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  “Give me five,” he said shortly, before shutting the door in their faces.

  He buttoned his jeans and threw on a T-shirt, coming back to the bed to turn his alarm clock in my direction. I nodded, knowing it was time I got up and got ready for class too. He kissed me quickly and left.

  Thirty-One

  “So,” Briar said smugly as she joined me in the library for a study session later that day, “How was your date with GG?”

  “It wasn’t a date,” I told her, picking up a book and hiding behind it surreptitiously.

  Briar snorted and leaned across the small table to peer at me over the book. “C’mon Evie,” she said, shaking her head of curls, “An art show, fancy dinner, just the two of you…even you have to admit that constitutes a date.”

  “Fine,” I sighed, “But even people who are casually fucking go out to eat first.”

  Briar threw back her head and laughed, causing one of the librarians to glare in our direction. I shrank a little lower in my seat and hoped Briar would keep the noise down. I liked the library. It was a nice, dark, quiet place to hide.

  “Then how do you explain the necklace?” Briar continued with determination, “He had it made especially. He fretted about it for weeks.”

  I scoffed and raised an eyebrow. Stone fret? Not likely.

  Briar rolled her eyes, “He was nervous about it. I could tell. He wasn’t sure what you liked.”

  “And he didn’t think to ask?” I muttered beneath my breath, but Briar heard me.

  “Wouldn’t be a surprise if he did,” she said with a shrug, “Besides, he asked my opinion…sort of.”

  “Anyway,” I said briskly, absently stroking the charm, “He said he wanted to spoil me. Men spoil their mistresses all the time. It’s like the golden rule. Keep her happy with pretty things and she’ll keep you happy in bed.”

  Briar gaped at me.

  “It’s true!” I insisted.

  Briar collapsed in giggles and shook her head. “Idiot,” she muttered, then raised her voice a little louder, “Stone wouldn’t bother to buy you. If whoever he’s dating gets tired of him or vice versa…he just shrugs and finds someone else to bang. It’s not as if it’s difficult for him to find someone.”

  I glared at her and slammed my book closed. “This discussion is over,” I said firmly, getting up from my seat and storming off.

  “Evie, wait!” I heard her cry out after me, but I didn’t look back.

  ***

  I walked into my room with a long sigh that night. After the conversation with Briar, I’d sat uncomfortably through all my classes, before heading to the rugby field to run lap after lap in an attempt to clear my head. A few of the rugby players had been out running laps too, and after a little hesitation on their part, they’d started running laps with me, asking about the band and I think maybe flirting a little. They certainly tried to casually drop in a lot of questions about Stone, which didn’t help me forget him one bit.

  I lingered in the shower, relaxing into the hot spray, until Candy barged into the bathroom.

  “Is Stone in there with you?” she asked hopefully, trying to peak around the curtain.

  “No,” I said firmly, trying to pull the curtain to block her view of me, “And don’t perve on Stone.”

  “Why?” she teased as she jumped up to sit on the vanity, “Because he’s your boyfriend?”

  “No,” I said firmly, sticking just my head out to look at her, “Because you have one.”

  Candy rolled her eyes. “I’m allowed to look,” she said with a laugh, throwing a towel at me when I turned off the taps, “How was your night last night?”

  I blushed. “Good. Yours?”

  Candy beamed and jumped down excitedly. “Mason has to go away this weekend, so he bought me two all-expense-paid passes to a spa in town. I thought we’d make a real girls’ day of it and go out afterwards…just you and me.”

  I looked at her excited face and didn’t have the heart to turn her down…even if it meant I had to spend the whole day practically naked in front of a heap of strangers. I hated spas.

  “Sure,” I forced a happy smile, “Sounds like fun.”

  “C’mon,” she said when I’d pulled on fresh clothes, “Let’s go get some dinner…before Stone comes storming in here, demanding where you are.”

  “He’s not that bad,” I whispered.

  Candy just laughed.

  ***

  Stone wasn’t at our usual table when Candy and I entered the hall. She shot me a ‘told you so’ look and sat down next to Briar. “Where’s Stone at?” she asked cheerfully.

  Briar shrugged, “I thought he must be with Evie. I haven’t seen him.”

  “He’s in his room,” Jamie said around a huge mouthful of burger, but didn’t elaborate.

  I frowned at Stone’s empty seat and fidgeted with uncertainty. He never missed dinner. Was he upset with me? Was he injured or sick?

  I glanced worriedly at Briar, who shrugged her shoulders at me. Her brow creased in thought, before she leant into Alec’s side and smiled up at him. “When’s that Music assignment due?” she asked him softly. Alec smiled back at her, slipping an arm around her shoulders.

  “Thursday morning,” he replied, “Why?”

  Briar rolled her eyes at me, “I bet you anything Stone’s only just starting the theory component now.”

