Even though it was the last thing I wanted to do, I got up. As I adjusted my leggings to make sure everything was in place, I saw he’d already undone the button on his jeans and had his hand stroking his length.
Was he really going to…
Of course he was. He was Dante. I should know better than to question him on that.
I said nothing, turning around and heading through the darkness. I found myself back in my seat within a minute, and Bobbi leaned against me to whisper, “Only one more group to go. You’re lucky you missed most of theirs. I’m not a fan of the Italian songs Ms. Haber makes them sing.” She stared at me quizzically, as if remembering I’d been gone for a while. “Where’d you go?”
“Bathroom,” I said.
She gave me a look, like she thought she knew. Like I meant I had to drop a number two or something. Bobbi had no idea I was in the back with Dante, getting felt up and pushed to orgasm.
She also had no idea Dante was back there, jerking off—but that was probably a good thing. I wanted to be the only one who knew, as I should be. That erection was mine. It had grown because he’d touched me.
Was it strange to call dibs on a hard cock? Probably, but at this point, I didn’t care.
As I sat there, as the all-girl choir group left the stage and the final group took their place—this an all acapella group—I couldn’t help but imagine Dante back there, his hand in his pants, rubbing one out. It was a thought that shouldn’t have brought me so much pleasure, but it did. I thought about him all throughout the last performance, and when I heard someone getting up in the back of the auditorium, I had to stop myself from glancing back to see if it was him.
It was. Dante must’ve finished himself off, buttoned his pants, and got up, headed for the nearest exit. My eyes followed him near the door, and I wished I could go with him, make him not as lonely in that motel room…but being here with my mom and Ollie, I really couldn’t.
Dante left without a word or a wave, and I felt a surge of sadness wash over me when he was gone. I shouldn’t care for him, but I did. I did, even though I knew it would be to my detriment. A guy like him never stuck around, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to go anywhere with him, regardless of what he thought.
Ms. Haber got on the stage after the last group was finished, always having something more to say. She made a few more corny jokes that, even though I didn’t want to, I found myself laughing at. Ms. Haber did a bow for herself, and every single person in the audience applauded.
Soon after, the lights above us snapped on in the auditorium, almost blinding. Everyone got up at once, the other choir kids near Bobbi and I hurrying to get back to their families and get out of Midpark High.
Bobbi followed me to my mom—and to Ollie, since they were beside each other.
“Bobbi,” my mom exclaimed, rushing to hug her as if she was proud of her. As the other parents and kids began to exit the auditorium, my mom threw a look around after the hug ended. “You did wonderful up there. Where are your parents? I’d love to meet them—”
Ah, whoops. I never told Mom that Bobbi’s mother was out of the picture.
“It’s just my dad now,” Bobbi spoke, forcing a smile. “And he couldn’t make it tonight. There was an emergency with work.” She shrugged.
“Oh, honey. I’m so sorry,” Mom was busy saying, as if her heart hurt at hearing that. She glanced at Ollie, who stood stoically beside her. “Why don’t you see if you can come over for a bit? I can make you girls some dessert or something—provided it’s okay with Mr. Fitzpatrick.”
Ollie actually touched my mom’s upper back and whispered, “Oliver. I told you many times now Oliver is fine.” He met Bobbi’s stare, nodding once. “And she’s welcome at the house, of course.”
I wasn’t surprised he’d say that. I did think he’d been lonely in the house before my mom and I had come.
“Thank you,” Bobbi said, grinning. “Let me grab my stuff and call my dad to let him know.”
As she disappeared, my mom moved beside me, hugging me as she did Bobbi. “I’m glad you stuck with choir,” she told me. “It wasn’t so bad, was it?”
I laughed. “It was miserable, actually.” Even my deadpan didn’t work out so well, mostly because right then my mind went back to Dante, and what he’d done to me in the top row of the audience. My body warmed as a result.
Miserable wasn’t quite the word for it.
