I didn’t respond. That wasn’t my fucking name. And…whatever nervousness my stomach thought it was feeling before, was quickly turning to anger. The kind of anger that made me want to pick up the fork from my tray and jam it through her eyeballs.
I took another bite of my lunch and chewed slowly. She stood in shocked silence for a moment and I could feel tension growing in the air around her. She snapped again.
“Um, hello? Earth to Kennedy?”
I raised my eyes slowly and met her glittering gaze.
She cocked her head to one side and narrowed her eyes. “What’s the matter with you today? Someone break your favorite toy?”
I didn’t answer her and didn’t let my expression change. My parents might not have taught me much, but they’d somehow instilled in me that violence was bad, that it could be avoided at all costs.
I tried to hold onto that reminder as I palmed the fork. I wanted to hurt her so bad. Not with words. She was better with words than I was. She had a way of magically twisting them until you doubted your own memories. But this fork, flimsy as it was, it could do some real damage.
Julianne laughed, but there wasn’t any humor in it. She sucked her teeth, glancing away from me, then turned back to me with a dangerous, toothy smile.
“Someone’s talking shit to you about me, is that it? One of the Seymores, maybe? Oh yeah, Kennedy. Thought you were slick, right? But you were seen getting out of their car this morning.”
Her eyes widened theatrically. Nearby tables had fallen silent, their attention focused on her. She noticed and projected her voice more powerfully without actually raising it.
“You want to explain to me what you were doing with all four of them? Or are you saving that for your PornHub application?”
I gave her a flat look. “I was kidnapped,” I said blandly.
She blinked twice, then threw back her head and laughed. It sounded like music and grated on my nerves.
“Kidnapped? You’re telling me they kidnapped you—then brought you to school?! Four days later?”
I shook my head, never taking my eyes off her. “You damn well know they weren’t the ones who kidnapped me.”
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. The Seymores had moved from their table and were making their way over to me—so were Macy and Joan.
I sat very still and watched Julianne. Her eyes flicked nervously back and forth just once, quickly enough that I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been looking for evidence of her guilt.
“Then why were you with them?” she asked, sounding extra puzzled.
The threat in her eyes didn’t make it into her voice. She was good at that.
“None of your fucking business,” I said.
Her jaw twitched. “It is my fucking business, Kennedy. You ignore me all week and now you’re hanging out with the delinquents? You better have a good reason. I can’t be seen hanging out with whores.”
I’d been through too much recently to give a flying fuck what she thought about me. Chris, though, took it personally. He was right behind her when she said it and I saw the fury flash over his face in the breath before he rearranged his expression into a smug smile.
“Why’s that, Julianne? Too much competition?”
She flicked a dismissive look over her shoulder then looked back at me, though she addressed him. “Get lost, slug. I can only train one bitch at a time.”
I didn’t even have time to get pissed off at that before Chris dumped his milk over her head and kicked one of her too-tall heels out from under her at the same time. She stumbled, slipped, and crashed down on one hip.
She was up again faster than I would have thought she could move in those stupid shoes, and whirled on him, hissing through her teeth.
“I’ll kill you, you little weasel!”
He smirked at her. “Yeah, sure. Like you tried to kill Kennedy?”
He’d said it loud and clear. There’s nothing scarier than a full lunchroom falling absolutely silent. Nobody moved. For a moment, it seemed like nobody breathed.
Julianne froze with the snarl on her face and I could see the wheels spinning frantically in her head.
She hesitated for a second too long before she let out a mocking laugh.
“Are you high?” she demanded. “You think I tried to kill Kennedy? What the fuck are you smoking?”
Rudy leaned forward with a grin. “Looks like he’s smoking your ass,” he said in a stage whisper.
If looks were lasers, Rudy would have been disintegrated.
“You don’t fucking speak to me,” she said, her voice cold as ice. “Ever.”
Bradley was at the end of my table and gestured subtly with his hand, telling me it was time to leave.
I slid off the bench and walked around behind him, keeping him between Julianne and myself, then kept going until I was behind Rudy. As soon as I was, the five of us started moving as a single unit.
Julianne always needed to have the last word. I knew that. I thought she’d shout after us or something, but instead she caught my arm as I passed, digging her manicured nails deep into my bicep.
I whirled on her and before I knew it, my hands were against her chest, pushing hard. She flew back, stumbling until she crashed into a table, her face marked with the kind of panic that one simply cannot put into words.
It was in that moment that I realized my parents were wrong about the only damn thing they taught me. Sometimes it felt good to hit back.
“Next time you run to the cops, you better keep on running right out of town. Because I will make you disappear—and the cops will never even look my way.”
My blood turned to ice. I froze in place for a few frantic heartbeats, then I met her gaze.
“Try it,” I hissed. Then I turned on my heel and kept walking.
I held it together until we were out of the lunchroom—then my knees shook out from under me and I couldn’t suck enough air into my body. Every exhale was a squeak that came faster and faster until Rudy grabbed me and crushed me into a firm hug. I clung to him like my life depended on it. At that moment, it seemed like it did.
“Arm’s length,” a teacher said blandly as she passed us. “Leave room for Jesus.”
