Chapter 34

When the final bell rang, I booked it to my locker, intent on getting the hell out of school. I cut through the atrium because despite it being the place where everyone lingered at the end of the day, it was still the quickest. Scott sat on the rails of the ramp leading to the cafeteria, surrounded by his usual posse. I kept my head down as I hurried through, but as I was about to make it to the other side unnoticed, a hand touched mine. I jerked from it, swinging around, but instead of Scott's, Hunter's fingers jumped from my skin.

He put his hands up. "Hey, sorry. I didn't mean to surprise you. Have you been here all day? I tried texting you. I figured you'd skipped."

I cursed my stupidity. Hunter's last period alternated between study hall and health, and the study hall room was on the other side of the atrium. At this point, I wasn't sure who I wanted to run into less—Hunter or Scott.

I tried to smile. "Hey, yeah, sorry. I forgot my phone at home. I wasn't feeling great, so Mrs. Baker was nice enough to let me use the cot."

He stepped closer, his eyes darting to every inch of my face. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, like a million bucks after sleeping all day. Listen, Chris is here, and he's been texting me all day about how I better be on time because he has somewhere he needs to be."

Hunter stared at me. He didn't say anything for several long moments, his mouth settling into a frown as he studied me. "I thought you forgot your phone."

"Well, I mean ..." I glanced to the right on instinct, and my eyes locked with Scott's. His face split into a wide grin as he pushed off from the railing and started to make his way over to us. "Chris is gonna lose it if I don't hurry up, but come to my locker with me." I grabbed Hunter's hand and pulled him with me out of sheer desperation, but it was futile. Borderline pathetic even.

"Alice!"

Hunter froze. He still held my hand, so I was forced to stop beside him. Four of Scott's friends stood behind him, making his confrontation even more forbidding.

"We missed you in gym this morning," Scott said.

Unlike me, Hunter didn't flinch. He looked around the atrium in mock confusion and then back at Scott. "It seems you made a wrong turn somewhere. Your throne is over there ... among the other morons."

The rest of the atrium craned their necks in interest, and instead of the normal after-school roar, it became a hushed whisper.

Scott's demonic grin turned my stomach worse than any glare could. "So you guys are officially a thing, huh? I mean, it must be pretty serious for Alice to come to our house for dinner. I think you're the first human being Hunter has ever introduced to our parents." He paused to wink at me. "They were not impressed, by the way, but I'm sure you already knew that."

Hunter rolled his eyes. "Is there a point to any of this?"

Instead of responding, Scott turned his bright smile on me, eyes gleaming with pure evil. It was as if he'd written a secret script, and to his absolute elation, Hunter was saying his lines exactly as predicted.

"What do you think, Alice? Is there a point to any of this?" His voice was too casual, and I knew where it was headed. It was the same way Margo started out in crowded bathrooms. Her voice rising and rising until she reached her crescendo.

I stared back at him. I could feel Hunter's gaze darting between us before he gave my hand a gentle tug. "Come on," he said. "I'm not going to stand around for this stupid shit." When I looked up at him, he gave me an encouraging nod and motioned to the double doorway I'd been desperate to disappear through.

Scott laughed, and it sounded cackling mad as it bounced off the high ceilings. I felt hypnotized by his grin, but when Hunter gave my hand another gentle pull, I managed to scramble forward. We made it a good five feet, but Scott was hot behind us, and that's when Hunter teetered. He turned around in a fury, tucking me behind him. "What? What the fuck is with your obsession with her?"

We stood in plain sight near the double doors, and the room reached almost perfect silence. They stood chest to chest, their breaths heavy in anticipation of a fight. I could practically hear the chanting of the bloodthirsty crowd before it even started. Scott's demeanor had been composed, but his body pulsed with the same rage tightening Hunter's fingers into fists.

"My obsession?" Scott tipped his head back and laughed. "This gets better and better." He looked at me. "I was trying to be a gentleman. Really, I tried."

When his gaze snapped back to Hunter, his glare was brutal. Hunter didn't move, but his shoulders tensed with the same uncertainty lining his brow. The crowd shifted closer, and I steadied myself because I knew what a derailing train looked like, and I knew when it ran me over, I wouldn't survive, so what was the point of trying to shield my face? I deserved annihilation—merciless and grisly.

