“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 as 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?”
