“Whatever,” I said.
“Okay, wait a second, girl,” Kip said. “Tell me what you saw and I’ll get you out of here.”
“Why does it matter to you?”
“Just curious. I mean, if it wasn’t two people fucking, what could stick in your mind that much?”
“How about someone getting murdered?” I asked.
God, all I wanted to do was overpower one of these guys just once and walk away.
“Damn,” Kip said. “Murder?”
“Drowning.”
“Fuck. In the water?”
“Yeah. So maybe you get why I’m not exactly eager to get naked and jump into the water?”
That didn’t faze Kip for a second.
He got closer. “Forget the water then, girl. We can still get you naked. Give you a proper welcome to BFH.”
BFH. How fucking fancy, right?
“I’ve had my proper welcome already,” I said.
“Who’d you fuck already?”
“What? I didn’t fuck anyone. Is that all you think about?”
“Mostly.”
“Good to know. See you around, Kip.”
He jumped in front of me. “Finish the story. Who was murdered?”
“I don’t think anyone,” I said. “I mean… I saw someone drowning someone and I ran. But then I went back. I felt guilty. You know? But there was no body.”
“Could have been swept away.”
“I thought that too. But… someone came up behind me. Said he didn’t murder anyone.”
“That sounds fucking dangerous, girl.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Doesn’t bother me I guess.”
I played my last tough girl card.
Kip backed away.
He nodded and rubbed his smooth chin.
“What’s your favorite animal?” he asked.
“Excuse me?”
“Can I guess?” Kip asked.
“My favorite animal? Sure.”
“I bet it’s a fucking rat,” a voice said from behind me.
I knew the voice.
Tall, hot guy slowly walked by me, purposely bumping into me to knock me out of the way. The smell of his cologne hit my nose and twisted my heart, releasing those curious butterflies everywhere again.
He stood next to Kip.
And Kip was no longer anything resembling sweet or flirty.
I took a shaky breath.
And guess what I smelled?
Smoke.
Before I could even think about turning back again I saw sexy smoker walking by me. The smell of his smoke collided with the smell of tall, hot guy’s cologne. And then the smell of Kip. My body didn’t know what to do with itself.
The three of them stood there, side by side.
Tall, hot guy the tallest, shoulders widest, the look on his face nothing but pure trouble. Which fit considering I had seen him almost kill someone.
Kip in the middle with his cool and sweet look but he was anything but. The way his lip slowly curled, telling me he enjoyed goading me into telling him what I had seen at the beach.
And then sexy smoker. Tall, dark, brooding, the cigarette touching his lips again.
I had no idea who they all were. But they were connected obviously. And whatever I had seen at the beach wasn’t something to take lightly. Even though I hadn’t told anyone.
Well, except Kip… because you fell for the blue eyed surfer look…
“You like rats, sugar?” tall, hot guy asked in that wicked voice.
“She likes the water,” Kip said. “But she’s never been fucked in it.”
“We can take her down to the water,” tall, guy said. “She knows how to get there.”
“Actually, I think I forget,” I whispered.
“Oh, sugar, the chance to forget is long gone,” tall, hot guy said.
“Anything you say, it’s just blowing smoke our way,” sexy smoker said as smoke danced off his lips.
Kip slowly shook his head and was the first to turn.
Tall, hot guy was next.
Then there was sexy smoker.
With one last drag, he flicked the cigarette my way.
It landed at my feet.
My eyes watched the three of them walk away through the prestigous garden of Bay Falls High.
I slowly looked down and watched the cigarette burn.
I didn’t even bother to step on it.
I was pretty sure I had already stepped into enough already.
six
I didn’t do anything else.
I actually didn’t mind being bored. Especially when you considered the size of Claire’s house. There was always a place to explore. Or just sit in my huge room on the huge bed in the cold air conditioned air and mess around on my phone. Anything to avoid the outside of the house.
At least for the moment.
Because I couldn’t get the three of them out of my mind.
The way they all stood there, staring at me, knowing they were all fucking with me. I didn’t mean to see tall, hot guy at the beach. That was his fault. His problem. Why did he have that guy at the beach? Why did he try drowning him?
Same for sexy smoker.
What happened there? Did tall, hot guy tell him to come after me? To mess with me in the hallway with his cigarette? Or that sexy smoker knew I’d be walking through that garden after dealing with Principal Jacobson? And then there was Kip. Once again, showing up out of nowhere.
I shut my eyes and pushed it away.
That was a problem for another day.
If they were out to get something from me they’d get bored fast.
I truthfully had nothing and nobody. They couldn’t break me through my life because my life was already broken. The worst they could do was find out the truth about me and tell everyone.
Big fucking deal then.
So I was a poor girl with a junkie mother and was staying at a family friend’s house while my mother went through rehab. Whatever they tried from there was nothing compared to what I had already gone through in my life.
I owed nothing to nobody and the same with the other way.
These guys had no idea who they were messing with.
