8. Carey
Carey
Panic and fear gripped my churning stomach like frozen hands as I raced down the hall. I didn’t even know where I was going. Didn’t care. I just needed to breathe air that was anywhere else, anywhere away from Hudson.
I’d tried my best to avoid him over the last couple of weeks, ever since I discovered his presence on campus, but I knew we were bound to run into each other eventually. Even though we didn’t share any classes, we were in the same grade and walked the same halls every day, so an encounter like today was only a matter of time. I’d been dreading it for days, planning what to say and mentally psyching myself up for it.
And yet, nothing could’ve prepared me for it. No amount of planning could’ve compared to the real-life thing, where I instantly froze with no idea what to say or do.
Stupid, stupid, stupid,my inner voice chided me as I hurried down the hall. Why did I let him affect me like this? I did nothing to him. He was the problem. He was the bad guy. I should just suck it up, ignore him, and walk away. So why didn’t I do it? Why did I just stand there motionless with my jaw hanging open and my eyes bulging like a stupid Halloween mask?
Stupid question, really. I already knew the answer. Hudson Calloway had scared the shit out of me ever since I met him, and he had so much power over me that I’d almost ended up in prison because of him. In fact, if it weren’t for the benevolence of the group who started the Babylon Foundation, I’d probably be getting sentenced in court right now.
His words flashed back into my mind. Hey, Carey. I’ve been meaning to talk to you. I thought you might be planning on spreading more of your bullshit around this place, so I wanted to tell you that it would really be in your best interest to keep that pretty mouth shut as long as you’re here. Or… I guess you can open it for me if you want. But no talking allowed. You know what I mean, babe. Finish what we started, huh?
That was when Maverick showed up to rescue me. God, what the hell was that about? He hated me. But I guess he hated Hudson more.
“Carey!”
I stopped and turned at the sound of my name. It wasn’t Hudson or Maverick this time. It was a friendly voice and a friendly face. Thank God.
April caught up with me a second later, followed by Brooke and Zach. “Hey!” she said. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere! We tried your dorm, and then the library. Where have you been?”
I choked back my tears as I replied. “Left… earlier than usual.”
God, I could barely speak.
“I’m so sorry,” Brooke said, squeezing my arm. “We saw what Kiara posted, and… ugh...”
She trailed off, head shaking with disgust. Zach jumped in. “I can’t believe she posted that shit. It’s so obviously fake.”
A tear slipped out, and April wrapped her arms around me. “It’ll be okay,” she murmured, stroking my back. “It’ll blow over.”
“It’s not that,” I choked out over the flood of emotion clogging my throat. “I don’t even care about that stupid tape right now.”
April pulled back, confusion knitting her delicate features. “What?”
“I just… I…”
That was all I could get out before the tears flooded my face.
April tugged on my hand. “Come on,” she said softly. “Let’s go to our spot. We still have twenty minutes before the bell.”
I let her lead me down the hall toward the closest exit, tears still streaming down my face. Zach and Brooke trailed behind us, throwing dirty looks at anyone who sneered or laughed at me as I passed.
We arrived at our spot under the overpass a moment later. I sat in the center of the stone bench, and the others huddled around me. “What’s going on with you?” Zach asked in a low voice. “Did someone do something to you? Something else, I mean.”
I wiped my face and took a deep breath. “I need to tell you something.”
“You can tell us anything.” April patted my arm. “No judgment.”
“Promise,” Zach added. Brooke nodded alongside him.
I took another deep breath and began. “I wasn’t exactly honest with you guys about how I ended up here,” I said softly. “At this school, I mean.”
April’s brows rose. “You told us you got a scholarship through the Babylon Foundation. Is that not true?”
“It’s true.” I nodded bleakly. “But I was kind of vague on the details. I told you I got into trouble because I crashed into Maverick Reinhart’s car. That’s only part of the real story. A very small part.”
“Okay, well… spill,” Zach said. “Like I said, no judgment from me. There’s obviously a reason you kept it from us.”
