Page 65

Her eyes narrow and she lifts them to meet mine. Then, to my absolute horror, she reads it out loud. “This is the first journal entry for my story about the twins. Although, I don’t have much to say since yesterday when Nigel gave me this.”

I cut her off before she can say anything else just as James, Ollie, Nathan, and Serena come walking up like a perfectly timed fucking disaster. She keeps reading, and I stand utterly still as Naomi raises her voice, trying to catch the attention of everyone.

“I tried not to stare at them, and I have no idea how I will find a way into their world, especially with Naomi always around. She won’t let me near them. So I just observed the best I could and slipped into the school office to see if I could order a school uniform that actually fits me.”

James stands forward just as Maison walks around the bend and into view, Micah close behind him. My stomach is in my throat and my heart is beating out of my chest as everyone stops what they are doing to listen to her.

“That’s enough, Naomi.” James steps forward, but it doesn’t matter. The damage is already done. She flips through a few pages, but I suspect she’s already read most of it and gives me a predatory look. “Oh no, this is just getting good,” she says with a vicious snarl. I look directly at Maison—at least, I think it’s Maison. They look so damn fucking alike. Naomi zeros in right on Micah and continues reading. “Kissing Micah at the cove made me feel the way I did with Chris—where my body was alive, but my mind knew how wrong it was. Giving my body what it wants but nothing of what it needs.”

She drops the journal and raises an eyebrow at Micah, who, like his brother, is fixated on me. We’re in a circle with me as the focal point. Even Nigel came out of his den with his crumpled argyle shirt hanging off him. I’m glad about it, too. This is as much his issue as it is mine.

“What’s going on, Naomi?” Maison asks her, darting his eyes between us.

She purses her lips at him. “Ask your girlfriend, Maison. Apparently, she came on this trip to spy and expose you and Micah about Olivia.” She turns her focus to me. “Or are you Micah’s girlfriend now, given you fucked at the cove?”

I swallow bile down my throat, and I literally have nothing to say. Every truth, every thought, feeling, and fear is out there for everyone to hear.

Maison narrows his eyes and shakes his head. It’s the look I’ve been dreading this whole time, where he sees me differently. “London, what is she saying?”

“Maison…” my voice cracks, “it’s not what you think.”

Naomi waves the journal around. “Yes, it is exactly what we think. You wrote it out pretty clearly, London. You came on this trip to write a story about them, then all you do is fuck them behind their backs. You’re just as bad as she was.”

I’m pretty sure my breathing has now stopped, my lungs caving in.

It’s Micah that steps forward, looking me up and down. “London and I didn’t fuck, Naomi.”

She shakes her head, her eyes blazing with equal parts anger and sadness. “Well, according to her diary, you did something with her.”

I only half hear them. My eyes are directly on Maison, who shakes his head and draws his eyebrows together. I look at him, pleading and completely broken. “Fucking unbelievable,” he mutters, unable to face me.

“Nigel made me do it,” I scream, and I know I just sound desperate. I had every chance in the world to tell him. Both twins watch me now, their expressions confused. “Nigel wanted to write this story. He convinced me to do it, but that was before I knew you, Maison. I never would have agreed now.”

“Shut it, London,” Nigel spits with more energy coming out of him than I’ve seen in days. “I had my reasons for doing it, but what were yours?” He cocks his head. “Oh yes, you fucked your teacher and had to leave town because of it. You wanted to ruin two strangers’ lives to get into a prestigious school.”

I shake my head at him, tears forming in my eyes. That little girl I used to be, in my ballet outfit—twirling, prancing, innocent. I had dreams.

“What? You think I didn’t look you up?” Nigel says indifferently. “I knew what kind of girl you were before you even started at New Ocean Prep.”

Maison turns and walks away, but not before facing his brother. A moment that embodies two years of pain. “You’re a fucking asshole, dude,” he mutters to Micah, then he turns his back on me, on everyone, and walks off into the white-dusted forest. And it’s all I can do to squeeze my eyes shut and drop to my knees.

He. Walked. Away.

A crunch of twigs and snow has me out of my hazy sleep a mere second before strong hands wrap themselves around my mouth. So strong, they stifle my breathing as at least one other person drags my feet and pulls me out of my shelter, raking me right over the cold rocks and snow. I touch the ground briefly, surrounded by the veil of night, and looming shadows of gnarled trees before they pick me up again, shoving their hands over my mouth. This time wrapping a cloth of some sort around my face and head.

I can’t even scream as I wither and panic beneath their iron grip.

“Shut the fuck up, London. Don’t make this harder on yourself.”

Nigel.

Fear winds it’s way through my gut, freezing me as I realize I am severely outnumbered and my memories of the night come swirling back. Maison never returned or checked on me, and neither did Micah—not that I expected Micah to. I finally fell asleep after crying alone for hours, trying to figure out how to face him—face both of them.

The hands gripping me are strong. Nigel’s not carrying me—his weak ass body couldn’t bear my weight—which means Ezra’s the one who hauled me over his shoulder. Then I hear Naomi’s laugh as he throws me onto the forest floor. My mouth chokes on mud as my face meets the ground with a heavy thud.

I cry out when the poorly placed gag falls out. “What are you guys doing?”

Naomi kicks me in the teeth while the other two loom above. I try to cry out, I try to scream, “Maison!”