  Jamie’s head snapped up, “There’s a theory component?” His eyes widened in panic and he dropped his burger.

  Alec groaned and dropped his head in his hands, looking over at Jamie through his fingers. “Need help man?” he asked slowly, trying to sound enthusiastic, but failing miserably.

  “Dude, I owe you one,” Jamie said with a wide grin, gathering up his remaining food and shoving it in his backpack.

  “You owe me more than one James,” Alec said with a laugh as he pushed away from the table and stood. “We still on for tomorrow?” he asked Briar and she blushed as every head at the table snapped towards them.

  “Sure thing,” she said breezily, looking everywhere but at him. He grinned knowingly and tussled her hair, before slapping a hand on Jamie’s back and guiding him toward the stairs.

  “What’s happening tomorrow?” Fredi and Candy asked in unison, leaning forward in their seats.

  Briar rolled her eyes, “Nothing major. Alec’s just going to be my model for this suit design I have to create.”

  Candy giggled, “So I guess tomorrow you’re taking his…measurements.”

  Fredi hooted and clapped her hands, standing up on her chair and whistling loudly as Donny and Candy joined in.

  “Shut up,” Briar said with a blush and a laugh, “I need to measure you all as well and then we have to go shopping for material.”

  I looked at her blankly but Candy and Fredi seemed to know what she was talking about. Fredi snorted and shook her head, saying she’d create her own costume, whilst Candy started discussing ideas. I thought hard for a moment, then realised what next weekend was…Halloween.

  I rolled my eyes. No wonder they were excited. Living in the southern coastal areas of Australia, Briar and Candy had never celebrated Halloween before. People in Australia didn’t celebrate the holiday officially and no one ever trick or treated. Certain towns in the Northern Territory did though…but only because there used to be a big U.S. army settlement here. The residents had adopted some of the traditions, Halloween being the most notable.

  I quietly agreed to meet Briar for measurements and slipped into the dinner line, grabbing food for both Stone and I, before nervously making my way up the stairs to his room.

  ***

  I hesitated at his door. Just because he’d let me in once…that didn’t mean he wanted me dropping in all the time.

  But I’d brought him dinner and the trays were starting to get heavy in my hands. That was another problem. My hands were full.

  I gently kicked the door and bit my lip.

  “Fuck off,” came a deep, calm growl from behind t
he door.

  “Um,” I said quietly, shifting my weight from foot to foot, “I brought you dinner.”

  There was no answer, but after a few seconds, the door swung open and Stone stared down at me.

  “Hi,” I whispered, “I thought you might like something to eat.”

  He nodded his head in a gesture for me to enter as he took both trays from my hands and set them on the floor beside several large piles of books and his laptop. Sitting on the floor, he grabbed the fullest tray and began to steadily eat it clean. I sat down slowly and carefully picked up my knife and fork.

  “Do...Do you have much left to do?” I asked quietly, glancing at his blank word document and the scribbles covering his notebook as I started to eat.

  He nodded once, leaning back against his bed as he picked up a burger and tossed me the criteria sheet. I scanned the detailed document and discovered it was very much like the photography assignment I had to do. His was also in two parts…but they both seemed to be due at the same time. Like me, he’d been asked to pick a famous photographer – or composer in his case – and write an essay on them. Then, he had to choose one of their pieces, analyse it, and then recreate it in anyway he wanted. I winced when I realised the second half of my assignment would be due in a few weeks and I hadn’t made much headway.

  I glanced at one of the books and raised an eyebrow in surprise. Tchaikovsky? Really?

  “Which piece did you recreate?” I asked curiously. Stone’s rare grin split his face, making the scar on his eyebrow stand out sharply. He took a CD from its case and got up to place it in his surround sound system. He turned off the light and snatched up a control, turning the volume up (but not too loud) before he hit play.

  I recognised the song immediately, the distinctive and familiar melody clear, even when played with completely different instruments. Stone had reworked the notes to The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies from The Nutcracker and had given them to his band to play. His metal band. No, it wasn’t screamo music…but he’d managed to dramatically increase the subtle eeriness of the piece. The strong, clear twang and ring of the electric guitar sent shivers up my spine, but it was Alec’s soft, deep voice crooning dark, lonely words to the piece that had my hair standing on end.

  My eyes shot to Stone in awe, but his eyes were closed as he stood in the centre of the room and listened. I followed his example, closing my eyes and taking in every word of the song. I felt another corner of my heart accept defeat and fell just a little more in love with him.

  My eyes snapped open and I shook myself hard.

  NO!

  “That was amazing,” I said breathlessly as the last, soulful note ended and Stone turned the light back on. He shrugged and sat back down to pick up a book.

  “Need help?” I asked tentatively, eyeing the piles of research he still had to do.

  He paused.

  I held my breath for what felt like forever, but eventually he nodded. I sat down beside him and pulled a book towards me, making myself comfortable for the long night ahead.