Bobbi ended up coming over, and she stayed over till about one in the morning. Mom made us some cookies and we camped out in my bedroom. It was nice—I was able to let go and laugh, even share some funny stories from my old school and my old friends with her.
Things were going good. The dance was in a week, and I was ready to take that bitch Brittany down.
But, of course, I should’ve known the week leading up to the dance would be the hardest week of my life.
Chapter Twenty-Two – Jaz
Monday morning came, and gossip was flying. Something had happened over the weekend, something that set literally everyone on edge. I had no idea what happened, but I could feel the air had changed inside Midpark High. It was heavier, weightier. Tense.
I shoved my bag into my locker and gathered my shit for first period. I kept my head down as I walked to homeroom, though I did hear a few groups of students talking about me. One of them even went so far as to shout at me: “Why you’d do it?”
I stopped, turning to glare at the group of girls who’d spoken to me. “Do what?” Okay, I might’ve sounded a bit bitchy, but that’s because I didn’t trust them. They weren’t Brittany or any of her close friends, but still. I knew better.
“Don’t act so innocent,” the middle one, a girl with long, thick black hair, not unlike mine, spat. She had long, pointed nails, their color red and decked with jewels. “Why’d you have your thug go after Ryan and his friends?”
I blinked. It was about all I could do. “What are you talking about?”
“Ryan and his friends were jumped at the park over the weekend,” she said, eyeing me up, her bravado faltering when she realized I really didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. “Ryan’s critical, but the others didn’t make it.”
The words hit me like a physical slap. “What?”
One of her friends shook her head. “They’re dead, and we’re all betting they’re dead because of you.”
“Why would I have anything to do with this?” I wanted to scoff, I wanted to scream. Holding back had never been harder. Ryan was in critical condition, but his friends were dead—the same friends who’d jumped me in the locker room?
The girl with nails that could kill glared. “Ryan and his friends were bitching about you all last week. Said you kept teasing them but never gave what you promised. They were getting fed up. Everyone knows that tattooed freak probably did it. He was already dragged into the station over the weekend, from what I heard.”
What? How…
I said nothing, turning and storming away, my mind racing a thousand miles a minute as I headed to homeroom. That’s why the air felt so heavy in Midpark today—students had been attacked and killed. Ryan was still in the hospital.
How the hell could it be my fault? I never told anyone to kill them. That wasn’t how my mind worked.
Although, frankly, the world would be a better place without them—
No. I couldn’t think like that. Not yet. Not right now. Not when it could align me to being guilty.
Dante was dragged into the police station? As I entered homeroom and sat in my seat, I was lost in my own head. Was that the work emergency Bobbi’s dad had to deal with on Friday? Was that why Dante was already out and about, so he decided to come to the choir concert?
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit.
I looked up, finding everyone kept tossing me looks. Did the whole school seriously think I was at fault here? That I’d ordered a hit out on them or something? Hah, as if I had enough money for that.
“I assume you
heard what happened,” a low, masculine voice spoke beside me, and I turned to look at Archer. Out of the entire class, he was the only one staring at me the same way he’d looked at me before: with sorrow, lust, and denial, all thrown in and mixed together.
“And I assume you heard that everyone thinks I had something to do with it?” I shot back, cocking a brow at him, waiting for him to either confirm or deny it. Brittany wasn’t here, lording her relationship with Archer over me, which meant, I bet, she was the one spreading rumors like that through the school.
My fault. It was all my fault, of course.
God, I really had to talk to Dante. The only problem was I didn’t know his schedule, so I would have to wait until lunch to see him. To ask him if…if any of this was true.
Hey, Dante. Did you happen to attack and murder a few people before you strolled into that auditorium on Friday and made me orgasm within two minutes?
Archer was quiet for a few moments, and I watched a muscle in his jaw tense as the teacher strolled in, yawning and looking miserable. Mondays sucked for everyone, apparently, especially those who weren’t here to see it, like Ryan’s friends.
