by Mae Doyle
“Just let me handle it, Jackie. I think that I’ve proven by now that I can take care of myself and deal with whatever she tries to throw at me.” I loved Jackie. Adored him. But I didn’t want him worrying about how I handled dealing with Amelia.
“I mean it, Rosita. Back off. Keep your head down. Let’s just make it through the rest of our senior year without having to bring any other people back from the dead.” He’d walked across my room now and was standing right in front of me. I could practically feel the heat radiating off of his body.
“Seriously? I think that we handled that just fine. Now, I love you, Jackie. Please don’t try to stop me.” When he didn’t move, I turned, ready to sit back down, but he reached out and grabbed me by the shoulders, turning me back to face him.
Immediately I felt my whole body respond. It was amazing how a single touch from any of my rogues had this impact on me. My chest flushed and there was an instant throbbing in my core.
“Rosita,” Jackie said softly, his face just a few inches from mine, “I don’t think that you understand. You need to be more careful and I need to make sure that you walk out of here in one piece. How can we make that happen?”
His voice was soft but his fingertips dug into my arms, pinning me in place. I couldn’t have pulled away from him even if I wanted to, and honestly? I didn’t want to.
I liked being in control. I liked knowing that I had the power to make decision and handle what came my way, but when one of my rogues took over…
Well, it was hot.
I loved it.
My eyes were focused on watching his lips while he talked, and it took me a moment to realize that he was still saying something.
“What?” I asked, leaning back a little. It was impossible for me to concentrate when I was that close to him. If I wanted to know what he was saying then I needed to have a bit more space between the two of us.
“I asked if I can trust you to do a better job staying out of Amelia’s way.” Jackie leaned down and swiped his lips against my cheek, immediately making my skin burn.
“I…will try?” I had no idea if it was the right thing to say or not or if he would believe me, but right then, it was all I could come up with. My brain was screaming at me to think through what I said to him so that there wouldn’t be a misunderstanding later, but my body was screaming louder.
The throbbing in my core had turned into a dull ache. His fingers felt like they were electric on my arms and our bodies were magnets, slowly being pulled closer to each other. I took a step forward, pressing my hips against him.
Jackie sucked in a breath, the hissing sound making me look up at him.
As soon as I did, his mouth crashed onto mine, hard and demanding.
He needed this as much as I did.
“Fuck, Rosita,” he whispered when he pulled back, and I touched my lower lip. It was sore and swollen, but I didn’t care. Jackie kissed me like he was drowning and I was the only thing that could save him.
Without thinking, I stepped back and ripped off my shirt, dropping it to the floor. His eyes were drawn down immediately and a thrill ran through my body when he bit his lower lip.
“Jackie,” I said, my voice soft. I was begging him, but I didn’t know what for. I just knew that I couldn’t let him walk out of my room without having something more from him.
Not only did I need to know that he wanted me, but I needed to make sure that he still loved me. I pushed his buttons, and I was going to keep pushing them, but as long as I still had him then everything would be okay.
“Rosita, you are the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen.” He slipped his hand behind my back and unhooked my bra, letting it fall to the floor with my shirt. Before I could stop him or say anything, he dropped his head, drawing my nipple into his mouth.
The pressure was amazing, and when he flicked his tongue across it, it hardened immediately, making me moan as I wrapped my hands in his hair.
I didn’t want to ever let him go.
Running my hands down his shoulder, I pulled him up so that I could kiss him. His mouth was even more insistent, his tongue searching me before he ran a line of quick little kisses along my collarbone.
I gasped as he did, the sensation incredible. Electricity flowed through my body and I had a hard time focusing on him. All I could think about was what it was going to be like to get him in my bed.
Hooking my thumbs in his jeans, I pulled him towards me and took a step back, sitting on the edge of my bed. My books were still next to me, and I swept them onto the floor in one motion, clearing more room.
My brain was on overdrive.
I needed Jackie.
I wanted Jackie.
I had to have him.
He leaned over me, kissing me again, his hands cupping my cheeks before he lightly traced a line down my neck. Arching my back, I pressed into him, needing to feel all of him.
His skin on mine was fire, and the only thing that would keep me from burning up was to have the rest of him.
Just as he stepped back to pull his shirt off, there was a knock on the door.
Gasping, I grabbed my blanket and pulled it up to cover myself.
Nobody ever came up here to see me.
Jackie whipped around, hurriedly pulling his shirt back on. We both gaped at who was standing in the door.
“I hate to interrupt, but you really should learn how to lock your door, unless you’re always open for business, that it.” Amelia walked in like she owned the place. Before she continued, she looked around, a slight frown on her face as she took in my room.
It wasn’t anything like the dorm room that she had, and I was sure she was judging me for the tiny window and ugly décor.
Whatever.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Jackie positioned himself between the two of us so that she couldn’t see me, but instead of cowering behind him, I stood, holding my blanket around me like a toga.
“I came to see Rose, but I had no idea that she’d be busy. How in the world do you manage to get your homework done when you have three cocks to suck each night?” She grinned and I felt my face flush.