  ***

  I crashed in Stone’s room that night and woke early to find him typing rapidly. We’d finished the research the night before, but it looked like Stone would be busy writing all day. I got up slowly and nibbled at the toast Stone had placed by the bed. He looked my way briefly, but turned back to his laptop and kept working. Swimming in one of his T-shirts, I crawled sleepily along the bed to lean over his shoulder where he sat on the floor. I glanced at the screen and realised he must have been working for close to an hour already. His fingers paused, then continued slowly for a bit, before he finally put the computer down with a sigh of frustration.

  “Go,” he said firmly.

  I froze.

  “Umm,” I murmured with uncertainty, “What?”

  “Leave,” he said gruffly, “I can’t think.”

  “Oh,” I said blankly, leaning back, “Alright.” I tried not to sound hurt, but I mustn’t have done a good job because Stone sighed and reached behind to grab me and pull me down into his lap.

  “You smell good,” he said, nuzzling my neck and inhaling deeply. He ran his hands underneath the T-shirt and cupped my bare breasts, “You’re distracting.”

  “Ah,” I whispered, feeling much better, “Sorry.” I kissed his cheek and scrambled from his lap, nervously pulling on my clothes as he watched.

  I hesitated at the door. “Want me to wait up for you?” I asked tentatively.

  He shook his head and picked up his laptop again. I’ll come to you, his eyes blazed hotly.

  I hurried out the door.

  ***

  “I’m not wearing that,” I said in a small, horrified voice the next day when Briar showed me her sketch of my Halloween costume. She wanted to dress me as a cheatah. A very skanky, ripped up, skin-tight cheetah outfit.

  Briar pouted. “Pl-ease,” she begged me, “It’s Halloween. My first Halloween! Please wear it for me! I designed it specifically for you…”

  Knowing there was no way I was going to get out of it, I sighed my defeat. “Fine.”

  She whooped with glee. “You’ll love it, I promise.”

  I just nodded and made a note to work extra hard at the gym this week.

  “What are you wearing?” I asked her curiously. She visibly brightened and ran to her closet to pull out the already completed ensemble.

  “I thought we’d go for an animal theme,” she said excitedly, holding up the tiniest bunny outfit I’d ever seen. Thank God our Halloween is in the middle of Spring, I thought, eyeing the strapless leotard-looking thing and fishnet stockings.

  “What are you making Candy?” I asked quickly, deciding not to comment on her outfit.

  “Ooh we went shopping last night,” Briar giggled, hunting through the huge pile of fabric on her bed to show me a roll of beautiful blue and green shimmery lycra and a plain white, strapless bra, “I thought with her beautiful red hair she should be Ariel! The little mermaid!”

  She pulled out her notebook and showed me pictures, trying to explain the exact method she was going to use to gather material over the bra to make it look like shells. She lost me at the beginning, but I nodded slowly, wondering where Briar was going to find the time to make all these in just a little over a week.

  “What are the boys going as?” I asked in attempt to stop the riveting monologue on types of thread.

  Briar paused and chuckled softly. “I want them to come as different types of hunters,” she said slowly, “But they’ll need convincing.”

  “What did they go as last year?” I asked curiously.

  “The band all went as Marvel characters,” she said with a laugh, “Stone just went in torn shorts, let Fredi paint him green and called himself the Incredible Hulk.”

  She wrinkled her nose at me, “It took me days to convince him to let Fredi paint him green.”

  I giggled as I pictured a green Stone, wearing practically nothing. He would have been an alarming sight.

  “So,” Briar said in that tone of voice I knew meant trouble, “It’s up to you to convince him to wear his costume this year.”

  “What?” I cried in alarm, shooting up from the bed, “How bad is it?”

  Briar showed me the picture and I felt my heart sink. No way would I be able to convince him to wear that. I shook my head rapidly.

  “C’mon Evie,” Briar coaxed, “Candy and I are going to work on Alec and Mason. Jamie has already agreed to his and Fredi is working on Donny.”

  “But they’re all easy!” I protested, “Stone’s stubborn!”

  “You can do it. I know you can,” she winked at me, “You’ll think of something.”

  Great.

  ***

  Luckily, I didn’t have to deal with the costume situation just then. The rest of the week passed without an incidents and the band actually spent a Saturday night at home for once. Which was a good thing, because early Sunday morning, I was ripped from my comfy bed by Candy, Stone having left the bed several h
ours earlier due to sleeplessness.

  “What’s up?” I muttered sleepily.

  “Did you forget?” she accused playfully, “It’s spa time!”

  I groaned and headed for the shower, determined to put on a happy face so I didn’t spoil Candy’s day.

  It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought. I eventually got used to walking around in nothing but a robe and some of the treatments were actually pretty good. We had smoking hot masseurs too! On the flipside though, I had to endure another wax. Yeow!