Chapter 8
“Rumor, get outside!” Jackson says in a hushed voice as he takes small, careful steps toward the hallway.
“Should I call the police?” I whisper.
He shakes his head no.
What the hell? Why wouldn’t I call the police? There’s a burglar in his house!
I watch as he approaches the hallway, the gun aimed and ready to shoot.
Jackson has a gun. I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Dating someone who has a gun in his house?
Someone who people think killed a girl? I don’t think he did it, but so many people do that it makes me question myself.
Am I not seeing him clearly because I have feelings for him? Because I want him to be innocent?
“Shit,” he says with a sigh, lowering the gun as he looks down the hall. “I almost shot you. What the fuck are you doing here?”
Kristen appears from the hallway wearing black lace panties and a tight black tank top, her long blonde hair tied up in a messy bun with wavy strands falling around her face. She looks annoyingly beautiful, like a model who just woke up from bed.
“I didn’t know where else to go,” she says, walking up to Jackson.
She doesn’t see me. I’m standing by the door that goes to the patio, and they’re just off from the living room, by the hallway. I could leave, but I’m not going to. I need to know why she’s here and why she still has a key to Jackson’s house. Is he still with her, despite telling me he’s not?
“You need to leave,” Jackson says to her in an angry tone. “I told you not to come over here anymore when I’m not here.”
She looks down. “My mother’s in town. She got here a few hours ago.”
He sighs. “Kristen, I’m sorry, but you’re just going to have to learn to deal with her shit. I can’t keep being the person you run to. Did you call your therapist?”
“She doesn’t answer her phone on the weekends.” Kristen grabs hold of Jackson’s shirt and steps closer, tilting her face up to him like she wants him to kiss her. “Please, baby, don’t turn me away. I need you.”
“Kristen, it’s over. We can still be friends, but I can’t do this anymore. There’s someone else. I told you that.”
“She’s just a fling. You and I are—”
“Over,” I say in a voice so loud it echoes in the high ceilings. I walk over to her. “And I’m not a fling.”
She lets go of Jackson and faces me, her hands on her hips. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I’m on a date. With Jackson.”
“Kristen, you need to leave,” he says.
“How much did you hear?” she demands.
“Everything,” I say. “Sounds like you have some mom issues.”
“Get out!” she yells. “Now!”
“She’s not leaving,” Jackson says. “Go get dressed and go home.”
Kristen looks at Jackson. “But I need you. And I can’t go back. Not with her there.”
“I’m sorry but you can’t stay. Is Steven there?”
“Yes, but—”
“Your mom’s not going to fight with you with Steven there.”
Kristen turns to me. “None of this would be happening if it weren’t for you! She only came here because of what you did to me!”
“Your mom’s here because I punched you? So you’re mad because she came here to make sure you’re okay?”
“You have no idea what’s she like! She’s a monster and I hate her! Now get out!”
“She’s not leaving.” Jackson gets between Kristen and me, facing her. “I know you hate your mom but maybe she really did show up because she was worried about you.”
“Are you serious?” Kristen huffs. “After everything I’ve told you, you’re taking her side? Why? Just to get rid of me?”
“Kristen, I don’t want to fight about this. You need to leave. Now.”
“Fine.” She narrows her eyes at me, then whips around and storms down the hall.
“Sorry about this,” Jackson says, the gun still in his hand.
I point to it. “Could you put that away?”
“Oh. Yeah.” He walks back to the living room and puts it in the drawer.
“Is that the only one?” I ask.
“No.” He walks over to me. “I only have them for protection. After the burglary I didn’t feel safe not being able to protect myself.”
“Keeping it in the living room doesn’t seem that safe. A burglar could easily find it there.”
“That’s not where I usually keep it. I only had it there because—” He shakes his head. “I’ll move it tomorrow.”
“Because what? Did something happen? Did someone try to break in?”
“No. Just forget it. I’ll be right back.” He heads down the hall. I walk over there to see where he’s going. I’m assuming he’ll go to his room to talk to Kristen, but instead, he goes into the hall bathroom.
I return to the living room and check my phone. There’s a message from Liv.
The money better be here tonight, or I’m telling Brock the truth.
What a little brat. I thought we bonded that night after dinner, but I guess not.
As I put my phone away, Kristen appears again, still in the tank top, but now it’s paired with a long, flowing black skirt and black sandals.
