“She told me,” he confirms, taking Kimber’s abandoned seat. He pushes her food aside and makes his own plate.
“Thank you,” I tell him, squeezing the phone in my hand. He lifts his head up to look at me, and I think about last night, about lying so close to him while Patrick Swayze’s character makes love to his girl for the first time. Ugh. Why did I agree to watch that movie with him?! “This means a lot to me. It’s like a tiny piece of Maxine is here with me.”
I set my phone aside and pick up my fork. Even though my stomach is roiling with anxiety and nausea, I won’t let it overwhelm me. X went to all this trouble to make me a meal, one with meaning and sentiment and care behind it.
“Your sister’s an amazing girl,” he tells me, and I pause, lifting my head up to look at him. His green eyes blaze with fire, and I wet my lips in a subconscious gesture of nervousness. “Truly. She’s one of the most kindhearted people I’ve ever met. She deserves someone who wants her above everyone else, not as a second choice. That never would’ve been fair.”
I nod, but I can’t speak, not yet. A second choice. Because someone else was first choice?
I feel simultaneously guilty and nervous, all at once.
“Now, do you want to tell me what’s going on?” he asks, leaning an elbow on the table and giving me a look. “Or do I have to steal that phone and force your hand onto the fingerprint scanner all over again?”
I can’t avoid Whitehall Prep forever. I know that. But as I sit in the front of Maxx’s Jeep, watching as Kimber hops out and saunters toward the side entrance, my stomach twists into an infinity symbol, and I wonder if I might throw up before I even set foot inside.
Chasm is on his way down from the parking garage to get me. There’s no way in hell I can go in there alone. I’d rather cut again and deal with the consequences from Tess, to be honest.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Maxx asks, leaning his forearms on the steering wheel and staring out the window at the towering white stone walls of the academy. “I told you: Whitehall kids are vicious on a good day. For something like this, they’ll eviscerate you.”
Eviscerate you. That’s what Chasm told me initially, when he was warning me from pursuing Parrish.
I turn toward Maxx, wondering about something Parrish said before, during an argument between the four of us in the kitchen. Actually, it was pretty much Chasm and Parrish versus me and Maxx. I fiddle with the fabric of my black slacks.
“When Parrish said you caused a guy to drop out of school freshman year …”
Maxx exhales and sits up suddenly, leaning back against his seat. He stares down at the steering wheel before glancing over at me.
“Parrish and Chasm were freshmen; I was a junior.” X taps his fingers against the wheel absently before turning to look at me. “At that time, they weren’t the uh, tour de force that they are now.” X rolls his eyes dramatically, and I smile. That’s a great way to describe Parrish and Chasm. “And I was having the same sort of problems that you might’ve had to deal with had they not taken you under their wings. Well, them and Lumen.” He makes a bit of a face, but it’s nothing compared to his initial expression when I showed him her TikTok. He looked like he might beat her ass himself. “I would consider my parents well-off, but … uh …” Maxx lets out a small laugh and scrubs at the back of his head. “They’re poor, compared to any other family in this school. I actually had to win a scholarship to get in here; we couldn’t afford it.”
I’m tempted to reach out and touch his hand, but I very firmly keep both of mine tucked in my lap. Thing is, it was hard enough to ignore the chemistry between us when he was dating Maxine, and I was new here, and I didn’t know him at all. Now that he’s given me his virginity? That I’ve reached between our sweaty forms and felt his body firmly connected with my own, how am I supposed to deal with this?
By controlling my fucking actions, that’s how.
“There was a student here—a senior. He wouldn’t fucking leave me alone. He taunted me, mocked my family, put weird shit in my locker. Once, he even went to one of my sister’s races and heckled her. The day I confronted him about that, my dad mysteriously got fired from his job—at a business this kid’s dad just so happened to own. Supposedly, they were just ‘downsizing’ but come on. So, I turned the tables on him.” X inhales and then runs his fingers through his hair again as he looks at me. “You’ve seen how vicious they can get. I let that go to my head. I felt like I had to become one of them or get shit on by them.”
