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They waited outside the gym to congratulate Simon, kicking at loose gravel as kids streamed through the doors around them.
Mostly students first, finishing up after-school projects and clubs. Then the JV cheerleaders, arm in arm and giggling as they half danced across the parking lot to the activity busses. Then basketball kids, half damp from the showers, but high-fiving over the win.
When the flow of students dropped to a bare trickle, Gabriel wondered if he’d somehow missed Layne’s little brother.
But he hadn’t seen Ryan Stacey either.
Gabriel swore and went for the doors but on this side of the school, the doors were locked to the outside. He pounded, but no one answered of course, since he’d stood here like an idiot watching everyone leave.
“Come on,” he said to Hunter, turning to sprint for the front entrance.
“What happened?”
“Ryan Stacey.”
They tore through the halls, shoes squeaking on tile as they skidded around corners. A teacher yelled at them to stop running, but Gabriel didn’t recognize her and they were well past before the words registered in his brain.
The gym: empty, aside from a few girls hanging a banner for a bake sale next week.
The locker room: empty. Boys’ bathroom: empty.
Gabriel swore again. The school was huge they could be anywhere.
“Wait.” Hunter caught his arm. Gabriel froze and listened for a moment, but he didn’t hear anything.
Hunter stepped across the narrow hallway and pushed on the door to the girls’ locker room, opening it a few inches. The lights were off, revealing a well of shadowed tile and the edge of a trash can, but he yelled through the gap. “Anyone in here?”
Silence.
Hunter hit the light switch. Pink tile came to life, leading to pink steel lockers.
Empty but Hunter strode forward anyway, rounding the corner into the girls’ shower area. That’s where they found Simon, shivering behind one of the pink shower curtains, sporting a black eye and a split lip.
And absolutely no clothes.
CHAPTER 34
Layne had never been a clock-watcher in class. Now it seemed every class took sixteen hours, the minutes ticking by until she could see Gabriel.
She still couldn’t sort her feelings about him. Anger, at what had happened? She had no idea whether that was his fault. Curiosity? Absolutely. Intrigue, for certain.
Fury. Fear.
Desire. Longing.
All of it.
This morning had been torture. She’d woken before sunrise, as usual. Her hands had gone immediately to her side, seeking the familiar foreign texture, sure she’d dreamed that part.
Nope. The scars were still gone.
How?
She couldn’t go to the farm the surviving horses had already been trailered to another facility ten miles away for the time being. She couldn’t call Gabriel, not with her father still moni-toring her cell phone every minute. He was already on edge enough from Simon’s black eye.
It had taken every ounce of Layne’s restraint to keep her mouth shut instead of reminding her father that she’d suggested they go to the game. That if they’d been there, Simon could have just walked out with them, instead of relying on some other kid to drop him at home after god-knew-what happened. Simon wouldn’t have had a black eye and he wouldn’t have had a reason to lock himself in his room without explaining it.
But now, finally, the bell was ringing, signaling the end of second period.
