Chapter 17
June
I’d never gone to school with William, James and Jackson. I didn’t pay attention to it initially, but then I realized there wasn’t a single girl not staring at me.
I got to my locker unscathed to grab my math books, while Will stopped to talk with his friends.
A dark figure stopped in front of me suddenly.
“June.”
“Brian. Um, hello.”
He absentmindedly ran his fingers through his short hair. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure.”
“I know there were misunderstandings between you and Amelia, and you’ll probably start talking again sooner or later—” He stopped all of the sudden, staring at something behind me. James and Will were staring daggers at him.
“But?” I pushed.
“I saw you come to school with them.”
“So?”
“June, it’s better—”
James walked by and bumped his shoulder into Brian.
I saw the dark-haired guy take a deep breath like he was trying to stay calm. I shot James a telling look as he started rummaging through his backpack, eyes glued to us.
“Ignore him,” I said to Brian, rolling my eyes.
But then Will came and stopped behind me and put his arm over my head, leaning it against my locker. He stared at Brian, oblivious to my discomfort.
“Go on, spit it out,” pushed William.
Brian seemed confused for a moment, but then decided to continue. “Poppy told me that she invited you to the party.”
I heard James cough then say gruffly, “Pathetic.”
“Pathetic.” William did the same.
I glared at them for the umpteenth time, but seeing as that didn’t seem to be enough, I walked away, motioning for Brian to follow me a few lockers away.
“June, why are you with them? You don’t know—”
“What?”
“You don’t know what they’re capable of. You shouldn’t hang around them, and now you’re coming to school with them?”
I turned toward the guys who were still staring at us. Clearly they didn’t want me talking to Brian. But why?
“It happened,” I retorted, shrugging.
I didn’t intend to explain myself to him, let alone to Amelia.
“What did you want to say to me, Brian?” I asked curtly.
“If I don’t straighten up, I’ll get a bad grade that will ruin my whole report card.”
“In history, right?” I asked, remembering his bad grade.
“Yeah. But they assigned that group homework that could raise my average. You’re one of the best in class, maybe we can do it together. You can come to my place.”
James passed him with his usual sneer, but this time a jolt of rage flashed in Brian’s emerald eyes.
Without warning, he grabbed James by the collar of his button-down shirt and slammed him against the lockers with a shocking amount of force.
The way Brian attacked James so quickly left me speechless.
“I’ll give you another black eye, Hunter,” he snarled furiously.
“Brian, please, leave him alone.” I tried to dissuade him.
But James was simply amused. He didn’t even know what fear was.
“Come on, let’s go.” He provoked Brian with an insolent sneer. “I wanna see how the principal is still kissing your ass, Hood.”
“He failed me because of you,” spat Brian, before letting go.
“James, enough,” I reprimanded him.
“So, June, think about it,” Brain said to me.
“Listen to the chronic loser’s techniques for picking up girls,” James mocked Brian.
“Better than yours,” the other retorted.
“Yeah, yeah, mine suck so bad that we should ask A—”
I covered James’s mouth with my hands to prevent him from saying any more.
I didn’t want World War III breaking out in the hallway, and most of all, I didn’t want to be the spark that lit the dynamite.
“James, cut it out!” I yelled, before turning toward Brian. “I’ll think about it, okay? Let’s get going. We have class now.”
James motioned to Will, who hadn’t said a word the whole time.
“I’m coming, you guys go,” he said calmly.
James dragged me away, leaving William and Brian to talk in the hallway.
“What’s he saying to Will?”
“Nothing,” groaned James.
“Oh my god, so it’s true, this is how you solve things?” I freaked out and continued to turn toward them.
“What?” James asked.
“I don’t know, but Will seemed pretty threatening. What was he saying to Brian?”
“Fucking nothing, quit asking questions. Let’s go.”
I had to rush to keep up with him. “You bet I’ll ask questions, but what was that all about? Brian was just talking to me—”
“Um?” James pretended not to understand.
“What, one of them can’t even talk to me anymore?”
“Are you fucking done whining?”
“You guys are really weird. Why do you hate each other so much?”
He turned the vape pen on right before reaching an emergency exit.
“Does he know about Ari?”
At that point, James flung open the emergency exit door leading to the outside stairs, then stared at me.
“No, of course not. Unless you wanna tell him while you make googly eyes at each other doing your fucking homework.”
