Chapter 12 #2
“Yeah, but other than knowing that something happened to the coach, he guessed that it was us, otherwise he wouldn’t’ve asked what happened to him!” I tried to make James think, revealing my fear.
“Why’s he coming out with this now? That asshole hasn’t shown up for over a year, why now?!” Will racked his brains while playing with his hair between his fingertips.
James let out a deep breath. “I have a gut feeling.” William and I froze.
“What?” asked Will.
“What if that night—” My heart skipped a beat. William on the other hand was getting impatient.
“What, James? Speak up!”
“What if Austin didn’t actually go through with it?” hissed James nervously, fidgeting with his lip.
I was floored by the theory.
“Are you kidding? Why are you saying that now?” asked Will in an equally paranoid tone.
“Are you telling me that maybe nobody got hurt? So we wouldn’t be at fault?” Was I the only one happy about this? It seemed like it, because obviously nobody was listening to me.
“Why do you think that?” insisted William, getting in front of James.
“Last night Austin asked me about the gun. Then I saw them at work. Then those two dickheads got scared off by a little girl. I’m starting to think they didn’t have the balls to actually kill him.”
A suspicious shadow flashed across William’s eyes.
“You told me June was in danger and that you didn’t call me because you didn’t want to worry me.”
I looked at James, who looked down at the ground.
“She was, Will.”
“So because you stayed at her place, they wouldn’t bother her? Did she ask you to do that?”
What the hell was going on? How had we ended up talking about June White?
“What?” James asked.
“Did she ask you to spend the night at her house?”
There was no hesitation in Will’s question, but James’s usually decisive gaze wavered.
“No, she didn’t ask me.”
I scrutinized him. He’d just lied.
I knew James all too well. He was the type of person who almost never lied, but when he did, you could spot it from a mile away.
But Will was too upset to notice.
“So then why the fuck did you stay there?”
I didn’t like where the conversation was going. Not if they were this tense.
“We’re getting off topic.” I tried to interject without anyone listening to me. James peeled his back off the car to look at Will.
“What the fuck are you implying?”
“James, calm down.” But obviously my order fell on deaf ears.
“Now tell me what the hell happened yesterday,” insisted William obstinately.
“I told you. She called me so you wouldn’t be worried.” James cut him off, then put away the empty vape pen cartridge.
“She was acting weird this morning. What’d you do to her?”
James looked worried before answering. “Fucking nothing.”
A disapproving grumble slid out of William’s lips. Why were my best friends two dumbasses? I thought about Marvin who couldn’t a shit give about anyone or anything right then. And here I was making myself sick over two hotheads.
“Austin threatened me like he usually does. No big deal, Will.”
“No big deal?! He knows where June lives!”
“And what the fuck should I do about it? I told you the other day that there would be consequences, but you didn’t listen to me! What the fuck is in your head—” James bit his lip before continuing.
He cursed, fully realizing the words that were about to come out of his mouth.
“Look, I didn’t want you to worry, you know? That fucking bitch has gotten herself in more trouble in a few days than what we already had!” spat James angrily.
“You don’t want to tell me everything because you’re afraid of worrying me? Do you realize what you’re saying?”
They started circling each other like two wild animals.
“What do you want to know, Will? That their expressions changed when I told them the gun wasn’t mine? That they want to hold on to it to blackmail me and link me to a murder I never committed?”
I ran both hands deeper through my hair.
If only William hadn’t impulsively called them that night.
“Or maybe there was never any murder at all,” finished James.
“Wait, are you serious?”
“I don’t know. I have a feeling that they didn’t end up doing it. Those two talk a lot, but they don’t finish anything. We should’ve done it instead of calling them.”
“We should’ve done it? Now you want to blame me because I called them to save your ass?” yelled Will, going up against James.
“You saved my ass, William? How dare you say something like that to me?”
“You’re one to talk! You’re the one who couldn’t even pull a fucking trigger!” Will was almost shouting.
