POV: Carly
Whitney's energy when she walked through the door was the complete opposite of everything Carly was feeling.
She was standing frozen by the doorway staring at Katy unpack like the girl was a science experiment, when Carly came up behind her and tapped her shoulder.
Whitney turned around. Took one look at Carly's face. Then looked back at Katy. Then back at Carly.
"I take it you already know." Carly said flatly.
"I saw her coming out of the elevator with approximately seven bags and immediately knew something was wrong with my life." Whitney whispered back. "Did you try the headmistress?"
"Already went. Barefoot." Carly said. "Not budging."
Whitney winced in sympathy then grabbed both of Carly's shoulders and physically turned her away from the vampire currently reorganizing their shared dresser without asking.
"Okay. You know what you need?" Whitney's eyes lit up. "A party."
Carly's whole face dropped. "I really don't."
"Tommy already invited you didn't he?"
"That's not the point."
"Text him back." Whitney was already moving toward the closet. "You have been working yourself into the ground since the semester started and you need one night where you are not planning something or studying something or stressing about something."
"I have homework." Carly said.
Whitney stopped walking and turned around slowly. "I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that."
"Whitney-"
"The spells are not going anywhere Care." She grabbed Carly by the wrist and pulled her toward the closet before she could argue further. "One night. That's all I'm asking."
Carly let herself be dragged. "Do I even have a choice?"
"Absolutely not." Whitney was already pulling dresses off hangers.
From across the room Katy looked up from her unpacking. "Aren't I invited?"
Neither of them answered.
Katy laughed to herself. "So much for witch hospitality." She grabbed her jacket off the bed and headed out the door before either of them could say anything.
Whitney waited until the door clicked shut. "I really don't like her."
"Make it two of us." Carly muttered, already reaching for the red flare dress at the back of her rack.
The Hole was exactly what it sounded like.
Tucked behind the football field at the far edge of Black River Academy's campus, where the tree line of Black River Falls pressed in close and the fog sat low on the ground year round, was an abandoned two story building that hadn't been touched in decades. The story went that a group of vampire seniors took it upon themselves to gut it out and claim it about fifty years ago after getting kicked out of a football team victory party. They built it up from nothing, from a literal hole in the ground, and the name stuck.
Whether the school administration genuinely didn't know about it or had simply decided to look the other way was a question nobody asked out loud.
What started as a private feeding ground had evolved into the one place on campus where every faction showed up without a formal invitation and nobody started a war. At least not usually. All creatures were welcome. The music was always too loud, the smoke was always too thick and it was always at least a hundred degrees inside regardless of the weather.
Carly didn't love coming here. Being surrounded by vampires in an enclosed space was not her idea of a relaxing evening. But she had her history with this place like everyone else and Whitney's grip on her wrist suggested tonight was not up for debate.
The music hit them before they even got through the door.
Carly huffed the moment they stepped inside and the crowd immediately swallowed them whole. Shoulders bumping her from every direction, bodies packed so tight she could barely see two feet ahead. She and Whitney locked arms so they wouldn't lose each other and pushed through.
Almost the entire senior class was here. Every faction still keeping to their own corners of the room even in the one place where the rules supposedly didn't apply. Sirens were running drinks to whoever held out a hand. A cluster of witches were cackling in the corner, already past the point of no return. The werewolves had claimed the beer pong table on the far side of the room and from the noise coming from that direction they had been there for a while.
And across the room, lounged in the far corner like they were holding court, were the vampires.
Carly's eyes found them automatically. She hated that they always did that.
She didn't know what it was about them that made her fixate. Something about the way they occupied space like they belonged everywhere and owed explanations to nobody. It irritated her and fascinated her in equal measure and she resented both feelings equally.
She forced her eyes away just as Whitney spotted someone across the room and her whole face changed.
"I'll grab us drinks!" Whitney called over the music and was gone before Carly could get a single word out.
"Seriously?" Carly stood there alone, arms crossing over her chest, back pressing against the nearest wall like it might protect her.
She hated this. She hated standing alone in a crowded room with nowhere to put her hands and nothing to do with her face. Her anxiety cranked itself up immediately, filling in every gap with worst case scenarios. She wanted to leave. She was absolutely not going to leave because Whitney would feel terrible and Carly would rather suffer than make Whitney feel terrible.
She bobbed her head slightly to the music. Smiled and nodded at the coven members who passed by sober enough to recognize her. Checked the time on her phone twice in the span of ninety seconds.
And then her eyes drifted to the lounge corner without her permission.
Niko was on the couch.
Leather jacket. Black jeans. Red plastic cup twirling between two fingers like he was bored with it. His dark curls were slightly pushed back and his jaw carried a little more scruff than usual. He was laughing at something one of his friends said but it didn't reach his eyes. Even from across the room she could see it. He looked like someone doing an impression of a person having a good time.
She watched him drag a hand through his hair and lean back against the couch with a slow exhale aimed at the ceiling.
Then a redhead appeared.
She came out of nowhere, dropping onto the couch beside him dramatically, immediately pressing herself into his side. Carly recognized her vaguely from the cafeteria earlier in the week. Short black skater skirt, red halter top, fishnet stockings, thigh high boots. She was tiny and confident and she tucked herself under Niko's arm like she had done it a thousand times before.
