“Boo!” Elijah grinned at me.
“You scared the crap out of me, you jerk.” I gave a half-hearted attempt at swatting his hand away.
“Oh, yeah? Whatchya gonna do about it?” His eyes danced with mischief as he backed toward the door. A wink sealed the deal before he disappeared into the room.
He’d issued a challenge. To my face. I couldn’t back down now. Following him inside, I sought him out immediately and kept my eyes glued to his. He watched me every step of the way from his seat at the back of the class. It wasn’t until I’d taken my own seat, unpacked my supplies, flipped through the pages of the book, and heard Mr. Parson clear his throat like he did before the start of every lecture that I finally managed to lift my eyes to the front of the room.
What I saw there made me gasp. Mr. Parson’s left eye was a dark shade of purple and swollen. A bandage wrapped over his disfigured nose and several more closed a gash on his cheek.
What the . . .?
My eyes bugged and I twisted around in my seat to find Elijah resolutely refusing to look at me. Mr. Parson was doing the exact same thing. And he continued to for the remainder of the lesson, never once looking my way, calling on me, or even strolling down my aisle as he paced the room.
When the final bell rang, Elijah jumped ship like it was going under, but I wasn’t about to let him get away that easily. Pushing and shoving my way through the crowded hallway, I caught up to him near and alcove and dragged him in.
“Did you do that?” The words practically hissed between my clenched teeth.
“Do what?” He gave me a clueless look that only fueled my anger.
“Don’t play innocent with me, Elijah Prince. Did you give him a black eye?”
All teasing aside, Elijah’s face turned serious in the blink of an eye. “Let’s just say he’ll never touch you again.”
“But what if—?”
“Trust me, he won’t be saying anything else. And you won’t be hearing from the board of ethics, either. I’m just sorry I couldn’t get him to give you the grade you deserve.”
“How did you—?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“But—”
“Stop. No more worrying. Everything’s going to be okay.” He tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear and suddenly, everything was.
Until Friday rolled around . . .
Chapter Nine
I stared at the sealed envelope with no small amount of dread curling in my belly.
“You really want to know what it says?” Elijah snagged the bringer of doom from my fingers and held it up to the light. As though I hadn’t already tried that. The school used those special privacy envelopes.
“Yeah, but my parents will know if I open it. They wouldn’t approve—”
“Come with me.”
“Where?”
He didn’t answer, just ducked inside the closest bathroom, which once again happened to be a women’s room and, thankfully, empty.
“How much time do you spend in girl’s bathrooms?”
“Since I met you? Just lock the door and get over here.”
“It’s a public bathroom, Elijah. The door doesn’t lock.”
“Then, block it. Come on. We don’t have much time before second period starts and I’m guessing a detention won’t help much on the parental front.”
No, that it most definitely would not. Cramming my backpack against the door and hoping it did enough to at least warn us if someone was coming in, I joined Elijah near the sink where he was blasting the water as hot as it would go. It took a few pulse-pounding minutes, but eventually the water began to steam and he held the envelope over it until the flap peeled back.
“Voila!” He handed it to me in a flourish, obviously impressed with his juvenile delinquent abilities. “When you’re done reading it, just reseal it and they’ll never be the wiser.”
“Where did you learn to do that?”
“Do you really want to know?”
He grinned at me and I sighed. “Probably not.”
With butterflies that felt more like vultures—on crack—swan diving around my stomach, I carefully extracted the paper that would seal my fate.
A’s scrolled down a list of courses, but there, at the very bottom, next to Chemistry, was the nail in my coffin. D, he gave me a D! I had to fight back the rolling nausea with several deep breaths.
“Hey, the toilet’s in there.” Elijah sounded like he was joking, but his lips were pressed tight and his brow scrunched with worry.
“I’m okay. I don’t think I’m going to get sick.”
“You sure? Because you look—”
“I’m fine!”
“Okay.” Elijah raised his hands in mock surrender and took a step back from my snipping.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“What did the asshole give you?”
I handed him the paper and watched as his jaw tightened. He shook his head and slipped the page back inside the envelope, carefully resealing it.
“Are you . . .?” When he turned back to me, his eyes held a whole new level of concern—bordering on . . . fear? “Are you gonna be okay? I mean, I don’t know your parents, but it seems like this will be a big deal to them.”
“They’re going to kill me.” I buried my face in my hands. When I recovered, I found him studying me closely.
“When you say that . . .” He swallowed hard and looked more uncertain than I’d ever seen him. “You don’t mean it literally. Do you?”
“That they’ll kill me? No, I didn’t mean literally.” Who would? “But they’re going to freak. It’s not gonna be pretty.”
He released a relieved breath and shook his head, leaving me thoroughly confused. But, then again, what the hell else was new? Around Elijah, confused was becoming more like a constant state of being.
“No, I guess it probably won’t. Guess that means you’re off the hook for our date tonight.”
“More than likely. I wouldn’t count on seeing much of the outside world for a long, long time after this.”
“I should go give the bastard another black eye just for that.”
