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24
Aiden and I haven’t been at school since the video of his father trying to kill him went viral, so we had no idea how the students were going to react when we stepped into school Monday morning.
A lot of kids are scared of Aiden, but he’s friends with a lot of people, so he gets stopped almost every couple of seconds by people coming up to ask him about what happened. He barely deigns to give more than a few words answer before extracting himself from the conversation and doing his regular, brooding routine, with his hand wrapped securely around mine.
At the end of the day as I’m walking out of school with Aiden, I spot Annalisa standing where the boys usually park. Commack Silver High gets out before King does, so she would’ve had plenty of time to get here.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” I ask her as we approach. She’s standing with Julian and Mason, near their cars.
“Haven’t you checked the group chat?”
I haven’t checked the group chat. I rarely do since the boys always talk about so many random things. “No, why?”
Annalisa brushes her hair out of her face as the wind picks up. “We’re going to that bar Greg was seen at to ask the manager about Luke. He’s there today and said he’d meet with us.”
Aiden and I glance at each other in a totally inconspicuous way. At least, he was inconspicuous. I’m sure I look like my eyeballs popped out of my head.
“To find out about Luke?” Which we already know because the twins confessed, and we haven’t figured out what to do yet? Aiden subtly elbows me. I clear my throat and try to stop acting so guilty. “Do we have to go, like, right now?” I ask her, looking around for Kaitlyn.
“Yeah. He says he has other meetings and if we want answers, we gotta get them tonight.” There’s a hopeful energy about her, as if she’s sure this is the lead we’ve been waiting for, that this is what she needs to prove Luke’s innocence. Even Mason and Julian seem more excited than usual.
Aiden pulls me closer. “What’s wrong?”
He can read me like a book. I should’ve told him about what I’m doing with Kaitlyn, but then he’d get all protective and try to stop me because he doesn’t want me near Ryan. He hasn’t seen Ryan since he almost broke his face for grabbing my wrist, and I really don’t want a replay of that situation; Aiden has enough going on as it is.
“Nothing.” It takes every muscle in my body to pull away from him. “I just have something else I have to do. I can’t get out of it.”
Annalisa’s face falls, that hopeful energy dissipating. “Oh, okay. I guess it’s important if—”
A car comes speeding through the parking lot and screeches to a stop right beside us. It’s Kaitlyn, in the very same shiny Porsche I glitter bombed all those weeks ago. It’s very easy to picture this car right at home in the house I got a glimpse of last night.
She rolls down the window. “Get in. We have to go.”
Annalisa, Aiden, Mason, and Julian all glance around with perplexed expressions on their faces, as if looking for who Kaitlyn’s talking to.
“Yeah, I’m coming,” I answer.
My friends don’t even try to hide the looks of shock and confusion on their faces.
Aiden tugs my arm and speaks in a hushed tone. “What’s going on? Are you okay? Is she blackmailing you?”
I laugh at his cute, concerned face. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine, I promise. I’m just helping her with something, I’ll tell you about it after.”
I give him a quick kiss and adjust my shoulder bag.
“Wait, wait, wait. You’re actually going to go somewhere with her? To help her? Are you on drugs?” Annalisa exclaims before I can walk to Kaitlyn’s car.
“It’s a long story, Anna—”
“I’ve only been a Silver for, like, a week, and you’re already best friends with the bitch who got me expelled?”
She’s mad. Even the wind picks up, as if angry with me as well. It doesn’t help that the last time we argued about Kaitlyn, Annalisa thought I was choosing Kaitlyn over her, which is kind of what this situation looks like.
“And did you say you’re helping her!? Kaitlyn? Evil incarnate? The girl whose life goal is to make you miserable? The girl who lied and got me expelled? You’re choosing to hang out with her and help her over me?”
“Anna, it’s not like that and you know it—”
“What the hell are you thinking, Amelia? She’s just going to screw you over and you know it. Do you ever think before you do shit or do you just rely on Aiden to clean up your messes? That’s basically all he does.”
“Hey.” She gets a warning from Aiden and Mason at the same time.
That was undeserved and she knows it. Before I can think, I snap back, “Well, all Julian does is chase after you when you run out of a room after a dramatic outburst!”
I don’t care how upset she is, that was uncalled for. I get that she hates Kaitlyn; she has a reason to. But that doesn’t mean she can jump down my throat and not let me get a word in to explain myself. The wind whips my hair around my face, and beside us, Julian, Aiden, and Mason are silenced by shock. The normal sounds of kids laughing and talking as they emerge from school and get into cars is nothing but distant background now. The tension is louder.
I take a calming breath. I know she didn’t mean it. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“I did,” she bites back.
Throughout all of this, Kaitlyn’s been relatively calm. She hasn’t even started honking impatiently or anything. Now, she leans out the window again. “Are you coming? Gas isn’t cheap, you know.”
“Give me a second,” I tell her, then turn to look at Annalisa. “I know you’re pissed, Anna, but attacking me isn’t going to fix anything. I’ll explain everything after, and when I do, you’ll feel bad about saying that.”
I turn back to Aiden and give him a reassuring kiss.
