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“Jeez, I didn’t think there was anyone in town capable of outdoing Melanie on that front. What happened?”
“I don’t even know where to start, but at this rate, my head might explode before Monday rolls around.”
Greyson laughs again, the deep boom of it bouncing around my skull and helping to drown out the echoes of Dominic’s cutting remarks. “As it happens, you little drama gremlin, I was calling to ask if you wanna head to The Cauldron tonight? You sound like you're in need of a stiff drink.”
I hesitate, my plans before answering the call having been to stomp home and wallow by myself. However, a night of drinking and dancing with my friends at my favorite spooky-themed tavern might be just what I need to convince myself that life here in Avalon isn’t as depressing as my snobby stepbrother seems to think it is.
“Yeah,” I finally answer. “Sounds like a plan. Who else is coming? Did you text the group chat?”
“Oh, um, no not yet. You’re the only person I’ve asked. I’ll, uh, drop a line in there now.” Greyson’s slightly reluctant response has me raising an eyebrow, though I know he can’t see it. I choose not to question him, my thoughts wandering instead through a number of outfit choices I’ll need to narrow down once I make it home.
“Cool, I’ll see you there then. Laters, Grey.” I hang up before anything grows awkward.
Several hours and one meager PB&J later, I’m pushing through the heavy oak door of The Cauldron, a mechanical witch’s cackle greeting my arrival. I’m immediately enveloped by the familiar warmth of the old place, soothing the gooseflesh that pebbles beneath my fishnets from the late September chill outside. An easy grin spreads across my cheeks as I seek out my friends in the crowd of costumed patrons and masked staff carrying trays of smoking cocktails.
Coming here will always make any crappy day feel better.
I spot Greyson’s towering figure at a table in the corner with several members of our Avalon High group chat, a motley crew of would-be loners who have very little in common beyond our workplace but love each other all the same. This is something Dominic will never understand–the quiet comfort of being surrounded by people who appreciate our cozy,‘worthless smudge on the map’as much as I do.
“Shiloh, you made it!” Greyson pulls me in for a one-armed hug. “Jemma was just filling us in on your sponsor issue, no wonder you sounded so grumpy on the phone!”
“Ugh, don’t remind me, please,” I answer with a grimace. “My plan tonight is to get drunk enough that I stop thinking about the disaster of it all.”
“I figure the call with your brother didn’t go so well then?” Jemma asks, worriedly eyeing me over the top of a goblet of red wine.
“Mystepbrother, thank you very much. I don’t share blood with that demon. And no, you could say it went about as well as if I had asked him to dress up as a cockerel and nail himself to my roof.”
Greyson cringes and sucks air through his teeth with a pained hiss. “Sounds like a jolly family reunion. Let me get you a pint,” he offers, patting me on the back before weaving his way to the bar. I smooth out my black skirt and matching crop top as he walks away, pleasantly surprised with how well my look came together.
“Well, I guess it’s back to the drawing board then,” Jemma mumbles, staring into her drink. “Should have known we shouldn’t get our hopes up for a knight in tailored Tom Ford.”
I laugh loudly despite the general gloom of it all, winding my arm around Jemma as she huffs her own muted giggle. Our timid librarian has never met Dominic, having moved to townyears after he’d left for New York, but she’s hit the nail on the head with that apt description. No doubt she’s picturing her own corporate tormentor when she envisions a villain in a suit. The oldest of our group at thirty-nine, Jemma moved to Avalon five years ago after a messy divorce from a tax accountant, cheating bastard. As far as any of us know, she’s sworn off men for good in favor of books and quiet solitude.
A cause I can get behind, that’s for sure.
“Honestly Jem, if I were to describe Dominic as a knight, he’d have to be one of the Knights Templar. You know, rich and self-righteous and crusading through town just to leave a bloody mess in his wake.” I squeeze her shoulder as the rest of our group chuckles at my dark joke.
“Wait, I thought he hadn’t been in town for more than a decade?” Luke asks, the beefy gym teacher nursing his own pint.
“Oh yeah, get this,” I start, shaking my head. “He slammed me with a resounding‘fuck off’over the phone last night, and then drove more than two hours this morning just to do it all over again in person. I mean what apsycho, am I right?” I feel royally vindicated as I’m met with incredulous stares from each of my friends in turn. Even people who didn’t grow up with Dominic as a constant shadow in their home can agree he’s a raging jerk.
“I don’t get it. What possible reason could he have for being such an asshole to his own family?” Ruby pipes up. My fellow English teacher is the newest addition to our ranks, having only started at the school at the beginning of this semester. The closest to my age, and obviously sharing the fierce passion Jemma and I have for literature, Ruby is someone I hope to become good friends with in time. I can’t say I ever had a best friend growing up. These days the closest I have are Greyson and Luke, but they have their own bromance going on that I never feel fully a part of.
“Oh, honey, let me debrief you on the drama as succinctly as possible.Basically,Dominic’s mom cheated on his rich and successful father withmypoor and lowly mechanic dad, and then forced him to move here to this middle-of-nowhere town when he was twelve. He’s never forgiven her for it and has hated everyone and everything in this place ever since, including me.”
“Yikes, that’s a messy story,” Ruby says with a wry smile. “But still, it’s not like any of it was your fault. Why would Dominic bear such a grudge againstyouthat he’d go to the effort of driving all the way here just to upset you?”
“Eh, he’s just a miserable grouch and always has been. He gets off on inflicting suffering,” I answer with a dismissive wave of my hand. “I don’t know if it’s because I came as an unwelcome package deal with my dad when our parents got married, or because he hates all women, or because he’s just the spawn of Satan–but I endured a peachy four years of constant torture before he moved back to New York and left us all in peace.”
“And good riddance!” Greyson toasts from behind me, placing down a pint of my favorite rich stout. I can’t count the number of hours we’ve spent bonding over childhood trauma since Greyson fled his own screwed-up family to find some quiet relief in Avalon. I guess most of my fellow townsfolk who didn’t grow up here settled in our little patch of nowhere precisely because it was such a stark contrast to whatever chaos they needed to escape elsewhere.
“Here, here!” I raise my drink to my lips and take a long pull of the dark ale. “If it’s alright with everyone else, I’d like to pretend none of it ever happened for the rest of the evening.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Ruby chimes in, raising her brightly colored cocktail. “Come on, Shy, let’s go dance. You’re in need of distraction.”
The DJ puts on an upbeat remix ofThrillerand suddenly I’m being pulled through a writhing mass of sweaty bodies andinto the middle of the dance floor. I laugh and sway with the rest of them, eagerly accepting several more drinks as my friends band together to take my mind off Dominic’s assholery and the looming peril of our beloved Halloween Ball.
By the time it’s my turn to get the next round, I’m tripping over my own feet a little as I make my way to the bar. Strong hands steady me and I look up to see Greyson’s flushed cheeks spread in an amused grin. “You okay?” he yells over the music.
