Chapter 17

Ruby

We all turn to look at who just spoke.

“Earl?!” Donna practically shrieks. “Why would you invite this hillbilly?”

“Donna, I don’t appreciate you treating newcomers like this,” Earl says, striding up to me. He smiles and holds his hand out for me to take. When I take his hand, he pulls me up to my feet easily as though I weigh nothing.

“Here,” he says, pulling two invitations out of the inside pocket of his blazer. He hands one to me and one to Nancy, whose face is blushed a deep scarlet red.

“Hmph!” Donna mutters, turning on her heel and storming off. Ethan grimaces at me and then follows her like a lost puppy.

Earl ignores Donna and Ethan, continuing to smile at me. “Don’t worry about them,” he says. “They’re like this with all of the transfers. Pretty soon they’ll get bored of you and move onto someone else.”

“I hope so,” I respond, looking down at the ticket in my hand.

“I hope to see both of you at the party tonight.” With a smile, Earl walks away. I can feel the eyes of the other students on me as they whisper to each other.

After school, the first thing I do is run to Atwood’s office and knock. I hear his muffled voice say “Come in.” When I enter, he’s hunched over some paperwork at his desk. He looks up at me and waves me over to him.

“Ruby,” he says. “How was school?”

“Better today,” I answer. He looks pleased as his eyes travel down to my uniform, but then frowns when he sees the bruise on the side of my head.

“What happened?”

I touch my hand to my temple and shrug. “Oh, nothing really,” I say. “Just a rogue football.”

“Put some ice on it.”

I nod obediently and clasp my hands in front of me.

“I wanted to ask,” I say meekly, “I know my behavior yesterday wasn’t good, but… Well, my friend and I got an invitation for the student council party tonight, and I wanted to know if it would be okay for me to go.”

Atwood smiles and stands, coming around his desk and taking my shoulders in his hands.

“Of course you can go,” he says. “I’ll have Alice pick out a dress for you.”

“No!” I say, a little too loudly. Atwood frowns. “I mean… I was wondering if I could pick one out? I’d like it if Tamara could help me get ready.”

He nods and kisses the top of my head, sending a shiver down my spine, then goes back to sitting at his desk.

“Just be back by eleven,” he says, returning to his paperwork.

Tamara swings her legs merrily as she sits on the edge of my bed. She’s looking much better now, and doesn’t need to use her cane quite as much.

“Oh, Ruby, you look so pretty,” she says as I adjust myself in the mirror. I’ve picked out a pretty lilac purple gown that falls to my ankles. The top layer sparkles in the light, and the dress has tulle underneath to give the skirt volume. I wear a pair of low black heels with it.

I sit down in front of Tamara and let her pull my hair back into two short French braids. As she works, I check my new phone; there is a text from Nancy that reads “So excited! C u soon!” with an attached selfie of her in a forest green dress that matches her red hair well.

“I wish I could go,” Tamara says quietly when she’s done. I turn toward her and take both of her hands in mine.

“You will soon,” I say. “When you’re better, you can go to school, too, and go to parties in all of the pretty dresses you want.”

She smiles, then looks sadly down at her lap. “No one will like me because I’m a hybrid,” she says.

“So what? I’m a hybrid. And besides, by the time you go to school, I’ll be married to Lycan Atwood and no one will bother you because I’ll be their queen.”

My sister looks up at me with her big, round eyes and smiles. She hugs me tightly.

Atwood’s driver drops me off at the party at eight o’clock sharp with instructions to pick me back up at eleven. Nancy pulls up at the same time, and we link our arms together as we head inside.

The party is luxurious and beautifully decorated. A string quartet plays beautiful music as students in expensive gowns and tuxedos mingle, dance, and pick at the buffet with bubbling pink champagne glasses in their hands.

“Wow, this place is amazing,” Nancy says. “I’ll go get us some drinks.” I watch as my friend skitters off toward the bar, and smile as a cute boy walks up to her. He says something to her and she blushes and nods in response, then they head toward the dance floor together.

I don’t mind that Nancy got distracted by a boy. I’m glad to see her enjoying herself.

The buffet looks too good to resist, so I fill a plate with some hors d'oeuvres. I sneakily fill a napkin with some sweets and stick them in my purse for Tamara. Alice has still been forcing her to eat nothing but white bread, so I’m sure she’ll be overjoyed to eat something tasty.