“Did you?” Archer asked me.
If I could’ve punched him, I would’ve. “No.” The announcements came on, but it didn’t stop me from saying, “Do you believe me?”
He was quiet for a while, and what would you know, the first thing spoken about during the announcements was the fact that a group of students had been harmed over the weekend, and that the school was having a few grief counselors stop by this week, to talk if any other student should want to talk about it.
“Yes,” Archer finally whispered, “I believe you.”
My heart practically stopped in my chest when his blue gaze met mine. So warm and steady, unlike Dante’s stare. Archer believed me? Really? It shocked me to hear that, for whatever reason.
Then, almost ironically, the announcements started to talk about the winter formal, which, despite current events, would still be held this weekend. Voting for king and queen would take place in homeroom on Friday, so be sure to be on time! Oh, and apparently anyone who missed school on Friday wasn’t eligible to go to the dance, a way of trying to get kids not to skip, I guess.
Archer believed my innocence. Would wonders ever cease?
The whole choir room was abuzz with chatter. Since it was the week after a concert, Ms. Haber wasn’t too focused on getting us back to work right away. She spent the whole period locked away in her office, which left us to pretend like this was a study hall instead of choir.
Bobbi and I sat in the corner of the room, away from everyone else. She was busy watching me, as if trying to see if I was indeed as guilty as everyone else said I was. “I don’t believe them,” she said. “Everyone is just trying to find someone to blame. I know you were home, getting ready for the concert.” She already told me that Ryan and his friends getting attacked in the park was indeed what had kept her dad away.
Ryan was out in the hospital, but before he’d slipped into a coma, he’d claimed he was meeting someone in the park to buy drugs.
Drugs. Couldn’t have been Dante, right? Dante didn’t do that shit, did he? I guessed I didn’t know him well enough to make a claim either way.
“Yeah, that’s why they’re all saying I hired Dante to do it for me,” I muttered. Fuck. Things just got worse and worse around here, didn’t they? Things could never slow down and let me catch my fucking breath.
Listen to me swear like a sailor. I sounded like Jacob. God, I could really use his ear right about now. Maybe he’d know what I should do.
“I know you’re close to him,” Bobbi whispered, her hazel stare heavy. “Do you think he’d be able to do something like that?” The department hadn’t had enough to arrest him, hence the reason he was here and the subject of school gossip.
Did I believe Dante to be capable of something like that? Definitely. The way he held onto his switchblade made me think he was born with it. However, would I ever admit that to Bobbi? Bobbi, whose dad was a freaking detective with the Midpark Police Department? Hell no.
“Never,” I said. “He might look tough, but he’s a softie, underneath it all.” A softie. Dante. Hah, right.
At least she seemed to believe me. “We’re quick to point fingers at the outsiders. It was the same way a few years back, with Celeste. When things started happening, everyone blamed her.” Bobbi heaved a sigh. “I really hope we’re not on a cycle or something.”
If anything, we were already worse. Kids had died. When Celeste was here, the only thing that happened, besides some bullying, was a kid getting his hands cut off and a girl nearly killing herself by ramming her car into a tree. The level we were at was worse, corpse-wise.
God, I couldn’t believe I just had that thought. What was wrong with me?
Bobbi and I talked throughout the rest of the class period, though my mind was elsewhere. When the bell rang to signal lunch, I was the first out of the class, grabbing my shit and hurrying to my locker. I needed to see Dante, needed to talk to him, to find out if he’d really done what everyone was talking about, or if it was all a mistake. If they were ganging up on him because he was an outsider, because he was my friend.
Well, maybe more than a friend, but the way his hand had felt on my body, between my legs, was the last thing on my mind as I hurried to lunch.
I didn’t even grab my bag. I wasn’t hungry. If I tried to eat anything right now, I’d probably only end up throwing it up soon after.