“What’d you do?” I ask, curious but non-judgmental. Whatever Maxx did in the past, it doesn’t matter now. I’ve seen how kindhearted he really is—even if he has a core of steel underneath.
“I made his life a living hell. It was my only mission in life. I stole his girlfriend.” Maxx gives a small smile at that, lifting up his hands in a placating gesture. “Nothing happened between us. I told you, I didn’t even kiss. I can’t trust myself.”
“You’re not giving yourself enough credit,” I tell him, and he gives me a look.
“I pulled your hair and flipped you over to do you from behind during my first time, and that was only a fraction of the things I wanted to do.” My entire body goes white-hot, and I turn away from him on the pretense of looking for Chasm. Maxx seems to sense that the air inside the car is unbelievably thick and perfumed with hormones, so he moves on. “Anyway, I spent weeks flirting with her, gave her the keys to my Jeep, and told her to get naked in the back of it, that I’d meet her there.
“Instead, I forwarded our texts to the guy, and he found her there.” Maxx cringes and leans his back against the seat. “Fuck, I’m a dick. A terrible fucking dick. To be fair, she was one of the worst when it came to taunting me, but I still wish I hadn’t done that.”
“And then?” I urge gently, wanting to hear the rest of the story before Chasm comes. “What happened?”
“I chased him down on my bike at a party, cornered him in the woods, and kicked the ever-living shit out of him.” Maxx laughs a bit at that, but the sound is a bit dry, a bit self-deprecating. “Thankfully, the whole ‘what happens in Whitehall stays in Whitehall’ shit is sacred. I hunted him. Every day, I did something. Keyed his car, rubbed poison ivy on his gym shorts, followed him home. I was manic. It made me popular. Chasm and Parrish had my back against the guy’s friends. Made us all popular, I guess. He dropped out not long after.”
Maxx studies me, searching my expression for judgment.
“Parrish was right: I was a complete piece of shit. Just like everyone else at this school. Justin might be nuts, but he’s right about one thing: this whole town—and this academy—is cursed.”
I jump at a knock on the window, glancing over to see Chasm waiting on the other side. He’s got a cigarette in his mouth, offering up a small wave with one hand while the other remains tucked in his pocket.
“Thank you for telling me that,” I say, processing the information. It’s a lot, I’ll admit. But it doesn’t change anything. “See you after school?”
Maxx nods, and I climb out.
“Be careful today,” he warns one last time, and Chasm gives him a thumbs-up.
“Got it, lover boy,” he drawls, and I shut the door, giving a last little wave as Maxx takes off. Then I turn to Chasm. “How bad is it in there?”
“Mm,” he murmurs, taking the cigarette from his lips and sighing heavily. “It’s bad. I hope you didn’t have anything you wanted in that locker because it’s gone.”
I grit my teeth, but I had a feeling on Friday and removed anything that mattered.
“Kimber is going around telling everyone that we’re fucking, so there’s that.” He offers me a small smirk. “Kinda nice that we aren’t so worried about my reputation anymore, huh?”
I hitch my book bag a little higher up my shoulder, fully aware that Justin is probably watching us. Doesn’t matter. I texted him in the car on the way to school and he agreed to let me go with the boys after class—just so long a
s I meet with him for dinner.
Can’t wait for that.
On the other hand, I’m excited about our game plan for today. It truly feels like we might get Parrish back soon. Maybe even today. My stomach cramps with nerves (and period cramps), and I clamp a hand over it to quiet the rumbling.
Chasm changes his mind about the cigarette, sliding it behind his ear and placing his hands on my hips. He pulls me close, and that nervousness disappears in an instant. I end up putting my arms around his neck as he presses our bodies together, his mouth near my ear.
“You chose to wear pants today? Come on, Little Sister. Gotta think ahead on these things.”
“I wore the pants on purpose,” I tell him, and he leans back just enough to frown down at me. He opens his mouth to say something just as the side doors to the school open.
Kimber appears with a group of her friends in tow.
Fuck.
Double fuck.
