Court Kept (Court High 3)

You idiot.

I sighed. “Ramses…”

Instead of letting me talk, he reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone. He scrolled until he came across something.

“I want you to see something,” he said, turning his phone over. “You need to see something.”

I didn’t understand what I was being shown at first, two columns on a sheet of paper. It was a picture of a sheet of paper, the first column with a few dozen tally lines. The other had only four. I shook my head. “What am I looking at?”

“All the people who hate me,” he said, his laugh cynical when he said it. He pointed a finger. “You’re looking at a vote, two options for hazes proposed by the membership. Column two is the haze you ultimately found me at, me shivering my shit down in the woods. The first column, the first option, is something else.”

I panned, facing him.

His eyebrows narrowed. “They basically were going to whip me, hand my ass to me pretty hard. The first column is that whipping. I mean, I thought I pissed people off pretty bad with who I was back in the day, but really, these guys hated my ass.”

The first column had all the votes, all but the four on the other side. But from what I knew about what went down that night, this vote I was seeing now didn’t make sense.

I gave him back the phone. “How did you find this?”

He took the phone. “I found out today when I was asking about your sister. We were in the locker room, real candid talk and just chewing the fat. I guess I was trying to warm some of the guys up before asking, and this slipped out by one of them, this and what they were going to do to me.”

“What they were going to do?”

Ramses messed with the phone again. He scrolled until he found another picture, another set of columns and a new vote. This time all the votes were on the other side, not the first column. His lips parted. “I honestly didn’t believe it when they told me who fought for me. Who challenged that vote.” He scrolled the phone again. “But maybe I do now.”

He showed me that picture again, those four votes on the other side. They were obviously anonymous, but I didn’t need to ask who those votes were. I’d been told personally by the person who changed the vote himself.

My heart raced.

Ramses sat back. “I have a feeling that change had less to do with me and more to do with you, ’Zona,” he said, his smile small. “Those votes are Prinze, Knight Reed, Lance Johnson, and Jaxen Ambrose.”

I knew they were, how much I did. I squeezed my hands together. “Royal told me he got the vote to change. It was the day you got suspended. I let in on him about what he did to you, and it came out. I wanted to tell you. I just…” I didn’t know what to say and definitely didn’t want his pride hurt. I shook my head. “It was a lot that day.”

It was… still a lot, all these emotions. All this information I didn’t know what to do anything with. I just knew I felt something for Royal, and it was something so strong it scared me. I didn’t want him like this, all this stuff that was happening around us. I guess, in the end, I didn’t have a choice. The heart wanted what it wanted…

And I wanted him.

Ramses whistled after what I said, and I felt really bad for keeping something about him from him. I frowned. “I really didn’t want to keep all this from you…”

“It’s not that.” He waved a hand. “It’s just Prinze has just been so caviler about telling you about Court stuff. Telling you where to find me out in the woods? This? Really, ’Zona. Anything he tells about Court business or the hazing process comes with a hell of a risk. I only did because I didn’t give a fuck and we had a plan.”

He mentioned that before, a code. He’d said there’d be consequences for information discussed with those on the outside.

“What exactly are the consequences of that?” I asked. “For telling me those things and if someone found out?”

He shrugged. “Only he would know. I haven’t heard anything. But maybe he got away with the spill of information. It’s possible.”

Sure, it was, but what if he hadn’t? What if he’d been punished for doing nothing but telling me the truth?

My chest caved even more, and when Ramses rubbed my shoulder, I gazed up.

He smiled. “You should go to him, figure this out?” He shook his head. “That guy loathes my ass, so if he’s willing to fight for me, put all that past him for the sake of someone else…”

I swallowed.

“I still stand by what I said about him,” he stated. “The Court and all this hazing stuff is bullshit, and though I’m acknowledging he’s definitely not perfect, I think in the end, if it’s not me… well, I’m glad it’s him.”

He was glad it’s him.