by Rina Kent
“Well, duh,” she says through a laugh. “So where?”
“Look, Annie,” I say, turning on my heel to face her.
She stops abruptly, her hair shifting like silk. “Addy.” She shows me her teeth, and I feel like punching her because they’re so damn perfect.
“Addy,” I amend, starting to talk through my teeth in an attempt to remain civil. “I’m more of a loner kind of person, so if you could just—”
“Don’t be such a fucking grouch,” Addy says, rolling her eyes. She rummages in the pocket of her gold-trimmed blazer and pulls out a joint. “Not a lot of people around here smoke, and you kinda look like you might, so—”
I lift my hand, and she stops talking. “Addy? I think we got off on the wrong foot.”
“You’re obviously not a morning person, are ya?” Addy says, her words punctuated with puffs of smoke.
We’re in Addy’s car — a cute little sportster that probably costs more than my mother’s life insurance policy will pay out — with the windows wound up and our minds melting down.
I stare at her for a moment, and then burst out laughing. “It’s that obvious?”
“Duh,” Addy says with another exaggerated roll of her eyes. “You should come with a warning label.”
“Yeah…sorry,” I mumble around the joint. “It’s been a short, yet very shitty morning. Week, actually.”
I get ready to tell her to fuck off, knowing she’s going to ask what happened, but instead she waves her hand in the air between us.
“So be glad it’s over, and let’s get our asses inside before they lock us out.”
“They lock kids out?” I turn to stare ahead at the school building. “For real?”
Addy laughs as she kicks open her door. “You don’t know the half of it. Come on, punk.”
Chapter Five
Briar
Dylan, Zak, and Marcus are lounging in our regular spot by the front steps of the school when I arrive a few minutes before the first bell rings.
I pull my Mustang into my parking spot. It’s always open; no one dares to park here anymore. Marcus steps closer, toking at his slim, silver vape as he sticks out his hand to shake mine.
Dylan yells out, “You cut yourself shaving or something?”
Shit. I’d been blasting metal on my car stereo, and it had taken my mind off everything — including my run-in with last night’s little trespasser and the brazen memento she left me with. If Marcus had noticed it last night, he hadn’t commented on it but now he’s staring at it with a deep frown.
I grin at him, trying to ignore the aching cut on my cheek. “You know what happens when I look for trouble.”
“You find it?” Marcus says, hitting his vape again.
Zak and Dylan stick out hands for me to fist bump. Dylan even goes as far as to tip his white baseball cap at me, and laughs when I cock an eyebrow at him. Then Zak and Dylan go back to talking about last night’s game. We usually hang out on the weekends but with finals coming up, the three stooges’s parents had grounded them for the weekend.
Bad things happen when parents start talking to each other.
Marcus doesn’t join in on the conversation. He’s staring at nothing, one hand draped over his knee, the other toying with his vape when he’s not hitting it.
I click my fingers at Marcus, and he holds out his vape without looking. It could just be that he’s hungover, but I know him too well. He’s in a slump, and it’s gonna take concerted effort to get him out of it.
I draw deep, grimacing around its sweet taste, and take a long, slow scan of the kids streaming into school.
A pair of girls come closer. I recognize Addison Green from my AP Literature class, but I don’t know who the hell’s with—
“Prince!”
I snap out of my trance, and throw Zak a scowl. The fucker knows better than to use my first name, but he doesn’t even have the decency to look abashed.
“What?” I snap.
“You get any tail this weekend?”
I stare at him for a moment, and then shake my head. He’s the only one in our crew idiotic enough to ask. They all know by now that I keep myself away from women.
It’s too easy to lose control. If I’d had any doubts, last night proved I can’t be alone with a girl.
When I turn back, Addison is only a few yards away.
“What the fuck, man?” I hear Dylan say, but I’m more interested in the girl walking beside Addison than in being interrogated by my posse.
It’s the girl from the woods. This time, instead of some baggy jeans and an oversized hoody, she’s wearing a school skirt that shows off a pair of slender legs. She’s not wearing makeup, and her mess of hair’s been drawn back into an untidy bun.
In daylight, she’s even more petite than I witnessed last night, the shadows under her eyes more pronounced.
As she takes her first step up to the front of the school, Addy points a finger right at me. The girl looks up, spots me, and stops dead.
Behind me, Zak shouts, “Hey, who’s the new chick?”
But those green eyes don’t move. Her face contorts into a scowl. “You?” she yells, and I can’t quite make out if it’s anger or shock creasing her brow.
“Me,” I say, grinning at her.
The girl surges forward. Addison tries to grab her, but she shakes her off without pausing. The little thing charges straight up to me and tries to slap me.
I catch her, of course, my fingers easily wrapping around her thin wrist.
“Easy there, Angel,” I murmur.
She tries another slap, this time with her left hand. I was so busy gloating, I barely see it coming in time. I twist, and she falls forward, thrown off-balance when she doesn’t connect.
Behind me, the guys burst out laughing. Addison’s eyes are so wide, they look about to pop out of her head. But I don’t think any of this is funny.
I grab the girl’s wrists, pinning them together, and haul her against me. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I growl down to her.
