by Rebel Hart
My chest tightens at the thought. Me and Theo meeting up for regular lunches as if we have anything close to a normal father-daughter relationship. I could never let go of everything that’s happened up until now to let that happen. Him living so close is one of the things that makes me not want to go to that school at all.
“I haven’t made up my mind about where I’ll go yet,” I reply politely, thinking its more kindness than he deserves. “I applied a bunch of different places. All of the top collegiate track teams across the nation. Coach Granger will help me decide what’s best for my career.”
I almost hate to even bring Coach up to him. After what the Elites did to him and his family, I want to protect him in any way I can from Theo and people like him.
“Well, whatever he suggests or whatever you decide…you should be able to go wherever you want. You’ve worked hard and earned that much. And I know I haven’t made it easy on you, when I was around just as much as when I wasn’t,” he admits. “Money shouldn’t be a factor. I may not have the fortune I once did, but I’m certainly not hurting for anything and neither should you. Once you decide on a school, you just send me the bills.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I shoot back, sounding a little snide. “With my grades and track record, Coach expects me to get plenty of full scholarship offers.”
“But what if you don’t get one from your top pick?” he suggests.
“Whatever scholarship money doesn’t cover, I’ll get a part-time job to pay for the rest,” I shrug. “Plenty of people work to pay their way through college.”
“Don’t be so stubborn,” he sighs in an irritated tone. “You’re an athlete. You need to focus on training, not killing yourself to work and go to school full time when you don’t have to. You’ll need to keep your body in shape and keep your grades up. Why add the extra stress of a job if you don’t have to?”
Rage starts rushing through me as he talks, sounding like such a concerned father all of a sudden. I told myself I’d stop being so resentful just for the sake of getting through this, but there’s only so much I can take.
“And just how do you think being kidnapped last semester helped me?” I bark, staring him down intently. “Being held hostage? Threatened to be murdered? My life suddenly depending on my absentee father that I’ve never met who can’t even bother to respond to the hostage notes.”
“I had a plan,” he hisses defensively, leaning over the table in a hushed tone. “You made it out of there, didn’t you? Because I showed up.”
“Is that what you tell yourself?” I sneer. “You were planning to kidnap me yourself. Maybe even kill me. Just so the Elites wouldn’t have the chance to use me against you. If Emmett hadn’t talked you into letting him take me as a part of your little agreement, how do I know you wouldn’t have shot me just like you did Thomas Jameson?”
He sits back, running his hands over his suddenly tired face. Once again, I have to remind myself that he’s not going to have the answers to satisfy me. If he did, he would have played them long before now.
“Look, just forget it,” I add curtly, grabbing my bag to hint at how ready I am to get the hell out of here. “The past is the past or whatever. You can come around for these little dinners to ease your guilt and make my mom happy. I’ll let the rest of it go enough to play along. And thanks for helping me out today, but beyond that…I don’t need anything from you. I’m fine, okay?”
I’m too mad to care that he looks hurt, even if it means anything beyond hating that I can see him for what he really is. But I force myself to thank him again as he drops me off at my car to drive home. I’m more than ready to go back and be with the people who really care about me. The ones who were around long before he showed back up again.
Chapter Five
BOOK 3
Everyone was excited to hear the interview went well, and my mom was especially excited to hear Theo was able to help in some way. I resisted the urge to ask her if what Theo said was true about her turning him away when I was younger. We have enough on our plates without letting any more of his drama seep between us. I trust that whatever she decided then was for the best. And she was so happy to know that I attempted to have another cordial meal with him that it almost made the whole ordeal worth it.
“Coach Granger thinks it might be one of our top choices,” I explain to Emmet in excitement over lunch one day. “But…I don’t know.” He looks at me questioningly. “It’s awfully close,” I add with hesitation. “Just a couple hours away. I don’t know if it’s far enough from Jameson for me to feel comfortable.”
He doesn’t try to talk my fears down the way Coach did. He’s just as eager as I am to get the hell away from all of this.
“Well, the Theo complications aside, I’m excited for you,” he beams as he chews through a sandwich. “My college girl! Wherever you decide to go, it’ll be great. A whole new life for us!” He leans over and plants a playful, sloppy kiss on my cheek, getting mayonnaise on me.
“Gross!” I squeal out in laughter, pushing him away.
We both freeze as we catch a glimpse of Malcolm and the others glaring at us, as if any momentary sign of happiness from us is an affront to them. We reign in the display a little, but the closer we get to freedom, the less daunting the new Elites seem.
“Soon we’ll be far away from that kind of bull shit,” I grumble, nodding slightly towards them.
“How do we know there won’t be a new version of the Elites waiting for you at college?” Emmett asks grimly.
I cut my eyes over to him, saddened by how little perspective he has. He’s never known anything outside the fucked-up bubble of Jameson. He’s plagued with a very real inability to imagine any other kind of life.
“Movies,” I quip. “There’s plenty of stories of college and life that don’t involve corrupt millionaires or death threats or hostages or any of the crazy scenarios that are so common around here.”
“There’s plenty that do have those things though,” he defends himself as if it all really could be so normal.
