Chapter 19
MADDISON
Somewhere between researching the school and attempting to return to doing my schoolwork, I fall asleep and stay that way the entire night. I’m woken up by the alarm I set on my phone screeching like a banshee on crack.
I blink my eyes open and, with a groan, fumble around on the nightstand until my fingers brush my phone. Then I crack my eyes open and silence the alarm. I almost fall back asleep but force myself to sit up. I rub my eyes with the heels of my hands before throwing the covers off of me.
It’s complicated to get up, slip on a pair of running shorts, a tank top, and my sneakers, but I manage. I pull on a pair of sweats over my shorts, put on my sneakers, pull up my hair into a high ponytail, grab a hoodie, and endeavor into the living room with an empty water bottle.
It’s dark in the room, so I flip on a lamp and pad softly over to the sink, not wanting to wake Lily up. Once my water bottle is full, I toss it and my phone into a bag and head out of the room.
The hallway is eerily silent, and through the windows, the sky is lingering with hints of nighttime, only a pale trickle of sunlight is visible as it creeps over the hill line.
“God, River, you’re nuts,” I mumble to myself as I make a turn toward the exit doors—
And I crash into someone with so much force I stumble back.
“Shit,” the person curses. “Are you okay?”
When I lift my gaze, I discover the person I ran into is none other than Finn. He’s wearing a green T-shirt and gym shorts, along with sneakers, and his eyes look less bloodshot today.
“Yeah, I’m just peachy.” I adjust the handle of my bag. “Sorry about that. I’m not used to functioning this early in the morning, so I’m basically running in zombie mode.”
He laughs. “Well, at least you’re still amusing in zombie mode.”
“Am I?” I question with an arch of my brow.
He grins, but that morphs into confusion. “Why are you awake so early?”
“Why are you?”
“I’m heading to football practice. I was just heading back to my room because I forgot my water bottle.”
“Well, I’m heading to practice, too, but for running.”
“Really? I didn’t know that happened this early.”
“It doesn’t. I’m just doing a run with your brother.”
“River?” He gapes at me. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously. I don’t know why you’re so surprised by this. I think it’s been made pretty known around this school that him and I are spending time today.” I make a mocking gasp. “Which is scandalous, at least with the way everyone is acting.”
“It sort of is,” he reminds me. “Remember, my brother is betrothed.”
“So? We’re not dating. Hell, we’re not even friends.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yeah. We barely know each other.”
“So? You can become friends with someone you barely know.”
I fold my arms across my chest. “Oh yeah? Then what does that make us?”
His lips spread into a grin. “I already told you that you and I are besties.”
“Okay then, bestie, I have a question for you. And since you’re my friend, you have to answer.”
His eyes glint with amusement. “Do I?”
“Yep.” I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “Why were you with Eli yesterday? Because Lily told me that he used to bully her.”
His expression drops. “He was just getting some notes from me.”
“Let me guess, you did the exchange in the library?”
“How did …? Wait—did you follow me yesterday?”
I shrug. “Lily was hurt that you were hanging out with Eli, and I thought perhaps it was a friendly visit between the two of you, so yeah, I followed you into the library where you disappeared.”
His face pales, and the increasing sunlight trickling through the window reflects across his face and highlights his worry. “Maddy, you have to forget about what you saw yesterday.” He nervously glances left then right before inching toward me.
I angle my head up to meet his gaze. “But I don’t know what I saw. That’s the point.”
He leans in closer, his voice lowering. “And that’s how it needs to stay. Trust me.”
“Trust you? I don’t even know you.”
“Yeah, but …” He shakes his head. “Why does this even matter to you?”
“I’m not sure,” I reply honestly. “It just seems like between the message written on mine and Lily’s door, me getting grabbed at the party, and now you are vanishing into thin air in the library …
this place seems kind of sketchy, which is saying a lot considering I’m from northside.
And if I’ve learned anything from living there, it’s that the more information you have, the safer you are. ”
“That’s not how it works here,” he whispers, touching my arm. “The less you know, the better.”
“So, I’m just supposed to what?” I question. “Wait around until whoever grabbed me or left the message comes after me? And what about your sister? The message could’ve been for her.”
“I …” He trails off, his throat muscles bobbing as he swallows hard. “Can you just drop this? Please?”
The begging catch in his voice causes something inside me to break a little.
“Please, Mommy, I’m so hungry.”
