Chapter 28 #2
“Just remember that we know you’ve been fucking Mandy since freshman year.
A headmaster fucking a fourteen-year-old student for four years?
And that girl’s now dead? Maybe you got jealous of her new side piece?
Didn’t like that she looked like a grown woman now, maybe?
Stay in your fucking lane, asshole, or I’ll bring this school down on top of you,” Lukas hissed, taking my hand and tugging me towards the door.
I was too stunned to do much else other than follow him.
The headmaster had been sleeping with Mandy for years?
Lukas made sure to slam the door on the way out, and I gave him a grin. “That was very Caden Holloway coded of you. He was hooking up with Mandy?”
He slowed his steps, seeming to calm down a little. “Yeah. Jensen walked in on her bent over the headmaster’s desk freshman year, apparently. It’s the reason Jensen could basically get away with anything over the years.”
“The headmaster’s a predator.”
“Very aware. Most of the teachers are fine, but some are pieces of shit.”
“Miss Valentino?”
“I mean, she did fuck Ty multiple times, but he really worked hard to make it happen. I don’t think she’s ever slept with any of her other students. She was new last year, freshly out of university. She’s only twenty-four,” he shrugged as he stopped walking. “Are you really into Marco?”
I winced, not expecting that change of subject. “I don’t know. There’s an attraction there, like I said, but he still pisses me off and makes me want to stab him at times. Asking you guys to be okay with it was an asshole move, I know.”
“I can’t deny I’m mad about it, but I also can see what you’re referring to about the connection.
Although, I’m surprised it’s Marco and not Hunter that crossed a line first. Hunter’s always wanted you,” he muttered, flicking his gaze to mine.
“Even if I didn’t hate the guy, you hooking up with Marco is going to cause trouble with the Psychos. ”
“They already want me dead anyway. Might as well make it worth it,” I joked, and he tsked at me.
“Just remember you already have the Soldiers gunning for you. Be careful who you piss off.” He stepped closer and ran his fingers through my hair, gently pulling to tilt my mouth up to his for a quick kiss. “You really fucking stress me out.”
“I know something that’s really good for stress relief,” I offered, but he shook his head.
“Health checks first. I mean it. We all get regularly tested, well, we did before just sleeping with you. We have no idea about Marco or even Lexi. Maybe you could get different contraception sorted at the same time so Josie stops nagging. If you were still interested, that is.”
He had a point, I really needed to get on top of that.
“I’ll speak to Marco today.”
“Maybe suggest to him that if he intends on sticking around, he should get freshly tested anyway. Just in case,” he answered casually, and I wasn’t sure if that was permission or not, but it sounded promising.
Homeroom had already started by the time we wandered in, Mrs. Munro sighing when we made our way to our desks.
“Lukas, Aurora. Nice of you to join us.”
“We were with the headmaster,” I answered, leaning back in my chair.
“Caden did mention that. I’ll mark you both off as present,” she said dryly before returning to her speech about a school play from the theater class that was coming up.
I’d already completed today’s Calculus lesson too, so she gave me new stuff to work on, not that I focused too well. Art went okay, other than Claire glaring at me silently through most of it, until Mr. Gillard wandered off to talk to a teacher in the hallway.
Claire stood and immediately stalked over, her hands on her hips like that would scare me.
“How dare you come back here,” she started, and when Caden went to speak, I waved a hand at him.
“Ignore her.”
“Excuse me?” Claire snapped, but I didn’t reply, pretending like she wasn’t there. “You think you’re so tough, but you’re not. I don’t think you killed your dad, I think you paid someone to like you did for Gunther and Mandy. What the fuck did Mandy ever do to you?”
“What happened to Mandy? Must have missed that. You know, when I was locked up,” I said bluntly, continuing to draw the plant I’d been told to draw. It was a cactus, not that it looked like one. I was terrible at art.
“You had her killed!”
“You need a shrink. I didn’t do anything. Can you go away? I’m working,” I huffed, hearing her screech before she shoved everything off my desk in a fit of rage.
“I know it was you!”