Just like I had no idea what I had accidentally stepped into.
It was going to go nowhere.
And fast.
And that was how I got myself to sleep.
Knowing everything I thought was a complete and total lie.
* * *
Beth waited for me at my locker.
“Sorry,” I said to her, referring to not meeting up with her yesterday after school.
“No worries. Shit happens. At least let me get your number so we can keep in touch.”
“Yeah, sure,” I said.
We exchanged numbers and Beth sent a text of the middle finger emoji.
I smiled.
Okay, maybe we could be friends.
“Where’d you go yesterday?” she asked.
“Just overwhelmed a little,” I said. “First day stuff.”
“Yeah. You’ll get used to it. Settle in. Just stay close to me. So you don’t talk to the wrong people.”
“Like those girls?”
“Oh, Blair and Vicky?” Beth asked. “Don’t even look their way.”
“You seem tougher than them,” I said. “Why bow down?”
“I’m not bowing down,” Beth said. “I just pick my fights. Those bitches have their place here. And if you go against that nobody will have your back.”
“I will,” I said. “I’ll have your back.”
“Right. Let’s cross one bridge at a time. Get your books so we can start walking and get this day over with.”
I pulled at my locker and it popped open.
My mind screamed where’s the lock?! as the locker opened.
The lock was missing.
And when I opened my locker, something fell out of it.
I felt something thick and rubbery hit my chest.
I jumpe
d back and the thing hit the floor.
At first I thought it was something really dirty.
But it wasn’t that.
It was a rat.
A thick, rubber rat.
With a pointed nose and yellow eyes and a long tail.
“Gross,” Beth said.
“Oh, look, new girl brought her pet to school,” Blair said as she just so happened to be walking by at that moment.
“No, I think that’s her boyfriend,” Vicky said. “Smells a little fishy.”
I looked at the two bitches but didn’t say anything.
“Ignore them and they’ll move on,” Beth said.
“They didn’t do this,” I said to Beth.
“How do you know?”
“I know the smell.”
“The smell?” Beth asked. “The smell of what?”
I bent my knees and moved down and grabbed the rubber rat by its tail.
I pulled it toward my nose and smelled it.
“Cologne,” I whispered. “I know the cologne.”
“You know the cologne?”
I turned my head. My eyes met Beth’s. In a way she already knew. But I spoke the name anyway.
“Tall, hot guy,” I said.
“What?” she asked, laughing.
“Tall, hot guy,” I said. “That’s how I know him. I never got his actual name.”
“Tall, hot guy?” she asked. “There’s a lot of those here.”
“Not this guy. And he’s friends with sexy smoker.”
“Sexy smoker?” Beth asked.
“And then there’s Kip,” I said. “At least he was nice enough to-”
Beth grabbed my arm forcefully. “Did you just say Kip?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Say it again.”
“Kip…”
Beth ripped the rubber rat from my hand. She slammed my locker shut. The bell rang for our next class but something told me she didn’t care about that.
She pulled at my arm, going toward a door. When we passed a trashcan, she quickly tossed the rat.
“Beth, what’s going on?” I called out.
She looked back at me. “I have to get you out of here, Ti. Before it’s too late.”
I opened my mouth to ask too late for what? but Beth was already moving again.
I looked back as she opened the door, hoping we weren’t going to get caught.
And there he was. Standing at the end of the hallway, thick, muscular arms folded, mean, devilish eyes pointed right at me.
Tall, hot guy… watching… waiting… stalking…
* * *
“How did this happen?” Beth asked.
“What?”
“How did they figure you out? Or care about you?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
I watched tall, hot guy try to kill someone…
“I think I saw one of them at the beach,” I said. “I don’t know. I wasn’t paying attention. I was on the phone with my mother…”
“Your mother?”
“She’s sick,” I said. “In the hospital. That’s why I’m here.”
“Oh, damn, I’m sorry. She going to be okay?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I could have stayed back home. Maybe I should have.”
“I told you about this,” Beth said.
“Told me what?”
“The rules… I mean… with a z…”
“You mean rulz?” I asked.
“No, Ti. Listen to me. They are the Rulz. As in don’t mess with the Rulz. Don’t break the Rulz. Don’t push back against the Rulz…”
I shook my head. “I still don’t understand.”
“They are the school. They are… even outside the school.”
“Meaning?”
“The richest. The most powerful. They could do anything to anyone and get away with it.”
“Why?”
“Because if someone talks, they go down. Hard. That’s why. Their families are just as powerful. You cannot imagine how far they can reach. It’s not just a BFH thing.”
“Okay, you’re starting to scare me, Beth,” I said.
“Good,” she said. She looked around. “Come with me.”
She took my hand and led me toward the garden.
