6. Kinsley
KINSLEY
Dammit! I forgot to ask Eden how to get to the gym. A girl near the window is still packing up, so I decide to test my luck. “Hey, can you tell me how to get to the gym?”
Just then, Brielle, Peyton, and Mikayla come into the room. “If you tell her, Marissa, then consider yourself an outcast added to my list,” Brielle warns as she gestures to write on an invisible paper.
Marissa looks ashamed as her gaze falls away from me and lands on the book on her desk. Without a word, she picks it up and then takes off out of the room. Brielle’s smug face of triumph nauseates me.
“I’ll find it on my own,” I say and start toward the door.
“Not so fast, new girl.”
I release an aggravated breath. It would take all of ten seconds to slay the three of them, but I can’t, and it’s frustrating as hell.
Lashes—Mikayla steps in front of me. With a dazed expression, Peyton snaps a bubble.
I swear the girl’s head is full of helium.
I imagine grabbing the wad of pink goo and smearing it in her hair.
Instead, I scrunch my nose in response to the flowery scent wafting off her and move to the side to go around her.
She steps out again. My hip bumps into the desk.
Brielle takes a step closer to me. “Listen up, I have one piece of advice for you. Stay away from me, and stay away from Venom. Keep to your little corner of nobodies, and all will be right in the world again.” Her fake fiery-red smile is perfectly in place.
I got to hand that to her. She’s mastered that small feat.
Giving her a dramatic bored eye roll, I barrel past them and turn back to face them when I reach the doorway.
“In case you’re a little confused, each time I’ve tried to keep to my little corner of the world, you’ve come to find me to give me your words of wisdom.
So, if you leave me the fuck alone, I’ll leave you the fuck alone. Deal?”
Brielle crosses her arms over her ample chest. “I don’t trust you.”
One side of my mouth quirks up into a nasty half-ass grin. “Maybe there’s a brain cell in there after all,” I quip. Then I turn to leave.
I ask a guy in the hall where the gym is, and he kindly gives me directions. At least not everyone seems to be an asshole here.
Fuck! I forgot to bring a pair of sneakers. Oh well, my boots will have to do. A few more girls file in. I wish I had been quicker to change. Not because I’m embarrassed, but I could do it without the extra sets of eyes sizing me up.
I would generally complain about gym class, but I could use the physical release today.
Leaving my boots on, I roll down my socks and slide off my skirt.
Because I drive a motorcycle, I’m wearing boy shorts instead of a thong.
Before I take off my shirt, the pink jagged scar on my stomach gives me pause.
I hate that I’m concerned about the possibility that someone will ask where and how I got it.
“Be on the courts in two minutes,” a deep voice calls from the speakers.
No one speaks to me as we file into the gymnasium.
The several sneers and glances at my forearm don’t go unnoticed.
I’m over trying to hide it. I don’t owe any of these people anything.
The only person I owe is my dad. And speaking of—as soon as I step out onto the glazed wooden floors, I recognize the tall, broad frames of the four assholes I met earlier on the far side of the gym.
Venom. I have two choices, both of which are risky.
I can either play nice at their game, which may bring me closer to their inner circle and possibly the truth, or I can play hard to get and hope they snag on my line.
Their presence sucks all the attention from everyone else in the rest of the gym.
This is hardly the place to practice their fighting techniques, but that’s precisely what they’re doing.
Gunner Crazy Hair grabs his twin around the neck, then locks his hand around his own wrist, securing his brother in a guillotine chokehold.
Edge taps on Gunner’s hand. Gunner slightly releases his grip as Edge repositions his arms to show him how to entrap his brother better.
Just as Edge maneuvers Gunner’s arm, he raises his head.
His eyes darken when he sets his sights on me.
As if tethered together by some unseen force, the other three follow his lead.
Their four hardened glares feel like an invisible weight fixing me in place.
But there’s something else, a unique cord of shared familiarity drawing me to them…
domination, savagery, ferocity, the thrill of fighting.
I couldn’t turn away if the room went up in flames around me.
Long seconds pass before someone calls out my name behind me. Abruptly, I’m shaken from their visual grasp.
“Kinsley West, I presume.” A large, balding man, holding a clipboard, approaches me.
I swiftly nod. “Yes, that’s me.”
