Chapter 26

Iflew out of Mrs. Baker's office, tears stinging my eyes. I braced myself against the water fountain across the hallway and reveled in the small corner of privacy as I swallowed enough water to relieve red eyes.

"You and I have business to discuss."

I lurched forward into the fountain. Water soaked my shirt before I spun around. Scott towered over me. I shuffled backward on instinct, and my back collided with the wall. The area surrounding his left eye was a deep shade of purple, and the white of his eyeball was blood red. He looked demonic and forbidding, but I felt the eruption of heinous laughter, knowing it must have been Hunter's fists that had slammed into him.

I glanced up and down the hallway. We were a few feet from the nurse's office. A few feet from Hunter and Mrs. Baker, but the door was closed tight.

Scott placed one hand near my head to box me in place, smirking as he watched my desperation. "I saw you holding hands with Hunter this morning. Good relationships start with honesty, and I'm beginning to wonder if you've been honest with him, love."

My spine went rigid. "Don't call me that."

He grinned. "You used to like it."

I tried to move past him, but he stepped even closer, and I froze, flattening myself against the wall as best I could. The hallway was filled with people, but no one noticed us, because if they had, they would have been staring.

"When are you going to tell him about us?" he went on. "Because while this has been fun and all, the jig is almost up."

"There's nothing to tell."

He smiled at me as if I was equal parts idiot and adorable. "Now, we both know that isn't true."

I contemplated murder right then—cold, heart-stopping, blood-flowing murder. And I wished I had the guts to do it. "Leave Hunter alone."

His eyes flashed with anger. "What? Are you serious? Look at me!" He gestured to his own black eye. "You think I'm the monster, but he's more violent than I am. I'm tired of you looking at me like I'm the psychopath all the time."

"You're delusional," I breathed, almost to myself, and his face twisted.

"Listen, Alice, you might want to tread carefully, because you seem to be under the impression that you're the only one capable of telling our little secret. But I've got to be fucking honest with you, love, I have no problem telling Hunter all the gritty details. God knows I'd love to see his face when I do."

"So what the hell's stopping you then?"

His face calmed as he smiled down at me, proud I was finally grasping the reality of my situation. "I can't stand it when you're mad at me." He reached out to brush a section of my hair from my shoulder. His lips were inches from mine, and I stopped breathing altogether. "That, and I'm a gentleman."

"Scott?"

I jumped, but Scott didn't move away from me. His body stayed pressed against mine, and his brow furrowed in irritation before he glanced lazily behind him.

Margo's mouth hung open as she blinked between us. "What are you doing?"

Of course, Suzanne and Casey stood behind her, and while Suzanne eyed me with hatred, Casey's face was scrunched in confusion.

Scott heaved a sigh, annoyed he had to state the obvious. "I'm having a conversation."

Not getting the answer she hoped for, Margo turned her blazing gaze on me. "Get away from him, you slut."

Scott's arms framed my head, caging me in place, and my eyes widened. "Margo, I—"

"What the hell is wrong with you? I said get away from him!"

Scott dropped one arm, letting me go, and I scooted out from under him. Margo trailed my movements with a gaze so predatory that part of me was afraid she might lunge at me. I didn't know how in the world I was being blamed for Scott pressing himself into me, but I still emerged with shame. "Margo, you know I—"

"I don't know anything about you actually, you stupid slut. What? You think my boyfriend is up for grabs whenever I'm not around?"

My eyes started to fill with tears, but Scott stepped in front of me, wrapping an arm around Margo instead. "Take it easy, babe." She stiffened under his touch at first but started to thaw as he whispered in her ear.

They walked away a moment later, and Suzanne and Casey trailed close behind. I stood rooted to the spot, wiping a tear from my cheek as I watched them. And maybe Margo had a point, because if I really didn't want Scott touching me, I could have pushed him away, or I could have called out to someone, but I didn't. I just stood there. And if a lion wanders down to a watering hole and a gazelle just stands there, staring back at it instead of running, well, maybe the stupid thing deserves to get slaughtered.

* * *

I adjusted my bag,inhaling a steadying breath, but froze. Melody leaned against the opposite wall, her head tilted to one side. We stared at each other, neither of us moving for several seconds, before I darted the other way, bumping into people as I went.

