by Henry, Max
L: About what?
C: Who’s expelled? Tell me it’s not you.
L: Not me. I didn’t know anyone was.
C: Rumour mill churns about a girl looking to transition to the city. Who could that be?
L: I need to call you back.
Fuck. Even my sister lets me down.
“What’s got you stirred so early in the morning?” Mum glides into the kitchen, decadent in a floor-length gown.
“I could say the same.” I make a point of staring at her selected outfit of the day.
She glances down at herself. I half expect “This old thing?” to pop from her lips, yet she goes with something more typical of our class-aware mother. “I need to lose another kilo to pull this off properly.”
“From where?” I mutter.
She flashes an annoyed glare while filling her coffee mug. “Who are you messaging?”
I figure half the truth will divert enough attention from the rest. “Willow.”
Her eyes positively glow. “I didn’t know you two were back in touch.”
“We never really fell out of touch, Mum. She just stopped coming by.”
“Well, invite her over. I’d love to catch up.”
A.K.A. I’d love to play matchmaker again.
“She’s busy with ballet. I don’t think she has time for social calls.”
“Nonsense.” Mum waves a dismissive hand. “I’ll speak to her mother later today. I’m sure we can accommodate their commitments.”
“Please don’t,” I groan.
But it’s no use. She’s already tucking an apple into the crook of her arm and heading for the patio. “Be home promptly after school, too, please. We have a dinner guest tonight.”
“Who?”
“Derek.” I don’t miss the hitch in her voice. “He’s coming by to discuss where he’s at with those property damage charges against you.”
“Sounds glorious,” I drone, rising from my spot at the breakfast bar.
“Don’t give me attitude, Colt,” Mum warns from outdoors. “I’ve only just settled back into a routine after last week’s drama. I don’t need more.”
Because that’s all my sister is to her: drama. Not her daughter in crisis. Not a child in need of guidance.
Drama.
Bitch. I love my mother—somewhere deep down—but I also fantasise about choking her on the daily. The woman should have been banned from raising children.
She loses herself to the morning’s gossip on her phone while I collect myself a travel mug of coffee for the walk to school. Parking is at a premium at Riverbourne Prep, and now that we don’t live so far away, there’s no need for me to drive.
I step out the door, shrugging my satchel strap on my shoulder, and squint up at the morning sky. A perfect blue fills the spaces between the delicate-leaved trees lining the street. I slide my shades into position and head left, supping on my coffee as I go.
It doesn’t take long for my thoughts to slide back to the same mud puddle they spent most of the night in: Greer.
Even with the bitter tang of caffeine on my tongue, I still remember just how she tasted; the pressure of her tongue as it engaged with mine; the rush of her breath when she succumbed to desire.
The way she slapped me across the face and left the fucking café.
I’ve never wanted to pin someone down and fuck sense into her so goddamn much. That fire I freed from her? I wanted to see it rage tenfold.
I still do.
Adjusting myself as I walk, I let out a damn sigh and focus on the street ahead. Distracting myself with my sister’s best friend is not the way I need to go about this. Libby needs a fucking metaphorical bullet, and Arthur needs to step out from under her thumb. And that Richard fucker? Can’t wait to make him bleed all over his pristine marble floors.
Christian, though. I groan when a tip of my travel mug reveals I’ve bled the contents dry. I have no idea how to deal with him. He plays with something I have no experience with: cunning.
The guy is as devilish as a fox on the hunt, as deadly and quiet. For all I know, he’s spent the past three years building his case against me. And I’ve seen him as an opponent for what? A month?
I need help if I intend to release myself from the favour I unwittingly signed on to owe. But from whom?
Who the heck can I trust to get me out of this damn predicament without advertising to the world just how fucked I am?
The answer slaps me as hard as the sudden easterly change. I shrug the collar of my blazer higher against the icy wind and turn into the Preparatory grounds.
If I have any hope of weaselling my way out from under Christian, then I need guidance from the man who knows his tactics best.
His father.
TUCK
“You.” I snap my fingers at Maggie as she shuts her car door. “You’ve got explaining to do.”
“You okay?” Her amused smile fades when she takes me in. “What’s happened?”
“Why the fuck did you think it was a good idea to suggest Lacey go to the party at Dee’s?”
Her shoulders drop, gaze drifting over my shoulder. “Hey, Beau.”
“Mags,” he greets.
She returns her focus to me. “She needs to get out. Get back on the social horse.”
“And walking into the fucking arena with those bitches is how she should do it?” I jam my arms across my chest. “Explain.”
“Why should she act afraid, Tuck?”
“Because she should be,” Beau adds a darn sight softer than I would have. “You didn’t see the way Amber went at her yesterday.”
“No. I didn’t. But don’t you two think I’ve had my fair share of bullying from them in my time?” Mags tears the back door to her car open, then yanking her school bag free. “Letting them walk all over her, intimidate her.” She slams the door shut again. “It’ll only make a shit situation worse.”
“You honestly believe that?” I step aside to let her past when she barrels toward me.
