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“Excuse me?”
I fixed her with a look. “I said there’s one too many people at this table, and it’s you. You’re boring, and I’m fucking sick of hearing you run your mouth. Fuck off before I stop asking nicely.”
“You’re such an asshole,” Selena said after a moment, standing and crossing her arms in front of her. “I think you’re just sore because Bug’s upset, for some reason, I don’t know why. Maybe because you leaked her diary.”
“Talk about the fucking journal again, or Lillian Williams, and you won’t like the consequences,” I ground out. Crap, what was I doing now? Threatening random mean girls. What could I even do to her? Breaking Josh’s nose and threatening the queen bitch of our class. Lily had me all kinds of fucked up, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.
“You think Lily has dark secrets that are embarrassing to expose? I’m sure you have some, too, and if you don’t shut the fuck up and keep her name out of your mouth, I’ll make it my mission to find out what they are, and make sure everyone knows.” I nearly growled at Selena.
She blinked at me, tears forming in her overly lined eyes.
“And don’t call her Bug anymore while you’re at it,” I added.
Selena spun on her heel and stormed away. Her anger and crocodile tears did nothing for me. I wasn’t going soft, after all. It was only the sight of Lily’s tears that bothered me. Freckles, the only person I’d let inside in so long. Ever, really.
This week had been a slowly unfolding nightmare, and I was ready to wake up. Leaking the journal had been rash, an impulsive act born of anger and hurt, and now, I couldn’t take it back. So, Lily had let everyone know about my past…it was all true, after all, and public record. Now, thanks to my shot at her, every fucking loser in the school thought they could have a crack at her. The memory of the droplets of blood on her white T-shirt haunted me.
“Isn’t that a little bit like closing the gate after the horse bolted, when you’re the one who let it out in the first place?” Marcus raised an eyebrow at me.
I shrugged uncomfortably and then stood. I couldn’t help my eyes going to Lily and Eve. They huddled at a table near the back, eating quietly. I turned away before she could see me staring at her.
“Man, you’ve hardly touched your food.”
“I’m not hungry. See you at the rink.” I tossed my tray on the way out and didn’t look back.
Lily
“Good morning,I’m calling from theHade Harbor Herald, and I wanted to ask you about finding articles published about ten years ago. I wasn't able to find those online, so I'm wondering how I can get access to those?”
I scribbled down the address the lady gave me over the phone. The secretary at theMidnight Falls Chroniclewas more than helpful and thankfully didn’t ask for any press credentials.
“Okay, and I can just pop in there and browse through the old editions? Great. I’ll come by later.” I was more than willing to skip tonight’s game to go to Midnight and see if I could figure out who had accessed the article.
“They’re closed on Fridays, dear. Come on Saturday… the third Saturday of the month has open hours.”
“Okay, will do.”The third Saturday of the month?It looked like the achieve didn’t get many visitors.
I hung up and tucked away the address of the small library that housed every edition of theChroniclesince its creation in the 1960s. It looked like I was going back to Midnight, but this time, I was going alone. I’d dragged Eve into enough of my shit. I needed to stand on my own two feet. Besides, I didn’t want Cayden’s wrath to extend to her. This was between me and him.
The rest of the week had been uneventful. I’d mostly hidden away in various classrooms, thrown myself into studying, and tried to blend in with the scenery as much as possible. Strangely, people were getting over it pretty quick. For some reason, they seemed to buy that it was a prank. My wild reaction to it should have spread like wildfire, but it just hadn’t caught on. Soon enough, the talk turned back to Cayden and his mysterious past.
Tonight was a big game. The winners would officially get closer to Nationals than Hade Harbor had been in a decade. My dad was anxious, hell, the entire school was anxious.
It happened to be against the Volcanoes, the team my coworker Tyler, played for. He was keyed up as hell and had been texting me all day.
I didn’t want to go and had already told my dad as much. Unfortunately, the disappointed look on his face had broken the remaining parts of my heart to pieces, so I was hanging out on the stairs of the rink, waiting for my mom to arrive. Eve had work, so I had to face watching Cayden play alone.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. My mom was running late. Perfect. Not only that, my dad wasn’t answering his phone, and she wanted me to go and find him to tell him good luck. Another little superstition before a game: my dad’s head wouldn’t be in the right place if he didn’t get a good luck from my mom before the buzzer.
I headed inside, moving down toward the locker rooms and my dad’s office reluctantly.
Players drifted about, some just arriving, others already dressed. Tension was in the air tonight. Josh was hanging out by the stairs. His nose wasn’t bandaged anymore, but his eyes were still bruised.
“Hey, are you looking for your dad? He just went into his office.”
Josh’s smile reassured me a little. It was nice to see a friendly face when I was so nervous.
“Thanks. Yeah, I have to deliver a very special good luck to him.” I gave Josh a small, tentative smile, my first since Tuesday, it felt like.