Niko didn't pull away.
He handed her the cup he was holding and let her lace her fingers through his and Carly's jaw tightened without her telling it to.
She looked away.
Looked back.
They were still wrapped up in each other, talking to the people around them like it was the most natural thing in the world. Easy and casual and practiced. Like a habit.
So they were a thing then.
Not that it mattered. It didn't matter at all. She was just surprised because she had never once pictured Niko Monroeson as someone who did the whole girlfriend thing. He didn't seem like the type.
She wasn't still looking at them. She had stopped looking at them.
Whitney appeared at her elbow and Carly nearly levitated off the floor.
"Dammit Whitney!"
"Sorry! I told you I'd be right back." Whitney pressed a red cup into her hand.
"Right back and abandoning me are two different things." Carly said.
"We're at a school function. I wasn't going to leave you somewhere dangerous." Whitney said it lightly but she was already reading Carly's face with those sharp brown eyes of hers. "You okay?"
"Fine." Carly took a long sip. The vodka burned a clean path down and she welcomed it. "I'm fine. Let's go find Tommy."
Whitney followed her gaze across the room toward the beer pong table where Tommy was mid throw, pack surrounding him, cheering like he'd just scored a touchdown.
He didn't look up when they approached.
Carly settled beside him and his arm went around her waist automatically, lips landing on her cheek.
"Hey, sorry the game kind of got out of hand." He laughed, already reaching for the next cup.
"Don't apologize." She meant it. "It's the last party before everyone has to actually start stressing. Have fun."
He pulled her closer and pressed his cheek against the top of her head. "You're the best you know that?"
"And you're already drunk." She laughed softly, reaching up to wipe a smear of something off his lip with her thumb.
He hummed happily and turned back to the table.
Whitney had already dissolved into easy conversation with half the pack, laughing and leaning in the way she did when she was comfortable. Carly stood beside Tommy and nursed her drink and watched the room.
A few minutes passed.
Tommy scored another point. The pack erupted. He threw his arms up and looked around at everyone celebrating with him.
His eyes skipped right over her.
Not on purpose. She was almost certain it wasn't on purpose. He was just excited and caught up and there were a lot of people here and he had been drinking since before she arrived.
She told herself that.
She took another sip.
Across the room the redhead was whispering something in Niko's ear with her hand on his chest and he was listening with his eyes half closed and Carly needed to stop looking in that direction entirely.
She handed her empty cup to the nearest surface. "I'm going to grab Tommy some water." She touched his arm briefly. "Jerry watch him for a sec?"
Jerry gave her a thumbs up without looking away from the table.
She turned and started pushing through the crowd toward the back of the building.
Upstairs was somehow worse. More people, more smoke, more noise. She didn't even know the school had this many students until she was trying to move through all of them at once.
She started opening doors looking for a bathroom, mentally preparing herself for what she might find behind each one.
Third door.
She wished she had prepared better.
Niko was on the floor mattress on his back and the redhead was straddling him, her lips on his neck and her fingers buried in his hair. His jacket was on the floor. Her boots were off. His hands were under her skirt and the whole scene was something Carly was going to need significant time to unsee.
She stood in the doorway completely frozen.
Her hand was on the knob and her feet were not moving and she was fully aware that she should close the door and walk away and she was not doing that.
The redhead turned her head and found Carly in the doorway.
"Enjoying the show?" She said it sweet as poison.
Niko looked up.
His expression did that thing it sometimes did around her where it reset. The heat cleared out of his eyes and something more focused replaced it. He looked at her the way he had been looking at her all week. Steady. Unreadable. Like he was waiting to see what she would do.
The redhead's hand was still on his chest.
Carly's throat moved. "I was just looking for a bathroom. Obviously this isn't it."
"Obviously." The redhead smiled without warmth.
"Right." Carly stepped back and grabbed the door handle. "Sorry to interrupt."
She pulled the door shut.
Then she put her back against it and stood in the hallway and breathed.
Her chest was doing something she refused to name. It wasn't jealousy. She did not feel jealous over Niko Monroeson. That was not something that was happening inside her body right now.
She pushed off the door and went back downstairs.
She found Whitney in the same spot. Tommy was on his fourth round.
"Hey." Carly touched Whitney's arm. "I think I'm heading out."
Whitney turned immediately. "You okay?"
"Just tired."
Tommy caught the tail end of it and pulled her in by the waist. "You sure?" He searched her face with genuinely concerned eyes. He had sobered up a fraction.
"I'm sure." She kissed him quickly. "Have fun. Text me when you're back."
She hugged Whitney and started making her way toward the exit.
The fresh air hit her face the second she pushed through the door and she felt the weight of the whole night lift about twenty percent off her shoulders. The cold of Black River Falls settled over her skin, damp and clean, the kind of cold that came off the forest and smelled like pine and wet earth.
She walked alone back toward the residence halls and told herself she was fine.
She had left because she was tired. That was all.
It had absolutely nothing to do with the image she was never going to be able to get out of her head.
Author's Note:
Okay the way Carly's feet stopped working at that door. We are not going to talk about it. We are not. Drop a like and tell me in the comments what you think is actually going on with her because she clearly needs someone to explain it to her. Add us to your library because Niko is about to show up somewhere he has absolutely no business being!