The other side is no majestic place. Nothing special or over the top.
An old house, clean but not kept up with lights and a few sofas against the wall. Some music coming from somewhere and a few kegs in the kitchen as well as a long table people are playing dice on.
Vienna spots a few girls she must know because they wave her over, but she doesn’t budge.
“You can go,” I tell her.
“I came here with you, that’s messed up.”
“For real, go. I’m not very social as it is. I like to roam around and check shit out. You’ll have more fun with them.”
She hesitates a moment, smashing her lips to the side. “You sure? I don’t want you to think I used you or whatever.”
“I’ll see you later,” I laugh lightly, pushing her along and as soon as she walks away, I can breathe a little better.
It’s true what I told her. I’m better by myself.
I make my way to the keg, but stand back and watch several other people fill up their cups before I decide it’s likely not poisoned and grab my own.
When I step through the living room to what I’m thinking served as a den when the house was occupied, I spot Captain leaning against the wall, a brunette between his legs.
He’s pulling her shirt down, kissing on her shoulder, but his eyes meet mine when I walk by.
I step out back, spotting Bass sitting at a table in the yard.
“Raven Carver.” He grins, calling me over with a nod of his head. “The fuck you doin’ here?”
“Bass Bishop.” I walk closer, bringing my cup to my mouth for a long drink. “I could ask you the same thing.”
“Free beer,” he jokes. “So how’d you end up here?”
“Lucky, I guess.” I shrug.
He stands and walks toward me. “You get that all cleaned up?” he asks, reaching out to pull my lip down a bit.
I dab at the blood spot, showing him it’s all dried.
He chuckles lightly and nips at my fingertip before stepping back to take his seat. He grabs a cigarette, offering one to me.
“I’m good.”
With a nod, he turns back to his buddies and I move along.
I walk across the yard to the opposite side of the house, propping my hip against the old wooden panels that line the edges. Nothing but empty field for miles.
Not five seconds later a firm grip locks my hip in place and hot breath hits my neck making me jump.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Maddoc.
“I was invited.” I roll my eyes.
He pushes me forward two steps, the yard light no longer shining against my back. He whispers, “I’m not talking about the party. I’m talking out where you’re standing.”
“Why not?”
“Listen.”
Me brows draw in but after a moment I hear it.
Soft giggles and quiet laughter, followed by the clear sound of a sultry kiss.
Deep breathes, soft mews and airy moans.
There’s a rustle of leaves followed by a whispered “yes” and my skin grows warm.
Maddoc pushes closer.
And then the zip of jeans is heard, and my core tightens.
There’s no sound for a moment and I find myself inching closer to the darkness of the trees.
“Oh God,” is breathed into the air and I pull in a lungful of cold air.
A deep raspy groan, a shuttered cry.
Maddoc’s grip on my hips tightens and my pussy walls clench.
“She’s almost there ...” he rasps against the back of my ear and I shiver against him. “Right at the edge, ready to come for him ... for us without even knowing it.”
I squeeze my eyes closed, licking my lips as I focus on their sounds.
I inch closer, slowly peeking in time to see the shadow of the girl’s head fall back as the guys drops to her chest.
“They’re there, Raven...” he breathes right as they cry out in release.
My body starts to ache with need.
Maddoc feathers his fingers across my skin and I’m ready to do something real stupid right here, right now.
But he’s a devious dickhead who knew exactly what he was doing, and he shifts the mood quick. “Royce says you’re sneaking out at night.”
Bastard.
“’Course he did.”
“Who you fucking?”
“Wow.” I roll my eyes, willing my pulse under control.
“Tell me.” He tips his head slightly, the scuff of his chin scraping against my neck causing me to shudder despite myself.
He chuckles against me and my head tilts - to avoid or to open up farther, fuck if I know right now.
“It’s not your concern.”
“The fuck if it isn’t. You’re mine to play with.”
“According to who, you?”
“Damn straight.”
“But I was ‘released’ from your little threesome, remember?” I glance over my shoulder, batting my lashes and his nostrils flare.
He pushes into me and I hold my breath. “You’re mine if I say you are, you’re trash when I decide I’m done. And I’m standing here telling you I changed my mind. I’m not ready to throw you out just yet.”
He doesn’t elaborate so I sure as shit don’t ask for his reasoning.
His grip on my hip tightens a moment before a burst of wind hits my back.
I spin slowly to face him.
He licks his lips, drops his head back lazily as he stares.
He’s too damn appealing to the eye. And he’s wearing a backwards fucking hat tonight.
That right there ... good fucking god.
I must show my appreciation for the ruler in front of me, because the corner of his mouth lifts slowly.
Captain saunters up right then, whispering in Maddoc’s ear and instantly, his mask is back in place. Maddoc nods, gaze still locked on mine.
“I have eyes on you, Raven. Don’t do anything stupid,” he tells me.
“The fuck ever that means.”
He walks closer and my spine straightens, a tingling sensation spreading across my ribs. He brushes his chest against me. “It means keep your legs closed to our guests.”