“What do you want, Amelia?” I found my voice and walked in front of Jackie to stand right in front of her. Just because she’d invited herself into my room didn’t mean that I wanted her walking freely around it.
She didn’t answer at first and it gave me a moment to register that she had something in her hand. It was an envelope, and she smacked it against her thigh for a moment before holding it out to me.
I hesitated in taking it.
I didn’t trust a damn thing about Amelia, and just taking whatever she wanted to give me seemed like a dangerous prospect, but what in the world could she really do with a letter.
“Aren’t you going to take it? Geez, you’re dumb,” Amelia snapped, and then slapped the envelope into my stomach.
On reflex, I took it, holding it carefully like it was a bomb.
“See you tomorrow in voice, Rose. Make sure you don’t damage your vocal chords with…” she trailed off and winked at Jackie before making a vulgar motion near her mouth.
“Ew,” I said, after she left, then I went and quickly closed and locked the door. The last thing that I wanted was any more unwelcome visitors like her. She’d thrown me for a loop, and as much as I’d wanted Jackie just a few minutes before, I could tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t in the mood anymore, either.
“What the hell was that?” Jackie bent and tossed me my clothes. Throwing the letter onto my bed, I pulled them on, then I sat down and picked it up.
“Any thoughts?” I asked, waving it at him. When he shook his head, I carefully slipped a finger under the flat, slowly lifting it to pop it open.
I honestly half expected there to be a dangerous powder that fell out onto my lap that would instantly kill me. Or maybe a ransom note for my mom.
What I didn’t expect was a letter from the council.
“Dear Ms. Bennett,
” I read, shaking the letter out so that I could easily read it. “As a representative for the council, I am writing you to let you know that we are very interested in meeting with you and discussing the rest of your senior year. On the last Saturday of the month, please come to the auditorium. You will have your chance to air your grievances there and the council will make a decision regarding your ability to continue your education at Taylor Prep.”
I dropped the letter into my lap and stared at Jackie. “That’s bullshit, right? They’ve got to be kidding.”
“Who wrote it?” Jackie reached for the letter and quickly scanned it. I knew that he was looking for a name of someone he knew. “It’s just signed Secretary. Who the hell does something like that?”
“The council, I guess,” I sighed, flopping back onto my bed. Even though I looked calm, my mind was going a thousand miles a minute and I was having trouble slowing it down.
“What are you going to do? You can’t meet with them.” Jackie sounded worried and sat down next to me, taking my hand and gently rubbing his thumb across my knuckles. It felt amazing and I enjoyed it for a few moments before answering.
“Do I have a choice?”
“Of course, you do. What do you mean?” He sounded upset and I sat up to look at him. “I mean, Jackie, really. They’re holding the meeting here. On campus. You think that Mr. Taylor doesn’t know about it and hasn’t approved it? There’s no way that he’d let them do it if he wasn’t ok with it.”
Jackie thought for a second. I searched his face while he thought, looking for some hope or positivity, but he just looked worried.
“I didn’t think about that,” he said finally, reaching out to pull me to him. Leaning against him felt nice and I relaxed as I listened to his heartbeat. “Let me go ask the other guys, okay? See if they have any thoughts on what’s going on.”
I didn’t want him to leave, but I also just wanted to lock the door and keep everyone else out of my space, so I nodded. “Hurry back, okay?”
Chapter 19
Jackie didn’t hurry back. In fact, it wasn’t until the next morning that I saw him or any of my rogues. When I woke up, I felt immediately lost and discombobulated, and I had to shake my head to clear it enough to turn off my alarm.
A full day of voice with Amelia sounded like hell, but I couldn’t avoid it. I dressed quickly and was halfway down the stairs when my rogues caught up with me.
“You never came back last night,” I said to Jackie in response to his kiss. Kaleb and Brett gave me morning kisses too, but I couldn’t stop looking at Jackie.
“I’m sorry, Rosita. It got really late and I came by your door, but there wasn’t any sound from inside, so I assumed you fell asleep.” He looked really worried that I was upset, and I felt my anger melt away.
“I did,” I admitted, “but I still missed you.”
“Fair enough.” Jackie held the door for the rest of us and walked next to me as we headed to the dining hall. “But I think that we found some information that may be useful.”
I paused, even though I was so hungry that all I wanted to do was run to the dining hall and scarf down whatever food they had ready. It amazed me how much better I felt when I had a full stomach and wasn’t dealing with being tired, stressed, and hungry all at the same time.
“Really?” I couldn’t help but sound hopeful, and Jackie smiled at me.
Brett spoke up, taking my hand in his. “I called my mom. She didn’t know anything about the letter, but apparently the council hasn’t been happy with her since you guys came and took me away. She said that she guesses that what they’re going to try to do is set it up for a vote so that they can kick you out.”
“I’m not leaving though,” I said, shaking my head. “They can vote all they want, but I don’t give a shit what they decide on.”
“It’s more than that,” Kaleb interjected, making us all look up in surprise. He was often so quiet in the morning until he’d had some coffee, but this morning he looked like he had a lot he wanted to say. “I called Jackie’s driver again and asked him what information he had on the council. He was, understandably, a little concerned about getting involved, but apparently he’s also heard a few things.”
