Hope filled my chest at the thought. My limbs grew tingly, and a smile was dancing on my lips.
And then I made the mistake of peering to my right. Christian had sat down, his pale, smooth skin turning splotchy with red, his jaw set in a firm line, his hand clenching his pencil so tightly it snapped.
I swallowed my thick spit and turned to face the blackboard. My heart sped up, and I tried for the life of me to rack my brain further into the past to dig up my last encounter with Christian, but I had a hard time finding that memory.
Too much had happened.
Too much that I couldn’t think about.
Too much that I wouldn’t think about.
Christian could keep glaring at me like I’d committed some insane crime toward him. Nothing, not even Christian, could get me to unlock the past.
Absolutely not.
Chapter Five
Christian
I stared at Hayley from across the lunchroom. She was sitting with some girl I’d never even seen before. The two of them huddled together, whispering back and forth. Her dark hair framed her smooth, pale face, and in contrast, those bruises stuck out like a red flag: trouble. She was trouble.
The bruises interested me, but not because I felt bad for her or felt the need to snap someone in half for putting them there. I just wanted to know who else Hayley had a vendetta with.
“I need you,” I bent down and grumbled in my brother’s ear. “Bring Eric and Jake, too.”
I didn’t wait for a response. I knew he’d follow through. I stood up, scooting my chair back, and walked slowly through the cafeteria. My peers stopped talking and taking bites of their lunches when I passed their tables, as if they thought I was going to sit down and have a conversation with them. Or maybe they were afraid I’d take their tray and dump it all over their pristine uniform like I’d told Madeline to do to Hayley yesterday.
Madeline was a
vindictive girl. I knew she’d jump at the chance to embarrass Hayley. It was just too easy, if I was being honest.
I didn’t bother to give Hayley a glance as I passed by her table, but I did notice that she didn’t stop talking like the rest of the cafeteria did. It was as if she didn’t even notice me passing, which was complete bullshit. She could feel my presence from across the lunchroom, just like me with her. She was just making it a point not to notice me.
“Where we going?” Ollie asked, catching up to me. My father had left early yesterday evening, which wasn’t a surprise, but that meant I had to drag Ollie's ass out of bed ten minutes before we had to leave this morning. Pissed me off.
“There’s something I need to do.”
We continued down the hallway, Ollie beside me, and Jake and Eric trailing. They were talking about the game this weekend as we stopped in front of the office.
“Jake,” I barked. “I need you to punch Eric in the face. I need a diversion to get into Headmaster Walton’s office.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Ollie interjected, getting in my face. “What the fuck? We have a game Friday. They can’t fight! They’ll be benched.”
I shook my head. “Relax. I’ll handle it. No one is getting benched.” I glanced at Jake and Eric, who really didn’t seem to give a fuck either way—precisely why I chose them. “You punch Eric then, Eric, you punch Jake. We’ll drag you guys in there. Sit you down in front of Ms. Boyd. Ollie, you’ll work your magic with her while pretending to keep an eye on these two. I’ll go into Headmaster Walton’s office and get what I need to get.”
“Which is?” Ollie crossed his arms over his chest, raising an eyebrow. I hated when he fucking did that. He looked just like Mom. She always raised one eyebrow at me when I was lying about something.
I thought about not telling him and giving him a bald-faced lie, but that would mean I cared more than I did, like I was harboring a secret and being covert with my intentions regarding Hayley. That wasn’t the case. I wanted the entire school to know I hated her and had plans to break her in half.
“I want to know why she’s here, and more importantly,”—I turned around, giving them my back as I reached for the years-old doorknob to the office— “I want to know her weaknesses.”
“Brother,” Ollie warned from behind. “Leave the poor girl alone. Hasn’t she been through enough? I mean, did you see her face? And she’s skinny as fuck. Doesn’t look like she even eats. And that shit that went down with her dad?”
I spun around forcefully, something clawing at me from the inside. “Why do you care?” I was seething underneath my cool composure. Ollie could probably sense it because he knew me better than anyone, but he didn’t know about this. He didn’t know that I blamed her. There was power in keeping secrets—no one could destroy you if they didn’t know how.
He held his hands up in protest, dropping his head for a second before catching my eye. “I’m just trying to figure you out. You two used to be inseparable. I think I was even jealous of her at one point in our lives. I distinctly remember you choosing her to be on your dodgeball team in the seventh grade. That hurt, bro.” He smirked before growing serious again. “And now you hate her? So much that you had Madeline embarrass her in front of the entire school like the catty bitch that she is. You hate that type of shit. So why?”
I strode over to him, erasing the distance between us. Jake and Eric were both staring at us indifferently, most likely wondering the same thing. My brother and I were the same height and build. Tall with a broad upper body and cut muscles from football conditioning. The only difference was my arms were bigger and his legs were faster. A battle we often tried to remedy. “None of your fucking business.”