Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
ASTRID
Walking into Redwood’s cafeteria, with my hands around the plastic tray of crappy food, I immediately started toward my usual table, busy with my friends chatting. My heart pounded inside my chest, and I couldn’t help glancing toward The Crew, perched in the far corner.
Each and every one of them were looking right at me. Me!
Oh fuck. They haven’t told anyone, have they? My mouth dried. Surely, they haven’t.
If they had, all of Redwood would have known by now. But honestly, maybe … maybe this was … all some sort of misunderstanding: Maybe they were supposed to find another girl last night.
Why did they find me? Was I that easy?
Yes. The answer was, yes, I really was that easy.
I swallowed literally no spit in my mouth and averted my gaze from them. What was I going to say to everyone? Diya, my bestie, had to already know what had happened. Ruby would’ve told her that I’d hooked up with her brother, wouldn’t she?
No, friends didn’t do that to friends, right?
After setting down the tray, I slowly sat in my seat and looked around at the other girls who were chatting with each other. Diya looked up at me with a smile on her face, her brown eyes brighter than usual.
“I heard you were late today,” Diya said.
“Oh, yeah?” I started my grandiose lie that I had made up after I fucked Frasier in his car this morning. “I accidentally slept in.”
I side-eyed Ruby, wondering if she was going to say anything, but she had the biggest dark circles underneath her eyes, and I wasn’t sure if she even remembered last night. Hickeys covered her neck, and her pink hair was thrown up into a messy bun.
“So, how was the party last night?” Diya asked, opening her carton of milk.
“The party?” I repeated back, my mouth dry.
She giggled. “Yes, the party. You know, the one you went to with Ruby?”
“Oh, that one.” I scratched my neck. “Yeah … that one.”
Diya arched a brown brow. “Okay, why are you acting so weird?”
“Oh, am I?” I giggled nervously.
Fuck, what can I tell her? I lost my virginity to her brother? No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. How can I do that to her? She is one of my best friends. I promised myself, even though I had a crush on him, that I would never sleep with him, even when we were out of high school.
It’d only cause drama, and now I had to explain something to her.
I opened my Diet Coke and sipped. “Oh … yeah, nothing really eventful happened.”
Way to act suspicious, Astrid!
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Why are you acting like that?”
Someone shouted from across the cafeteria, and I snapped my gaze up to The Crew. Frasier was leaning back against the brick wall, huge arms crossed over his chest and the biggest grin on his face. And that stupid little Calix sat right beside him, mirroring his smirk.
Fuck!!!
“No reason!” I exclaimed, standing. “Listen, I have to go to the bathroom.”
Before Diya could say another word or ask me another question, I shot up from my seat at the cafeteria table and hurried out the door and straight to the bathroom.
What could I say to her? I needed to come up with an excuse.
It was obvious that I was hiding something, and I really didn’t want him to tell her before I did. I didn’t want her to think I’d betrayed her by sleeping with her brother. She had told me so many times how much she hated him, and for me to fuck him …
My heart was racing, and my mind was all over the place. God, what had I gotten myself into? Not only had I slept with my best friend’s brother, but I had also let my stepbrother watch. And one of my good friends too? What had gotten into me?
I pumped my legs as fast as I could without running, not wanting to get in trouble with our new principal—Principal Stoll. He was stricter than Principal Vaughn had been and always found reasons to punish students.
Of course, I’d acted that way because of the alcohol last night.
I tugged on a strand of my hair and chewed on the inside of my cheek. I would never in my right mind have done something like that without alcohol.
Maybe it was spiked? Maybe I was actually drugged last night!
As I passed the boys’ bathroom, trying to make a break for the girls’ room to get my shit together, someone snatched me by the upper arm and yanked me into the empty room. I yelped, but he smacked a large, callous hand over my mouth.
Suddenly, I was thrust up against the door, and an angry Rush stared down at me.
“Take it off,” he growled at me.
“What?” I asked, brow furrowed. “What are you—”
“You stole my fucking shirt,” he said, grabbing me by the collar and tugging me closer. He stared down at me through dark eyes.
Rush was always grumpy, but I had never seen him like this.
“I am … I’m sorry. I didn’t have any other clothes to put on.”
“I don’t give a fuck. I want it back. Now.”
I stared up at him, nostrils flaring. “Or what?” The question came out before I had a chance to stop it. I didn’t know where the hell all this confidence had been coming from lately, but when I was alone around The Crew, it seemed to flow from me.
“Or what?” he snarled back, as if he didn’t believe I had talked back to him. “If you don’t fucking take my shirt off right now, I’m gonna rip it off of you.”
“I don’t have anything else to wear.”
“Not my fucking problem. Take it off now.”
After a few moments of debating whether I should or not, I decided against it. Because he really, really wouldn’t let me walk around half naked at Redwood Academy. How was he gonna rip the shirt off anyway? He wasn’t that strong, and this was good quality.
“No,” I said, twirling on my heel.
I grabbed the door handle, about to pull it open, when his hand snapped against the wooden door and forced it closed.
“Do you really wanna play games with me, Hellcat? Because I can play games.”