Chapter 51
R en
It had taken a few weeks, but I found a new normal.
The football jocks had stopped calling me names and whispering about me under their breath when the news article came out that not only Axel but his entire family had been found floating in the river.
There were no suspects, but I knew who it was.
My blood had run ice cold. It wasn’t my fault that this happened, but I still couldn’t help taking on some of the responsibility for not only the three deaths here, but Nash had mentioned that Axel’s two uncles and one aunt had all been found dead.
The rest of their family were missing. I knew it wasn’t Nash, and every time I looked at Dean Henry walking through the halls, a whole new level of fear swirled in my gut.
What the hell would he do to me if I kept pushing?
The mean girls had backed off now that their queen was expelled for the rest of the year.
She was apparently doing classes from home in Italy.
That sounded like a hardship. Not. Somehow even when she fell in shit, she came out smelling like a rose.
I had visions of her lying on a beach in a bikini as she typed out her assignments.
Not that I really cared. The sun and I weren’t on great terms. With my fair complexion, I burned within five minutes and then was in pain for a week, but it was the point of the thing.
She’d made my life hell, and her punishment ended up being R&R at home.
I had to put it out of my mind, or it would drive me insane.
On the plus side, we’d made great use of the extra space in my room.
Blake had walked in one day with a massive television that was now sitting on Vicky’s desk.
We used her bed and a few chairs that the guys had dug up from somewhere to sit and watch movies.
It wasn’t like I was going to be able to go dancing for a while with my right leg still a mess.
The weird twist and fall had slightly torn the meniscus in my knee which had already been activated.
The sprain was severe enough that I’d been in a hard boot for the first two weeks back to keep it immobilized.
Getting around was better now, but I still found it easier with my knee and ankle in a support brace.
I glanced up as everyone laughed and realized that I had zoned out.
I didn’t have a clue what was happening in the movie.
Myles, Blake, Liam, Theo, and I were all squished together on the bed while Nash, Ivy, Chantry, and Zigzag were sitting in chairs.
Every now and then, I felt Nash’s eyes on me.
I ignored him as best I could, but sometimes he’d look over, and I was compelled to meet his gaze.
The butterflies swirling around from his presence seemed strange.
Part of me wanted to go to him, and the other wanted to run in the opposite direction.
The butterflies I got with Myles and Blake were bright and fluffy, whereas Nash’s were dark and closer to bats.
The movie paused, and Theo slipped off the bed. “What? I need to use the bathroom.”
Blake got up and made a beeline to the food table, which looked like we were feeding twenty.
Ivy sneakily moved off the chair and sat beside me.
There was no denying that my world had been filled with tragedy and darkness long before I came here.
But despite how we’d started, the people in this room had come to be little specks of light.
My mum had always told me that no matter where I was in the world if I spoke to the stars, she would hear.
I’d been struggling with that thought. How would I know that she was listening when the stars never spoke back?
But I’d begun to realize that her voice was no longer in my ear.
I felt her in my soul. She’d sent me these people.
Myles picked up my hand and kissed my knuckles as he spoke to Liam and Nash, making my heart sing.
Not a single person in this room wasn’t growing despite the deep-rooted trauma infecting everything in this corner of the world like a toxic pesticide.
We were the new growth. We were the ones who would bloom despite the weeds and storms that threatened to rip us from the ground.
We had the chance to be better than the generation before us and the one before that.
I glanced at Nash as he laughed, and even though I didn’t like or approve of his tactics, I’d gained an understanding.
It was something that came to me out on the trail while I sat there in the dark.
I truly understood for the first time just how alone we all were.
We just needed someone to pull us together.
We were all searching for love and loyalty.
Nash gave the guys that and created a circle where you never questioned if the person beside you would jump in front of a bullet.
Nash was protective because he had to be careful who he stuck his neck out for and who he allowed in.
The guys shared more than friendship. They were a unit, and I was now part of it.
Hope twirled like leaves caught in a windstorm inside of me at the realization that together, we could be unstoppable.
“Have you decided what you’re doing for the summer,” Ivy asked, pulling me out of my introspective moment. I shook my head.
“Hard to decide what to do when I don’t know if I even have a home here. I’m questioning if there is even a house. Maybe my father dropped me off and left for the other side of the world where he didn’t have to deal with me anymore.”
“I’m sorry, girl. On the plus side, that’s still better than having to go home and spend the summer at my house.
I wanted to travel again. I really would’ve gone anywhere, but my dad got fired.
Now he says, Every last dime I have goes to keep your ass in school ,” she said, putting on her father’s voice.
She lifted her shoulders and let them drop.
“I really don’t want to spend all summer trapped with him at home all day.
“Wait…Sheriff Morrison got fired,” Myles asked, his mouth hanging open. “Why?”
“He didn’t say. But if I thought he was miserable and mean before, I didn’t know what that meant.”
I gripped her hand, wishing there was something I could do. “I’d love to go home to see my aunt and my friend Lizzy, but I doubt that will happen.”
