Page 129 of Chaos at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys 2)
He stops talking. I get it. We all want that for Bernadette, a normal life. A life that is, specifically, not the one we live. Well, except for Vic. I love the guy, he’s my best friend, but he can be … intense.
“I love her, too, you know,” I say, and Aaron nods. He’s lucky. He’s the only one of us who got to pretend, at least for a little while, that she could be his. “So we use the video to keep Bernie safe?” I scoff and rub my hand over my face. “I don’t like this. We shouldn’t be using a video like that as a weapon.”
“We can, if it means keeping both Havoc and Bernie safe.”
Aaron meets my eyes again. We’re similar in a lot of ways, me and him. We both want to be the good guy yet we both do evil things. We’re both inextricably lost somewhere in the middle.
“Okay,” I say, exhaling and putting my hands on my hips. “Okay. But someday, he has to die. You know that, right?”
This time, Aaron actually smiles. It’s a sad smile, but it’s a smile, nonetheless.
“I know,” he replies, and together we walk down the block and climb into the welcoming arms of my Camaro. She isn’t done yet, but she’s getting there, and when she is, I’m going to paint her a violent cherry-red.
And one day, I’m going to take Bernadette for a spin.
Mark my words.November nineteenth, Now …
Bernadette Blackbird“She didn’t take it well,” Hael says, sitting at a stool in front of the kitchen peninsula, his chin in his hand, a frown on his face. “She threw her coffee in my face and tried to knee me in the balls. I’m a little worried, to be honest with you.”
He watches as Oscar goes down a checklist of things that need to be done before the wedding. It isn’t a huge affair—after all, besides the Havoc Boys, we’ve only invited six guests. With Victor’s choice of venue, it wasn’t difficult to put together a ceremony in the twenty-thousand-dollar budget.
Actually, I’ve only spent about half of it—most of it on the dress.
“Worried about Brittany?” Aaron asks, making a scoff of disbelief in his throat. “You really think she’d break the deal she made with us?”
“I have no idea,” Hael says, narrowing his eyes slightly. He’s clearly thinking about Brittany’s father, the chief of the Springfield police and the leader of a newly developed anti-gang squad in the area. The fact that he ever got involved with her shows me that even if Havoc seems to have its shit together, we’re all still in high school.
There’s a lot to learn.
“Hey kiddo,” I say when Heather comes tromping down the stairs to search in the fridge for some juice. She gives me a look that very clearly says, I’m busy, so what the fuck do you want? I raise an eyebrow and she whines at me.
“I’m in the middle of a game, Bernie,” she complains as Victor slips past her and into the kitchen, wrapping his arms around me from behind. My eyes narrow, but Heather gives a dramatic groan.
“Why are you always kissing on each other?” she demands, slamming the fridge door and turning to glare at us.
“Whoa,” Hael whistles with a laugh. Victor’s big body shakes behind me as he chuckles.
“Because we’re in love,” he murmurs, resting his chin on my shoulder. I can see Aaron rolling his eyes at the comment.
“Well, I don’t want you to be in love,” Heather declares, lifting her chin and crossing her arms over her Spiderman t-shirt. “I ship you and Aaron.”
“You ship us?” Aaron echoes, and it’s like he can’t control his face anymore. His lips twist up into a shit-eating smirk. “Seriously?”
“Seriously,” Heather says as Vic stands up straight and frowns at her. Kara and Ashley come down the stairs just a moment later, and my sister wastes no time in asking them their opinion. “You guys agree, right?” she says, cocking her hip out like she’s sixteen instead of eight-going-on-nine. Holy fuck, I’m going to have trouble with her as a teenager I bet. “You ship Aaron and Bernie?”
Kara looks nervously at Vic as he stands behind me, looming over everything like he always does.
“I don’t want to be rude …” she starts, proving that she has most definitely been raised by Aaron and not by me. Look at Heather: you can tell it’s in our blood to be bitchy. “But I think Aaron and Bernadette are meant to be together.” She glances down at Ashley who, shockingly enough, actually decides that today is the day she’s no longer afraid of me.
I must truly be a part of the family now.
“I ship Bernie and Callum,” she says, and he snorts from behind me, perched on the edge of the counter as he taps his heels against the lower cabinets.
