Seems like I’m about to find out.
Chasm and I separate for class. Nothing actually happens to me. Nobody says anything. I can feel the shift though. It’s like everyone is waiting for something.
By the time we get to break, I feel like I’m on a tightrope, flailing around to keep myself from falling.
“Danyella,” I call out, jogging up to her outside the ruined theater. She’s tacking the yellow Caution tape back up, but as soon as she hears my voice, she goes completely still.
“Mia.”
A cold voice from behind me draws my attention before Danyella gets the opportunity to respond, and I turn around nice and slow, like I’m facing off against a wild animal.
May as well be, considering the look on Lumen Hearst’s face.
“Hey Lumen,” I start, almost faltering as she walks up to me with a substantial portion of her posse in tow. She smiles at me, but it isn’t one of her usual smiles. Instead, it’s an expression that I’ve only seen a handful of times, namely that day she beat the sophomore girl up in the parking garage.
Great.
Just … great.
She called me Mia which she knows I hate, so we’re clearly off to a very terrible start.
Lumen reaches up to twirl a strand of lime-green hair around her finger, studying it with a careful intensity before her brown eyes lift up to mine. Without warning, she wraps my hair in her fist and yanks me toward her, hard enough that I cry out, lifting my hands up to my scalp.
It’s a matter of seconds before my ass is on the ground and Lumen’s girls are on me. She stands back and watches as they quite literally kick the shit out of me.
The pain is … it’s hard to describe. My body feels like it’s trapped inside a dryer, flopping around and smacking against the metal sides. I see white; it shatters across my vision like a starburst as I hear a voice yelling in the background. A cracking sound snaps through my brain, like I can physically see a bone being broken.
One of my fingers explodes in agony and then very quickly goes numb as shock rolls over me. Did I just … break a finger? And then another one. It’s so unexpected, so strange, that I can hardly fathom what’s going on.
A body covers mine, but I’m in far too much pain to figure out who it is. I’m groaning and rolling onto my side, clutching my belly and hurting all over. I’ve been kicked and stomped by a good half-dozen girls, and I’m feeling it. Blood is pooling on the floor next to my face as I lick my lips with my tongue, tasting copper.
It reminds me of JJ, of that poor dead girl in that horrible box, and I start to choke, coughing up yet more red.
“Stop it!” Danyella screams, cradling me against her as she casts a look of sheer terror in Lumen’s direction. “What are you doing?!”
“By the end of the day, the whole school will know that you set that fire,” Lumen says, her voice like ice as she leans down toward me, blond hair sliding over her shoulders and swinging in my face. I do my best to focus on her, but my brain is hazy and all I can concentrate on is the taste and smell of my own blood.
I expect to see malice in her eyes. Or disgust. Instead, I don’t see any emotion at all. She’s gone completely blank.
“This is too much, Lumen,” Danyella murmurs, stroking my hair back. “This is far too much.”
Lumen stands up straight and shrugs nonchalantly.
“By the way, you and me”—here she gestures between us with a single finger—“we’re over. Not only am I dumping your ass, but I’ll let everyone know that the crap you said about Parrish being bad in bed is bullshit. You are the problem, Dakota. Always have been. Besides,” and here Lumen offers up another of those disturbing smiles, “Parrish and I have been sleeping together since sophomore year. I can attest to his skills.” Lumen pokes me in the nose with the toe of her shoe as Danyella reaches up to slap her foot away.
“Get out of here, Lumen!” Danyella screams, shaking so hard that I can feel her trembling body as I lie in her lap. Why is she taking care of me? Why does she care, after what I did to her? Did Lumen just say she slept with Parrish? “I don’t want this! I never wanted this!”
“Sorry, Danyella,” Lumen calls out, spinning in a swirl of pleated skirts and blond hair. “But there are consequences to our actions, aren’t there?” Her words are cryptic, but I’m in too much pain to try to decipher them.
I groan and struggle to sit up, but my arms feel like jelly and my left hand is on fire. When I move, it hurts so bad that my vision blacks out briefly, and I’m certain that I’m about to pass out.
