Page 4 of Their Cruel Play
“Are we going to tell your mom about the guy who broke in?” Kenz whispers.
“I don’t know.” I turn onto my back and stare up at the ceiling. “We didn’t call her last night. Or even the police. If I tell her, she’ll worry. If I don’t, she won’t know what’s going on.”
“We don’t know why that guy was here, but Luke was right, he was after you.” Kenz shakes her head. “If I hadn’t been here and Luke hadn’t been here...”
I swallow the lurch of fear and grab my phone off the nightstand.
Me:
Should I tell Mom about last night?
Famine (Jack):
What?
Death (Luke):
We’ll talk at school.
War (Caden):
WTF
Nico:
I’m missing something
Pestilence (Eli):
Should we be worried?
Me:
Talk at school
I figured Luke would have told the guys everything, but maybe he didn’t have a chance. My eyes meet Kenz’s.
“I have to tell her something.” If I’d been home alone, things would have gone much differently. Luke came in and took me from my bed without me realizing it. The idea that anyone could walk in and watch me sleep without me being aware will have me sleeping with my piñata stick every night. Maybe it’s time to invest in a baseball bat.
Kenz nods. “Yeah, maybe just say you saw someone outside the house trying to get in. But when you turned on the light, they ran away.”
“Okay.” I put my phone back on my nightstand. But when I try to close my eyes, I can’t help but worry what’s going to happen next.
CHAPTER 2
The Realization
Jack
One of the first teachers to arrive in the morning released Grant from the flagpole, where we’d left him tied and naked last night. If Grant had on clothes, they might have left him. But butt-ass naked was a big ask.
I edited the video last night, so no nudity shows and it’s on a timer to release anonymously to everyone’s phone this morning. Grant won’t be at school, but when he comes back, everyone will be ready.
Leaning against the school sign, I’m eager to see Harper in my jersey and find out what the fuck that text was about this morning. Nico strides up the sidewalk toward me.
I hold out my hand and we do the handshake we perfected in sixth grade.
“Do you know what that text was about?” I ask as he leans against the sign beside me. We’re both wearing our jerseys that we’ll wear tonight, since the cheerleaders and Harper have our out-of-town jerseys.
