Page 15 of The Golden Boys
Dane’s watching her again, my new target. She steps up with a nervous smile to hand one of Headmaster Harrison’s administrators a packet of paperwork.
“All you need to know is she deserves everything that’s coming to her,” I assure them.
There’s a staggering silence between us that lasts an uncomfortably long time, but I assume they need to process. We’re not the friendliest pricks on the planet, but we don’t usually turn up the heat on people just for shits and giggles. I know it’s a lot—asking them to unleash hell on someone without explanation—but I hope they know I wouldn’t go to such extremes without good reason.
“All right,” Sterling agrees first, then Dane nods wearily.
“I’m in.”
We’re all turned in her direction, focused solely on our unsuspecting mark. I circle back to the belief that fate brought her here. I have no clue what other messed up shit she’s done in her lifetime, but something becomes crystal clear to me.
The universe wants her to suffer. It must. If that wasn’t the case, it wouldn’t have dropped her in my path again.
This girl’s entire world is about to go dark, and I’m gonna love every second of it.
* * *
@QweenPandora: What have we here, lovelies? My sources say North Cypress’s favorite brainy beauty, Josslyn ‘Joss’ Francois, has finally returned from her epic journey. But … has she returned unsullied? Or has the VirginVixen—as I like to call her—finally given up the goods? Some of those IG pics made it quite clear she picked up more in Cuba than that box of cigars she hand-delivered to Headmaster Harrison. Will PrettyBoyD be heartbroken when the truth comes out?
As an aside, let this be a lesson to you all: there’s a reason we must own our feelings, people. Wait too long to speak up and the one you can’t get out of your headcouldmake their way into someone else’s bed. Isn’t that right PrettyBoyD?
Later, Peeps.
—P
* * *
Chapter 5
BLUE
I should’ve brought Jules. At least I’d have someone to talk to while I wait.
The lines were brutal, but I made it through quickly enough. Now, I’m forced to wait in the auditorium with everyone else, where we’ve been herded for an assembly.
The entire row beside me is empty, but it’s probably got something to do with sitting in nearly the farthest section from the stage. Still, it shoves the loneliness of being so far out of my element right in my face. An entire year of this, that’s what I have to look forward to. It’ll be pure hell, but I know why I’m doing it.
For Scar.
For me.
For change.
‘Still alive, Preppy?’
I smile at the text from Jules, feeling a little less invisible.
‘Barely. Have to sit through some lame assembly, then home. Thank God.’
The lights dim a little and a middle-aged woman wearing an unseasonably warm plaid blazer over a cream blouse starts across the stage. When she takes the mic, I shoot Jules a quick,‘Gotta go,’text and drop the phone down in my purse.
The lady goes over standard issue stuff—a short spiel about how she hopes we all had an enriching summer, something about why they decided to forego uniforms this year, and then a rundown about what clothing articles will and won’t be allowed on campus.
Then, right after that, I blank out.
It’s not that I’ve suddenly gone deaf and blind. It’s because of who I see sliding into my row from the opposite end, like he’snotthe most delicious thing any girl has ever laid eyes on.
A backwards baseball cap hides the dark, tousled hair I remember wanting to run my fingers through, but … it’s definitely him. His tatted arms are bare today, from the shoulders down. The wifebeater he wears is most certainly against the dress code the woman just dutifully recited from stage, but I don’t imagine this one fears much of anything or anyone.