“You know you’re always welcome at my house,” Blake offered. “My mom loves you,” he said, loading up his plate with an assortment of pizza slices. I’d never seen anyone eat like this group of guys. It was constant.
“I’m not sure the school will let me do that,” I said.
“They’ll have to let ya do somethin’. For the first six weeks, the school is closed for upgrades and repairs.
All the students fly home or arrange to stay with friends,” Myles said, and even though it was still weeks away, I was genuinely worried about where I would go.
Staying with Ella and Ethan for a weekend or even a week was one thing, but staying with them all summer was a huge ask.
Our heads turned at the knock on my door. I had visions of Dean Henry ordering everyone to leave, demanding that Vicky’s side of the bedroom be put back to the way it had been.
Blake was closest and set his plate down, licking sauce off his fingers as the knock came again. Blake opened the door, and my mouth fell open. I could just make out the side of my father’s face.
“Is Ren in there?” His voice sounded panicked, and in the past, I would’ve jumped up and rushed to him to find out what was wrong. But now, I didn’t know what to do. In a few short months, he’d become a stranger to me.
Blake stepped to the side to show me sitting on the makeshift couch but kept his hand on the door.
My father looked terrible. I’d never seen him so disheveled.
His shirt was untucked, and his hair was standing on end like he’d been electrocuted, but it was the short beard that really threw me off.
I’d never seen my father with anything but a perfectly groomed appearance.
“Ren, oh, thank God. When I couldn’t reach you, I thought something terrible had happened,” he said, and I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Is that so? The school didn’t inform you?”
He ran his hand through his hair. “I’ve been indisposed and only recently got all the messages.
I meant something else terrible. Look, I’m really sorry I wasn’t here for you.
” He went to take a step in, but Blake held his ground, acting like a bouncer at a club.
My father glared at Blake but didn’t try to force his way inside. “Please, Ren? Can we speak? Privately.”
“As you can see, I’m busy right now. How about you leave me a key for our supposed new house, text me the address, and the number to reach you at since you never answer my texts?
I’ll set something up to speak with you later.
” It hurt my heart as I looked away from the desperation in his eyes.
Myles placed his hand on my leg, and I linked our fingers.
“Please, Ren? I’m begging you,” he said, but Blake forced him to step back and then followed him out the door.
“Are ya okay?” Myles looked at me and I gave him a little smile.
“I will be. I have to be. There is no counting on him anymore.” I leaned on Myles and stared at the television as I tried to force the image of my father from my mind.
B lake
Of all people, Mr. Davies was not who I expected to be at the door. He looked like he’d been dragged through a knothole backward. I’d seen trash pandas that were cleaner.
“Please, Ren? I’m begging you,” he said, but I didn’t need to look at Ren’s face to know how much she wanted him gone. I stepped into his personal space until he backed up before closing the door behind me.
I crossed my arms over my chest as he paced the hallway, mumbling to himself and pulling at his hair. It seemed to be an anxious habit, but for all I knew, he could be on something. Watching him was another reminder of why I needed to stay away from the drugs no matter what. Not that I needed it.
“You heard her, Mr. Davies. Ren doesn’t want to speak to you. I don’t know why you think she would when you dumped her off like she didn’t mean anything to you.”
He laughed, and the sound was bitter, but there was a tremble in his voice as if he was going to cry. “She doesn’t understand. I’m only trying to protect her.”
“From what?”
“I can’t say, but….” He got close to me, and his eyes were red and glassy, the smell of alcohol distinct on his breath.
There was a good chance he had no idea what he was even talking about.
The only reason I was even entertaining anything he said was because of the text my mom had received and the fact that Ren was basically under lockdown here at the school.
“Can I trust you,” he whispered, beads of sweat forming on his upper lip.
“I’m dating your daughter, and I love her. So yes, you can trust me,” I said, realizing that I had just told Ren’s father that I loved her before I told her. I really did like to do shit backward. He chewed on his lip and looked up and down the hallway. “Are you in trouble?”
“Ren can’t come to the house this summer,” he said and swallowed hard. “In fact, she should never go there and instead go somewhere safe,” he whispered.
“I was going to bring her to my house.”
Neil’s eyes went wide as he furiously shook his head no.
“No, no, somewhere not near here.” He dug around inside his dirty suit jacket, pulled out a thick envelope, and pressed it into my hand as he leaned close to my ear.
“Take her home to visit her Aunt Nadia, but don’t tell anyone where you’re going, and don’t take a private jet.
Please,” he begged, his other arm gripping my bicep. “Please say you’ll do it.”
“You’re acting a little crazy, Mr. Davies,” I said, as his fingers held me tighter.
“Please, just do it. If you love Ren, then do it.”
He let go of my arm and marched off so fast that he was gone before I could think of anything else to say.
What the hell was that about? Looking down, I opened the envelope and whistled low under my breath.
There had to be easily forty grand and what I assumed was Ren’s passport.
Just when I didn’t think shit could get stranger with the mystery surrounding Ren, her father amps it up to a whole new level. Now, I was more worried than before.