I hadn't even been to my locker, but I headed for the side door and slipped out the same way I'd come in. I basked in the cool air and sheer freedom as I moved without indecision, pulling on my hat midstride. I thought I was free and clear, finally on a one-route escape home, but her high-pitched voice called me back.

"I didn't peg you as a skipper."

I whipped around. She stood on the steps, looking down as she pulled out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. I stared at her, formulated a response, thought it over, turned back around, and kept walking.

"Maybe you're not as much of a coward as I thought you were." When I turned around again, she was half smirking, and it infuriated me more than anything else.

"If there's something else you want to say to me, just say it." My fingernails dug into my palms, and I knew it would draw blood if I didn't let up, but I didn't.

She glanced between my clenched fists and face several times, grinning. "If you're going home to get a gun, well, let me take this opportunity to apologize."

I stared at her. "What?"

She gestured at me. "You look like you're hovering right around a breaking point, Princess, and I've got to be honest, your detachment is more unnerving than that freshman who wears a trench coat."

She sauntered toward me, then offered the cigarette dangling between her fingers.

I scrunched my nose. "And what the hell am I supposed to do with that?"

She paused to inhale, as if giving me a demonstration, before she shoved her hand in my face. "This is called a cigarette. Do they have cigarettes in your ivory tower?"

"Fuck you."

Her laughter was high-pitched, harmonious and delighted.

The sound of the bell ringing inside was muffled, and she jutted her chin toward the concealed space shadowed by the stairs. "We should probably take cover. Unless ..." She waved a hand at the wide-open parking lot. "You were headed somewhere."

I hesitated as she walked away, but not because of her. My mom would be headed to work any minute, and if she saw me ambling along the sidewalk home, she'd lose her mind. Gritting my teeth, I stomped after Melody. She leaned against the wall, the corner of her lips twitching as I joined her.

We were both quiet for a while as she smoked her cigarette, and when she finished it, she lit another. It took multiple clicking attempts before she exhaled, then tucked the lighter back in her pocket. "I heard that stupid rumor, like, two years ago."

I stiffened, but she went on, sighing in boredom as if I was forcing her to tell a story she had no interest in telling.

"From Bobby Harris. He's such a dick too. He was the one who started that thing about Kim Nguyen ... how he apparently found her on that porn site with, like, three other ..." She waved a hand. "Never mind, it doesn't matter. What I'm trying to say is ... I'm sorry."

I squeezed my eyebrows together. "You're what?"

She squinted at me. "Kohen told me if I didn't apologize to you, he'd reconsider our relationship."

I snorted. "Right, how authentic. Listen, feel free to tell him you apologized. I really don't care."

Her voice turned even higher-pitched than usual, almost hysterical. "I wish I could say I was too drunk or I didn't know what I was saying, but the truth is, I'm a shit person, okay? I have no real reason for hating you. I ... I don't know. I guess it's jealousy. You're popular, and everyone wants to be your friend, and every guy wants to date you, and then, as if that's not enough, you have to take my best friend too."

I laughed. At first, it was out of sheer bewilderment, but then her words sank in, and the harder I laughed, the more she frowned. When I surfaced, her eyes were narrowed into slits.

"Last I checked, I'm not popular," I said. "Also, I have no friends. And the only guys who have ever been interested in me are the kind who try to shove their tongues down my throat just because I opened my mouth to say something pointless like ‘Hey, where's the bathroom?'"

She snorted. Her face fell before she disguised it with indifference. "The only boys who have ever been interested in me are the kind who think I wear fishnet stockings for the sole purpose of having them removed."

I grinned, glancing at her legs. They were teal blue instead of black today. "I like your stockings."

She flipped her bright pink hair and shot me a smug smile. "You and the rest of the world, Matthews."

I scoffed, and she huffed a breath of laughter in response before we settled into mutual silence. Scott was the only person who called me Matthews. I leaned the back of my head against the cold brick. "The only boys who have ever been interested in me are the kind who tell me I'd look hotter in fishnet stockings."

She burst into laughter, shifting her gaze to assess my own outfit with pursed lips. "Well, they aren't wrong, you know."

I shrugged, the corner of my mouth twitching. "I know."

Her grin was slow spreading and infectious. "Boys are such assholes."

I half nodded but hesitated, embarrassed by how desperate my voice sounded. "Even Kohen and Hunter?"

Another small smile brightened her features as she leaned her head to one side in thought. "Well, maybe not Kohen and Hunter."

And that should have made me feel better, but it didn't.