Great. We’d just crossed the line.
Even William noticed it, so much so that he tried to put a hand on James’s shoulder.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to—” He pulled back.
“I don’t care.”
Right at that moment, I noticed a figure walk out of the main entrance of the school.
I recognized her blond hair. Great, just the person we needed in this situation.
I saw Will take his eyes off James to shoot her a look.
“That one’s gonna get us all killed. I already know it,” complained James between clenched teeth. But Will was too absorbed in one of his harebrained ideas.
“Okay, we gotta go to Austin’s house. Now.”
I don’t know if it was the sight of June slowly walking toward us, but something must’ve led him to think that.
“What a shitty idea, Will,” roared James, bowing his head. He stared at the car wheels like he wanted to avoid June White’s gaze.
“James. Easy,” I reprimanded him.
“What? I shouldn’t say that it’s a fucking awful idea?”
“Yeah, but you can say it in another way,” I added, trying to make him see reason.
“Oh, right, poor William! We always treat him with kid gloves even when he spews bullshit, right?”
Maybe it was her presence, but tensions were running at a fever pitch again.
“Go fuck yourself. I’m going. I wanna know if they finished the job that night or not. We need to know for sure. If you don’t have the balls, go home.” Will stunned us.
“Will?” There she was.
I couldn’t stand her childish voice.
June said William’s name, but she was captivated by James’s silhouette as he kept staring at and fiddling with the lighter.
I couldn’t blame her; James was eye-catching even when he was quiet and stayed still.
But all it took Will was one look at June to stop thinking straight.
“You slept with her?”
I was speechless for a fraction of a second. I was stunned by the question. I was missing something.
“Who slept with whom?” I asked, confused.
We all knew it would happen sooner or later. James had warned us.
“Answer me,” snarled Will, meeting James’s wandering gaze.
“Hey, hey.”
I stuck my arm between them before they could hit each other.
Will was as unpredictable as a hair trigger. It was impossible to know when he’d be set off. But he was also a fragile soul who was hurt by even the most minute slight or wrong word at the wrong time.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Will? No.” James scowled.
“Guys, please, enough.”
They seemed to be too busy glaring at each other to heed what I was saying.
The tension skyrocketed, then William pushed it.
“There’s no point in trying to save her, James, especially because she could never want someone like you.” Everyone fell silent. James unexpectedly didn’t answer, but he said something that floored me.
“I won’t let you go to Austin’s alone. I’ll come with you.” Of course. It was a great day for a suicide mission.
“What’s going on?”
June came closer, looking cautiously at me.
She was stronger than me; she hadn’t done anything to me even though I couldn’t stand her. Apparently, there was something special about her since my two best friends had been about to throw hands over her.
A moment ago the two were on the verge of tearing each other apart; the next minute they were partners in crime again.
Those two would drive me crazy sooner or later.
“June, we have to take care of something. Go back inside,” Will said, sliding into the passenger seat of James’s car. “Let’s go, James.”
But James seemed to have other plans. He stared at her imposingly.
“Fuck, now she’s coming with us.” And here was another person not thinking straight.
“Don’t be a dick, James!” I exclaimed, stretching my arms out.
“I said get in the car,” he snarled, making her shiver.
“You don’t know how to ask her nicely, do you?”
“Get in the car. That’s not an invitation, that’s a fucking order,” he insisted, getting in front of the steering wheel.
“James, you’re not thinking clearly.”
“Get her in the car, Jax.”
“Get her in the car? I’m not an object. I’ll go if I want to,” June screamed indignantly.
“Spoiler alert: You do, White. So move it. You’re wasting my time,” I heard him say before slamming the car door.
James looked furious, but June did exactly what he asked her to. She sat in the back seat next to me.
James and Will bickered while she caught my attention.
“What’s going on?” she demanded, slightly afraid, her eyes wide.
“Why are they acting like that today?”
You ain’t seen nothing yet, June White.