Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“Twenty-nine,” Sebastian says, walking back into the main room.
“Okay, well come out back, I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
He takes my hand and follows my mom out the sliding glass doors to the backyard.
“Hey, everybody. Teagan is here; she had a little hiking accident. She and her friend, Sebastian, are going to eat with us. Sebastian, that’s my husband, Patrick, over there on the grill,” she says. “And that’s Teagan’s sister, Blakely ”
“Hi,” Blakely says, her brow furrowed with confusion.
“And that’s her fiancé, Austin,” Mom continues.
“Hey,” Austin says, shaking his hand. “Nice to meet you, man.” Then, he leans over and hugs me. “It’s good to see you, too, Teagan. How are you doing? Are you good?”
I nod. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Good.”
“So, what kind of surgeon are you?” my mom asks.
“Critical Care,” he tells her. “So, I do a lot of trauma surgeries, car accidents, GSWs, injuring to the brain, spleen, and liver, stab wounds.”
“I’m going to get something to drink,” I say. “Do you want a beer or something, BSebastian?”
“Yeah, that’d be great,” he says. “Thanks.”
I take my time in the kitchen, grabbing both of us a beer. When I head back outside, he’s standing with my parents telling a surgery story, and even I can’t tell if it’s real or not.
I hand him his beer and tell him I’m going to go sit in the shade.
Because this shit’s weird, and it’s hotit’s about fifteen degrees cooler than it was inland but still hot. And I’m still wearing a coffee-stained hoodie.
I sigh, sitting on the swing, and then bring the collar to my nose and inhale, hoping for comfort while I watch Sebastian laugh with my parents and Austin. My sister watches suspiciously.
A few minutes later, he sits down beside me.
“Why are you doing this?” I whisper. “You can’t be enjoying it. Are you going to kill them or something?”
He laughs and throws his arm around my shoulders before leaning in and kissing me. “Oh, I’m enjoying it,” he says. “And look how happy your mom is. I think she likes me.”
“You’re making me very nervous,” I tell him.
He runs his hand up and down my arm. “You don’t need to worry about me. What should concern you is that I’m better at acting like normal people than you are. That’s an area of yours that could use improvement.”
“You’re good at lying,” I say. “I’ve known good liars before. I don’t like them.”
“That’s not necessarily true, is it?”
I look down at the white sneakers Riv bought for me. A pang of longing washes over me. “How will I know that you really let them go?”
“I told you that I’d prove it to you,” he says. “Give me a couple of days.”
“I miss the way her hair smells.”
“Who? The scared, blonde one?”
I nod. “She was actually good. Like a good person who didn’t deserve any of that. I think I could have been a good person for her.”
“No, you couldn’t,” Sebastian says, ripping me to shreds with honesty once again.
“Food’s ready,” my dad announces.
Sweat pours down my face as we eat our steak and asparagus outside under the covered patio. I listen to Austin and Blakely talk about the wedding and issues they’re having coordinating everything in another country. Sebastian asks questions and feigns interest, laughing at Austin’s jokes.
This. This feels like a horror movie. Except in this one, I’m not the dumb bitchI’m one of the serial killers. The sloppy one who’s bad at acting.
“And it’s really frustrating,” Blakely adds. “Because we have paid so much money for this, and we have had so many people who RSVPed cancel on us at the very last minute. The wedding is in less than two weeks, and it’s happened three times this week. I’m terrified every time I pick up the phone. Two of my friends canceled on the Vegas trip this weekend for my bachelorette, too.”
“Well, I thought you were going to ask Teagan to go,” my mom says.
“Oh yeah,” Blakely says, her tone awkward. “I did didn’t I text you?”
I shrug and shake my head. “No. I don’t think so.”
“Well, you should come,” Blakely says. “For sure, you should come. I want you to.”
“Yeah, okay,” I say, even though I know she doesn’t mean it. “I’ll go. I’m going to get another drink. Do you want one?”
“Sure,” Sebastian says. “Actually, do you mind showing me where the bathroom is?”
I nod, and we both get up from the table.
“Oh, Teagan?” my mom calls after me.
“Yeah?”
“There’s a blackberry cheesecake in the fridge. Do you mind grabbing that and bringing it out for us?”
“Sure,” I tell her. “No problem.”
“I still can’t believe this is where you came from,” Sebastian says after closing the door behind us. “I don’t really need you to show me where the bathroom is; I already know.”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, I know you do.”
I enter the kitchen alone, pulling two more beers from the fridge and popping the tops before taking out the cheesecake.
“Hey,” Blake says. “I thought I’d come and help you get these on platesI don’t want the whole thing to melt outside.”
“Yeah, that’s not a bad idea,” I say. I pull a chef’s knife from the block and start cutting it while she takes plates and lays them out across the counter.
“Where’d you meet that guy?” she asks. “Mom said you met him before you disappeared, but you were dating Hunter for months until the day you left.”
“We weren’t exclusive,” I tell her.
“I see,” she says. “Well, he seems really nice. He’s seen your chest?”
“Yeah, Blakely, he’s seen me naked.”
“Right sorry.”
She grabs a spatula and starts scooping slices of cheesecake onto the plates.
“You could bring him to the wedding if you want,” she tells me. “We have space now.”
“It’s not that serious.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.