I tensed up.
“Do you think I want to get mixed up in this crap?”
“So why’d you tell Taylor?”
His question startled me.
“Do you think I told Taylor?”
“Well? You were the only one who knew. And then, lo and behold, they broke up. Do you like assholes?”
James’s words startled me.
“You’ve believed for all this time that I was the one who told Taylor?” I screamed loudly.
“Well, didn’t you?” James looked down at me condescendingly, continuing to vape.
“Absolutely not. Why I would I?”
“Because he likes you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Who?” I asked, confused.
James blew a giant cloud of smoke out the door then turned around to look at me.
“Quit acting like Sleeping Beauty. You understood me.”
“When you told me about Ari, I thought that was a joke. And I thought you trusted me.” I cleared my throat, annoyed with myself for having just said that.
“I thought you trusted me, too, but when I told you I didn’t tell Taylor about your brother you almost didn’t believe me,” he complained.
How does Taylor always find everything out? I wondered, doing an about face.
“What are you doing?”
I heard James’s voice call me when I was already halfway down the hallway.
“I’m heading to class, Hunter.”
“No, I mean, with him.”
“Sorry, why do you care?”
I was convinced that there was something unresolved between James and Brian.
“I don’t give a flying fuck,” he retorted, looking at me with his blue eyes.
“Maybe I’ll head out.” I shrugged, as if I didn’t care about it.
“Do whatever the fuck you want,” he spat.
“Unless you or Will tell me what happened at Tiffany’s famous party last year.”
James shook his head and smiled unexpectedly, his two dimples making him look like his brother.
“You’re out of your mind. Is your mom this manipulative too? Would she film my dad in underwear and blackmail him for money?”
I smirked haughtily before crossing my arms.
“I’m even worse.”
James kept smoking with narrowed eyes, without saying anything else.
“I’m going to class,” I repeated, seeing that he didn’t want to give in.
“Um.” I heard him grumble something while he took one last hit then put the vape pen in his pocket.
“Wait. Where the fuck are you going, White? Come here.”
“Where?” I asked looking around.
“Out.”
“But class just started—”
“Do you want to talk to me or listen to an asshole blathering on about equations until your head explodes?”
Instead of waiting for me, James walked out the emergency exit door. I saw him take off his jacket, loosen his tie, and sit on a step. His back curved when he looked for something in his pocket.
What would June do? Go to class, duh.
I looked up at the sky, taking it out on nobody but myself.
June White, go to class.
It was too late now. I was already crouched on the stairs.
Every time that he sat next to me, I noticed how tall James was.
“So you don’t know,” he hinted, making his usual movements with his ring-clad fingers.
“No. What should I know? I only know that you tried to take advantage of Amelia at Tiffany’s party.”
“Eh?”
“You heard me,” I said.
“Did she really say that to you? Weren’t you friends?” He looked surprised, and raised both eyebrows.
“That’s what she told me.”
“What a lying bitch. Again with this story—” he spat spitefully.
“She didn’t want to tell me, but I insisted,” I admitted.
“Yeah, and she saddled you with the story that I took advantage of her. I can’t believe it. How dare she—”
I looked down at the ground when I saw him bring the paper to his tongue.
“Brian eviscerated me that night, and she didn’t lift a finger,” he whispered, releasing all of his resentment toward Amelia.
I would’ve liked to have known what kind of relationship the two of them had, but I couldn’t ask him too directly. What James did wasn’t my business, especially his ties with girls.
“Do you want some?” he asked before lighting the joint.
“Sure, so I pass out and then you don’t have to tell me anything else?”
“It’s a lot milder than what I had you smoke at my house, White.” He shook his head, then huffed. “Suit yourself.”
“Why’d Brian beat you up?” I insisted, now sure that I was getting close to an explanation.
“Because that dick found his sister in tears with me in Tiffany’s room. She said the first thing that came to her head, and he obviously believed her.”
“And then? What happened at that party?”
But most of all, why did he fail a year, and you went right to juvie?
James pursed his lips before taking a hit.
“I was in Tiffany’s bed with Amelia that night.”
“Wow, classy way to start a story.”
He burst out laughing and coughed from the smoke.
“What did you think? We weren’t fucking.”
“Weird. You have to clarify that otherwise someone’s mind could go right to the gutter.”
“Can you shut the fuck up and let me talk for once?”