I want to remind him that those are usually things people dream up for excitement or entertainment and that the average person doesn’t experience them firsthand, especially before the age of twenty. But I don’t want to steal away any weird sense of normalcy he has left to cling to. More than that, I’m ready to talk and think about anything but the Elites.
“I don’t have practice today,” I tell him, grabbing his hand under the table as I raise my eyebrows suggestively. “Want to go back to your place?”
We’ve both been busy with the start of school, and I’m eager to get him into bed to blow off some steam.
“I have something to take care of after school,” he replies, looking disappointed. But he quickly recovers and leans in close to my ear with the hum of his deep voice that drives me mad. “But soon enough I’ll get you alone and make up for lost time.”
His hand snakes up my thigh, teasing dangerously close between my legs, causing me to tense up with desire. My cheeks blush as I look around to see if anyone is watching. But truthfully, I want him so bad I’m tempted to drag him off to a closet before next period.
We run out of time before I have a chance to suggest sneaking away and before I know it, we’re both rushing off to our next classes. The Elites are gathered in their usual huddle in the hall, taking up more space than they need as a show of dominance.
“Who’s that girl?” Emmett asks, nodding to the brunette.
“Bridgett,” I reply. “She’s in track. Do you know anything about her?”
He shakes his head no and we quickly look away before they catch us staring. I’m still puzzled over the fact that she didn’t freak out on me at practice the other day. Whatever the new Elites are busying themselves with these days, it seems to have been enough to distract them. I expected some sort of backlash for my show of power in the hall the other week, but it has yet to happen.
“I’ll see you after school,” Emmett says,
leaning in to kiss me. I notice him shooting one last look over to the Elites before he walks away.
I can tell he’s just as confused by the silence as I am. We expected them to come back with force. Malcolm has to prove himself as their new ringleader after all. Especially after I acted so defiantly on two occasions, even if one was only an accident. But things have been chillingly calm. It almost has us more on edge than we would be if they were attacking like we expected.
The rest of the school day is lost in a haze of taking notes and preparing for exams. With the Elites mostly staying out of our way, I can focus my energy where it's needed. My transcripts may be good enough leading up to now, but it’s all worthless if anything happens to screw up my last few months of high school.
After my last class, Emmett and I meet up in our usual spot near the lockers. He sweeps me up in a slow, deep kiss that only makes me more impatient for some alone time with him. We’re interrupted by a bouncy girl who bounds passed us to put a flyer up on the wall. She tells other students around us that tickets for prom go on sale tomorrow but intentionally ignores us. Likely something she’s been instructed to do by Malcolm and the others.
Senior Prom. Another totally normal high school experience that I haven’t had time to think about since coming here. I immediately push down any urge to go. If the Elites would even allow us to attend, I doubt it’d be something Emmett would want to bother with.
“I’ll get our tickets during lunch tomorrow,” he announces casually, catching me by surprise.
“What?” I gape. “We’re going?”
He looks down at me and wrinkles his brows. “Of course, we’re going,” he answers. “Why do you look so shocked?”
“I…I don’t know…,” I stammer. “I guess I just thought…that you wouldn’t want to. Or…that we couldn’t.”
“Couldn’t?” he asks in confusion.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t sell you tickets,” I explain. “Do you really think Malcolm and the others will let us go?” My face drops as a scarier thought pops into my head. “And if they do, you don’t think they’ll try to do something to ruin it for us?”
I shudder, thinking back to Lily’s story about what they did to her at the dance years ago. Only that time, Emmett was one of the Elites. I don’t like to think of him as one of them, but at least it gives us the advantage of him having a pretty good guess at what they may or may not try to pull off.
“Knowing how conceited Bernadette and Malcolm are, they’ll probably be so wrapped up in it for themselves they won’t even have time to care about us,” he insists, not seeming worried.
I want to give in and feel a little excited, but I’m not entirely convinced. “You really think so?”
“A chance to get dressed up in expensive shit and parade around in front of the whole school? They wouldn’t pass that up for anything,” he scoffs. “I’m not going to go try to win prom king or anything, but they’ll let us go. I know that much at least.”
I catch the slightest glimmer of something in his eyes, even through his optimism. Up until a few months ago, he was on track to be prom king with Vivian as his queen. It may be silly, meaningless high school stuff that we’ll forget about by this time next year, but it’s just another reminder of how everything has changed for him.
“So?” he asks expectantly, snapping me back to attention.
“So…what?”
He smirks, looking somewhat shy. “Will you be my date?” he clarifies. “Will go with me to prom?”
It may be a moment that I had entirely forgotten to dream about ever since I started at WJ Prep, but all at once I remember that before this, I was a normal teenage girl with a typical life. Starting high school brought on giddy anticipation for a slew of milestone moments just like this. My hot, dreamy boyfriend asking me to prom.
I can feel the hormones and excitement surge through me as I look into his piercing eyes filled with the promises of a night to remember. Briefly, we get to be just two regular high school students feeling giddy over something as ordinary as prom.
“Of course I’ll go with you,” I snicker, wondering if he could ever really think I’d say no.
