Chapter 7

Wednesday, May24

I shovel the last of my pasta in my mouth, the bowl resting on my legs. One move and I’ll have mascarpone sauce on my bedsheets. My phone is beside me as I check in with my friends after school, something I promised my parents that I would stop doing. Bad for your health, apparently. Neither one of them told me exactly how, though.

The fan above my bed rattles, wobbling as it spins.

My notifications are going off. What the hell…

I open a message from Atlas first.

WTF! Have u seen this?

I look at the screenshot he’s sent me. It’s a photo of Tony’s latest Insta. Or rather the comments on it. Loads from friends of his girlfriend, Jen, calling him an asshole and other not-so-friendly names.

What happened?

His reply is a string of five more screenshots. I could just go to Tony’s feed, but okay. I look at each one and my mouth drops open. There’s a picture that has been posted from a fake account, which we know is Rhett, of Tony kissing Jen’s sister.

Her sister. Poor Jen. From the comments it looks like she found out the same way the rest of us have.

As I’m reading through the thread, I get another message.

Omgomgomgomg it’s going down! I can hear Jen and Ella screaming at each other from across the street!

Be cool. Don’t film it!

Ur no fun.

What’s happening?

Their mom was yelling, Jen’s driven off and Ella’s crying.

Poor Jen. Rhett is such an asshole for embarrassing her like that

How did he even know?

I have a theory. He’s everywhere in town. Always watching, his younger brothers too…and the older ones when they’re home. Could they really be that bored, though? Who spends all their free time spying on their classmates just so they can blackmail them later?

Not that it surprises me. Rhett’s an ass.

Stalking

Ur kidding?

Haven’t u noticed that he’s always around?

I guess. He’s a creep!

See u at the creek in thirty

The weather is supposed to be super hot again, with rainstorms coming in a couple of days. I can’t wait. The air needs to be cleared; it’s stuffy and choking. I thought it was going to rain yesterday, but the clouds passed quickly and then it went back to baking hot again.

The house is silent, and if I didn’t know that Dad was asleep, I would think I was alone. I’ve gotten used to my parents’ antisocial working hours over the last seven months. It’s always easier when they’re on the same shifts, though.

I take my bowl downstairs, grab a water, and sit down at the kitchen island to scroll through Tony’s Insta. Some comments call him a dog and others are full of praise. People are gross. I can’t see a reply from him, and there’s nothing new posted, so I guess he’s taking a social media break.

I would too if I’d been caught kissing my girlfriend’s sister.

Talk about lines you don’t cross.

I check out Jen’s page next, and there are a lot of sympathetic comments. All the hate is directed at her sister and boyfriend.

Rhett is deplorable. Anger surges through my veins. Who the hell does he think he is? I hate people like him. He thinks nothing of tearing someone’s life apart, of hurting them. I dial, too irritated to think logically.

“Marley, not who I expected,” he says.

His smug voice makes me want to throw my phone.

“What’s wrong with you? What is actually wrong with you? Did you not stop and think about Jen for a second?”

“You do like those quick-fire questions, don’t you.”

“Why did you do it like that? Jen is probably humiliated. Her sister!”

“You don’t think she deserved to know?”

“Of course she did! But not like that!”

I wince as my voice bounces off the walls. If I keep this up, I’m going to wake my dad.

I take a breath and place my palm on the cool granite countertop. “Please tell me you understand how insensitive that was. You should’ve gone to her privately. It still would’ve broken them up. You still would’ve gotten your little revenge on Tony for not playing a game with you.”

“If you have a problem with the way I do things, you shouldn’t have agreed to join in.”

“Clearly that was a mistake. I gave you too much credit, believing that after your idiot brothers, you might do things differently. I think you might be the worst one of all.”

“Screw you, Marley,” he snaps, and the line goes dead.

Okay, I’ve never known him to be the first to bail out of an argument. It feels fantastic. My chances of getting him to hand the watch over have been obliterated, but I can think of another way to get it. Apparently, I’m quite good at breaking and entering and theft. That’s not exactly something to be proud of, but it would be so satisfying to take from Rhett the very thing he made me steal.

The world is tinted purple from my sunglasses as I take the shortcut to the creek, killing my quads as I try not to fall down the valley. Everything beneath my feet is sun-scorched yellow. The moss that covers the trees is crusty and crumbling.

It’ll all be slimy and green again after the rain comes.

When I get to the creek, it’s rammed with most of the seniorclass.

Great.

Tony and Jen aren’t here. Not a surprise—I guess neither of them is up for it.

I find Luce paddling and kick off my tennis shoes. My toes sink beneath the warm water, but as I move deeper the water gets cool. “Hey,” I say, wading until the water just kisses the bottom of my shorts. “You see anything else while you were spying on Jen?”

She looks up and smirks. “I was observing, and no, nothing else. It was quite disappointing, really. I don’t know where Jen went, but I hope it was to kick Tony’s ass.”

“Imagine being their mom and having to referee that fight. Carnage.”

She laughs. “I wish I knew more. Were they seeing each other behind her back, or was it just a kiss?”

“Does it matter?”

“Just curious.”

“I have no doubt that we’ll find out soon. Oh, great, Rhett’s here. I had a fight with him a little while ago…and I won,” I tell her, tying my long hair up.

Her head snaps in my direction so fast it’ll be a miracle if she doesn’t get whiplash. “Why didn’t you open with that? What happened?”

“Not much, I just called him out for publicly exposing Tony. He didn’t like it and hung up on me.” I smile proudly.

“Good for you,” she replies, patting my shoulder like I’m a dog. “I mean, he’s going to get you back, but good for you.”