“Me?” she barks out in disbelief. Her tits brush against my stomach as she draws one furious breath after the other. “You’re the one that thinks you can just go around raping people!”
There’s a scandalized gasp from everyone within earshot.
I shove her away from me so hard that she lands on her ass and I spot a flash of white underwear before she tugs her skirt straight. But even sitting on her ass in the grass, obviously overpowered and already surrounded by a decent crowd, fury blazes in her eyes.
“The fuck you on about?” I say, hardly recognizing my tight voice.
She scrambles up, fends off Addison when the girl tries to drag her away, and comes back for more. “Could you even stand looking at yourself in the mirror this morning?” she yells. Now there’s an outright challenge in her eyes.
“The fuck?” I scoff, glancing over my shoulder at the guys. But they’re all staring at me like they’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
When I turn back to the girl, she’s less than a foot away from me again.
“Let me cut you on the other side,” she says through her teeth. “Then that face of yours will be all symmetrical again.”
This time, when she goes to slap me, I duck under her arm, lunge against her, and force her to the ground. She lands on her back in the grass beside the school steps, and I immediately straddle her.
“Look, bitch,” I spit, my cut aching how I’m clenching my teeth. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you’d better get one thing straight.”
“Briar!” Marcus calls out, but I ignore him.
She squirms furiously under me, but I catch her hands and pin them to her chest before she can try and scratch out my eyes or, judging from experience, try for an uppercut. Fuck, she’s getting me hard, wriggling around like that between my legs.
“Get off me!” she yells.
I grind her wrist bones together so hard, her face goes white.
“Briar!” Dylan this time.
But she doesn’t scream out in pain, or stop struggling.
“No one, no one, talks shit about me. Got it?”
“We both know what you tried to do,” she whispers through a grimace, finally relaxing under me.
A whistle blows.
I’d been so fixated on her, I hadn’t even seen Mr. Denard, the French teacher, walking up to us. As soon as I spot him, I let out a low growl and push up to a stand.
The girl scrambles up a second later, cheeks flushed and the whites of her eyes too bright in comparison. She points at me with a shaking hand. “Sir, this guy—”
“Are you the new one?” Denard asks, arching a single eyebrow at her. His lip twitches as if the mere sight of her disgusts him. He’s dressed in black suit pants, a cream dress shirt, and a black suit vest.
“That she is,” I say, stepping up to Denard and holding out my hand for him to shake.
Denard turns his attention to me, and his expression softens a little, but not enough. Thank fuck it was him who came out here to investigate.
I let out a low chuckle, grab his hand, and give it a good pump. “Elle est tombée dans les pommes. But don’t worry, Sir, I have this under control.”
“Wh-what?” the girl demands. She hasn’t even bothered dusting herself off, or readjusting her clothes. Right now, it does look like I tried to get lucky with her.
Denard glances at her, and this time his lips pull into a full sneer. “Perhaps if you ate more, child, then you wouldn’t be swooning all the time.”
The girl blinks, and then glances over her shoulder at Addison as if for support. Addison drops her eyes, her mouth going into a line, but she says nothing.
Denard clicks his fingers at her. “What was your name again? Virgin? Virgile?”
Immediately, the crowd surrounding us begins murmuring, “Virgin,” through a slowly building wave of giggles.
“Virgo!” The girl throws me a quick scowl, as if loathe to reveal any personal information in front of me. “Indi Virgo.”
“Best get yourself to homeroom, Miss Virgo,” Denard says. He’s been teaching French at Lavish for over two years, but he still has traces of an accent.
I know it’s on purpose.
“What?” Indi takes a step closer, her hands balling up as if she wants to attack the teacher next. “But, he just—”
“Now.” Denard’s face sets into an expressionless mask.
Around us, students start gathering, anticipating an even bigger showdown. Indi glances around, and as if realizing that her audience just doubled in size, she murmurs. “Sir, you don’t understand. He tried to—”
Denard tilts his head. “Keep going, Miss Virgo. My detention class could always use more students.”
Indi lets out a strangled sound. Her mouth opens and closes a few times, and then her shoulders slump.
“Is that all?” Denard asks, lowering his arm.
She nods, her mouth so tight it begins to tremble.
“Very well then.” Denard sniffs. “Now get to class.”
Indi manages a tiny nod, and her throat moves as she swallows.
Denard turns to walk away, and then pauses mid step to peer at Indi over his shoulder.
“Welcome to Lavish Prep, Miss Virgo.”
Indi
Did that just happen? Did a teacher of this godforsaken school honestly crap me out after he saw that guy on top of me? I’m so pissed off, I can barely fucking breathe.
“Hey, virgin!”
I have no idea who the hell shouted that, but before I can find out, someone grabs the back of my shirt and tugs. In fact, they tug so hard that one of my buttons pop off. I’m hauled several feet away before I can free myself.
Addy glares at me when I turn to give her a piece of my flaming mind.
“Seriously don’t know how to read a room, do you?” she mutters.
My eyes go wide. “You too?” I say, contempt dripping from every word.
Addison cocks her head. “Do you know who that was?”
