Chapter 9

My father would've been proud. I spent most of the night studying my ass off in my bedroom—not that I cared about his approval. When I couldn't take another second of reading about Australian history, I turned off my music and the light then climbed into bed.

The sound of drunken chatter filtered in through the half-closed balcony door. Someone was obviously having a party on the beach. I didn't dare get up to look, but I knew Jett would be down there. Or maybe I just hoped.

I covered my head with the pillow and tried to drown out the noise, but it was useless. I could hear every drunken slur. I needed to drown out the noise. I got out of bed and stumbled in the dark through my clothes scattered on the floor to grab my iPod from my desk.

I tried not to look down to the beach as I walked past the balcony, but I failed miserably. The next thing I knew, my face was smushed up against the security mesh as I tried to get a better view.

There had to be at least twenty people on the beach, all sitting around a crackling fire that spat flaming embers into the air when someone tipped his beer into the flames.

I zeroed in on Jett. He was sitting on a deck chair with a bottle of beer in his hand. He wasn't acting loud and obnoxious like his friends. There was something different about the way he was behaving—or wasn't behaving. His beer didn't look to have been touched, as if it were just for show. His brown eyes were glazed over as he sat in deep serenity.

Hang on. How the hell could I see so much detail when they had to be at least fifty metres away? I quickly glanced at the mirror to my right. I almost screamed when I saw black eyes staring back at me.

My heart thumping in my chest, I quickly turned away from my reflection. I looked out the door again, searching for Jett. I sucked in a sharp breath. His black eyes were staring back at me.

I jumped back, away from the door. I wanted to believe there was no way he could've seen me standing there in the dark, but the way our eyes had locked on one another, I knew something had passed between us. What exactly that was, I didn't know.

I snatched my iPod off the desk and made my way back to the bed. I flicked to my favourite playlist for going to sleep then laid my head on the pillow, listening to the music coming from the speakers in the ceiling.

No longer able to hear the noise down on the beach, I drifted off to sleep with my black-eyed boy never leaving the forefront of my mind.

***

Boom! The sound of a gunshot blasted through my room.

I leapt out of the bed, trying to look everywhere at once. My chest was on fire, and when I placed my hand on it, I felt a warm liquid. Blood. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out but a gurgling noise.

I looked up into the cold hard stare of a man standing at the foot of my bed. He held a gun, which was aimed at my head.

My head started to spin, and whiteness crept into the edges of my vision. I saw an air ripple pass through the security screen and slam into the man. I tried to stay awake to see what was happening, but the more I fought it, the faster I went under. My knees buckled, and I fell to the floor as the white light overcame me.