After several moments, she held up her cell phone in triumph. “I have all sorts of playlists.” She scrolled through her phone.
I still stood near the trash can, watching her with amusement. “Um, maybe we can skip the dancing?” I wasn’t sure bouncing around would help my stomach, and I really didn’t want to throw up.
“When I was a girl, our church used to hold youth dances,” Whitney said, twirling around as if dancing with an invisible partner. “I loved going to those.”
“Y’know, I’ve never been to prom before,” I said, returning to the couch.
The pain across my midsection was much less severe when I was sitting. Maybe I could convince Whitney to sit and talk some more.
“Me either,” she said. “Then again, prom really wasn’t a thing when I was in school. I did go to some parties in college, but it’s not the same thing.” She giggled and flopped down next to me on the couch.
“I’m really hoping nothing goes wrong this year so I can go to senior prom,” I said.
A ripple of excitement burst in my chest at the thought of going to prom with Trent. The night of the charity event with Dad and Larissa, Trent had looked incredible in a tuxedo, and even though we’d danced, I hadn’t remembered him. I wanted a magical night like that with him now that I knew who he was and how much he meant to me.
“Oh, tell me all about high school.” Whitney bounced on the couch like a kid who’d just been handed the biggest present from beneath the Christmas tree.
I laughed. “It’s awful.”
She frowned, her brows furrowed. “Really?”
“The school I attended in Florida wasn’t bad. Malibu was the worst! But I really love going to school in Keene Valley. Everyone is so nice, and I have some of the best friends there.”
Homesickness collided with sadness in my chest. I missed Aunt Beth and Uncle Dean and Abby and all my friends. I’d give anything for all of this to be over so I could go home.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX:
No More Lies
FOR THE NEXT HOUR, WHITNEY INTERROGATED me about school, my friends, and my family. She hung on every answer I gave her. I had no idea how she wasn’t bored out of her mind. But for every answer I gave, she asked three more questions.
“I’d love to go back to high school,” Whitney said, her voice dreamy.
“You’re insane.” I laughed. “I can’t wait to graduate and be done with it.”
“School would be a lot more fun if I was there with you,” she said with all the confidence in the world. “I could pretend to be a student teacher or something. That worked out so well for me before.” She giggled.
Soon, I was giggling right along with her. The image of Whitney as a student teacher was hilarious. Not because she looked too young—which she did—but because I could already see every guy in school drooling over her.
“You’d be better off going back as a student,” I said, inhaling a deep breath.
“That would be fun, too,” she said.
The guys arrived home. Their expressions were somber, yet they gave off a certain energy—excitement, adrenaline, and hyper-activeness.
Trent rounded the couch. “Looks like you two are having fun.” His eyes sparkled in that way I loved, and a teasing smile lifted the corners of his mouth.
“We are,” I said, sharing a secretive look with Whitney.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Jax watching me. He was smiling, too, but his was full of longing. Is that how he’d looked at me when he watched me in Malibu? My breath hitched.
Was Whitney right about Jax? I didn’t want anything she said about how Jax felt to be true. Everything in my life was already complicated enough—I didn’t need to add Jax to my heap of problems I couldn’t seem to figure out.
“Well?” Whitney asked, brow raised. “What did you figure out?” Her gaze swept from Trent to Jax to Wyatt to Sean.
“She was definitely killed by a vampire,” Sean said. “But we weren’t able to find any trace of him or her.”
“And the woman?” Whitney asked.
“We hid her body. By the time anyone finds her, she’ll have started to decompose,” Wyatt said.
My stomach churned.
“Everyone will assume it was another lost hiker.” Sean moved toward the coffee table and began to pick up the game we’d been playing earlier.
“Oh, I can take care of that,” I said, jumping to my feet. Really, I just needed something to distract me from the mental image Wyatt had planted in my head.
“Nonsense,” Sean said, waving me off.
He glanced at me and smiled, and with that small gesture, I suddenly felt like we shared some secret knowledge, that in the short time we’d spent together, we’d managed to bond.
Trent held his hand out. “Come upstairs with me?” he asked, his voice a raspy whisper.
Anticipation buzzed through my veins and exploded in my heart, making it beat triple time. Lacing our fingers, he tugged me toward the stairs.
Each step I took was more painful than the last, each footfall jostling my stomach in the most excruciating way. I clutched my midsection and blew out a slow breath. A chill shook my body, and another stab of pain punched at my abdomen. What was going on?
“You okay?” Trent asked. He’d stopped and turned to look at me, concern etched across his face.
“Yeah. My stomach hurts from laughing so much. That’s all.”
Once Trent and I made it to my room, I released his hand. “I need a minute.”
I dug around in my suitcase for pajamas, then made a beeline for the bathroom. After washing up and doing my business, I changed into an oversized gray T-shirt. The second the fabric hit my skin, I broke out in a cold sweat. Clutching the edge of the sink, I lowered my head and waited for it to pass.
“Chloe?” Trent knocked on