Despite everything I knew was coming, a small smile broke out on my lips. Elijah saw it and grinned back at me before heading for the door just as the warning bell pealed through the halls.
“Hey, Elijah?”
“Hmm?” He glanced back at me, nudging my bag out of the way with his foot.
“Just so you know . . . I didn’t want to be off the hook for our date.”
He smiled—one of those rare, genuine smiles—and disappeared before I could say anything more.
Chapter Ten
“What am I looking at?” Dad sat perfectly still, half-seated in that way that always made him look ready to move on to something more important. His words came out low and even. His calm only betrayed by the way he was strangling the life of out the corner of the paper in his grasp.
Mom hovered behind him. “A mistake, obviously. We’ll just call the school and . . .” Her gaze flicked over his shoulder to me, anxious and uneasy.
“Not . . . exactly.”
“Not exactly?” Dad’s tight reign on his temper was beginning to slip.
“I . . .” How was I supposed to explain this to them when there was no explanation? None that I could give them, anyway. “I had a little trouble with the chemistry exam.”
“A little trouble?” I could practically see the seams of his control beginning to fray.
“It was . . . confusing.” Understatement of the century.
“Confusing?” And there it went. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Your college will not take a D lightly, especially in science. This is unacceptable!”
“I tried—”
“Not hard enough! You have to try harder. Want it more.”
“I do want it! I’m trying my best—”
“That isn’t good enough! Things are tough out here in the real world. A world you are qui
ckly approaching and where only the best survive. Your best isn’t going to cut it, Rylie. You need to be the best.”
Behind him, Mom shook her head and I staggered under the weight of her disappointment.
“Mom, I—”
“Don’t you dare try to excuse this, Rylie. You’re a smart girl, capable of incredible things if you would just apply yourself. Your actions have consequences, young lady.” She sighed. “You have let me down, you’ve let your father down, but worse, you’ve let yourself down. We will not allow you to squander your potential.”
“But I—”
“Enough!” My skin suddenly felt oversensitive, heated and frail where my father’s fingers wrapped around my wrist. “You’re not to set foot outside of your room until further notice. Do I make myself clear?”
Shocked, I glanced from his hand to his face and back again. “Y-yes, sir.”
He frowned as though he was just realizing what he’d done and withdrew. I couldn’t even look at my mother. Her frustration hung over me like a stuffy blanket on a hot day, suffocating me.
I walked a razor thin line when it came to my father. Somewhere between elusive, unachievable pride and disappointment. There was no doubt which side of the fence I was firmly rooted on now. Seventeen years of doing anything and everything I could think of to please him—wanting nothing more than to find my way into the light of his good graces—and all it had taken was one minute, one decision, to flush it all away. Tears blurred the path of my retreat.
This couldn’t be it. I shut the door and crawled into the welcoming comfort of my bed. There had to be a way to fix this. A way to erase it. I could work harder, be what they needed me to be. The grade wasn’t my fault, I knew that, but I also knew it was my responsibility to repair the damage it had done. And I would find a way. I would be the best. I had to be.
“How did it go?”
I glanced at the closed bedroom door and pulled a pillow over my head to further muffle my voice. Dad had made it pretty clear that I wasn’t going to be seeing the outside world, but he’d never said anything about communicating with it. I needed to talk to Elijah, to hear him say that everything would be alright. I sighed with relief when he answered after only the second ring.
“Not . . . good. I’ve effectively crushed my hopes and dreams, destroyed my entire future, let everyone—including myself—down, and will amount to nothing.”
He didn’t say anything for a long time. Long enough that I was about to check my screen to see if we’d been disconnected when he sighed. “Harsh.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Guess you’re grounded, then?”
“House arrest is more like it. I can’t even leave my room except to shower and pee.”
“TMI, Rylie.” I grinned at the smile in his voice.
Was it even possible to miss someone after only being apart from them for a few hours? Because I did. I really, really did.
“You miss me?”
Crap, did I say that out loud? “Maybe. But not if you’re going to tease me about it.”
“No teasing, I promise. But since you’re already in trouble anyway, why don’t we do something about the fact that we’re missing each other?”
“Did you just admit to missing me, too?”
“Possibly. How late do your parents usually stay up?”
“Not late. My dad works Saturday’s and my mom usually has some volunteer thing or another going on. Why?”
“Can you get outside after they’re in bed?”
“Yeeees.” I let the answer drag, not entirely certain it was the one I wanted to give. Once it was out there, I was pretty sure I knew where this was headed.
What was I thinking? My parents were already on the war-path, but Elijah brought out the reckless side in me.
“I’ll pick you up at eleven.”
“Where are we going?” I'd never snuck out in my entire life. I’d ever even lied about where I was going or broken curfew. But, then again, I’d never gotten a D, been accused of cheating, or propositioned by a teacher before either. It seemed to be a week for firsts.
“A friend’s house. There are some people hanging out tonight. We can just . . . relax.”
