Caden
The house is empty, except for me and Ava. The cleaners have come and gone. I need to talk to my sister, but I really wish this wasn’t my responsibility.
I knock on her door and whatever she was watching goes silent. The door opens and she looks up with the same green eyes as me. Her brown hair is pulled back into a braid. She doesn’t say anything.
Just opens the door and walks back over to her couch. Her room is similar to mine except the colors are lighter, brighter. She gestures to the chair across from her.
The screen is frozen on what I can only assume is theBarbiemovie. Whatever it is, it’s very pink. I sit on the edge of the chair and clasp my hands between my knees.
She draws her knees up to her chest and stares at me owlishly.
“What happened?” Part of me believes there’s a solution that will send her back to school. That I can get her out of here before anything bad happens to her or to Harper.
Ava toys with the end of her braid and blows out a breath. “Hello, big brother. How are you? I’m fine. I’ve been locked awaylike a nun at an all-girls school filled with bitchy girls. What have you been up to?”
I don’t flinch at her mocking tone. That’s not how this works and she knows it.
“You got suspended?” I keep my gaze locked on hers.
She winces and turns toward the TV. “A week.”
“What for?”
Her lips press together and she turns her mulish expression to me.
“Ava.” Her name is a reprimand and a warning. We’ve been on our own a long time. We can’t bullshit each other.
The fake tears well in her eyes as she decides to play me. “I didn’t mean?—”
“Save it for our parents.” I narrow my eyes. “I don’t really want to spend hours coaxing a half-assed story out of you. I could call our parents or the school to find out the truth, or you can save me the hassle and tell me.”
She blows out a breath and the tears dry up. She looks me square in the eye. “Maggie Jones is a cocky bitch who deserved the broken nose I gave her.”
Fuck. That’s going to be a hard one to recover from.
“Why only a suspension?” Violence against another student usually ends with expulsion.
Ava shrugs and looks at her pink manicured nails. “Maybe they know she deserved it.”
Fuck, this is going to take hours. “I’ll call Mom. She’ll tell me?—”
“Fine.” Ava holds her hand out as I begin to rise. “Maggie’s the queen bee and a fucking princess. She’s been hazing the new girls since the start of the year, including me. I went along with it, figuring it was a rite of passage or whatever. But then she kept doing it.”
I lean back in the chair. “So she got suspended for hazing and you got suspended for fighting and both your parents are rich, so this will all be swept under the rug.”
“I’m not going back.” Ava arches her eyebrow. “It’s fucked up, Caden. They have us all dressed like little school girls and there are no boys. It might as well be a fucking convent. And Maggie and the other girls will make my life hell if I go back.”
“Obviously, you didn’t hit her hard enough.” There’s a lot to process in what she’s saying. Mom and Dad forced the all-girl school on her. They didn’t understand what happened to make their once bubbly girl into a mean little scrapper.
“I didn’t want to break my nails.” She shrugs like it isn’t a big deal.
I shouldn’t be proud, but I’m glad she stuck up for herself. “Mom and Dad will want you to go back.”
“I know.” She sinks into the couch with a pout and picks at imaginary lint on her leggings. “But I’d rather stay here with you.”
I shake my head. “It’s not safe.”
“Neither is there.” Ava sits up straight. “This wasn’t normal hazing, Caden. They put one girl in the hospital for a week.”
