Chapter 3 — First Party Night

Ruby had been in the house for five hours.

Five.

That was all it took for the universe to personally target her.

She had just finished unpacking the last of her clothes and collapsed face-first on her bed when the shaking started. At first, she thought it was construction—because why not? The universe had a sense of humor. But then the bass hit, a low, vibrating thump-thump-thump that rattled her wall like someone was repeatedly kicking it.

It wasn’t construction.

It was a party.

Next door.

Her new next door.

Ruby rolled onto her back, stared at the ceiling, and tried to breathe through the pulsating music. People shouted, splashed water, laughed the kind of loud, chaotic laughter only possible when alcohol was involved, and for some reason—because why wouldn’t this be happening—someone kept blowing a whistle like they were refereeing a pool Olympics.

Ruby grabbed her pillow and shoved it over her face.

It didn’t help.

Not even close.

After twenty minutes of trying to pretend she was calm, her final thread of patience snapped.

“Okay, that’s it,” she muttered.

She threw the pillow aside and stomped across the room toward her balcony. She flung the door open, letting in the humid night air and the full blast of party chaos.

Her jaw clenched.

Her eyes locked on him instantly.

Kai Kingston.

Of course.

He stood on his balcony like he owned the entire street—leaning back against the railing, red cup in hand, shirt half-unbuttoned in a way that felt both accidental and too intentional. His hair was slightly damp, probably from the pool, and the golden light from inside his house made his skin look warm and annoyingly perfect.

Ruby hated that the first thought in her head was: Wow.

She quickly replaced it with: No. Absolutely not. I refuse.

“Kai!” she shouted.

He didn’t pretend not to hear her.

Oh no—he heard her perfectly.

He turned slowly, as if she were the highlight of his night. His grin spread, lazy and knowing.

“Ruby, right?” he called, lifting his cup slightly. “Princess of the driveway?”

Ruby’s nostrils flared. She was two seconds from climbing over the railing and strangling him with her bare hands.

“Can you turn it down?” she snapped. “Some of us are trying to sleep!”

Kai looked insultingly relaxed. He took a sip of his drink, glanced back at his friends, then at her again with a shrug so casual it made her blood pressure spike.

“You’ll get used to it,” he said. “Welcome to New York.”

Ruby glared so hard her vision flickered.

“I don’t want to get used to you.”

Kai’s smile widened—as if she’d just given him a personal compliment.

“I’m very hard to ignore,” he said.

Ruby’s brain malfunctioned for a second.

She opened her mouth to respond—closed it—then stormed back inside and slammed the balcony door so hard it rattled the glass.

She stood there shaking, palms pressed flat against the door.

“Unbelievable,” she muttered.

She paced her room. She fumed. She occasionally screamed into her pillow for emotional release. None of it made the party quieter, unfortunately.

Every time she tried to lie down, the music flared again.

Every time she thought she might drift off, someone in the pool screamed bloody murder.

At one point she heard someone yelling, “BRO DO A BACKFLIP!” followed by a loud splash and more screaming. Ruby nearly threw her lamp out the window.

By midnight, she was exhausted.

By 1 a.m., she was delirious.

By 2 a.m., she was questioning her life choices.

Then her mom’s phone buzzed downstairs.

Ruby didn’t want to care.

Didn’t want to move.

Didn’t want anything except silence and maybe the legal right to strangle Kai Kingston.

But the buzzing kept going.

She groaned into her blanket before dragging herself out of bed and heading downstairs. Her mom always forgot to mute her phone before sleeping, and Ruby refused to let it ring all night.

The screen lit up.

A name she didn’t recognize flashed across it:

Message from: Kai Kingston

Ruby’s eye twitched.

She clicked on the preview—just to make sure it wasn’t urgent, only to immediately regret it.

Hey Mrs. Hale, thanks for letting the new girl borrow my charger earlier.

Tell her she left it.

Ruby stared.

Her eye twitched again.

She reread it.

She reread it again, slower this time, as if maybe her exhausted mind was hallucinating.

Then she let out the most unholy, muffled scream into her hands.

She had never borrowed anything.

She had never touched his stupid charger.

She had never even been inside his house.

She didn’t know where his phone charger lived, and she bet it was some obnoxious, unnecessary, custom-made piece of overpriced nonsense.

“What is wrong with him?” Ruby hissed.

She threw herself onto the couch, burying her face in a cushion.

Why was he like this?

Why did he have to be so…

So…

Infuriating.

Smug.

Troublemaking.

Charger-accusing.

Ruby dragged herself back upstairs, her face red from frustration and near-tears from exhaustion. She collapsed on her bed again, staring at the ceiling like it held answers to the universe.

She was going to be neighbors with this boy.

For months.

Maybe years.

She groaned at the ceiling.

“That’s it,” she told herself weakly. “I’m transferring schools. Countries. Dimensions.”

But the universe was not done punishing her.

Because just as she finally, finally closed her eyes and drifted into the fragile edge of sleep…

The music next door got louder.

Someone shouted, “TURN IT UP! KAI SAID IT’S FINE!”

Ruby sat up slowly, eyes dead, soul leaving her body.

One thought echoed through her mind.

I am going to murder him.

And somewhere on his balcony, shirt sticking to his damp skin, still holding a red cup and looking like the human embodiment of chaos…

Kai Kingston laughed at something one of his friends said.

Completely unaware that the girl next door was adding his name to a very short—and very deadly—internal hit list.