I nodded again. “It’s just… I was so ashamed. And scared. I was facing a real prison sentence. And I didn’t want you guys to look at me differently. People here already call me a criminal, and all they know about is the accident.”
“You were really going to go to prison?” Brooke’s eyes widened. “Just for a car accident?”
I swallowed hard. “Probably, yeah. You’ll understand when I tell you the whole story. But it’s super long.”
April glanced at her watch. “We have ages. It’s fine.”
I looked down at my feet. “Well… I’ll start at the very beginning, even though it’s not going to sound relevant to anything. My best friend at my old school was this girl called Mikayla. She was super sweet and pretty. Unfortunately, she was always a bit delusional too.”
“How so?” April asked.
“You know the town I’m from, right? Oakfield? It’s a real shit-hole. No point dancing around that fact,” I said. I paused to wipe my cheek again. “It’s nothing like Babylon. Might as well be two different planets.”
“Yeah, I know. People from that place have… um… a certain reputation around here, as awful as that sounds.” Zach’s thick brows knitted. “But what does that have to do with this Mikayla chick?”
“Like I said, she’s really pretty. She knows it, too. So she’s always had this idea in her head that she could use her looks to get out of our shitty town and away from her shitty family, if she just found a guy to rescue her. A rich, connected guy, I mean. Someone who could fall for her and save her.”
“Ah. The classic fairytale scenario,” Brooke said softly. “Deluding girls and women since the dawn of time.”
“That’s exactly what I always thought,” I said, nodding fervently. “I mean, it’s a nice idea. Suddenly having money, security, and real power over your life. Never needing to worry about anything again. But it’s a fairytale, like you said.”
“No shit.” Zach snorted. “Life isn’t a movie.”
“That’s what I tried to warn Mikayla about. But she didn’t listen. She’d still go to all these crazy Babylon parties that she managed to get invited to, and she’d always drag me along for moral support. Then I’d have to watch her get used over and over again,” I said bitterly. “Every time she met a new guy at one of these things, they’d be sweet to her and say all the right things. But it was just to convince her to open her legs for them for the night. They barely see girls like us as human. Just sentient dolls to fuck and toss away when they’re done.”
“Sentient dolls,” Brooke echoed in a low voice. “Ugh, that’s awful.”
“I know.” I sniffed back more tears. “That’s why I kept trying to convince her to stop going to these parties with all these toxic assholes. I knew some rich guy wasn’t going to swoop in and make her his girlfriend, let alone his future wife. It was pure fantasy. But at the same time, I kept going with her because I wanted to make sure nothing really bad happened to her.”
“Did something happen to her anyway?” April asked in a tentative tone.
I shook my head. “No. It happened to me,” I replied. My voice was starting to sound choked-up again. “It was all because of Hudson Calloway. I met him at the last party I went to.”
Brooke’s eyes widened. “Oh my god. Did he…”
I raised a palm and shook my head. “No. He didn’t. But he sure as hell tried.”
“That fucking asshole.” April’s face twisted with fury. “What happened?”
“Mikayla dragged me along to yet another shitty party at some mansion on the outskirts of Babylon. It was a birthday thing for some guy named Jamie Miller.”
“Oh, I know him,” Brooke cut in. “He’s friends with my older brother. Total douche.”
“Right.” I briefly nodded. “Anyway, I usually don’t mind having a drink or two at parties. But that night, I couldn’t drink anything at all because my stomach had been feeling bad all day. So I was one-hundred percent sober. All I had was a glass of lemonade that I poured from a brand-new bottle that I opened myself. It definitely had nothing in it.”
“Until you met Hudson, I’m guessing,” April said. Her face was red with anger now.
I nodded and paused to clear my clogged throat. “Yeah. After a while, I started to feel weird. Really, really weird. Then several minutes of my life just disappeared. I have no idea what happened in those minutes. But when I opened my eyes, I was lying in a bed, and Hudson was on top of me. He was trying to take my jeans off, and he had this look in his eyes. A cold, dead look. Like a shark.”
