Chapter 15 Juliet
JULIET
Wind whips past me, sending my hair flying back over my shoulders as I squeeze my eyes shut and bury my face against Nolan’s shoulder. The morning weather is chilly, but on the back of his bike, even with a long-sleeve shirt underneath his now stolen hoodie, it’s downright freezing.
Nolan’s wide body blocks out the worst of the cold air, keeping me from turning into a full icicle. Still, I’m grateful to know it’ll be over soon when he slows down and turns into the school parking lot.
Engine rumbling a purr between my legs like a big cat, we come to a stop next to Gio’s red Firebird.
G is already out of the car and waiting against the back bumper, his arms crossed, a pair of aviators covering his eyes.
As I slip off the bike and right myself, I cast him a wary glance.
He looks like he didn’t sleep for shit or he’s in a sour mood—maybe both.
“You get Lex’s message?” G asks as soon as Nolan cuts the engine of the Indian.
“Yeah.” Nolan’s answer is short and sharp. I glance between the two of them as I shake out my legs and arms to stop the tingling sensation that always happens after being on the back of Nolan’s motorcycle.
“What’s up with Lex?” I ask. “Where is he?”
Nolan pockets his keys and swings an arm over my shoulders, jostling me into his side. “He’s visiting someone today.”
I grunt under the impact of his movements, but don’t let up. “Who?” I demand.
“Don’t worry about it, Princess,” Nolan says, waving for G to join us as we start walking towards the sports building.
I halt and when Nolan tries to urge me forward again, I dig in my heels and glare at him. “Not a chance in hell,” I growl. “Where the fuck is Lex and who is he visiting?”
Both men exchange a look and it only serves to piss me the fuck off. I narrow my eyes on the two of them. “What are you hiding?”
“We’re not hiding—”
“Bullshit,” I cut Nolan off before he can finish the lie, turning to Gio. “Are you going to tell me or do I have to beat it out of you?”
Despite his earlier somber expression, my words make a smile break out over his face. “I’d love to have you beat me off, Prep Girl.”
“That’s not what I said.” I remain in place for a moment more, waiting, staring. When neither of them offers me an answer, I nod as if I’d expected as much. “Got it.”
“Got… what?” Gio asks, his amusement slipping.
“Obviously, you’re keeping secrets again,” I say casually, dropping my arms as I take a step backwards. Almost as if instinctively drawn, both Nolan and Gio move forward at the same time. My smile is all teeth and anger. “So, I’ll just take matters into my own hands.”
“Juliet.” Nolan’s voice dips into gravel territory, going so low that I know it’s a warning. I don’t care. We’ve been through this and I’m not doing it again.
“Nolan.” I mimic his tone, dropping it before my next words. “We don’t keep fucking secrets from each other—or did we not agree to that?”
He grits his teeth, but doesn’t respond. I take another step back, but Gio bursts forward, nearly tackling me as if he’s worried I’ll turn and run at any second. Run? No. Break the windows of his car? Yeah, probably. Stab a pen into the back wheel of Nolan’s tire? Absolutely.
They aren’t the only psychos here.
“Okay,” Gio says quickly. “Lex is meeting with your dad. He went to the prison today.”
I go still, my brow furrowing. “What?” I snap. “Why?”
Gio groans and his forehead comes down on my shoulder as his arms wrap around me. “Fuck, I don’t know. He didn’t say why. Just texted us at the ass crack of dawn to let us know he wouldn’t be at practice or school,” he admits.
My gaze lifts to meet Nolan’s, who looks more annoyed than worried. “Why’d you try to keep that from me?” I ask.
“We were going to tell you if he came back with more information,” Nolan says on a sigh before marching forward. He yanks Gio away from me, G’s arms loosening and releasing before he can jerk me off my own feet from the harsh movement. “But we can’t talk about it now, regardless. We’re late.”
Gio groans low and long. “Coach is already gonna be pissed because Lex isn’t here,” he whines.
“Suck it up,” Nolan orders, taking Gio by the back of his neck and pushing him forward. I stare at their backs as they start walking. It takes the two of them about ten feet before they realize I’m not following. Nolan releases Gio as they look back. “You coming?” he asks.
“Don’t try to keep shit like that from me again,” I say in lieu of an answer.