It’s tempting to blow them off as ‘just freshmen’, but anyone who’s ever read Lord of the Flies by William Golding can understand. Kids—teenagers especially—can be terrifyingly feral.
“Run,” Chasm instructs me in a snarl, and then he’s snatching my hand and off we go, down the front steps and into the grass. Kimber and her friends give chase, and we end up in the hedge maze again. Chasm guides me—thankfully because I’d end up lost and in a dead end—before emerging from the opposite side.
We’re now almost ridiculously far from the school, near the edge of the woods. Close enough still to hear the first warning bell for class, but far enough away that we either have to go back through the maze or run across the open grass.
“What the hell is she doing?!” I choke out, and Chasm exhales sharply, glancing back just in time to see Veronica Fisher and her friends emerging from the woods.
“It must suck to have a little sister who hates you so much,” the redhead says, giving me chills all over. I never was able to decide if she was actually attempting to chuck me over the wall of the third-floor courtyard. I’m not keen to find that information out now, especially not with Chasm by my side. “She’s willing to do anything for popularity; it’s pathetic. Doesn’t she realize that the more she grovels, the worse she looks to the rest of us?”
“If you touch either of us, I’ll destroy you,” Chasm warns, putting me behind him. Veronica doesn’t seem concerned, shrugging her shoulders loosely.
“I’m not concerned with you. Your dad is a sniveling creep who’s just sold his company off to Justin Prior. That’s a sinking ship, McKenna. The guy was already arrested once for embezzlement. Getting into bed with him seems like a pretty terrible business decision, don’t you think?” She smiles wickedly as Chas and I exchange a look. “Just back off. You’re not a part of this unless you want to be.”
Based on his expression, I’m guessing he didn’t know about this either.
Shit.
He glances back at Veronica as the sounds of the other girls echo to us from inside the hedge maze; they’re cursing and arguing with each other now. I bet ya that they got lost.
“What do you want with me anyway?” I ask, holding out both hands, palms up in what I hope is a placating gesture. “I don’t have any problem with you guys.”
“But we have a problem with you,” Veronica says, glancing over at the brunette on her right before she looks back at me. The brunette is yet another one of Lumen’s many, many friends. Again, never bothered to learn this one’s name. I never thought it would matter. Does she know these girls are here? Did she send them? “You set the theater on fire and ruined the production. You smashed our cars. Your dad is a crook, and his new app—if it even does what he says it will—is about to make all of our lives a living hell.”
She nods her head at the brunette, and she lifts up a utility knife. Like, a very sharp, very scary metal blade. Chasm sees it, and his face goes pale. It gets even paler still when the rest of the girls—minus Veronica—start removing utility knives of their own from blazer and pants pockets, book bags, or even tucked under their dress shirts between their breasts.
Because my bio mom is a true crime writer, I know all sorts of horrible stories. Adults always have this idea in their heads that their teenage kids are still the sweet babies they knew and loved. But adolescence fucks with people; puberty fucks with people. We’re all just miniature adults trying to figure shit out.
Ever hear about the Shanda Sharer murder? A twelve-year-old tortured and killed by four teenage girls between the ages of fifteen and seventeen. True story. It isn’t something that should ever be looked up unless you have a strong stomach. What about the Slender Man stabbing? Two twelve-year-olds stabbed a girl nineteen times. She lived (miraculously), but how terrifying is that?
So, yeah. I’m afraid. I’m terrified.
Do I have time to make a phone call perhaps?
My hand slides into my pocket and Veronica steps forward.
“Touch your phone, and I’ll break the rest of your fingers,” she warns me, and then she pulls a utility knife out of her own pocket. This is the lawyer’s daughter, I think. One of the ones Volli warned me about.
“Get ready to run again,” Chasm whispers, and I get the disturbing idea that he isn’t planning on joining me. Oh hell no. Fuck that. He doesn’t want me to be all self-sacrificial and shit; I won’t let him do that either.
Although only a few seconds passes in silence, it feels like an eternity. The air is thick with the scent of violence, and I feel the bright hot surge of adrenaline in all my limbs. I’m about to snatch Chasm’s arm and drag him away with me when Danyella appears from around the corner of the maze, soaked in sweat and panting.
