14. Mallory #2
An idea started to take root, shaping into something.
Mom would hate it. She would never allow me to do something so dangerous and reckless, but I couldn’t explain this pull I had inside me for justice.
I might be more like my mom than either of us knew.
My brain was already plotting how I could make those involved pay.
Killing them would get the job done, but it wasn’t my style.
I wanted to humiliate them, to shame them, to make them feel weak and helpless, everything they did to Paisley and her friend and possibly countless others.
I pulled Paisley into the girls’ bathroom the next day, my fingers closing around her wrist as I shouldered through the door hard enough to make it bang against the tile wall.
The sound reverberated off porcelain and peeling paint.
Releasing her hand, I checked every stall, the hinges protesting with rusty squeaks.
Empty. Empty. Empty.
Satisfied we were alone, I turned to where she stood by the sinks.
She studied me in the mirror’s reflection, her eyes tracking my movements while her hands braced against the chipped sink, realizing this was more than a quick pee break between classes. “What’s up?” she asked, uncapping her lip gloss.
I leaned back against the sink beside her, chewing on my bottom lip while I tried to figure out how to say this without sounding like I’d lost my mind overnight, as if I hadn’t spent hours staring at my ceiling constructing plans that made sense in the dark but might fall apart under scrutiny.
I wasn’t great at delicacy, never had been, so I didn’t bother trying.
“I’ve been thinking about what you told me yesterday,” I started.
The words came out fast, tumbling over each other.
“And I know it might be crazy, but we should try again. Only this time, we don’t go to the cops.
We expose them online. To everyone. It’s a lot harder to sweep under the rug, especially if the video goes viral. ”
Her hand stilled, the gloss wand hovering in midair, caught between her fingers. Silence pressed in around us, broken only by the drip of a leaky faucet. “I appreciate you wanting to help. I really do. But this might be one case I leave in the past.”
“Can you, though?” I asked, pushing off the sink and turning to face her fully. “Especially knowing it could happen again on Friday.”
Her mouth pressed into a thin line, the corners pulling down. “You really know how to throw a punch.” She capped the gloss with a soft click. “As much as I would love to expose those jerks, it’s too dangerous. And there’s no way anyone is giving me the mark to get in. They know better than that.”
“Maybe not you,” I said. “But me. I’m the new girl. The perfect target in their eyes.”
She turned fully toward me, worry cutting through her features. “I can’t let you put yourself at risk. I like you too much, and I don’t want to lose another friend.”
As much as it warmed me to hear she thought of me as a friend, the truth was, I was doing this with or without her blessing. I’d decided last night. If Mom and I were going to stay in Elmwood, then I needed to make this place safer. For her. For us.
“I’m not as weak as I look,” I assured. “I’ve been taking defense classes most of my life. Krav Maga since I was twelve. I know not to drink anything at parties. I can handle myself in a sticky situation. I can do this.”
“And what about Maddox and Mason?” she asked, her arms crossing over her chest. “Are you willing to expose them too? They aren’t innocent in all this.”
The question landed heavier than I expected, settling cold and uncomfortable in my stomach. I wasn’t sure how to feel about Maddox, but I couldn’t deny I was attracted to him. There was still so much about him I didn’t know. “Are you saying they were part of it?” I asked.
“No,” she said, shaking her head hard enough that her hair fell across one eye.
She pushed it back with an impatient hand.
“They weren’t there when it happened to my friend.
But I don’t know what they knew about other nights.
Or what they chose not to know, not to see, not to stop.
They’re guilty of giving people the means to do heinous things.
They host the parties. They control the guest list. They don’t live by the same rules the rest of us do. They never have.”
I swallowed hard. The image I had of Maddox didn’t fit neatly into that.
I selfishly wanted to believe he was different, that underneath the reputation and the violence and the family name, there was something worth defending.
He thought I didn’t know he took the note from my bag as we left class that day.
But I had. And I let him take it. I wasn’t sure what he planned to do with it, but he hadn’t brought it up, and neither had I.
“Let me try. And if it makes you feel better, I’ll keep my phone on so you can hear everything. ”
Her expression grew contemplative. She was tempted, just as I hoped she would be. One of the things I learned about Paisley was that she had a nose for the truth. “You know you don’t have to prove anything to me to be my friend. I like you, Mal. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“The only people who are going to get hurt are the ones who deserve it,” I said.
God, I sound like Mom.
And for a second, I wondered if I was already further down this road than I wanted to admit. If the darkness I kept pretending wasn’t mine had already started growing roots.