Vile Games (book two)

34 - toxic jealousy

song for chapter:
hearing - sleeping at last
(highly recommend + put on repeat)

ethan's pov
friday, 11:15pm.

I sat at on the barstool with my elbows resting on the island kitchen counter. loud voices having boring conversations surrounded me.

turns out the entire group was planning on having jaylees birthday party at our own house and it seemed like they had no intentions in telling me until I would figure it out on my own, which I did.

I woke up around 12:30pm today and came downstairs to all of them setting up decorations in the living room and kitchen.

and now here we are. twelve shots of tequila in. osman insisted that I come downstairs for the party, but I know jaylee doesn't want anything to do with me.

so instead of bothering her, i'm just simply watching. which is pretty tragic honestly. watching your ex girlfriend laugh with your friends while you're sitting in the kitchen of your own house.

that one kid tate is even talking to her. he just got to the party late, but he's holding a huge platter of cupcakes.

he set them down onto the counter as he greeted the rest of the group. osman smiled wide as they said what's up to each other, patting each other on the back.

my eyes watched as tate asked jaylee which cup cake she wanted to eat first. her eyes lit up as her dimples deepened from her smile. she rubbed her hands together gently as she scanned over each of the cup cakes, then excitedly pointed to one of them.

tate smiled, grabbing the cupcake that she had picked out and put it onto a white plate. grayson leaned over the table, grabbing a small candle stick from a box and sticking it into the center of the cup cake.

froy grabbed the candle lighter from off the table, then started to put the flame over the wick. the candle caught a flame, then someone started to yell loudly.

"yo!" osmans deep voice yelled loudly throughout the house, catching everyone's attention. "it's my best fucking friend, jaylee jackson's birthday today. so, we are gonna sing really fucking loud on the count of three." he informed everyone, causing a crowd of people to cheer.

the lights in the house turned off as they counted down and started to sing happy birthday to her.

the only thing anyone could really see was her. the orange flame from the candle was the only bit of light, and it was glowing next to her face.

she was smiling wide, but with her lips shut. I could tell that her cheeks were gonna be pink by the time the lights were back on. her eyes looked like they were glowing as she scanned all of the people singing to her.

once the song was over, she closed her eyes and made a wish. the smile on her face slowly fell as she thought to herself. it took her about fifteen seconds before she reopened her eyes and blew out the candle.

everyone started to cheer as the lights turned back on, but her smile never came back to her face.

her eyes looked up, directly at me across the kitchen before looking back down to the cupcake.

raven took out the candle and unpeeled a side of the wrapped, then put it up to jaylees mouth to force her to take a bite. instantly, jaylee started to laugh again as she put her focus onto raven.