Just seeing the flowers made me shiver. Thinking about the three of them - the Rulz - standing there, side by side, after setting me up to send a clear message that I had screwed up big time. And to think if I hadn’t gone down to the beach… or if I hadn’t instantly trusted Kip’s kind eyes…
Or better yet why not just tell Claire? She was powerful in her own right. She was a rich badass woman who could take care of herself. Maybe she could make a call or two and tell these assholes to leave me alone.
Beth took me to the exact spot where I had seen sexy smoker with his foot up on the stone bench.
I hated cigarettes and smoking but when he stood there, exhaling the smoke into my face…
“Who are they?” I asked.
“You said Kip’s name,” Beth said.
“Yeah.”
“The other two are Barr and Pres.”
“Barr and Pres,” I whispered. “Who is the sexy smoker?”
“That would be Barr,” Beth said.
“Barr,” I said. “So Pres was the one I saw at the beach then.”
“I guess.”
“He was,” I said.
Now I had to picture it all again. Replay everything I had seen now that I knew his name. His height and the width of his shoulders. The way he punched that other guy right into the water. The way he threw the guy around like a junked toy. And then holding him under the water…
Or better yet the sound of his voice.
I don’t know who you are, sugar, but you better catch a case of amnesia… and catch a case of being homesick. You don’t belong here. And I won’t give another warning.
He was the one who called me a rat. He was the one who put a rat in my locker.
And he made sure it was doused in his cologne.
To make the point very clear.
“Ti?” Beth asked, snapping me out of my trance.
“Yeah, I’m here,” I said.
“Are you sure?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Of course.”
“This isn’t a joke. They rule everything. Right down to teachers, classes, even Jacobson.”
“So what do they want from me?” I asked. “I’m just the new girl. I’m a nobody.”
“That’s the point. You’re a nobody. You’re new blood. You’re intriguing. You’re a toy to them. And they will find out everything about you.”
“How?” I asked.
“Just trust me, Ti. There will be no secrets kept.”
“Great,” I whispered. “So I have to worry about Blair and Vicky. And now I have to worry about them.”
“Welcome to BFH, Ti,” Beth said. “Everyone sees money and thinks life is easy.”
“I never said that. Or thought that. You can’t imagine where I come from.”
“Well, you can either tell me as a friend or I’ll find out through rumors in the hall.”
I put my head back and stared up at the sky.
“You know, I can give you the truest advice ever,” Beth said. “I mean, if you really want to hear it.”
“Try me,” I said.
Beth touched my shoulders. “I don’t care where you came from… or how bad it was… but you should go back there… right now.”
* * *
I sat on the beach. My butt to the sand. No towel. No plan of getting into the water. But rather just sit there and watch the waves. There were two choices. Lie to Claire and leave or tell the truth… and still leave.
This wasn’t my town.
This wasn’t my school.
Everyone had friends, cliques, knew the rules - and the Rulz. I was just an outsider. And here I thought I could just slip in as the new girl. Make up a story about my parents on business in Italy or China or some kind of crap. And when they
asked why I didn’t go with them I’d just say I was bored of traveling.
Instead, everything about me was going to get exposed. Which really didn’t bother me so much. But if Barr, Kip, and Pres were going to mess with me… and keep messing with me…
“You’re the new girl.”
I turned my head and looked up to see a beautiful girl with messy, curly brown hair looking down at me. Her skin was so tanned it made me instantly jealous. She wore a thin and baggy top that danced in the wind. White so it was see-through, showing off a neon orange bikini top. Her jean shorts were dark blue, ripped and frayed, the top button undone showing a bikini bottom that matched the top.
“That’s me,” I said.
She plopped right down to the sand. “I’m Giuliana. Call me Gi.”
“Tinsley,” I said. “Call me Ti.”
“Seriously?”
“Can’t make it up,” I said.
“That’s awesome. Ti and Gi. Gi and Ti. We’re best friends now, aren’t we?”
I smiled. “I don’t know about that.”
“What was up with your locker today?”
“My locker?”
“Yeah. Heard something was going down. There was an animal in it?”
“Oh. That. No. Just a prank.”
“Ah. Still feeling out the school?”
“I guess you could say that.”
“This is a good place to come,” Gi said. “Just unwind a little. Nothing can really get you here.”
I laughed.
You don’t know what you’re saying…
“Do you surf?” Gi asked.
“No. I really don’t get to the ocean all that much.”
“Yeah, me neither. I’ve always been afraid of sharks. Dumb kid fears, you know? But there had been attacks. I mean, not here. But, you know… whatever. See? I get rambling when I get nervous. That stupid asshole Barr told me something once…”
I grabbed Gi’s arm. “Barr? You know Barr?”
She looked at me. Her eyes were a rich amber with hints of yellow. Or maybe it was just the way the sun reflected into them.
“Everyone knows Barr,” she said. “Why?”
“Just curious,” I said. “I’ve heard the name before…”
“Don’t be shocked by it. You’ll hear all their names.”
“All of them?”
“Well, mostly Barr, Pres, and Kip,” she said. “But there are others.”
UNtouched: a bay falls high novel Page 5