Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
LUKAS
Iignored my phone as it rang, knowing it was Mom. She’d been trying all morning, and I just couldn’t handle her bullshit today.
I leaned against my Aston Martin as I smoked, eyeing Jensen and Tyler as they wrestled close by. Tyler reeked of whiskey, I was pretty sure his morning coffee had been alcoholic, and Jensen was a little tense today for some reason.
He’d slept a lot last night, so I knew he wasn’t tired.
My face heated at the memory of waking up snuggled into him, and when I’d gone to pull away, he’d only brought me closer and kissed me. I hadn’t fought it, but I’d been grateful for some alone time when he’d gotten up to shower.
The sound of Caden’s Challenger rumbled into the parking lot, and I glanced up as he parked beside me, Rory parking the Corvette on his other side. She climbed out, walking towards me and making my heart slam in my chest as she stood on tiptoe to kiss my cheek.
“Morning,” she smiled, and I slid an arm around her waist to pull her against me before she could step away.
“Morning. You and Caden have a good night?” I asked, and she winced as Caden joined us and spoke for her.
“She snuck out in the middle of the night to play with Slash instead.”
I thought I’d heard him wrong, but she sighed. “He was insanely drunk, so I drove him home. I don’t even know how he drove to ours in the first place.”
“Found Slash,” I said dryly, looking over at Tyler, whose head popped up as he let Jensen go from the headlock he was in.
“You know where he went?” he asked, walking over curiously, and I motioned to Rory to explain.
She went into detail about how she’d woken up to him driving into the driveway, and how she’d taken his drunk ass home to make sure he didn’t die trying. Tyler was scratching his head with confusion, frowning.
“He went to your house? Why?”
“I don’t know. Drunk rambling about being sorry for ruining my birthday,” she said with a shrug, stealing my cigarette for a drag.
“Maybe you should’ve punched him earlier, it fixed his attitude,” Jensen joked, earning a grin from her.
“I’ll know it works in the future, I guess.”
“Please don’t start punching the Psychos,” I sighed, leaning down to kiss her neck and loving how she melted against me.
“They shouldn’t look so punchable then,” she smiled playfully, handing my cigarette back.
“I’ve missed you,” I admitted, her face softening.
“I missed you too. You want to come stay tonight?”
My eyes moved to Jensen, knowing he probably didn’t want to be alone right now. I didn’t know how I knew that, I just got a vibe from him.
“I say we all crash at mine,” Caden announced, slinging an arm around Tyler’s shoulders.
“Sold. Dibs on Rory sitting on my face,” Tyler smirked, winking at Rory.
“You really know the way to my heart, Romeo,” she deadpanned, laughing when he snagged her wrist and tugged her against him, kissing her like she was the air he breathed.
A scowl tugged at my mouth when I noticed some of the students watching from close by, one of the girls holding their phone up to record us.
“Hey,” I murmured, catching Jensen’s attention and lifting my chin in their direction, his eyes narrowing when he saw them.
“It’s a good day for a fight,” he muttered, already pulling his blazer off and cracking his knuckles.
Rory gave us a frown when we walked off, her eyes sliding to the small crowd of people in question. The girl filming had already put her phone down, but until we saw that video deleted, I wasn’t going to be satisfied.
I knew Rory sleeping with all of us was going to cause a problem, but it wasn’t just sex. I loved her, and I had to make sure I protected her enough that she’d put her walls down long enough for me to actually convince her to be with me.
“What are you guys—” Jensen started, but I snatched the phone from the girl, Mandy, and pegged it across the parking lot, hearing it shatter as it hit the ground.
She was Claire’s bestie, and I couldn’t decide which girl was worse. They both repulsed me and were the fakest bitches in the school.
“Lukas!” she whined, her eyes widening as I shoved her back against her friends and glared down at her.
“You girls think you’ve got elite pussy or something?
You think recording Rory with us shows how much of a slut she is?
” I demanded, grabbing her chin and squeezing until she whimpered.
“How can you slut shame someone for kissing people, when there’s multiple videos of your cum filled cunt out there?
I remember you. Fingering yourself on video and begging us to fuck you.
Be careful where you throw stones, or I’ll make sure those videos get sent to every single college you applied for, as well as your father.
Can’t have the local priest having a sinner as a daughter. ”
“You’re hurting me,” she said softly, only making me tighten my grip more.
“You leave her the fuck alone, or I’m going to do more than hurt you.”