“You could just ask for a box to take some food home,” Earl suddenly says over my shoulder, causing me to jump and nearly drop my plate. I blush and start to stammer out an excuse, but he simply chuckles.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says. “Most of this food goes uneaten because the majority of the students here refuse to eat a lot of the time. I always hate to see it get wasted.”

He picks up a creme puff and pops it in his mouth, smiling as he chews. I do the same. The vanilla cream bursts into my mouth. It tastes sweet and delicious, and we both can’t help but laugh a little bit.

“You look beautiful, by the way,” Earl says when he finishes chewing. I still have creme puff in my mouth. I swallow hard, blushing still.

“Th-thank you,” I murmur.

Just then, the string quartet finishes their song and starts another one. This one is slower and more romantic. Earl holds his hand out to me. “Want to dance?”

My heart skips a beat. Something in me tells me to say no because I’m already Atwood’s mate, but… it’s just one dance, right? I say yes and take Earl’s hand. He leads me to the dance floor as other students stare and whisper, and leads me in a simple waltz.

As we dance, the rest of the room around us fades away. Even the jealous stares of the other girls fade into the distance, and it’s just me and Earl. I’m awkward at first, having never danced like this before, but pick it up quickly with Earl’s lead.

“You’re doing great,” he whispers into my ear, causing me to shiver a little.

We end the song with a dramatic dip. Earl’s face is close to mind and it causes my heart to race. The other students around us are silent for a few moments, but then begin to clap at our performance. I’m not sure if it’s genuine or sarcastic, so I don’t know how to react.

As we exit the dance floor, someone comes up to Earl and whispers something in his ear. Earl frowns at the other boy’s words, but then smiles at me. “I’m very sorry, but I have to attend to something,” he says. “I’ll be back soon. Enjoy the party.”

I can’t find Nancy, so I decide to go and sit down to catch my breath after the dance.

Suddenly, Donna shows up in a blood red gown and sits next to me. I start to get up to walk away from her, but she grabs my hand and pulls me back down with a smile as she leans on the table with her elbow.

“I think we got off on the wrong foot,” she says sweetly.

“Yeah, you think?” I ask. “You threw coffee all over me and your boyfriend hit me in the head with a football.”

She shrugs and slides a champagne glass toward me. “Let’s just let bygones be bygones,” she says, picking up her own glass and raising it to me.

“Oh, I don’t really like to drink,” I say.

Donna frowns.

“Come on, you’re at a party!” she says. “Besides, it’s a peace offering.”

I sigh and look at the glass. It looks like normal champagne, so I relent and take it. We clink our glasses together and drink.

After I take a few sips, Donna smirks at me over her glass and suddenly stands up.

“Well, I’ve got to make the rounds,” she says. “Call me a social butterfly. Toodles!”

With that, Donna skips off into the crowd and disappears.

I’ll admit that the champagne tastes really good, and I drink more. Soon enough, I’ve finished my glass. I start to feel a little dizzy though, but I chalk it up to the fact that I’ve only had alcohol a couple of times in my life, so I stagger to the bathroom in case I throw up.

As I walk down the empty hallway to the bathroom, a boy who I only recognize as one of Ethan’s teammates comes and puts his arm around me.

“Feeling okay, new girl?” he says with a snicker.

“Please don’t touch me,” I say, trying to push him away. But suddenly I feel very weak and dizzy, and collapse into him.

The next thing I know, I’m on the floor in a dimly lit room. Dark figures circle around me. They’re talking, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. One of them bends down toward me and begins to lift my skirt. I want to struggle, but I can barely move.

The figure pulls my skirt up and removes the straps of my dress to expose my breasts.

Help me! I scream in my mind, as I’m unable to speak out loud.

…..

Strong, comforting arms wrap around me and scoop me up off the floor. There’s muffled shouting, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. I black out.

When I wake again, I’m back in bed. Sunlight streams in through the window and my head pounds. I feel as though I’m going to vomit and roll over to the edge of the bed, where a trash can thankfully waits for me.

I finish my heaving and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. I look up to see Atwood standing in front of me. He looks furious, but also concerned.

“As my mate, I expect you to have at least a tiny shred of a sense of self-preservation,” he says angrily with a deep frown. The circles under his eyes look darker than they did when I awoke from my injuries caused by the rogues in the tunnel. “No more parties. From now on, every move you make will be reported to me. You will be chaperoned to and from school. One more wrong move and I will take away your phone, and might just pull you out of school, too.”

“It wasn’t my fau-” I begin, but he cuts me off.

“I don’t want to hear it.” He storms out of the room, leaving me alone.

Why won’t he just listen to me?