“I’ll do my best, big man,” I deadpan, and he walks off with Captain, Royce meeting them at the edge of the lawn, and together they push through the side gate.
Stupid me, I follow.
Out front is a repeat of last weekend at Graven, only these people I recognize. They’re the nomads from school, the one the girl told me about the first day, they are supposed to lay low, stay out of the way. Yet here they are.
“You really think this is smart?” Maddoc asks eerily calm.
The chick beside them holds her cell up, and Royce moves to take a half a step closer but stops when Maddoc speaks.
“I want that phone. Now.”
The guy stands taller and the girl laughs, tauntingly shaking her phone as she hides a step farther away like a little bitch. “That’s not going to happen,” she spits.
“If you wanted a sex tape, I’d have been happy to be the star of the show,” Royce quips, but his tone tells me he’s being an ass, though I’m almost positive it’s true.
She tilts her head, and from the side view I have of all of them, I can see the small smirk on her face. “This is a two for one, he screwed her, now we screw you all.”
“You’re about to cause a problem you won’t be able to fix,” Captain tells her.
She scoffs, glancing at the guys beside her. “Like I care. You can kiss your little basketball season goodbye.”
“You send that, you’ll regret it.”
The girl smirks and the guys are brave enough to laugh – it’s fearful but heard nonetheless. “You can’t control us anymore. With this, we get our district transfers approved. We’ll be at Graven by Monday.”
Kiss the season goodbye?
What the fuck are they trying to pull? The one thing I’ve seen light a fire in these boys’ eyes tha
t’s not driven by rage or hatred is when a basketball is in their hands. From what I can tell, it’s the only thing they even give two shits about other than each other.
I owe them nothing, have no loyalties to honor. Nothing at all ties me to these boys and the stupid shit they do.
Yet something has my feet creeping along the house until the hose is in my hands. I use my knife to slice through it at a little bigger than arm’s length. And again, something has me tiptoeing out wide to round the cars lining the left of the driveway so I can come up behind the party crashers.
With my hands on the ends, I create a loop and quickly and easily slip the rubber around the girl’s neck and pull.
She yelps, but it’s cut short when I kick her legs from under her and she falls on her ass, the phone flying from her hand.
The guys she’s with spin quickly, but I haul her back a few steps and they pause.
After that first moment of shock, one decides to charge me but Maddoc catches him by the collar, tossing him backward with little effort.
I tighten my hold as the girl flails around, widening my eyes at the guys. “Uh, hello. Grab her phone!”
Royce darts for it as Captain steps in the center with his brass knuckles on and ready, daring them to make a move for his boy who has his back turned.
Royce snatches the phone from the girl’s feet and demands the password.
When she hesitates, I yank tighter and she cries out the code.
Royce pushes some buttons on the screen and then glares, before snapping it in half and stuffing it in his pocket. “Hope you weren’t attached to anything in your cloud. It’s all gone now.”
When she starts to kick, I tighten my hold even more. Adrenaline pumps through my veins, creating a natural – dangerous – high that grows stronger the more she gags. Her hands coming up to claw at my forearms, and I look down, following the small beads of blood running down my wrist, having felt nothing.
“Let her go now, Raven,” Maddoc tells me.
There’s a gentle, almost hesitance to his tone that has my ribs compressing.
I don’t want to let her go...
Blood drips onto my shoe.
“Raven.”
My head snaps up at the rough command and I freeze.
The party has come to the lawn for the show.
Shit.
I let her go, and slowly push to stand.
Wide eyes and whispers surround me, and I take a half a step back.
I spin on my heels, speed walking down the dirt path.
I ignore their yells when they call me back and keep moving forward.
I spin my arms around, taking deep breaths to try and settle my erratic heart.
This is the least I’ve fought in the last two years and shit’s building up inside me. Anger and resentment I hide until I can’t, a numbness I crave but can’t find without rage to kick start it. And they just saw it.
Fuck.
I groan and glance around.
There’s fucking nothing this way, and thankfully the stars light up the road, but no way in hell will I go back to the party so all those people can look at me like some wannabee groupie fighting for their attention or forgiveness or what-the-fuck-ever.
That’s not what this was.
I was there, those people were playing foul, and it irritated me.
There’s nothing that gets me going worse than a vindictive piece of shit willing to sell someone out, ruin shit for someone else, for personal gain.
It’s weak and pathetic.
Even if these boys are from some privileged family like I’m hearing, if half of what Victoria said was true, they’ve got to have mad underlying issues, and for them to want something for themselves, even if it’s just to win some high school basketball games, is dope. I can get behind that.
Do they go about it wrong? Fuck yeah, they do. But still, they work hard, fight for what they want and no way in hell was some social climbing serpent going to ruin it for the fuck of it. Not without a solid reason or need for revenge – not that that’s the best way to handle things, but in a world like mine, that’s how it works.
If they lose what they’re working toward, it needs to be because they stole it from themselves. Not at the hands of anyone else.
It doesn’t take long for one of those familiar SUVs to pull up beside me.