“What are you going to do? Scold her to death?” one of the guys snorted, eyeing me with annoyance. I vaguely remembered his face but couldn’t remember his name.
“Didn’t I knock your front tooth out sophomore year?” I asked dryly, releasing the girl to give him my attention.
The guy swallowed nervously, flicking his eyes to Jensen, who stood beside me with his arms crossed. There was a small crowd growing, at least seven guys and five girls.
“Yeah, but—”
“Then you should’ve learned your lesson,” I chuckled, swinging my fist back and punching him in the mouth.
Chaos erupted as the girls scattered while the guys tried to jump in to help their buddy, and I heard Jensen sigh. “Okay, I guess we’re just jumping right in then.”
He was acting like he wasn’t usually the one that did that.
Someone grabbed my forearm and I gritted my teeth as their fingers dug into one of my healing cuts. It had only been a week, but they’d been healing pretty well.
They were yanked off me as Caden dove into the fray, the school’s security team running in our direction to break it up.
I turned to see Rory kneeing some girl in the face, taking a second to watch her. She was having a blast, something flickering in her eyes like a beast enjoying its prey.
“Enough!” Mr. Galler shouted, seeming to be heading straight for Rory.
Not us, but the girl that he saw was the least likely to pull funds from the school or sue them.
I stepped into his path, halting him. “Don’t even fucking try it.”
“Mr. James, this is school property and—”
“If you’re punishing her, then you’d better punish all of us,” I warned, sensing Rory move up behind me. Her hand slid into mine, but I kept my glare on the history teacher.
Jensen stood off to the side, flexing his knuckles on one hand while grabbing Caden’s shirt to haul him off the guy on the ground, and Tyler cackled like a maniac, doing some kind of excited little dance like he was making a sacrifice to a demon.
He had blood on his shirt, so I knew he’d jumped in at some point, the violence giving him more of a high than whatever he’d been taking lately.
“All of you, in my office,” the headmaster barked, but I could hear the nerves in his tone.
Dragging all of us in meant Josie was going to storm down here, and she was scary when she wanted to be.
“What happened?” Rory asked quietly as we all started making our way inside.
“They were filming us,” I answered, making her frown.
“What for?”
“To show the world you’re with more than one person and slut shame you,” I snorted, holding her hand a little tighter. “No one gets to fuck with you.”
She was quiet as we all stood in the headmaster’s office, watching as he rubbed his temples.
“Fighting will not be tolerated,” he finally sighed, looking around the room at all of us. Some of the other students were here too, but most of them that had been involved were taken to the nurse’s station.
Then, the prick looked right at Rory. “Things might have been handled with violence at Hawthorne Heights High, but here we—”
“We’re not from there, sir,” Caden said flatly, crossing his arms. “How is this relevant?”
“Aurora—”
“Rory didn’t even start the fight,” Jensen bit out. “Lukas and I did. So, what’s our punishment?”
“You boys know better,” he huffed, shaking his head slightly. “You’re lucky I don’t expel you.”
That made Caden scoff, amusement all over his face. “You won’t, and we know it. You wouldn’t risk Mom pulling the funding for the arts program or the upgrades to the science lab.”
“Miss Donovan—”
“Didn’t you say he touched you?” Jensen asked, eyeing Rory. “Maybe we should talk to my dad. He’d hate to know there's a predator running the school.”
The headmaster sputtered, and I could tell this conversation was making Rory uncomfortable. She wasn’t the type to lie about something like that to manipulate a situation, but this was the way our world worked.
It was all lies and manipulation if you wanted to be at the top.
I’d do everything in my power to make sure I was the one tainting my soul instead of her though.
“I didn’t know he liked high school girls. I thought you said freshman year that I was special, sir?” I asked, the headmaster’s face paling.
“What? I never—”
“Wait, you too? I thought I was his one and only,” Tyler gasped, acting offended.
“No, I—”
The door swung open and Josie strolled in, Caden trying to hide his smile. It seemed he’d already messaged her before the headmaster could.
“Good morning, Bruce. I hear there’s been a problem?” she asked, scanning all of us to see what she was working with.
We kept staring at the headmaster, and he cleared his throat. “Mrs. Holloway, what a pleasant—”
“It’s never pleasant when I have to come down here, don’t kiss my ass,” she said dryly, her eyes landing on Rory. “Who was it?”
Confusion washed over Rory’s face. “Who was what?”