“Yeah. I do.” Mags faces off with me, sandwiched between Beau and myself. “If you let bullies away with the crap they do, then they feed off it. They carry on, getting a high from the reactions they get.” She huffs, tossing her head back briefly. “Look. Let her go and have fun. Have a night out. For all we know, the bitches won’t try anything with so many damn witnesses.”
“Like that’s ever stopped them before.”
“If you’re so goddamn worried about it,” Maggie growls. “Then why don’t you escort her?”
“I can’t,” I roar back, realising my mistake when she frowns at my outburst. “I made a promise. Besides, I don’t think she’d care either way if I showed up or not.”
Beau steps beside Maggie, matching her curious expression. I feel as though I face down twins, the two of them staring at me with matching dark hair and identical height.
“What’s happened?” Maggie asks carefully. “What did you do?”
“Why did I have to do it?” Fuck this shit.
I march past the two of them, figuring I may as well head for first period. I’m not getting anywhere with this.
“Hey.” Maggie jogs after me. “Don’t just walk off.”
I spin, still walking backward, and find Beau trailing after her. “Ask your best buddy,” I snap. “Maybe she can explain what the fuck is going on because I sure as hell don’t understand what got into her.”
Maggie stops walking, overtaken my Beau, who briefly sets his hand on her shoulder as he passes. I spin back to face front when he catches up, burying my hands in my pockets.
“What the fuck was that about?”
Eyes fixed on the path before me, I grumble. “We argued last night.”
“So?” Beau smiles, elbowing me as we walk. “Another relationship milestone passed, huh?”
“I hung up on her.”
“Oh.” He scratches the back of his neck. “You want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
He nods, sl
iding his hands in pockets also.
The day has turned to shit already. If this is how crap the morning has been so far, then I can’t fucking wait for the rest of the day.
“You got any classes with her today?”
“Photography.”
Beau sucks in a breath between his teeth. “Hide in the darkroom, brother.”
“If we’re allowed to develop today, then sure.” I sigh, lifting my head to find just how much of a cunt the day can be. “Fuck’s sake.”
Beau sighs. “You want me to handle her?”
“Nah.” I toss my shoulders back, straightening up as I walk. “I feel like a fucking fight.”
“Jesus,” he mutters, giving me an extra inch or two of space.
Dee heads us off at the gate, standing like a goddamn sentry. Her dark brown hair obscures half her face, one hand clutching the strap of her bag slung at her hip.
“Not in the mood,” I warn as she takes a step back, yet not moving to let us past.
“You guys seen Johnson?”
My brow pinches hard enough that I reach up and ease it with a rub of my thumb. “What?”
“Johnson,” she repeats, looking toward Beau. “He didn’t show this morning.”
I spin around and scout the parking lot. Sure enough, his Ford is missing. “Fucking Amber,” I grumble. “He’ll be with her.”
“She said he wasn’t,” Dee states behind me. “I’ve talked to her this morning already.”
“Did you ask her where he is?” Beau queries.
Dee frowns as though he’s lost his mind. “Why? I don’t care what he’s doing. Just wondered if he was with you guys.”
“You mean Amber wondered,” I correct.
She doesn’t argue. Stares at me with her impassive fucking eyes as usual.
“You heard from Ed today?” Beau whispers, his back to Dee.
I shake my head. “Should I have?”
“How did he get here if there’s no Johnson?”
True. Fucking day. I should have stayed in bed. Should have ridden to the far end of the farm and camped out in the gully that has no goddamn cell signal.
“Leave it with us, Dee.” I throw a thumb to my right. “You can piss off now.”
“Fuck you two.” Her top lip snarls. “Thought you might be interested to know since he’s your friend and all. Fuck me for trying to do a good thing, right?”
Beau gives her a flat look while she departs. Since when has Dee wanted to do a good thing?
I rip out my phone, ignoring Maggie as she strides past throwing daggers with her eyes, and bring up Ed’s thread.
T: Where the fuck are you? You need a lift?
His dots dance, and then stop, and restart again for what feels like an endless cycle. Finally, a response comes through, short and to the point.
E: I’m sorted. Catch u later.
T: Any idea where J is?
E: Fuck knows.
I show the message to Beau. “What the fuck is that about?”
He shrugs. “Don’t know. But if Amber reckons she doesn’t know where Johnson is, then it can’t be good.”
Jesus.
Show me the fucking reset button for this goddamn week.
Please.
LACEY
“Thanks for the lift.” I give Cate a smile and ready myself to head for class.
She taps me on the elbow, stalling me while she parks her bike next to Mandy’s. “Hey, hold up.”
I stand in the yard, helmet in my hands, and watch Mandy work knots out her long hair before the temporary mirror they have in the shed. She seems to take her good looks for granted, not realising just how stunning she is. Girls like me spend a lot of time maintaining our look with makeup and product, yet beauty like hers is natural—effortless.
Yeah. I’m a little jealous.
“I wanted to ask if you know about the party at Dee’s on Saturday.” Cate sets her helmet on the bike and pulls her hair into a rough ponytail while she waits for my answer.
“I’d heard of it.”
“You going?” Mandy turns from the mirror, watching me closely.
I get the sense she hopes I say no. “I thought about it.”
“You think that’s wise?”