I roll my eyes. “I’ve never kissed Atlas’s brother.”

“Glad to hear it,” Atlas says, laughing as he throws his arm over my shoulder. “What’re we talking about?”

Luce fills him in on my argument with Rhett, and he turns tome.

“Why are you getting involved?”

Scowling, I reply, “Because no one else was going to say anything! Jen didn’t deserve that. Why do we all stand by and let him do whatever he wants? It’s insane!”

I’m not close to Jen, but we have a couple of classes together and she’s cool. And also, I can’t say the things I really want to say to Rhett, so I pick at everything else.

But I’m not admitting that to anyone, because then they’ll know that I miss my old friendship with Rhett. I miss who he used to be.

It’s like there are two versions of him. For a long time I wanted to find a way to bring back the version of him I knew. Now I just think he can go to hell.

Atlas raises his palms, dark brows lifting along with them. “It was just a question. You don’t have to take him on alone. I’ve got your back.”

“What could he have on us?” I ask, moving closer to him again. “I’m not asking for your secrets here, but is it enough that you can’t back out of the pranks and challenge him?” Of course, Rhett could just make stuff up, but we can fight a lie easier than the truth.

Both Luce and Atlas look away from me, waiting for the other to go first.

Wait….

Their silence makes my heart drop. It probably shouldn’t—doesn’t everyone have at least one thing they keep to themselves? But I can’t ignore how uneasy it makes me feel.

I thought I knew everything about them.

I thought they would tell me I’m silly and that we should go after Rhett. That they don’t have anything they wouldn’t mind me knowing. Why isn’t Atlas telling me I know everything and that he has no secrets?

The strained atmosphere seems to take physical form, pinging between us like a ball.

Jesse nudges Luce as he joins us, smiling at her like she’s a prize. They’re too cute. Atlas blows out a long breath, relieved to be rescued. From what? Discussing our issues and finding a resolution.

“Who’s asking about secrets? Should we be worried? Did Marley piss Rhett off again?” Jesse asks as Luce wraps her arms around his waist. He looks at Atlas and Luce with suspicion in those dark eyes. He witnessed their silence at my question and knows they’re hiding something.

I want him to press the issue and ask why they’re not sharing with us.

“Marley,” Atlas says, tilting his head toward Jesse, prompting me to reply to his questions.

I narrow my eyes. “Yes, I’ve annoyed him but that’s not the point. I was standing up for Jen.”

“Marley wants to boycott the pranks,” Luce says, glancing back my way nervously as if I’ve just suggested we commit murder and hop the border.

“Bad idea. We can handle whatever he throws at us. Breaking into Arthur’s was crazy, but we did it.” Jesse bounces on his feet, his lips stretched in a wide smile that puts me on edge a little.

He’s enjoying this a bit too much.

It’s all fun and games until you’re caught. I don’t want us to run out of luck. Honestly, I want to forget everything to do with the pranks. So I need to drop the secrets thing…. I was rocked from the lack of openness in my friend group, but I have to remind myself that I’m not entitled to know every aspect of their lives.

Still, it stings to find out that we don’t know each other as well as I thought. I mean, Luce is queen of the no-secrets club.

She knows everything about me…even the embarrassing stuff that I would probably have rather taken to the grave.

I kind of feel stupid too. I didn’t need to be so open.

But I’m dropping that….

Waving my hand, I reply, “Yeah, forget Rhett. We’ll just stick together.”

Atlas can barely meet my eyes, but our attention is pulled again by Rhett stepping up on a massive rock that he’s using as his platform, ready to hold court again. Idiot.

I sneak another glance Atlas’s way before giving Rhett my attention.

“Seniors!” he shouts, holding his hands out as if he’s addressing his people. I want to throw rocks at him.

Atlas scoffs and slings an arm around my shoulders, still not quite able to look at me. What does he not want me to find out? It wouldn’t bother me if we weren’t going through this weird phase.

“We have three dares today. One tomorrow.”

There’s a cheer from everyone around me, and I find myself smiling. It’s easy to get caught up in the hype, the thrill of doing something minorly inconvenient to others in the name of fun.

“The first two we’re all involved in, and we need to go now.” He shoves his hand into his pocket and produces a key. “We’re moving Fuller’s office to the great hall. Everything is going. I want pictures first so everything can go in its correct place.”

I laugh along with the rest of my classmates. Okay, that one does sound pretty fun.

“Second dare we’ll do on the way out. Egging houses. No rain for a few days, so they’ll really smell. Third is for Leon. We all know your dad’s a duck farmer.” Rhett grins and points to him. “I want fifty of them in the school pool by the end of the night.”

Leon’s eyes widen. “Fifty! How am I going to get fifty?”

“How do you get them to slaughter? Use a truck,” Rhett replies as if it’s simple.

“I can’t drive a truck that big!”

“No, you don’t have a license to drive a truck that big,” Rhett corrects. “Get it done.”

Leon opens his mouth to argue but then snaps it shut. What’s he realized? That his secret is twenty-four hours from being exposed if he doesn’t do whatever Rhett wants him to? His boyfriend’s brother is in his twenties and living in Texas, so I don’t think he’s been kissing him.

“What’s tomorrow’s prank?” Ruthie asks, swaying from side to side and looking up at Rhett like he’s a prophet. She’s part of the problem here. If more people looked at him like the douche he is, he wouldn’t have this much power.

“That’s for Marley, Luce, Jesse, and Atlas.” His eyes dart to us, full of contempt. “You’re going blind driving, no headlights, around danger alley.”

My jaw drops.

Oh crap.