Chapter 33
I was quiet during homeroom. Even Connor’s easy banter couldn’t pull me out of my thoughts. Because I was lost in the endless cycle of trying to figure out how I’d somehow developed feelings for five different guys, one who didn’t especially like me all that much. What was wrong with me?
“You sure you’re okay?” Connor asked as I grabbed my backpack, shoving my copy of Crime and Punishment back inside.
I gave him a sheepish smile. “I didn’t sleep that great last night, and when I don’t get my eight hours, I’m pretty pathetic.”
Guilt gnawed at me for lying, but it was safer to stick with the same story.
Connor chuckled. “You need one of those mega-sized energy drinks.”
“Oh, no. I’d be jumping off the walls like you wouldn’t believe, and then I’d never sleep tonight.”
“Okay, no caffeine for you.”
We signed the attendance sheet and headed out into the hallway. I nearly collided with Damien.
His nose wrinkled as if he smelled something bad, and his gaze zeroed in on my necklace. “Who gave you that?” he barked.
I skittered back a few steps, my fingers curling around the locket. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
His friend, Caspian, tugged him back. “Not here.” But he glared at me as if he’d like to eat me for lunch.
Damien practically snarled in my direction. “They won’t be able to keep you safe forever.”
I gripped the necklace harder as they stalked away. Keep me safe from what? Him? Dash’s words about never taking the locket off played in my head, how it would protect me. But that wasn’t possible, was it?
“Just ignore him,” Connor said. “He’s mostly bark.” But the worried look on Connor’s face told me that might not be true.
“Sure,” I mumbled.
“See you at lunch,” he said with a wave, and I headed toward English Lit.
As I walked, I felt eyes on me, even more than my first day.
Unease slid through me as students bent their heads and whispered.
As I passed Chloe, Mimi, and Grace, Chloe sent me a triumphant smile.
Her voice took on an exaggeratedly sympathetic tone as she spoke to her friends.
“It’s really sad, you know. Imagine living in that trash heap.
No wonder Colt pitied her enough to let her live with him. He’s got such a good heart.”
I stiffened but forced myself to keep moving. She didn’t know anything about me. She was guessing.
But then I saw the flyers in people’s hands. My mouth went dry, and my skin grew hot as I glimpsed at what was on the paper. Trash comes from a junkyard. And there was a photo of my mom’s house. The overgrown grass. The discarded machinery and who knew what else in the front yard.
Embarrassment flooded me, but I refused to let Chloe win. I kept my head held high and walked on.
Colt, Ronan, and Dash hurried down the hall. Colt got to me first. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” But my voice was pitched low, barely audible.
Concern washed over his features. “I have no idea how someone got a picture of your house.”
My back teeth ground together. “It was Chloe.”
Colt’s brows flew up. “How do you know?”
“She was just whispering about it to her two cronies,” I snapped.
Colt’s doubt that she would do something like this stung.
“Fucking bitch,” Ronan groused.
Dash’s eyes hardened in her direction. “I’m sorry, Leighton. She’s always been cruel, but this is another level.”
Colt squeezed my hand. “I’ll figure out a way to deal with her. I promise.”
I shook my head. “If you give her attention, she’ll just keep doing it. We ignore her, and eventually, she’ll stop.”
Dash looked doubtful. “I’m not sure you get how determined Chloe can be.”
A commotion down the hall had me shifting focus. Declan strode through the crowd, practically shoving people aside as he went. His eyes flashed on me but then shifted to Ronan, the color bleeding to silver, rage pulsing there.
Oh, crap.
Before any of us could move to defuse the situation, Declan had Ronan shoved up against the lockers, his arm pressed against Ronan’s throat. “How could you not tell me?”
Ronan’s hand shot out, squeezing around Declan’s neck. “You act like you’re owed anything from me.”
Dash and Colt hurried to pull them apart, but it wasn’t easy. There was a scuffle and curses as both brothers struggled to keep hold of the other.
“Do you want to get suspended?” Colt threatened low. “This isn’t the place.”
Declan shot a glare in Colt’s direction, rage and pain there. “If he wasn’t going to tell me, then you damn well should’ve. If someone was hurting her, I needed to know.”
All the blood drained from my head. Hurting her. Hurting me. Declan knew.
Trace hurried up to the group, his gaze jumping between Declan and his friends.
Ronan stiffened. “You told him?”
Trace gripped the back of his own neck, squeezing. “He needed to know. He’s a part of this, whether you want him to be or not.”
Ronan charged as if he were going to deck Trace, but Dash stepped in front of him and shoved him back. “Don’t. Colt’s right. Not here.”
Declan’s gaze locked on me. “Leighton.”
There was so much pain in that one word. He knew everything. The bruises Colt had seen on me. Where I’d lived. The scars on my back.
Tears pricked my eyes as my head jerked in Trace’s direction. “You had no right.”
My voice trembled with fury on every word. And then I bolted.