I was pretty sure they weren’t allowed to say stuff like that, but hey—that’s Texas for you.
The ridiculous contrast of all the various parts of my life flashed into my head in stark images. Laughter bubbled through my gasping breaths, making me sound like a complete lunatic.
Maybe I was. Maybe I’d finally lost my mind. At that point, it wouldn’t have surprised me.
Chapter Fifteen
RUDY
It wasn’t hard to keep Julianne away from Kennedy for the second half of the day.
For one, they didn’t have any more classes together. For another, someone left an anonymous tip with the counselor’s office that Julianne had been making herself throw up in the bathroom and had been crying and talking about killing herself because she was so fat.
They take that kind of thing seriously. Nobody saw Julianne for three hours while the counselors went to work on her poor, fragile self-esteem.
We had track that day. As usual, Kennedy and I pulled out in front of the rest of the class within a few seconds, though she was running more slowly than usual. I kept pace with her.
“You good?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I’m kinda fucking terrified of going home tonight.” Kennedy winced, then rubbed her thigh.
That night spent in the trunk of the car must have screwed something up in her leg.
I glanced at it worriedly, but it was moving the way it was supposed to.
She saw my look and gave me a tense smile.
“Just a strain,” she said. “Haven’t been moving much.”
I nodded. “Come over after school?”
She nodded. Then we saved our breath for the run.
“You think she’ll be okay?” Bradley asked me an hour later on the drive home.<
br />
Kennedy had gotten her car back from the shop teacher and was driving over to my place herself.
I’d offered to ride with her, but she said she needed to be alone. It hadn’t worried me until I told Bradley, then the look on his face had me doubting myself.
I glanced in the mirror. She had her hands firmly at ten and two and looked like she was talking passionately to herself. Probably just singing along with the radio—probably.
“Sure,” I said, but I didn’t even sound sure to myself. “It’s just a couple miles. She just needs to decompress a little or something.”
“Or work up her nerve to come over when we’re all awake,” Chris said.
I looked at him over my shoulder and frowned. “Why would she have to work up her nerve?”
Chris sighed and gave me a look that said, seriously? “Uh, because we’ve been at war with her and her friends for basically ever? Because there’s nobody at the house but guys? Come on, Rudy, it’s not like she has a whole hell of a lot of experience hanging out with dudes.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
“Okay, so don’t act like dudes for once,” I said. “Act like, I don’t know, human beings.”
Chris sniffed. “I am beyond the realm of mere humanity.”
I rolled my eyes and Gary snorted.
“Seriously, though,” I said. “Don’t scare her off.”
They promised they wouldn’t, which was cool and all—but I knew it was a long shot. They weren’t going to water themselves down. Hell, Chris would be putting on a performance. He always did, especially around women. I was pretty sure he was afraid of them.
Bradley made a worried sound. “We’ve got a test next week. I don’t think she knows about it.”
I relaxed and grinned at him. “Perfect.”
He shot me a quizzical look.
“It’s common ground,” I said. “An opening.”
I hoped it would be enough, but two years is a lot of time to build up anxiety and hurt feelings.
When Bradley parked the car and Kennedy pulled in behind him, she didn’t turn her engine off right away.
Her mouth was still moving and she was clinging to the steering wheel, staring straight ahead.
I shared a look with Bradley and jerked my head toward the house. He nodded. The three of them went inside. I went to Kennedy’s car.
She didn’t look at me. I stood there for a minute, waiting, but it was like she wasn’t even aware of me. I tapped on the window—gently, I thought—and she jumped, startled.
She snapped out of whatever thought she’d been lost in, turned off the car, and opened the door. She forgot to unbuckle and got all tangled up for a minute, but finally stumbled out.
I offered her a gentle smile. “Hey,” I said. “What’s up?”
She swallowed a few times, then took a deep breath. “I can’t make it make sense,” she said quietly.
I tilted my head slightly. “Make what make sense?”
She gestured helplessly at everything, then put a hand to her forehead.
“My parents still haven’t texted or called. If I was anybody else, I’d think they were dead or in jail, but this is normal for them. Rudy—” her voice broke a little and she had to stop.
Tears slid down her cheeks while her throat worked.
“Rudy,” she began again in a whisper. “If you guys hadn’t showed up, I’d be dead. Dead. And my parents wouldn’t know for—god knows how long. Maybe they would never know. Maybe they’d assume I’d moved out or they just kept missing me or something and move on with their lives until my bones fell out of the trunk in a landfill or something.” She shuddered and started crying harder.
I pulled her close to me, letting her cry it out. She finished with a shaky breath and pulled away from me, her face splotchy and red.
“And the only place I feel safe anymore is the infamous Seymore house with the deadly reservoir behind it,” she said, her mouth twisting. “And I can’t go to my friends to help me figure out what the hell happened to my life, because they were the ones who wrecked it. I—” She ground her teeth and looked away from me.
After a long moment, she spoke again, but her voice was somehow distant.
