Book 3: Chaos

Candace

“No!” I shout as I’m ripped away from Hollis. Like anyone will hear me over the chaos the crowd has broken out into.

It’s worse than any other ritual—or maybe this is the only one I’ve been in the crowd during. Scents buffet me from every direction—flowers, trees, body odor, stale alcohol. Someone shoves me to one side, and another person pushes me right back. I try to fight, but I don’t even know what I’m fighting for. To reach Hollis? Last night was supposed to be our last time together, a goodbye to what we could’ve been. His attachment to me today is… I’m not sure. Guilt, maybe?

Or, a small part of me suggests, he actually came because he wants to be with you.

That part keeps getting me in trouble. Last night was supposed to be about killing it as well, and yet here it is again.

“I can’t imagine,” someone says to the person next to them. “Do you think she found them together?”

Eva. The look she gave me last night stabs