Tryst Six Venom by Penelope Douglas

shop is closed, the music’s on low in the workroom, and I’m alone. And
thankful for it. I didn’t want to go home right after school, and I’m not in the
mood to have to talk to customers. I hadn’t turned on the lights when I came
in after school. I still wear my sunglasses. I don’t want to see too much.
I breathe in and out, gluing pearl after pearl, and still smell her with every
breath. Why do I still smell her?
Why do I still feel her weight on me like I did the other night when we
woke up to her parents fighting? She fit so perfectly in my arms, and I didn’t
want to move from that spot, even if a dozen tornadoes were headed our way
or a bomb dropped. I would’ve died there.
Macon was right. I would never have been the one to stop it.
I hate this feeling. I hate that maybe I finally understand a little of what
my mother felt. I don’t want to understand. That kind of despair is pathetic.
I close my eyes, pushing away the tears again, but then I hear the back
door slam shut, and I blink.
I lift my head from the worktable in time to see Callum Ames stroll into
the room. My muscles tense, Milo and two others from our class—Bailey and
Keagan—following Callum in.
Everything inside me tightens, alert.
“What are you doing in here?” I demand. “Get out.”
Callum approaches, and I twist in my stool, about to jump off, but he
leans in as the others take up position around the table.
I glare at him. “Don’t touch me.”
“I will never touch you unless you want me to,” he says in a low voice.
“And you will want me to.”
I look around at the boys, the sun low in the sky outside the windows, and
I take my phone out of my jeans pocket, tapping away.
“I’m calling my brothers,” I tell him.
“Do,” he replies. “You’re not in danger.”
I meet his eyes.
“I guess I’ve never understood rapists and roofies.” He laughs to his
friends. “What fun is it to win something that you have to steal?” He lowers
his voice, husky. “I want things you don’t know you want to give me.”
Oh, please.
“Kiss me,” he says. “Kiss me and I’ll go.”
Is he high?
He pulls off my sunglasses, and I jerk away.