“I like you,” she said. “Maybe more than like you, I don’t know. I’m seeing your brothers a little differently now, but they still scare the hell out of me. So does Julianne. So does my empty house.” She looked back at me again, her eyes big and wet and full of pain. When she spoke again, it was in a harsh whisper. “I’m so sick of being scared.”
I draped an arm around her shoulder and gestured at the house.
“Then you’re in the right place,” I told her solemnly. “Welcome to Jason’s house, where every terrified and pissed off parentless kid ends up eventually.” I kissed the top of her head and started walking. She let me lead her.
After a few steps she muttered under her breath, making me grin.
“I’m not a fucking kid.”
Chapter Sixteen
KENNEDY
I vaguely remembered meeting Jason the night before, but he wasn’t there this time. Rudy’s three brothers were scattered comfortably around the worn living room. Chris draped across the couch, his feet touching one end even though his head was resting on the opposite arm. He was flipping through his phone.
Gary lay on his belly on the thick shag carpet, reading from a textbook and kicking his legs slowly in the air. He looked like a harmless little kid who just happened to be almost six feet tall. Bradley sat in the recliner, leaning over to rifle through his backpack. He smiled at me as I followed Rudy into the house.
“Hey, I found them,” he said, waving a handful of papers. “You ready to study?”
I glanced back at Rudy in confusion, then frowned at Bradley. “Ready for what?”
“He didn’t tell you? We’ve got a chemistry test on Monday. Didn’t tell us until Tuesday. But I’ve got all the notes, if you want a study partner.”
My snap reaction was to say no. Failing one test wouldn’t do any more damage to my GPA than being absent for a week would. But his eyes were gentle, almost pleading. It wasn’t about the test, really. It was an olive branch.
I glanced nervously at Rudy, who gave me an encouraging smile. I nodded at Bradley, and his face lit up with a surprisingly charming grin.
“Awesome! Let’s work at the table, there’s more room.”
I followed him into the kitchen, which extended almost haphazardly on one side into a dining room. Shag rug gave way to well-worn hardwood, the kind you find in very old houses where each panel is wider than a man’s hand. They creaked warmly underfoot, a comfortable sort of grumble.
The table looked like a farm table, the long slab cut from a single piece of wood. There was a bench running along one side and a scattering of chairs around it. It wasn’t pretty—my mother would never let something like that in the house—but it was thick and sturdy and looked like it could sit there for a hundred years and never wobble.
Bradley sat at the head of the table and I took the nearest seat to him. Rudy sat down across from me, giving me a brief little smile before setting his own textbook on the table. It was a little bit surreal. I guess that must have shown on my face.
“What’s up?” Rudy asked.
Bradley gave me a concerned look. “I promise I don’t bite. I don’t mess with people’s grades, either. You really don’t have anything to worry about.”
“I’m not worried. Not really. It’s just—I never imagined you two doing homework.”
They exchanged a look and laughed. I flushed furiously and pulled a notebook and pen out of my bag, fumbling enough to let the redness drain back out of my face.
“Bradley is the homework king,” Rudy said with a grin. “Me, it took me a while to give a shit, but I’ll do enough to get me by. Last thing I want is to be stuck in school for another year.”
Bradley snorted. “He’s showing off,” he told me in a low voice. “You should see him when he g
ets a bad grade on something. He gets all—” Bradley arranged his face in the mirror image of Rudy’s tense pissed-off thinking face. It was spot on and made me giggle.
Rudy shot him a playful glare, then waved a hand. “Don’t you have a chemistry test to study for?”
With that question, things were set into motion. Bradley and I studied and what a sight that must have been to behold.
Hell, me in the Seymore house, that was comedy in and of itself, not to mention the fact that I’d slept here and…the fact that me and one of the Seymore brothers were romantically involved. The things a few months can change, I guess.
Needless to say, studying with Bradley was nice. I don’t think I’d ever studied with another person before. My nannies would try to help sometimes, but it wasn’t the same as learning along with someone who had just as much meat in the game as I did.
By the end of an hour, Bradley didn’t seem so intimidating anymore. Pretty much the opposite, actually. I was comfortable with him and he seemed to be just as comfortable with me.
Chris came in just when we were putting our books away and slugged Rudy softly on the shoulder.
“I gotta clean Maestro’s cage,” he said. “You got a second to help me with the lid?”
“Who’s Maestro?” I asked.
Chris grinned at me, one of those sadistic grins that set my teeth on edge. I raised an eyebrow at him, still wanting the question answered.
“He’s a big, ugly predator,” Chris said. “Not for the faint-hearted. Girls should stay upstairs, there’s no fainting couch in the basement.”
I gave Rudy a bland look.
“It’s his snake,” Rudy said. “Six-foot python.”
My eyes widened and I stood up. “Can I see him?”
Chris’ smile faltered, then he shrugged. “It’s your funeral.”
I like snakes. I really do. They way they move, the softness of their scales, it’s like touching liquid jewels or holding solid water. My mother never let me have one, or any pet for that matter. They were gone too often, and for too long. But I’d held a python at a birthday party when I was eight, and another at the zoo when I was twelve, and I loved them.
Something Wicked: An Enemies to Lovers Bully Romance (The Seymore Brothers Book 2) Page 8