Vaughn had beaten me there, as he usually did. He sat with a tray of pizza in front of him, though to him it might as well have been chopped liver. He did not look as if he wanted to eat it. I leaned on the table near him, causing his dark eyes to shoot up at me, checking me out all the while, as if it’d been ages since he’d seen me and I was the tallest drink of water he’d ever seen.
“When Dante gets here, tell him to meet me in the bathroom near the science hall.” I said nothing else, pushing away from the table as I left the cafeteria, heading to that same bathroom. Luckily the single-stall bathroom was empty, and I pushed inside, starting to pace the small space.
What would I do if Dante was the culprit? If he was the killer? Would I turn him in?
Fuck me.
My nerves got the better of me, and I wanted to throw up even though I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast—and even that was just a quick little pancake before my mom stuffed me in the car and drove me here in her newly-fixed van.
I had no idea how long it was until I heard someone try the knob to the door. Maybe I should’ve locked it, maybe I should’ve told Vaughn to tell Dante to knock a certain way or something, so I’d know it was him and let him in—
Dante stepped inside, grinning as he saw me, taking a quick moment to appreciate my appearance, his gaze lingering on my chest and my lips a bit too long. “Jaz. Just the girl I was told to see in the science hall restroom. How are you? You finally want some time alone with me?”
“No,” I said. “Well, yes…” What the hell was I saying? “That’s not why I told Vaughn to send you here.”
“Oh?” He took a step toward me, his cocky smirk warming my body in spite of the seriousness of what I had to ask him.
“I’m going to ask you a question, and I need you to tell me the truth,” I said, forcing out a frown. I would not let my hormones get the best of me; not right now. “Can you do that, Dante?” I folded my arms over my chest, giving him the most determined look I could, given the circumstances.
He gave me a mock bow. “For you, babe, anything.”
“This is serious,” I said, eyeing him up. “Where were you before the choir concert?” That was a good way of asking him without actually asking him outright, wasn’t it?
Dante ran a hand through the brown hair on the top of his head, still smirking. “Now, why would you be so curious about that? Heard the rumors, hmm?” He took another step closer to me, and I found myself with my back against the tiled
wall.
I opened my mouth to say something, to tell him to give me a straight answer, but the door to the bathroom opened again. Both Dante and I were about to tell the person it was occupied—but it was only Vaughn, and the moment he stepped inside, he flicked the lock, giving us both a quizzical look.
“If you’re going to have secret meetings in restrooms, you should really use the lock,” Vaughn muttered, frowning.
“Dude, space, please?” Dante asked. “Jaz wanted to see me—”
“He can stay,” I muttered. Felt a little safer here with Vaughn, ironically enough. “Now answer the question. Where were you?”
Dante turned his blue eyes to me as Vaughn leaned his back on the sink, watching, waiting. “Where do you think I was?” Dante whispered. “The park?” He let out a small chuckle. “And if, say, I was at the park, so what?”
“So what?” I echoed, aghast. “Dante, people are dead. Ryan’s still in the hospital—”
“And?” He blinked, waiting for me to explain why he should care.
That caught me off-guard. “And?” This time I did not repeat him with nearly as enough gusto as I should’ve.
Dante tossed a look at Vaughn, who was, besides his frown, emotionless. “And why does it matter what happened to those fuckers?” he questioned me. “Why do you care so much what happened to them, Jaz? You know what they tried doing—and you know you weren’t their first. You don’t get that ballsy on your first try. No, those fucks have done that to other girls here, and I bet everyone else kept their mouth shut because of mommy and daddy’s money.”
I…well, damn, I’d never thought of it like that, but still, how did that make killing them right?
I was looking into the eyes of a murderer, and it was like Dante didn’t even care that he’d ended lives. My stare darted to Vaughn, to see how he was taking all this, and he didn’t look surprised one bit.
“You wanted payback on them, didn’t you?” Dante asked me, tilting his head, looking mighty dangerous as he stared holes into my soul.
Defiant: A High School Bully Romance (Midpark High Book 2) Page 26