Ugh. She sounds like Tuck. “Last I checked I didn’t have leprosy, so I don’t see why it would be wrong to go.”
“You want to play the tough girl, right?” Mandy nods. “What’s the strategy, Lacey?”
Cate frowns, yet lets her friend take the lead. I feel like a fool for thinking I could get a ride to school without there being a catch. “What’s it to you?” Did Cate do this to reel me in for Mandy?
“Everything.” The dark-haired beauty advances on me. “This whole damn spat between our school started because of me, so if you want to carry it on, retaliate, and drag us all back in with you, then it’s everything to me.”
“You need to let it go.” I take a step back. Her proximity chokes the air from my damn lungs. “At some point, it won’t be about you anymore and, if I’m honest, I think that point is now.”
Her head jerks back. Cate leans her weight against her bike to watch how this unfolds.
“The grief Amber has with me is purely about me. It isn’t to do with you anymore, Mandy, and you know that.”
I’ve got her. She can’t deny it. Not with the way she straightens her back and steps away.
Amber broke off from Mandy, taking Dee with her. Any hell she gives me or Colt has got nothing to do with the incident between Mandy and my brother anymore. It’s all Amber. Her vendetta. Her gain.
“I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Partially.” Mandy rolls her lips, eyes cast to the ground. “Maybe she has given up the original reason for this dispute, but whatever she does now will still drag us all back in. If questions are asked, then it will all trace back to Richard, myself, and Colt.” She lifts an eyebrow, challenging me. “Do you want that?”
“I want…” I stall, letting out my held breath in one hard rush.
What do I want? Revenge? That sounds so trivial. To stop Amber and her bullying ways? Noble, but not accurate.
“I just want her to know how it feels,” I cede.
It is revenge when the nuts and bolts of it come together. I just want the bitch to feel an ounce of what she did to Colt and me.
“Fair enough,” Mandy cedes. “You got a hard go, and you want payback. But who next after her?”
“What do you mean?”
She turns back toward me, stepping close enough that she can soften her voice. “Amber wasn’t the only one responsible for how Colt and you were treated when you got here, was she?”
“I suppose not.”
“You make her hurt,” Mandy explains. “And then who? Johnson? Do you go after him? What about Dee? Where does it stop?” She leans down to level our heights, eyes wide. “Am I next?”
The bell tolls, pealing across the grounds. I slowly step backward until my arse hits something, alleviating my weight against the side of the shed. I get why Mandy was at the head of the girls now. She’s quiet, calculated in her approach. But her softness shouldn’t be mistaken for feebleness.
She clean knocked my podium out from under me. “I can’t let Amber win this time.”
“Why not?”
Cate steps forward. “She’ll dig her own hole, Lacey. That’s why we’ve let her go.”
“That hole still includes my brother, though.” I glance up at the two girls. “And as much as you all hate him, I can’t just leave her to mess with him without it weighing on my conscience. What kind of coward would I be if I did that?”
“We don’t hate Colt,” Mandy corrects. “He just…” She smiles a little. “Frustrates me.”
I bitterly laugh. “You don’t say. You should try having him as a brother.”
Cate offers me her hand. I take it, allowing her to tug me to my feet properly. “Come on. Let’s get to class.”
Mandy falls into step with us. “Are we agreed,
then? No going to the party on Saturday?”
“I never said I wouldn’t go.”
Mandy waves the comment off. “I think we can come up with a better plan, don’t you?”
“A better plan for what?” I narrow my gaze, not quite ready to believe she’d be onside so quickly.
“A plan to exonerate your brother,” she says with a wicked glint in her eye. “That’s all you want, isn’t it?”
I nod. “Always.”
“Then we figure out a way to do it that doesn’t involve tearing each other’s hair out.”
I glance at Cate. “Did you guys hear about that?”
“I think everyone has now that Amber is expelled.”
My boots anchor in the dust; the girls take another couple of steps before they realise I’ve stopped. “She’s been what?”
“Expelled,” Mandy repeats. “I thought you knew.”
The girl who will transfer …
“I have to go to the party now.”
“Ugh.” Mandy rolls her eyes.
“Why?” Cate asks.
“How else do I get to her if she’s not at school?”
Mandy reaches out and snags me around the bicep, dragging me along with her. “Didn’t you understand a thing I just said? It’s not her you need to get to if you want Colt clear.”
“It’s not?”
“No.” She ushers Cate to walk faster too. “But we’ll talk later. Right now, if we don’t get to class, we’ll be stuck in detention after school, and that’s hardly going to help, is it?”
I guess not.
COLT
W: I have a name.
C: Spit it out then.
W: Amber.
My phone hits the tabletop as I shudder.
“Are you okay there?” Greer lifts her head from the feta and rocket salad before her.
“Disturbing news.”
“Oh.” She returns to segmenting the cubes of crumbling cheese to one side of her plate.
Sharing a table with her for lunch was an achievement in itself. I’m surprised she’s attempting conversation considering you could build a house on the tension between us the foundation would be that solid.
“Amber was expelled from Arcadia High.”
Her long-lashed eyes narrow. “Which one was that again?”
“The crazy one.”