“Please, Mommy, I’m scared.”
“Please, Mommy, help me.”
“Fine, I’ll drop it.” I pause then add, “For now. But if anything else weird happens, I will start digging around until my fingers have blisters.”
“Is that a metaphor?”
“Nah, I plan on having to dig up a body or two. I mean, doesn’t every mystery lead to that?”
He gives me a hardy-har look but visibly relaxes. “Thank you.” He offers me a smidgeon of a smile. “I have to go get my water bottle. Be careful, okay?”
I give him a salute, and then we part ways with him heading toward the dorms and me pushing out the door and stepping into the cool morning air.
The track is located on the far-left corner, beside the football stadium. The separation of the two shows how wealthy this school is whereas, at the community college, the two are combined with the field being located in the center of the track.
The air has a slight chill to it as I walk, even with the hoodie I slipped on, and the atmosphere is still, calm, peaceful. In my dreams, when I envision my future, I picture myself living in this kind of existence—
“No, just give me a second,” someone says as I round the corner of the building and step onto the path that leads to the track.
A series of benches lining a sidewalk comes into my view, and standing beside those benches are four guys, one of which is Noah. He has a hood drawn over his head, but his bright green eyes are a dead giveaway that it’s him.
A tall guy with auburn gets up in his face. “No more seconds. I want it now.”
A shorter guy with long black hair positions himself on the left side of Noah while the third guy—a bodybuilder of a dude with cropped blond hair and sporting a tank top—moves to the right side of him. He’s surrounded, and panic flashes in Noah’s eyes as he steps back, bumping into a bench.
“I don’t have it right now.” Tension ripples through his body. “But give me until the end of the day—”
The tall guy slams his hands against Noah’s chest and shoves him. Noah staggers backward, tumbling over the bench and landing on his ass.
“Time’s up, Noah.” Tall Guy steps onto the bench while the other two guys move around.
A fight is brewing, and shit is about to get ugly.
I could walk away—I’ve seen a ton of fights go down, so it’s not like this is new to me.
Normally, I stay out of it because I don’t want to get my ass kicked, too—or arrested.
But they’ve got him outnumbered three to one.
Plus, he’s Lily, Finn, and River’s stepbrother.
While they may hate him, I would like to believe that they wouldn’t want him getting his ass beat.
Sucking in a breath, I stride over to them like I’m sort of a boss bitch, which I am not, but these guys don’t know me.
“Hey, there you are.” I wind around the guys and straight up to Noah, who’s scrambling to stand up. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
Noah blinks up at me, puzzlement etched across his features.
“Sorry, I thought we were meeting out front.” I offer him my hand, and his confusion remains as he places his hand in mine and lets me help him to his feet.
“Who the hell are you?” the guy with auburn hair asks me.
I face him, putting on my best I-give-zero-hells expression. “I’m Maddy. Who the hell are you?”
“I’m the guy who’s about to kick your boyfriend’s ass,” he replies with a cocky grin.
“Really?” I ask, all blasé. And I can tell my inference is throwing him off. “Why?”
“That’s none of your business, northside trash. And if you knew what was good for you, you’d walk away from this.” He crosses his arms, his smirk magnifying.
So, apparently, he didn’t know my name but knew who I was. And has given me a nickname.
Awesome.
“Hey,” Noah starts, moving forward protectively.
“I got this,” I cut him off with a look.
Then I cross my arms and mirror the auburn guy’s snotty attitude.
“Northside trash, huh? So, you do know who I am. Or, at least, where I come from.” I step forward, getting in his face.
“But I’m guessing you have no clue how northside works, so I will lay it down for you.
Your gangly, little bitch boy ass would get beat down by the most pathetic of the north-siders, which FYI, isn’t me.
I lay more in the middle, mostly because I have a mean right hook, like to carry a can of pepper spray and a Taser on me at all times, and I’ve been known to kick the hell out of guys’ balls when I get really pissed off.
In fact, I kicked one guy so hard he had to have surgery, and now he’s impotent. ”
His eyes darken. “You’re so full of shit.”
“Wanna test out that theory?” I challenge. “Because you’re standing in kicking range right now.” I move to lift my leg up.
He stumbles back so swiftly he bumps into one of his friends.
I bite back a laugh, and Noah covers his mouth with his hand.
Auburn hair dude turns livid but doesn’t step toward me again.