“What a piece of shit,” Zach muttered.
“Even though I’d obviously been drugged with something, I guess he didn’t give me enough, because I was still able to think and move. Enough to realize what was happening and defend myself.”
“Please tell me you punched him right in the dick,” April said, nostrils flaring.
“Close. I kneed him in the balls to get him off me. Really hard. While he was rolling around crying in pain, I got out of the bedroom and went back into the main party room. Then I grabbed the first set of keys I could find and ran outside. I clicked the key fob until a car unlocked… and I took it. I know it’s not okay to steal a car, but I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“Of course you weren’t,” Brooke said. “You must’ve been terrified.”
“Yeah. I was. I was also totally off my face on whatever the hell Hudson slipped into my lemonade. Whenever I think about it, it seems like it was a dream, because that’s what it felt like when it was all happening.”
“Sounds more like a nightmare than a dream.”
“That’s true.” I clenched my jaw. “Anyway, because I was so messed up on the drugs Hudson spiked me with, I couldn’t drive properly. I went off the road a few miles away and crashed right into a parked car.”
“Maverick’s car?”
“Yes. But he wasn’t in it. No one was. That was lucky, because I T-boned it and totally fucked it up. If someone was inside it, they’d probably be dead now.”
“That means you’re lucky to be alive too,” Brooke said softly, squeezing my hand.
“Yeah, I guess so.” I sniffed and wiped my face again. “Anyway, everything was a shit-show after that. I was charged with a whole bunch of crap, which was no surprise. I mean, I was on drugs and stole a car. I could’ve killed someone in that crash.”
“But it wasn’t your fault!” April said. “None of it was!”
I shrugged. “I tried to tell them that. I gave them Hudson’s name. Told them he drugged me and tried to attack me. But no one believed me.”
“Seriously?”
I nodded. “The cops questioned him, but only because they had to after they heard my accusation. It was a waste of time. He said he never met me. Said he didn’t even see me at the party. His friends all backed him up when they were questioned too, and they all said they’d seen me snorting stuff at the party. It was my word against all of theirs. And let’s face it—cops in places like Babylon hardly ever believe people like me anyway. They believe and support the rich kids who circle the wagons to protect each other.”
“I believe you, Carey,” April said firmly. “I want you to know that right now. I totally believe you. A hundred percent.”
“Me too,” Brooke chimed in.
“I believe you too,” Zach said. “Hudson is a fucking prick. Also, I know I’m rich, which probably makes me an asshole in a million different ways, but I’m at least self-aware enough to see how differently people like me get treated. I see the corruption and the cronyism. All the time.”
“Thanks. It really means a lot that you guys believe me,” I murmured. I cleared my throat again and went on. “But you know, my own parents didn’t believe me. My mom told me that I’m just like my dad, because he’s been in and out of lockup for decades, and my dad just laughed and told me I’m a chip off the old block. Mikayla didn’t believe me either. So we aren’t friends anymore. To be honest, when I arrived here, I didn’t have a single friend in the whole world.”
Brooke’s eyes filled with sympathy. “That really sucks.”
“Yeah.” I pressed my lips into a thin line and slowly shook my head as the memories poured back in. “Anyway… Hudson lawyered up, thanks to his family, and I was probably going to get some serious jail-time when the case finally went to trial. But then the Babylon Foundation took pity on me and decided I deserved a chance at rehabilitation.”
“Even though you did nothing wrong,” April said, rolling her eyes. “Apart from trying to escape a piece of shit who was attacking you.”
“Well, I guess they didn’t know all those details. They were looking up active criminal cases for their new justice project, saw a wayward teen, and decided to offer a lifeline. I can’t be mad about that, can I?”
“Guess not.” Zach sighed. Then he cocked his head. “So what exactly happened this morning? Why were you so upset?”