Coach inspects my footwear. “You’re out of uniform. Make sure you bring proper shoes to the next class.” He makes a check next to my name on his roster, then moves toward the front of the group.
I take a chance to glance over my shoulder.
Venom walks toward my class, and I internally groan.
Eden gave me a fair warning that all of them are in my gym class.
Giving me a heads-up surprises me, considering she’s not as huge a fan of me as her sidekick, Bryce.
A few feet away from everyone else, the four stop as if they are a single unit moving as one.
“Well, well, well, look who we have here,” Gunner says as he looks me up and down. “I get to have you twice in one day.” He rubs his hands together as if readying for a meal. “This has got to be my lucky day.”
Finding it difficult to ignore Venom completely, I play nice for now. That may change within the next five minutes, but for now, nice seems the way to go, especially after seeing them practice their fighting skills.
“Maybe. Or it might be karma catching up to you,” I say teasingly.
Gunner almost smiles, then falters as he contemplates what he’s done to have such bad fortune. If only I could share my secrets about what I know. Even though I’m ninety-nine percent sure they were at the fight that night, those secrets will have to wait until I know one hundred percent.
Gunner throws his arm over his identical brother. “Anyway, this is Levi. He’s taken, so don’t get any ideas.”
Levi’s smile isn’t as playful as Gunner’s, but it’s just as panty-dropping. Their parents must be gorgeous to have produced these two.
Gunner continues. “You already know Ledger, known as Edge, and that there”—he points to the one from the passenger seat in the Jeep—“is Ashton Kade, a.k.a. Kade.” Gunner shrugs. “He’s a bit of a loner and quiet as hell, but makes up for it in kicking and getting ass.”
Edge doesn’t say a word during his friend’s verbal vomiting on all his BFFs.
His damp hair has fallen to one side over his face.
Dear Lord, why is the jerk so fucking hot?
I try not to stare, even though it’s exactly what I want to do.
In fact, I could prop him in the corner of a room and just stare for days on end.
For fuck’s sake, what the hell has gotten into me?
“So, you guys are into submissions, huh?” I ask.
I don’t mean for the words to come out, and I wish I could grab them out of thin air and make them disappear.
But it’s too late. Three out of the four of them seemed taken aback by my question, as if I just spewed Japanese.
Each one of them is silent, even Gunner, surprisingly.
I seem to fall right back into the depths of Edge’s glare when my gaze settles on him.
Unlike his friends, Edge’s demeanor is unchanged, guarded.
“And what do you know about fighting?” Levi asks.
Tearing away from Edge’s invisible clutches, I focus on Levi and shrug. “Some.”
Common sense kicks me in the ass as the urge to straight up ask them about UG fighting sticks in the back of my throat. Thankfully, I have some restraint. I don’t want to scare them off. I doubt they would tell me anything anyway.
With a hungry grin, Gunner wraps his arm around my shoulder. In a sultry voice he probably practices in front of the mirror, he says, “I could show you a few moves if you want.”
I have a feeling the moves I’m envisioning are very different than the ones he’s talking about.
“Everyone ready for a little rope climbing?” the coach hollers. The class groans like they’ve just been told to climb Mount Everest.
Gunner drops his arm from around me. “Maybe some other time.”
“Rope climbing? What, are we in boot camp?” I mutter.
The girl standing next to me, and the only other one in this class, leans in and whispers, “Kinda. Coach was in the Army, and he gets off on torturing us with drills like this.”
“Hmm… that sucks.”
“A lot,” she agrees.
On the opposite side of the gym is a group of girls, the cheerleaders. That must be where all of the other girls in the locker room went. Because it certainly wasn’t to strength training.
Kade nudges Edge’s arm and juts out his chin to me. I look down at my shirt and wonder what other ammo I’ve given them to fire back at me.
“What is that?” Edge asks, his voice low and menacing.
Nothing is on my shirt, so I have no idea what they’re talking about. “What’s what?”
Edge slightly shakes his head, giving his friends some kind of silent command. Gunner’s eyes pop, and Levi’s mouth creases. All of them are studying the tattoo on my forearm. Edge says nothing, nor does he make a sound as his jaw ticks in annoyance.
Not sure how to react to their bizarre behavior, I say, “It’s just a tattoo. Get over it.” I turn away from them and follow the others to the dangling rope on the far side of the gym.