No. No! I should absolutely, positively, without a doubt have said No Freaking Way to this plan. I knew who his friends were and had a pretty good idea of what ‘relaxing’ meant to them.
But I didn’t. I said, “I’ll see you at eleven,” and hung up before I could change my mind.
A mind that I clearly couldn’t change since I had obviously lost it.
***
Sometime around ten, I lay in my bed listening as my parents climbed the stairs and went into their room. The covers were pulled all the way up to my chin, but underneath I was fully dressed. In an outfit it had taken me over two hours to decide on. The part of me that wanted to call this a date and dress accordingly warred with the part of me that didn’t want to send the wrong message to his friends we were going to be hanging out with. In the end, I compromised with a pair of jeans and a tight fitted powder blue halter top that matched my eyes perfectly. It was one of my favorite outfits, but casual enough not to look like I was trying too hard—which I most definitely was.
My bedside clock read ten-fifty when I scooped up my white wedge sandals and carried them with me out into the hall. Heart pounding a mile a minute, I slunk through the house like some kind of cat-burglar on the prowl and out the front door.
I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding when I reached the sidewalk and my parent’s bedroom window was still dark. Exhilaration swept aside my paranoia. I couldn’t believe I’d actually done it. I felt . . . liberated. Possibly for the first time in my life. Like I was breathing all new air. It was a rush.
Headlights flashed, drawing my attention. Elijah’s car sat parked a couple houses down. My feet practically flew over the pavement to reach him and I threw myself inside.
“What’s that look about?” He laughed at what I’m sure must have been the euphoria on my face.
“I’ve never done this before.”
“Snuck out?”
“Anything. Anything my parents or teachers or guidance counselors didn’t want me to. It’s . . .”
“Freeing?”
“Yes!” He understood. “Exactly. Wait . . . was that predictable?”
He laughed again and turned the ignition. “No, Ry. Everything about tonight has been entirely unpredictable.”
“Good. I want to be unpredictable. I want to be crazy, and free, and . . .” I buckled my seat belt as he pulled away from the curb because I didn’t want to be that crazy, “have fun!”
“Alright, then. Let’s go have some fun.”
Elijah turned left on Main and continued across town. Slowly the upper-scale neighborhood I came from faded behind us. As we rolled into the rougher, more run down side of town, the night seemed to come alive.
Instead of sleeping soundly inside their darkened houses, people were everywhere. Sitting on stoops, talking or listening to music, children chased each other up and down sidewalks, dogs wandered freely in search of scraps. Elijah braked to let a couple of guys who were tossing a football around under the light of a street lamp get out of the way. I was enthralled. Normally, I’d be sound asleep by now. How much of life had I been missing out on tucked away beneath my cozy sheets?
When we pulled up in front of a two story house with a questionable looking balcony, panic reared its ugly head again. “Are you sure this is okay? That I’m here?”
“Of course it is.”
“It’s just . . . your friends and I . . . we don’t exactly . . . know each other very well.”
“Then you’ll have plenty to talk about tonight.”
“Elijah.”
He halted in mid-reach for the door handle at the note of fear in my voice. Shifting around in his seat to face me, he cupped my chin and looked me right in the eye. “Hey. No one’s going to care that you’re here. They’re not a
s bad as they want people to think they are. Mostly, they’re just a bunch of idiots who will more than likely be thrilled to see a new face. No one will bother you. Not with me. But, if you’d rather go somewhere else—”
“No.” Elijah’s lips were so close to mine that his breath fanned over my face with each word he spoke, eliciting tingles everywhere. There was no denying that the chemistry we shared was more than just academic, and if I was going to explore that at all, I’d have to at least give his friends a chance. “Let’s go.”
“You’re sure?”
I gave him my best go-get-‘em smile and nodded with more confidence than I really felt.
“Okay. Stick with me. And, Ry?” I stopped with one foot on the sidewalk to look back at him. “I know you’re looking to be ‘crazy’ or whatever tonight, but you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. Don’t let anybody tell you different, okay?”
My throat tightened at the blunt reminder of what exactly we were about to walk into. If my parents ever found out where I was . . . I couldn’t even finish that thought.
Chapter Eleven
Elijah’s fingers threaded through mine as we climbed the front steps and knocked on the front door. I held tight to him as it swung open and we were ushered into a dark, cramped space. It was quieter than I expected. Music played from a stereo in the corner and a few people sat around on ratty old sofas just hanging out and talking. Three guys and two girls, all five heads turned toward us when we stepped into the room.
“Yo, Eli! What up, bro? Long time no see.”
“Hey, Liam, how’s it goin’?”
“Good, man. It’s all good.”
“Guys, I want you to meet—”
“Rylie Stark. Well, I’ll be damned.” A deep chuckle came from a particularly dark corner of the room.
The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but it wasn’t until he stepped out into the soft glow of the single bare bulb lamp in the room that I recognized him. He was a year ahead of us—graduated, or at least stopped attending, last spring—but he was a living legend in the halls of Raymoore High. A hardcore legend. And he knew my name? Well, I wanted crazy.
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