“Nice. A virgin drink for the Virgin,” he said with a chuckle. I stiffened, and his eyes widened. “Wait… is it too soon to make jokes about that dumbass nickname?” he added hurriedly.
“Maybe a little,” I said, shoulders relaxing as I realized he wasn’t actually mocking me.
“Sorry. I was just kidding, I swear.”
I smiled. “It’s fine. I get it.”
“I’m going to go and get us some drinks too,” Trina interjected, giving me a meaningful side-eye before striding off toward the table.
Adam hastily followed her, leaving me alone with Chris.
“Come for a walk,” he said, cocking his head to one side. “It’s kinda loud here, and I want to show you something.”
My cheeks grew warm. “Sure.”
He led me past the bonfire, toward a dark path along the lake. The black water looked oily as it caught glints of moonlight, and above that, thick fog hung in eerie gray clouds.
“It’s a great night for a party like this,” I said, echoing Trina’s earlier comments. “It looks like a horror movie set.”
“Yeah, it turned out perfectly with the fog and the giant moon. Lucky, huh?” Chris said. He dipped his chin toward my left. “Go that way. There’s another path.”
“You know, I’d feel a lot safer about wandering into the woods with you if you didn’t have a machete hanging off your hip,” I replied, raising my brows.
He laughed. “Don’t worry, it’s fake,” he said. He paused. “Hey, can you hold my drink for a minute?”
“Sure.”
After I took his cup, he grabbed his cell phone out of his jacket pocket and turned on the flashlight app to illuminate our new path. His free hand rested on the small of my back as we walked. At first his touch made me stiffen—I wasn’t used to guys putting their hands on me—but I relaxed into it eventually. He wasn’t going to hurt me. The hand on my back was just a protective gesture.
“I’m taking you to one of the abandoned school buildings,” he said. “You’ve heard of them, right?”
“You mean the half-finished ones from thirty years ago?”
“Yeah. They look creepy as fuck at night. I figured you’d think it was cool, though.”
“Well, I do like creepy things. That’s why I’m hanging out with you,” I said in a teasing tone.
He grinned. “Smart-ass.”
We halted and put our drinks down on a flat rock as we reached a clearing in the forest. A half-constructed gray brick building stood in the center.
My eyes widened as I took it in.
Time hadn’t been kind to the place. Parts of it had crumbled under the weight of decay and neglect, and like Trina and Adam told me two weeks ago, it looked ancient despite its relatively young age compared to the rest of RFA. It was still beautiful, though. The brick was banded with stonework that ran around the building, carved with rosettes and fleur-de-lis emblems.
“Wow,” I said breathlessly, running a hand over one of the rosettes. “This is so cool.”
“Told ya,” Chris said. He turned off his phone light, allowing our eyes to adjust to the building under the moonlight. “Anyway… I have a question for you.”
“What is it?”
“Why does Hunter hate you so much?”
I frowned. “He hasn’t told you?”
“Nope. It’s fucking weird.”
“Then you know as much as me,” I said, lifting one shoulder in a feeble shrug. “I wouldn’t have a clue why he hates me.”