The door is pushed open, revealing Vienna sitting there with wide eyes, so I slip in.
All three boys are inside as well, but nobody says a damn word. The drive is dead silent.
A little while later, when they park in front of the group home, Captain speaks.
“Go through the front door, don’t worry about being seen.”
I don’t question him and neither does Vienna. We simply do what he says.
And it works.
I’m in the land of Oz right now, I swear to God.
As I step around the corner, I’m stopped yet again by another damn stranger. Each one has some bogus ass compliment or faux interest question about how my weekend was or something else as equally lame. Too bad for this chick, I’ve braved through a solid hundred phonies and I just can’t right now.
She smiles and bounces over, but I lift a hand and walk away.
I keep my eyes forward and shoot straight for English, practically sprinting inside when I reach the door. I drop into the seat and lean against my elbows, my hands shielding my face as I take a damn breath.
What in the hell is happening?
“I’ll tell you what’s happening.”
I jerk, spinning to glare at the fool who must have just now dropped his ass behind me ... who isn’t even in this class.
“Why are you here?” I frown.
He grins. “Not happy to see me, RaeRae?”
“Don’t you have a class to be in or somethin’?”
“I’m in it.”
“No,” I drawl out slowly. “You’re not.”
He winks then waves a pink slip of paper over his head. “Mr. Bell, got something for ya.” His eyes meet mine again. “Transfer form.”
I spin in my chair, fighting the urge to cross my arms over my chest like a child.
The class starts a few minutes later and I don’t miss the curious and not at all discreet stares sliding from our new classmate to me.
A few minutes pass and then Royce’s hot breath hits my neck. “You wanna know what’s going on?” he whispers.
Not sure if the sultry tone he gives is on purpose or if he simply can’t help himself. It’s full of heat and dirty promises I have no doubt he can keep.
“You had our backs. Again. And not because you had to, RaeRae.”
My forehead creases.
“Guess what that means?” he asks but doesn’t give me time to answer – not that I planned to. “It means you’ll be under our watch, constantly. Every move you make, we’ll know about. Every word spoke, we’ll likely hear. You’ll show your cards soon enough. And we’ll be around when you do. Know what us being up your ass’ll look like?”
I roll my eyes, still facing forward and wait for him to answer himself, knowing damn well he can’t not.
“It makes everyone here think we’ve claimed you, that we’ve stamped our names on what I’m sure is a pretty pink puss. It’ll be different from when they thought you were our toy, that was basically like a test drive – can she work a stick or can’t she. Every guy here has been primed for you since, but if they want to play, they’ll have to ask our permission first. You know, ‘cause you’ll be seen as our property now. You’re suddenly the girl everyone will pretend to like when all they really wanna do is take your place.” He chuckles darkly. “They’ll all love to hate you.”
When I spin to glare at him, he sits back in his chair with a vile smirk.
“Trust no one now, RaeRae. This is when the fakes come out to play.”
I face forward again, scowling at nothing.
Shouldn’t be too hard.
I trust no one as it is.
&n
bsp; But really, I went from being their groupie to the whore they couldn’t stand and now... what?
With a sigh, I pick up my pen.
I doodle in my notebook the rest of the period, escaping as quickly as possible once the bell rings, but Royce’s maniacal little chuckle when I do should have been my warning, because as soon as I’m seated in my next class, tool number two saunters in, glasses still on and all.
I stare Captain down, knowing he’s watching me behind his dark lenses.
“Is this necessary?”
He nods, his gaze roaming around the room before he turns my way. He drops into the seat beside me.
He seems the most sensible of the three, or at least the one more likely to let me speak even if it does go in one ear and out the other.
I lean toward him, speaking low. “So people saw me rope up that girl, who cares. I’m sure people do stupid shit to get on your buddy list all the time.”
“Not why you did it.”
“You don’t know shit! Pretend it was your idea. Tell them ... I don’t know, that you used me to get what you needed and then broke my poor little heart.”
Captain scoffs, tilting his head as he pushes his glasses up. His light eyes stare me down a moment before he shakes his head and looks away.
“Oh, spit it out, packman. Your boss ain’t here to tie your tongue.”
His eyes snap to mine. “Fuck you.”
“Not a chance.” I grin and look at that, he thaws a bit.
He sits back in his chair, his eyes lazily scanning over me before locking with mine. “You think anyone who spends ten seconds in your presence would believe that we broke your little heart?” he mocks.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means your wires are crossed.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“Yeah, well,” he sighs, sitting back. “Guess we’re changing that.”
“And what’s Maddoc think about all this?”
He eyes me, trying to read me but can’t. I’m good at giving nothing to those who don’t deserve it.
“You really wanna know?”
“Pretty sure I already do, just want you to be the one to say it.”
“Nah, now this I’ve got to hear.” He shifts in his seat as if he’s looking forward to what I’ve come up with.
I laugh at his usual dry self, and right then, the teacher cuts the lights – apparently, it’s movie day.
Boys of Brayshaw High Page 9