“I ran into Hudson, and he…” I trailed off and twisted my lips. “Well, he threatened me. Not directly, but it was implied. He basically told me to keep my mouth shut.”
“Or else he’d shut it for you?”
“He didn’t say that, but it was implied,” I said. “Even though no one believed me when all the shit went down, I think he’s worried that people are eventually going to start believing me. Because it wasn’t just the threat today.”
I quickly filled my friends in on the bloodied effigy I found hanging over my bed yesterday afternoon. All three pairs of eyes filled with horror as I spoke.
“Oh my god,” April said. “What the fuck?”
“I’m really scared,” I admitted in a ragged whisper. “I think he might be planning something to hurt me. Get rid of me. All so his reputation isn’t smeared or destroyed when I tell people the truth about him.”
“We won’t let that happen,” Zach said in a firm voice, squaring his shoulders.
“But what if he goes after you guys too?” I said, heart thudding with anxiety. “Just for being on my side?”
“I don’t give a fuck.” Zach narrowed his eyes. “Hudson Calloway might be a piece of shit, but he’s also a fucking idiot. The only reason he gets away with anything is because of his family. Not because he’s smart enough to do it all himself. So as long as we stick together and protect each other, we should all be fine.”
April nodded. “We won’t let him get away with hurting you, Carey.”
“I just wish you’d told us everything sooner,” Brooke added, gently squeezing my arm again. “We could’ve helped you. Or at least comforted you. You didn’t have to go through this alone.”
I bit my lip and looked down at the ground. “I’m sorry. I was just so embarrassed. And scared, too,” I murmured. “I was also worried you wouldn’t believe me, just like everyone else.”
“I get it,” April said. “But don’t worry. We believe you, and Hudson isn’t going to get away with this shit.”
“Thanks.” My throat tightened with another rush of emotion. “Really. Thank you so much.”
“That’s what friends are for.”
“I’m sorry, I totally hate to ruin this moment, but we should really get to our homeroom,” Zach said, looking at his phone. “The bell is about to ring.”
“We’ll talk about this more at lunch, okay?” Brooke said, giving me a small smile.
“Sure. Thanks, guys.”
She and Zach headed off down the hedge-lined path that ran alongside the stone bench, and April and I went in the opposite direction. We had our shared homeroom first thing, followed by our English class. I was extremely grateful for that because it meant I had a friend to sit with for a while, unlike so many of my other classes where I had to sit alone and endure all the nasty words and cold stares thrown at me.
During the first few minutes of our English class, Professor Garrick went around the room handing out the results of a pop quiz we took a few days ago. “Good job, Carey,” he remarked, giving me a faint smile as he placed mine down.
I looked down at the paper to see that I’d once again received a good mark. I was totally killing it in this class. That was one bright light on the dark horizon of my life right now.
Professor Garrick handed April’s test back to her and headed over to the desk next to us. Then he doubled back and placed two black envelopes on our desks. “I forgot to give you these,” he said. “They were on my desk this morning.”
“What are they?” April asked, brows knitting with puzzlement.
“I’m not sure. Birthday party invitations, I presume,” her father replied. He cleared his throat and raised his voice. “Which reminds me,” he went on, addressing the whole class now. “I’m not your personal assistant, okay? If you want to hand out party invites, please do it yourself from now on.”
April and I stared at each other with wide eyes. “What do you think it is?” she asked in a hushed tone, staring at her envelope as if it contained the government”s nuclear launch codes.
“I’m guessing it’s a party invitation, like your dad said,” I replied, lightly shrugging.
“No one else in here got one,” she said, eyes flickering with doubt. “At least not that I can see.”
“Maybe it’s a very exclusive party. You know, because we’re so popular,” I joked.
“Yeah. Maybe.” She bit her bottom lip and slit the side of her envelope.
I did the same with mine and carefully pulled out the contents. As I did so, April unfolded hers on her desk. She gasped as she read the words on the paper, and my breath hitched in my chest as I scanned mine.
“What the hell?”