Nolan turns fully to face me. “We wouldn’t have kept it a secret forever,” he tells me. “We just wanted to wait until we had more information—a reason for why he went there.”
I shake my head. “I don’t care, Nolan. Never again. That’s not how our relationship works.”
Cool brown eyes circled by a ring of crimson stare back at me. He nods once, but that’s all it takes. It’s the only consolation I require. As soon as it’s given, I move forward, hurrying to catch up with them as we make our way over to the sports building and then eventually to the football field.
Just as Gio had said, when they finally reach the field after changing into their practice uniforms, their coach is pissed.
Despite the early hour, he’s whistling and yelling across the field as the guys join their teammates to run drills.
Why they have to practice like this when there’s only one game left of the season, I’ll never understand.
It’s while I’m standing there, watching the guys get all hot and sweaty with the exertion of their exercise, that someone approaches.
“Bet you’re happy to be back with them, huh?”
The bleachers shriek as a body drops down next to me. I glance sideways. Roquel’s face is pale and there’s dark circles beneath her eyes. They don’t hide the red rim there, though. Something’s obviously wrong with her, but the bite in her tone makes my muscles bunch and my eyes narrow.
“Excuse me?” My tone is edged steel, a quiet warning.
Next to me, Roquel freezes. I wait. For a beat, she looks like she’s about to snap back. Then, she deflates. Her shoulders sag, and she exhales a long breath.
“Sorry,” she murmurs a second later. “That came out wrong.” Definitely, but if she’s apologizing I’m not going to say it. “It’s just been… a week.” She passes me a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.
It’s then that I notice more than her wan face.
Her clothes, leggings and an oversized Scorpions sweatshirt, hang loose on her frame.
Even if it’s getting closer to winter, I’ve always seen her dressed to show as much skin as possible.
She’s confident that way, or so I’ve always assumed.
Now, though, she looks like she’s burrowing into herself.
Roquel never looks fragile. But right now? She looks more than that. She looks breakable. And that unsettles me more than the bite in her voice.
The tension in my spine eases, and I lean in. “Is everything okay?”
She doesn’t answer. Not for a long moment.
I wait, hoping she’ll say something. She’s been a pretty decent friend to me during some of the roughest months of my life.
She was the only one Morpheus would allow over and she came.
We aren’t besties, but we aren’t strangers either.
It occurs to me that I’ve never actually asked her about her background.
She’s given clues and talked about meaningless stuff, but nothing of substance.
Is it something about her parents? Or… surely, it’s not her aunt Ma-Ri?
She’d been fine when I saw her at The Dionysus Lounge the day Lex and Gio had forced me to go there.
Roquel’s gaze remains fixed on the field, but it’s unfocused, as if she’s staring through the players, through the noise, through the world. Silence stretches, taut and uncomfortable. Finally, she speaks. “I appreciate it, but I don’t think I’m ready to talk about it.”
“Did…” I argue with myself on pushing her, but maybe if I know the circumstances of why she looks this way, I can help. “Did you lose someone?”
She laughs, but the sound is sharp and caustic. “Yeah, you could say that,” she says. When she looks at me again, it’s with a watery smile. “I guess you could say it was a breakup.” She shrugs and gestures down to herself. “Heartbreak makes me look pathetic, doesn’t it?”
“No,” I tell her honestly. “You’re still beautiful.”
“Yeah…” It’s clear by her tone that she doesn’t believe it. “It just sucks that it’s happening right before winter formal.” She snorts, the sound derisive. “Not that he would’ve taken me. No.” She shakes her head. “What would people think? A guy like him with someone like me.”
“Someone like you?” I frown. “Is this that football player you were with?” I ask. “Did he say something to you?”
Roquel stiffens. “No, it’s— I really don’t want to talk about it.
” She repeats the words, but with more finality than before.
Then, too suddenly, she snaps her head toward me, plastering on a grin so bright it burns false.
Almost like she’s trying to erase the last several minutes of conversation with a grin and cheery attitude.
“Anyway!” Her voice climbs into that bubbly lilt I know too well. “Let’s try this again—are you glad to be around your guys again? I bet you missed them.”
The whiplash leaves me blinking, but if anyone can understand not wanting to be vulnerable, it’s me. So, I let it go.
“I’m back where I want to be,” I say, shifting my gaze back to the field.