A black and white scarf is loosely wrapped around her neck, and a row of gold bracelets lines her wrist. The outfit would look stupid on me, but on her, it looks like she stepped out of a fashion magazine.
She walks up to me and stops. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer about what you did today.”
“What are you going to do? Sue me? I don’t have any money.”
She checks behind her to make sure we’re alone. “I don’t like you, Rumor, but I don’t think you’re a bad person, which is why I’m warning you to get out of here, for your own good. You don’t belong here. And you definitely don’t belong with Jackson. Or with Braden.”
“Braden?” I laugh. “He’s my cousin.”
She slowly smiles. “He doesn’t see you that way.”
“What are you talking about?”
She steps closer to me and lowers her voice. “I’m only telling you this once. After that, it’s your own fault if something happens.”
“Something happens? Like what?”
“Bad things happen here. Everything may look all bright and beautiful but behind it is darkness. The only way to survive here is to be part of it. I don’t see you willing to do that.
You may think you’re some badass but you’re an angel compared to the rest of us.
Hitting me today?” She laughs. “That’s nothing compared to what I could do to you.
I’m letting you off this time because you’re new.
Because you don’t know. If you’re smart, you’ll leave before you have to find out. ”
“Find out what?”
“What it takes to be one of us.”
“What’s going on here?” Jackson asks, walking up to us.
“Kristen was threatening me,” I say, glaring at her. “Trying to scare me into leaving.”
“Is that true?” he asks Kristen, as if she’d admit to it.
“It’s not what I intended,” she says, her eyes on mine. “But if she wants to take it that way . . .”
“Let me walk you out.” Jackson takes her arm and leads her away. I hear them talking quietly at the door, then hear it open and close, the lock clicking into place.
Jackson returns to the living room. “What’d she say to you?”
“That I shouldn’t be here. That I don’t belong.”
“You don’t. And you shouldn’t be here.” He comes up and puts his arms around me. “But I don’t want you to go.” He leans down and kisses me.
“Wait.” I push him back. “What do you mean I shouldn’t be here? Like at your house, or in La Jolla?”
“At Twisted Pine. I wish you didn’t have to go there but at least it’s only for a year.”
“Kristen said bad things happen here. Did she mean at the school?”
“Bad things happen everywhere. She’s just trying to scare you.”
I pull away from him and walk over to the couch. “She said something else.”
“Just ignore her.” He comes over beside me. “Most of what she says is just her overreacting or trying to create drama where there shouldn’t be any.”
“Like with her mom? Is her mom really as horrible as she makes her sound or is she exaggerating?”
“I don’t know her that well. I know she puts Kristen down, like criticizes her appearance. She’ll even do it in front of people.”
“How could she criticize her appearance? Kristen is gorgeous.”
“I don’t think her mom is all there mentally.
She’ll be normal one minute and crazy the next.
Like one time we were out at dinner and she went on and on about how beautiful Kristen is, then ten minutes later told her she couldn’t eat dinner because she’s fat.
So yeah, I think she can be emotionally abusive but I’m not sure she even knows she’s doing it. ”
“Why would Principal Edwards marry a crazy woman?”
“For money. Her husbands end up rich when they divorce her. And Principal Edwards got a job out of the deal. He was teaching English at a small college when she met him at a charity event. They got married six months later and she got him the job at Twisted Pine.”
“How? She’s not in charge of hiring people at the school.”
“No, but she has influence. She donates a lot of money, so they listen to her. And Steven had a lot of connections before he met her. Before Kristen’s mom, he’d dated another old rich lady and got himself into that world.
He made friends with the right people. Those connections, and Kristen’s mom, helped get him the job at Twisted Pine. ”
“What’s the deal you and Kristen have? Why do you let her hide out here?”
Jackson gets up and walks to the wall of windows. “It’s complicated.”
“Jackson, tell me. I don’t like you keeping secrets from me, especially when it involves another girl.” I pause. “A girl you had sex with.”
He turns back to me. “Kristen has issues at home. Things I can’t tell you about. I promised her I wouldn’t.”
“So she comes here to get away from her parents? I thought her mom was always traveling.”
“She is, or she stays at one of her other homes.”
“And Principal Edwards is okay with that? Never seeing his wife?”
“He didn’t marry her for love. I don’t think any of her husbands did.”
“Wait, so if her mom’s always gone, you’re saying Kristen doesn’t like being home with her stepdad. Principal Edwards.”
Jackson walks over to me. “You hungry? There’s takeout menus in the kitchen. Let’s order something.”