Page 12 of Heart of Mischief

She thought she’d be ready to see him when the time came. That all the horrible things Elias had done would pool together in her mind, twisting his face into something detestable, something she could barely stand to look at. And it was true that she could barely look at him… but not for the reason she’d anticipated.

No. Even knowing what she did, Charlie couldn’t deny the truth:

Elias Everhart was beautiful.

More beautiful than she remembered.Painfullyso. With a chiseled jaw and bright green eyes, he had the type of face that rarely existed outside of Photoshop. If she looked at it for too long, she feared it would blind her.

She should be glad he was here. Now, she wouldn’t have to seek him out to exact her revenge. She’d often lain in bed, eyes shut, picturing the look on Elias’s face when she finally found him. When she arrived on whatever doorstep he was haunting, newly trained in combat and ready to take him down.

But she was nowhere near ready for that. She’d thought she would have months or even years before she saw him again. Not three measly weeks.

“Hey,” came a loud whisper from one table over, startling Charlie and causing her to look away from Elias. It was Mary Welsch, a girl in the grade above whom Charlie had known since preschool. She leaned over in her chair, eyeing Charlie curiously. “Isn’t that your boyfriend?”

Charlie was saved from having to cobble together a reply by a sudden roar and the clatter of a chair hitting the floor across the room. She whipped her head around to see Mason charging across the cafeteria. He hit Elias in a full-body tackle, sending them both rolling to the floor.

The entire cafeteria gasped. Several people screamed.

“Youbastard,” Mason hollered as he sat upright, pinning Elias down with both knees and raining punches onto his face and torso. “Howdareyou show your face here? Howdareyou come back and act like nothing happened, like—”

Charlie was on her feet and sprinting toward them before she realized what she was doing. Lou and Abigail were close behind, followed by a squawking Henry, who sounded thoroughly offended that Charlie had left him at the bottom of her backpack when there was excitement to be had. He skittered under tables while the girls wove through them, ducking around chairs and knocking into backpacks as they barreled toward the front of the room.

Down on the floor, Mason was still assaulting Elias with his fists. For his part, Elias had only covered his face with his arms in self-defense—an odd move, since he was ten times as strong as any of them.

When the girls reached the fight, Charlie grabbed one of Mason’s shoulders, Lou the other, and they hauled him backward. Once he was up on his feet and too far away to land any more punches, Lou wrapped her arms around his chest and Charlie around his stomach. Mason struggled to get back to Elias, but they managed to use their combined strength to hold him back. Just barely.

“Let me go!” Mason yelled, thrashing against their arms.

“How about,” Lou grunted, keeping a tight grip on his chest, “you stop being an idiot before you get sent to the principal’s?”

“Screw the principal,” Mason said.

“Right,” Lou said. “And screw your baseball scholarship, too, huh?”

At those words, some of the fight seemed to go out of Mason. He kept struggling, but there was no urgency to it.

Down on the cafeteria floor, Elias spat red onto the tiles. Blood trickled from his left nostril, and a faint purple had already begun to blossom under one of his eyes. “Some welcome,” he said to Mason, smirking through the dark red pooling over his thick lips. He didn’t even glance at Charlie. “What happened to us being best pals?”

“You’re an asshole,” Mason said.

This only made Elias grin wider.

“Boys!”

Two minutes too late, Mrs. Waterstone, the scatterbrained chemistry teacher who usually supervised lunch, arrived on the scene. She ushered students dramatically aside, as if there were a tightly packed crowd surrounding the fight, when in reality barely anyone had left their seats.

“Break it up!” she hollered, waving her arms over her head. “Break it up right this instant!”

Lou rolled her eyes. “You missed the boat on this one, Mrs. W.”

“Right.” Mrs. Waterstone smoothed out her skirt, straightening. “Well. Principal’s office. Both of you.”

“But he’s the one who assaultedme,” Elias said, waving a hand at Mason. “I didn’t even throw a single punch.”

“Regardless,” said Mrs. Waterstone. “Dr. Matsson will want to see you both to discuss this matter.” She reached down to try to lift Elias up by his shoulders before quickly realizing he was too heavy. Her hands retreated awkwardly before clapping twice. “Off you go, then.”

Mason was still breathing heavily under Charlie’s and Lou’sgrasps, his anger barely contained. Elias remained on the floor. His eyes stayed on Mason, hunger gleaming at their edges. Charlie knew he could taste the fear vibrating off the onlooking crowd. Knew that it only fueled him, made him stronger. He was relishing this moment.

After a few breaths, Elias struggled to his feet. No one offered to help.