Nolan and Gio move with an easy kind of violence, bodies colliding, muscles straining as they slam into person-shaped weights, pushing them across the field.
Sweat sticks to their skin and training uniform, making the fabric cling to the outlines of their bodies.
The sight grounds me, and at the same time, sets me on fire. Despite my annoyance over our earlier conversation, the fact is—I still want them. In every way. At every turn. It’s damn distracting.
“You’ve got all three of the Scorpion Kings eating out of your hand,” Roquel comments. “Of course it’s where you want to be. Most girls would sell their souls for a fraction of that kind of power.”
“Power?” I give her a side-long glance.
She gestures out to the field. “They’re the Kings,” she says as if it’s not that ridiculous name that she and most of the school uses for them. “They control the students of Public, sell to the prep school. Fuck who they want. Fight when they want. And no one dares to cross them.”
No one except Darrio and Morpheus, but I don’t say as much. Instead, I merely offer a hum and a, “Power always has a price.” Those guys—my guys—they’ve paid it. We all have.
Roquel falls silent again for a long while.
The echoes of male grunts, blowing whistles, and Coach yelling fill the air.
Every once in a while, I’ll glance over and take her in.
Months ago, she’d been a nobody to me. Just a tour guide with a mouthful of unasked-for advice.
Though she had gotten me a job when I’d needed one.
She’d been a friend when being alone was dangerous.
She… helped me. I wonder how I can help her too.
“You know—” She glances at me when I speak. “—we’re still really fucking young. Whatever guy you’re depressed about now, he’ll eventually be nothing more than a memory in your rearview. Fuck him.”
I offer her a smile at those final words, hoping that she’ll smile back. She doesn’t. Instead, her lips quiver as if she’s fighting back a sob. My grin drops. Before I can say anything, Roquel stands up.
“Not this one, Juliet,” she murmurs. “Not this time.”
Blinking, I reach up and grab her wrist, stopping her from rushing off. “Roquel?”
She laughs, the sound hollow and brittle. It grates along my nerve endings. “Thanks for trying,” she says, “but we both know you’re living your dream.”
“I’m—”
She doesn’t let me get another word out as she motions to the field. “Those men? They’d do anything for you.” She scoffs as if she doesn’t understand, or maybe as if it hurts her that the guy she loved isn’t the same.
“My life isn’t perfect,” I remind her.
“No?” Roquel tilts her head down at me. “You were living in a mansion and never had to worry about a damn thing. Even when you fall, you always manage to land on your feet.” She shakes her head, eyes wide.
“I can’t understand how you do it. Every time I turn around, you’re…
” She stops talking and tugs on her wrist. I hold on.
“Appearances can be deceiving,” I tell her. That’s all Morpheus ever was. A deception. My old life? The money, the supposed power, the luxury? None of it was ever mine. If it was, then it couldn’t have been taken so easily.
“I hate that about you,” she admits.
“What?”
Her expression is… strange. Not grief, exactly. Something darker. “You don’t even know how fucking lucky you are.”
I certainly hadn’t felt lucky, though. Not when my ex cheated on me with my supposed best friend. Not when my dad was arrested or my mom left. Not when my apartment burned down. Not when I’d lost my job. Not when Morpheus had blackmailed me or raped me.
But she doesn’t know most of that, hasn’t seen it. The truth, to her, is colored in what I’ve allowed her to see. The reality sits somewhere behind my teeth, unwilling to come out, unwilling to be vulnerable just like she is.
“Jules!”
I look down at the shout to see Madison. “I’ve got to go.” Roquel manages to pull herself free from my grasp and starts down the stairs. My attention switches back to her. I frown as she hurries away, wrapping her arms tight around herself as if she’s trying to hide.
Guilt swamps me. She was vulnerable with me and damn, but I couldn’t be the same with her. Even if she’d stayed, I don’t know that I’d have told her the truth.
The creak and squeals of the metal bleachers ricochet in my ears and I turn to look down again as Mads begins clinging upward. Her blonde ponytail sways with her rushed movements, a flash of golden sunshine in a storm.
By the time she gets to me, Roquel is long gone and Mads is huffing and frowning. “Where’d Roquel go?” she asks.
“She had somewhere to be,” I say, not sure if it’s a lie or not. Hopefully, wherever she’s going now will be a better place than her head.