He swiftly slides his hand to the small of my back, yanking me in for an earnest kiss as if he really was surprised by my answer. I lose myself there for a moment, once again being reminded of how long its been since we’ve been able to sneak off to be alone.
“I’m going to make it perfect for you,” he promises with a smile the moment his lips part from mine. “The whole works. A fancy dinner and limo and all.”
I chew my lip with worry as he brightly announces his plans while we walk hand in hand down the hall. “Wait,” I stop suddenly, cutting him off. “Emmett…,” All at once, I shrink, realizing I don’t know how to express my concerns without offending him. But he’s wide-eyed and waiting. It’s too late now. “Well, it’s just,” I continue hesitantly, almost in a whisper. “Money…How will you afford all of that?”
A look of astonishment washes over him as if he had momentarily forgotten about the loss of his fortune. He is still pretty new to living like the rest of us, after all. But he’s quick to recover. “Don’t worry about it,” he assures me, stiffening with a wounded sort of defensiveness. “You just get all dolled up the way you want and let me take care of the rest. I wouldn’t promise you the perfect night if I wasn’t prepared to follow through with it.” His voice darkens some. “Anyway, after everything...you deserve this.”
“Any night with you is perfect,” I insist, hating how corny it sounds, even if it is how I feel. “We could show up in rags after eating McDonalds for all I care. I’m just excited to be going with you.”
He smiles slightly but doesn’t look amused or relieved by my modesty at all. Emmett has had four years of his own dreams and expectations for these last few months of high school. I can only imagine what kind of expensive splendor he always assumed he’d have on his prom night. But suddenly it seems that affording even a fraction of that is some new mission for him to prove he can make it just fine without his family’s fortune.
While he drifts off into a distant, worried stare, likely scheming over ways to make money, I try to force myself to do as he asked. I do my best to forget about how it will all happen and just fantasize about showing up that night on Emmett’s arm, both of us looking better than ever, as I rest my head on his shoulder and dance the night away. Even when I did have time to think about these things, I didn’t think I cared this much. But now that it’s actually happening, I feel like I could burst with excitement.
We’re lost in our separate thoughts as we walk hand in hand out of the school. He stops at the edge of the parking lot and pulls me in for another kiss.
“I’ve got to go,” he says reluctantly. “Remember, I told you I had something to take care of.”
“Oh yeah,” I nod, yanking him back down for one more kiss. “I’ll talk to you later,” I smile, wishing I didn’t have to let him go.
I still have a big grin plastered on my face as I dig my keys out of my purse and walk to my car. But all of that fades as it comes into view. I see what should be my car, but it’s almost disfigured beyond recognition. I even look around for a minute, thinking I’ve made a mistake.
“Fuck,” I murmur to myself, as a tight lump forms in my throat.
The red paint is keyed and chipped down to a patchy gray mess, and over that every foul word you could think of is spray painted in layers. Cunt, whore, slut, bitch, and so on and so on. Any insult you could dream up. A couple of the windows are even cracked in with big circles, as if someone took a baseball bat to them. The only thing that isn’t completely fucked-up about it are the tires. By some miracle, they neglected to flatten them.
I look around cluelessly as if someone would help or tell me how this happened. But even the security camera hanging from the nearby streetlight means nothing. I know exactly who did this, and whether there’s footage or not, no one is going to do anythin
g about it. I knew the Elites had been too quiet. I should have figured they were waiting to strike just when I let my guard down.
With a heavy sigh, I look around one more time, confirming my assumption that no one is going to help or offer me a ride. Emmett is nowhere to be seen, probably already gone.
“Well, I guess it’s still drivable,” I shrug as I unlock the doors. “Even if it’s fucked-up in every other way.”
But my heart sinks even more as I realize the doors aren’t locked. They got inside somehow, and the seats are shredded as proof. As I open the driver’s side door, I quickly realize cutting into the seats is the least of what they did to the interior. An awful ammonia smell slaps me in the face, causing me to gag and turn away as my hand rushes to cover my mouth and nose.
Urine. They’ve managed to drench the seats in urine. I immediately think I should call for someone to come and pick me up, but then I realize one way or another my car will have to make it home for clean up and repairs. And the cost of a tow truck is the last thing any of us need right now. I have prom to save up for after all.
I reluctantly press my fingers to the seat, trying to determine if it’s still wet. There’s a lingering dampness that makes me want to puke, but I force myself to accept that I have to get in this thing and drive it home. I brace myself and pull my sweater over my head to lay it across any part of the seat that will have to touch my body. As I get in and start it up, I’m quickly close to vomiting again as my fingers clutch the gearshift and land in something wet and sticky.
“Chewing gum,” I groan as I pull my fingers back to look. “Disgusting…But I guess not the worst thing they could have stuck under there.”
The longer I sit in the car, the worse the smell gets, and I’m terrified to find out what other kinds of surprises are waiting for me in here. I have to talk myself out of calling someone all over again. Sticking to my guns, I flick away the chewed-up gum, using the passenger seat to wipe any lingering bits of it away. The interior is already fucked anyway. I check a few other spots where nasty things could be planted and finally put the car into reverse.