“Hey! What’s going on in here?” Mr. Gillard demanded as he appeared, hearing her dramatics from the hallway.
“She’s having an episode or something. I was just working,” I said, motioning to Claire. “She should go and speak with Mr. Ernest. That was a bit of a violent outburst, and they’re not tolerated here.”
Lukas was trying really hard not to laugh, but the others seemed a little surprised by my calm attitude. I wanted to smash her teeth on the desk, but Mr. Ernest claimed he’d do something about problem students, so I’d test it.
“Miss Davidson, please—” Mr. Gillard started, but Claire had really lost it, grabbing my sketch pad off the floor and throwing it at me, making a frustrated screech again when I just raised an eyebrow at her.
“Are you done?”
She grabbed pencils and threw them, then grabbed one of the girl’s water bottles from the desk close by and opened it, tossing it at me like it was acid that could do damage. At least it wasn’t sticky like the usual drinks they threw over me.
“Miss Davidson!” Mr. Gillard snapped, his patience gone. “Headmaster’s office! Right now!”
“She—” Claire started, but he cut her off.
“She did nothing. Go.”
She stormed off in a huff, and he gave me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, she’s taken Mandy’s death quite hard, the poor thing. Give her a few minutes to make her way to the office and then I’ll let you go and clean up a little. I don’t want you to run into each other again.”
I nodded and wiped some water from my face, and Caden cringed. “I didn’t think she was going to do that. Maybe you should just smack her.”
“That’s what she wants,” Tyler argued, sliding his blazer off and walking over to me to drape it over my shoulders to stop people from seeing through my now wet white shirt.
“Let her look crazy. The school has to punish her now after Mr. Ernest’s talk to us this morning,” Lukas grinned, leaning back in his chair.
“Fill us in later,” Caden grunted, eyeing my soaked clothes and hair. “C’mon, you need to get changed. I’ll take you.”
“Why you?” I snorted as I stood, making him frown.
“Because I’m the only other person here with a gun and who knows how to use it if you run into trouble.”
“You have a gun?” Tyler hissed, and I shushed him.
“Talk about it later. Holloway, you’re with me,” I said, snagging his arm to pull him after me.
Mr. Gillard didn’t look happy about Caden coming with me, but he kept his mouth shut.
Once in the hallway, I let him go. “Why the fuck do you have a gun?”
“Skeet kept training me over the past couple of months. I’m pretty good now,” he shrugged.
“That’s probably a good thing. I have a bad feeling we’re going to need to know how to defend ourselves very soon.
The Soldiers have been too quiet,” I muttered, halting as I reached my locker to find it open, the contents thrown everywhere, and the word murderer drawn all over it. “Ah, back to this, are we?”
“It wasn’t there this morning, and Claire didn’t have enough time to do it right now,” Caden replied, looking it over. “I guess we should report it to the headmaster. You know, do the right thing.”
“I don’t keep anything important in there anyway since this keeps happening,” I said dryly, eyeing my wet uniform that was inside. “Do you happen to have a spare set in your locker still?”
“Uh, no. I took it out when you got locked up,” he said sheepishly. “I can run you home, if you want?”
“I’d honestly just like to go home and stay there.”
“Mom will kill you,” he chuckled. “Let’s go to the office and see if they can loan you one. It’s their duty of care anyway.”
“It’s been a long day and it’s not even lunch time yet,” I grumbled, following him to the office.
The headmaster was still dealing with Claire, not at all happy to see me but not being able to do a damn thing about it since I was technically doing the right thing, and once I had a fresh uniform on, minus a bra since mine was soaked, we headed back to class.
Spanish class went well since I just glared at the teacher while she avoided eye contact, and lunch was surprisingly peaceful without Claire there. She’d been sent home for her behavior.
No one bothered us all damn afternoon, and Mr. Franklin was at least happy to see me in English Lit. Mrs. Stuart kept giving me nervous glances, and it made me wonder if she really thought I was a murderer, or if I set up Gunther and Mandy’s murders.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Tyler grinned at the end of the day as we walked towards the parking lot, lifting a hand in greeting to Marco and Hunter, who were sitting on their bikes near the cars.