“There are a half-dozen administrators on the way down here—Ms. Miyamoto included,” she snaps, her strong voice commanding attention even as she pants for breath. She braces a hand against a thick branch in the hedges, reaching up to adjust her hot pink glasses with her other hand.
“You tattled on us?!” Veronica snaps, turning her rage onto Danyella.
“No, you moron,” she snarls right back, shoving angrily at some of her braids as they fall over her shoulder. “With so many students late for class, they started checking the cameras and saw all of you sprinting out the side entrance. Could you be any stupider?”
“You’re walking a fine line here, Schaeffer,” Veronica says with a long sigh. “You might be Lumen’s pet, but she can’t protect you every second of the day.” Veronica takes off, her posse of girls behind her. As they go, her brunette friend collects the knives in a bundle and shoves them into her book bag. What she plans on doing with them, I almost don’t want to know.
Chills take over me, and I nearly collapse in relief as the adrenaline in my body struggles to find an outlet.
“Thank you,” Chasm grinds out, giving Danyella a look. He snatches my hand and drags me back toward the school. My eyes meet Danyella’s as I pass by, and I dig my heels into the grass to stop Chas from pulling me away.
Unfortunately, I have my phones in my pockets, and I don’t know if Danyella has hers or not. Also, I’m wearing my book bag with the heart pin on it, so I can’t exactly be free with my words. But I have to let her know that I believe something’s going on, something she can’t or won’t tell me about.
“If you need me, I’m here for you,” I tell her, and she glances away sharply.
“Don’t talk to me, Dakota,” she murmurs, and then she, too, turns and heads back in the direction of the school. We chase after her, passing by her slower pace, and heading past the side steps toward the parking garage.
Chasm seems to know where he’s going so I let him lead me, reentering the school from the parking garage’s first floor entrance.
“I repeat—and I mean this, Little Sister—do not go anywhere without me today. Or ever again.” Chasm deposits me at my first period class before slipping away; I make sure he gets to his classroom door before stepping inside my own.
What the fuck were those girls go
ing to do with those knives? Stab us?
I get a small reprieve from the bullshit by arriving just before the automatic computer system reports me as having cut class to Tess in a damning text message that I so do not need right now. I’m so frazzled that I don’t absorb a single word during that entire period.
Everyone keeps stealing glances at me. Some of them are curious, some of them hungry, some of them downright vicious. Either way, the immediate danger might be over, but there is nothing pleasant or safe-feeling about that class or really, as the day drags on, slow but smelling of violence and subterfuge, any of the following periods.
Luckily, I don’t need these last few days of studying: Chasm has prepared me so well that I’m actually ahead in most of my classes. Final exams aren’t until next week (which is why our prom is being held on the last Friday after school rather than earlier like it is in most places). Guess the ‘best and brightest’ need to focus on their studies before anything else. Makes sense, I suppose.
By lunchtime, I’m completely strung out. I catch sight of Lumen in the hall and our eyes meet. Her brown ones narrow as she whips her head away from me, smacking me in the face with her honey blond hair as she saunters past.
“I know something’s going on with you,” I whisper, and I swear, she stumbles. She catches herself so quickly that I wonder if I didn’t imagine it.
“Do you enjoy playing with fire?” Chasm hisses, grabbing my arm and guiding me down the hall to our favorite place on campus—the handicapped bathroom. It’s a single room with a lock—and no cameras.
We’ve dumped our phones in Chasm’s locker—mine inexplicably caught fire this morning and the administration can’t figure out a reason why. They kept asking me if I was keeping a lighter or fireworks inside of it. Like, fireworks. In my school locker. Seeing as there was no evidence whatsoever, I didn’t get in trouble, but I might have.
“Tell me the truth,” I tell Chas as he props his ass on the edge of the sink, slides his hands into the pockets of his slacks, and crosses his long legs at the ankles. “Were those girls planning to physically assault me?”
Payback Princess (Lost Daughter of a Serial Killer Book 2) Page 39