"Listen, bud, I promised her I wouldn't say anything, but this has gone on far too long. As your stepbrother, I really feel like I should be honest, so I'm just going to go ahead and say it ..." His voice had grown louder, and he paused for effect as we became the single most interesting thing that had ever happened in that atrium. "I fucked your girlfriend."

Hunter froze. I thought he might combust in a fit of violence. Maybe charge at Scott. That's what everyone thought. I saw the curling grins and shining eyes in the crowd, but Hunter didn't move an inch, not even to breathe.

Scott's gaze returned to me in mocking recollection, eyes glinting with humor. "Your virginity, correct, Alice?"

Hunter turned a fraction of an inch to me, his face as blank as a sheet of paper. Despite the crowd of people watching, silent tears of confirmation streamed down my face. His eyes widened, and his face went from tormented to flat in an instant. It reminded me of the first time he caught me staring at him in the hallway.

"Hunter, wait, it's not ..." I stepped toward him. I thought he might surge forward. I thought he might attack Scott, but just like that first time in the hallway, he turned around and walked away.

Scott watched me in amusement, and when Hunter disappeared through the set of double doors, he took a snide step toward me, his voice low enough that only I could hear him. "Next time you come to my house for dinner, have some goddamn manners."

He stepped away from me, his four friends following, but I stood rooted to the spot. Everyone was staring at me in fascination, and I felt as if they could somehow see inside me. That they could see the disgustingness slithering through the pit of my stomach. But Scott didn't glance up. He had ruined me for the thousandth time, and as I stood there, lifeless and expended, he rejoined his friends, laughing as though I was nothing but skin and bones he could nudge aside.

"I always knew you were a slut," Suzanne sang. "Who has sex with stepbrothers? That's so gross."

Scott's jaw hardened, but he still didn't glance at me. My eyes met Margo's instead, and there was a flicker of something. Maybe pity, maybe interest, maybe a mutual memory, but she tugged her gaze away before running her fingers through Scott's buzzed hair and kissing him on the mouth. I watched them exchange saliva, my head tilted to one side. It was like watching boring performance art; everyone said it was beautiful, but I felt as if I'd missed the point somewhere.

"Is she going to keep standing there?" a snotty voice said. Probably Erica.

I scanned the crowd but stilled on pink hair. Melody leaned against the entrance. She watched me with folded arms and raised eyebrows. Her fishnet stockings were red today, and the last time she'd worn them, Scott had asked her if she'd had a long night at the strip club. And despite her standing on the fringes and me standing in the middle, I thought that meant something.

Brian was there, and I blinked at him walking toward me. He shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced around as though he hated my guts for making him do this. "Come on, Alice."

I stared at him.

"Come on, let's go. I'll come with you." His voice was so quiet the atrium grew silent again, inching forward, desperate to hear the words we exchanged.

He reached for my arm, and I tugged it back. "Don't touch me." I managed to start walking. Brian followed, his head bent in embarrassment, and though Scott hadn't spared a glance in my direction since leaving me in the middle of the atrium, his eyes dug into my back, the feeling as familiar as the clothes on my skin.

Brian and I didn't say anything until we reached the end of the hallway, but I didn't want him to get the wrong idea. Brian Cullen sure as hell wasn't my knight in shining armor. "I don't need your help."

His stride stayed steady beside me. "Okay."

I stopped at my locker, rolling my eyes as he stood rigid next to me, his hands still wedged in his front pockets. His practiced innocence was almost as infuriating as Scott's display. I pulled out my coat and slammed my locker shut. I walked away, but he jogged a few steps to keep up with me.

"I can drive you home," he said.

I spun around. "Why are you even here?"

He ran a hand through his hair, glancing away and back. He huffed out a sigh. "We used to be friends. I mean, before everything, we were always friends."

"So?"

"Listen, I'm sorry, okay?"

"What are you even apologizing for? Are you sorry you talk shit about me at your lunch table? Are you sorry you stand around while Scott acts like a total dick? Are you sorry you helped beat the shit out of Hunter for no reason? Have you apologized to him? Or is it your apology to me that's supposed to help you sleep at night?"

He scoffed, eyes hardening. "So you befriend one loser and suddenly you have a moral compass?"

I walked away, and this time, he didn't follow. When I reached the side door, his voice was quiet behind me, the words laced with regret even as they left his mouth. "You act like you're so high and mighty, Alice, but I'm not the one who carried on a relationship with someone, all while failing to mention I slept with his brother."

I stiffened, one hand on the door as I stared into his eyes. "Go to hell, Brian."