“No,” I say through an indignant laugh. “But if I did, I’d be at the police station, not—”
“That’s Briar. Prince Briar, the Third.”
I try to glance over my shoulder, a laugh rattling in my throat. “You’re a fucking prince?” I yell out.
Briar cocks his head at me, a smile touching his lips. Then he spreads his hands to either side, as if to show off his mouth-watering physique.
Last night I barely got more than a glimpse of the guy; he was all shadows and square jawbone. Now in the daylight, I realize I was tousling with a six-foot-something teenage Adonis. Sandy, windswept hair, crystal blue eyes, and a face that captained those thousand ships launched for Helen of Troy.
Addy grabs my sleeve and rushes for the school, hauling me after her.
“Let go!”
“This is for your own good.”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just shut up, Indi! Fuck!”
There’s so much vehemence in Addison’s voice, I stop fighting and let her drag me into the school proper. A few students flow in with us — obviously bored now that the morning’s entertainment is over. Addison pulls me into a nearby corner and looks around as if this is a known mugging spot.
My chest is too tight to speak. The fists at my sides are aching how I’m holding myself back. But when Addison finally turns her gaze on me, all my anger — my indignation — melts away.
Her brown eyes are drenched with sadness, frustration, regret; her mouth an upside-down smile.
“What is it?” I whisper. “Addy, what’s wrong?”
“Don’t you ever, ever get close to that guy again. Hear me?”
I open my mouth, but she’s not done.
“I mean it, Indi. If you see him coming down the hall, you go the other way. Got it?”
“Addy, I don’t—”
“Say it.” Addison’s teeth flash white as she grits them at me. “Say it!”
I’ve had just about enough of being bullied by every second person in Lavish. But, at the same time, I’m utterly drained after everything that’s just happened.
I can’t handle this kind of shit. The last thing I want is people treating me different, but holy crap, what happened to just treating someone normally? I’ve never felt this out of place in my life. It’s like I have this massive target painted on my back.
And why? Because I got pissed off that Prince — Prince? — Briar tried to get with me last night in the middle of the woods? That I don’t feel he should be allowed to get away with behavior like that?
I want to fight. I so desperately need to fight, but I’ve got no energy left.
“Got it,” I mutter. “Now tell me what the hell—”
“Later. I have to get to homeroom.” Addison spins away from me, and I glimpse moisture glimmering on her lashes before she strides away.
My back thumps into the wall behind me. I stiffen my legs just in time before I can slide down and sit on the floor like an idiot.
I let out a soft laugh, and run my hands over my face.
What the hell have I gotten myself into?
Briar
“The fuck was that?” Marcus says.
I glance at him, and force my shoulders to relax. “The new girl, I guess.”
“Yeah, but why was she saying all that shit?”
I can’t look at Marcus. I already feel Dylan and Zak’s eyes boring into me, demanding answers. I don’t have their fucking answers. Not back then, not now.
“You saw who she was with,” I snap, facing him in a rush. “Addison wasted no time.”
“Fuck,” Marcus mutters, hitting his vape. “Could be bad for you, mate.”
“Yeah, no shit.” I grind my teeth, staring back at the school building and wishing I could see through the walls.
Of course this is bad. Far from being afraid of me, it looks like this girl — Indi? — wants to rat me out for what happen
ed last night. And it would be my fault, of course. Doesn’t matter I was protecting my property against a trespasser.
I lost control, just like before, and now I’m stuck with the consequences…just like before.
Marcus moves in my peripheries, and I start nodding my head. If it weren’t for him, I’d be in juvie, no doubt. Maybe even prison, charged as an adult instead of a minor, who the fuck knows?
I click my fingers for his vape. He hands it over, but even after what he just witnessed, I can see he’s distracted. Probably wondering how long he has to stay at my house to avoid his father. Or rehashing whatever led to last night’s beating.
“Thing is,” I say slowly, before taking a tug. When I speak, my words escape with faint puffs of vapor. “She wouldn’t be a problem if she’s not going to school here anymore.”
Marcus’s eyes dart to me. He smiles, but the gesture lacks any real mirth. “Gonna take a lot for her to quit. Especially if her folks are hard set against her going to public school.”
Lavish was so small, it only had two high schools — Lavish High and Lavish Preparatory School. The high school was probably just as good, education wise, but public schools in Fool’s Gold have a hectic stigma attached to them.
“Far as I recall, we can be a tenacious fucking bunch,” I say, sweeping my arm out to include Dylan and Zak. They chuckle to themselves, Zak elbowing Dylan in the side as if they’re sharing a private joke. “And honestly, I think she’s all bark and no bite.”
Marcus nods, and focuses to the distant horizon. Hopefully to start planning the imminent demise of one Indi Virgo.
And thank fuck for that. Using Indi as a distraction would be the best way to get him out of his slump. And it’d make my life a fuck ton easier if she wasn’t around as a constant reminder of just how little it takes for me to lose control.
“Think she’s really a virgin?”
I snap out of my thoughts and frown at Marcus. He’s wearing a strangely thoughtful expression, as if he’s genuinely curious.