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I whimpered, feeling us slide. He was coming with me. He couldn’t hold on.
Another body dropped down next to him, and Rory grabbed my other arm.
I hung there as they held onto me, knowing they could let go at any moment, and not so sure anymore that I’d rather risk starvation or dying of exposure out in the wilderness. Don’t let me go.
Taylor, Will, and Aydin slid down the hill behind them and came to stand over the three of us. Aydin looked as calm as he did inside the house like he didn’t even have to break a sweat to come out here after me.
He cocked his head, watching me dangle there. “Put her in my room,” he told them.
Emory
Nine Years Ago
“What did you do in lit class yesterday?”
Elle Burkhardt pulled on her uniform trousers, staring at me while I pulled off my necktie and started unbuttoning my shirt.
My long-sleeved white T-shirt underneath remained on as I snatched my band jacket off the hanger dangling on the outside of my locker.
The girls’ locker room was packed—cheerleading, band, and the field hockey team all vying for space, either trying to get out to the court or go home.
“I finished reading Lolita,” I mumbled to her.
“You know what I mean.”
I shot her a look.
I’d skipped lit this morning, no doubt another confrontation with my brother waiting to happen tonight once he found out, but I just couldn’t face Will and his merry band of morons this morning after my outburst yesterday.
I’d hid in the library, instead.
“Let them do their worst while they can,” I said, pulling on my coat, the heavy fabric grazing my back and burning the skin. “Life will eventually knock them down to size, like it does to us all.”
It wasn’t that I was scared of the Horsemen and the repercussions of calling them out in class yesterday. I just knew another outburst from me couldn’t happen again quite yet, so rather than give them the satisfaction of seeing me shut up and sit there, I just didn’t show up at all.
Gathering all of my hair, I pulled it into a low ponytail and picked up my glasses off the bench, slipping them back on. The poster across the locker room came into view more clearly.
Vote for Ari!
Homecoming Queen
Homecoming. I groaned. Pretty sure slamming my nipple in a car door would be less painful.
Or joining a gym.
Or reading The Bell Jar in between bouts of banging my head on a wall.
Elle reached into her locker and took out her deodorant, rolling it on. “You’re coming to Sticks tonight, right?”
Kicking off my sneakers, I pulled my newly pressed pants off the hanger and slipped them on before unzipping my skirt and letting it fall to the floor. “What do you think?”
“Too school for cool?”
I nodded, slipping my pants on and fastening them. The girl knew me.
Leaning over, I jerked my chin at her and opened her locker door, gesturing to the Trojan bumper sticker she had plastered inside. “Some of us don’t have parents with the admissions office at USC on speed dial.”
We buttoned up our navy blue and white coats, but I could feel her eyes on me as she braided her blonde hair and I slipped on my black shoes.