Here Kaleb paused for a moment as the four of us walked across the quad. It took all of my self-control not to reach out and shake him. As much as I loved him, I needed him to be a bit more specific right then, not so vague.
“What kind of things?” I asked, trying to stay calm. One of the things that I loved the most about Kaleb was how thoughtful he was. Out of all of my rogues, he wasn’t ever one to speak harshly or when he didn’t have all of the information.
It was something that I adored about him, but right then, I needed him to speak faster. I needed to know exactly what was going on.
Kaleb sighed and stopped, looking up to the sky for a moment. “Rose,” he said finally, turning to me, “he said that the council is willing to take matters into their own hands. They worked with their kids to get you out, but now they want to move things along faster.”
“Their kids?” I had already known that Amelia’s mom was in the council, as was Brett’s. This all got started and came to a head because she went to her fellow council members about me being at Taylor Prep in the first place. “What other kids are involved? How many people are on the council?”
“Pretty much everyone here who has been mean to you,” Kaleb answered.
I swore that it was like Brett and Jackie fell away from us. It was just Kaleb and me, both of us trying to understand how we could make it through all of this. I was still holding Brett’s hand, but I dropped it and reached out for Kaleb.
He pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around me and snuggling me against his chest. The steady beat of his heart calmed me down, but it didn’t fix the problem that we were facing.
“Okay, so there are a lot of people on the council. But parents can’t really do anything, can they?” Even though things were becoming clearer for me, I still felt like everything was murky. There were still some things that didn’t make sense – like how the council could remove me from Taylor Prep.
Parents didn’t have that much power, right?
“Not just parents, Rose. Teachers, too. Like Mr. Gessler. Mr. Staton.” Kaleb took a deep breath and I got the feeling that whatever he was about to tell me wasn’t something that I wanted to hear. “Mr. Taylor.”
“Mr. Taylor?” Pulling back from him, I looked up into his face, sure that he was going to be laughing. “That’s a joke, right? There’s no way that the headmaster is part of the council. He’s always acted totally surprised when I’ve brought it up. Besides, no good headmaster would allow the students and parents to run their school for them, right?”
“I don’t know that it’s up to him, Rosita,” Jackie said, pulling my attention away from Kaleb. “Do you think that it’s possible that Mr. Taylor is doing this just because he has to?”
I scoffed. “Yeah, right. I’m sure that a bunch of kids have that much control over him.” When none of my rogues responded, I chuckled a little. “Right, guys?”
The looks on their faces made my stomach drop.
Even though I didn’t believe that Mr. Taylor would be involved in something like that, there was a part of me that wasn’t really surprised.
“I think, Rose,” Brett began slowly, “that Mr. Taylor wants to keep control of the school badly enough to do whatever he has to. And if you look at the families who are on council…that’s a lot of money. Like, a lot, Rose.”
“How much?” For the first time since we started talking, I began to feel a little afraid. The way the rogues were talking, it sounded like Mr. Taylor was clearly taking a bribe. But how much money would it take for an adult to be willing to sit back and watch while a student was tormented like I’d been?
They didn’t answer at first. Kaleb sighed and kicked the ground, grinding his toe into the grass while we waited. “Guys,” I said, a little more forcefully. “Be honest
. How much? How much money is he getting to allow this to happen?”
“It would go beyond his salary,” Jackie said slowly, obviously thinking it through as he talked. “His salary is public knowledge, I think, if you dig into the financials of the school, but money on top of that would be kept hidden.”
“How much?” I knew that I sounded like a broken record, but I couldn’t help it. I needed one of them – just one of my rogues – to give me a straight answer. “Thousands? Tens of thousands?”
“There’s no real way to know!” Brett’s eyes were dark and flashing. “You tell me, how much money would you need to look the other way when shit like this went on right under your nose? It’s a fuckton, I can guarantee it, but nobody knows except for the people on council.”
“Like your mom.” My voice was calm and that surprised him. He took an involuntary step back. “Your mom, Brett. She would know how much money Mr. Taylor’s getting to ignore this. I want to know how much it is.”
“I don’t know that she would,” Brett said, sounding unsure of himself. “I can ask her though, if you want.”
“I do.” Now it was just me and Brett.
It had always been us, so it made sense that right now it would be the two of us, each one trying to feel the other out. Each trying to understand how to move forward with the other person.
“Please, Brett,” I said, my voice falling to a whisper.
He nodded. “I’ll do anything for you, Rose, you know that. I don’t know that she’ll tell me, though. I think…I think that she risked a lot to get you the information that I was still alive. She’s scared, Rose, and – ”
I cut him off. “I’m more scared, Brett, I guarantee it. Please, call her. Find out what I’m up against. What we’re up against.”
He didn’t answer, but he pulled me to him, his arms holding me so tightly against his chest that, for a moment, I almost couldn’t breathe. “I’ll do anything for you, Rose,” he whispered, his lips brushing against my ear and sending a shiver through my body.