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ALLIE
Monday mornings at Redwood were usually quiet, but not the day after Redwood’s darkest weekend to date. There would be more dark times in the coming days. Poison definitely had more up their sleeves.
Though only half the student population actually showed up to school today, the halls were full with gossip and fear. Friends whispered to each other, glancing around at everyone, wondering who would be next to have their secrets exposed to the world.
Me? Well, I strolled down Redwood’s hallways without a care in the world.
I had too much other shit to worry about than Poison exposing my secrets. All my secrets were already exposed to everyone at Redwood anyway. It didn’t matter much to me, though I suppose that I didn’t have any big secrets to begin with.
Opening my locker, I smiled at the bleakness of it. When the entire world was in chaos around me, nothing was stuffed in my locker today. It was my own space that I could keep and decorate however I wanted. I pulled out a couple of books for Biology, shut it, and leaned against the cold metal, yawning.
After my chat with Mom this morning, I couldn’t fall back to sleep. I’d tossed and turned for two hours, then decided to study until Jace woke up for school. I tugged gently on Dad’s chain, happy to have it around my neck again, and watched Imani storm down the hallways with flared nostrils.
Coiled black hair bouncing in a ponytail, she snatched my hand and tugged me past the three Poison boys without saying good morning. She actually snarled at them when Landon called for her down the hall.
“They’re so annoying—so fucking annoying.” She seethed.
“Well, good morning to you too,” I said, pushing my glasses up my nose.
She stopped by her locker and fumbled with the lock. “Sorry, not sorry. They’ve been trying to contact me all weekend, and I’m done with it.”
I leaned against the lockers and arched a brow. “Done with them? I’m surprised you haven’t jumped back into bed with them already.”
After giving me the deadliest glare I’d ever seen, she pulled some books from her locker. “Says the girl who’s sleeping with her stepbrother after he broke her heart.” She glanced back over at me and curled her lips into a smile, a giggle escaping her mouth. “I need to get more damn sleep.” She wrapped her arms around my waist and rested her head on my shoulder. “Thanks for dealing with me when I’m cranky.”
I patted her back. “Thanks for dealing with me when I make dumbass decisions.”
“Anytime.” She pulled the remaining books from her locker and shut it. We started down the hall toward our Biology class, her arm looped around mine. “Looks like Redwood is off to a wonderful start after what happened on Saturday night.”
Students from AP Biology waited outside Mr. Barnes’s classroom, gossiping with each other. I leaned against the wall and stared at the new young professor across the hallway, who chatted closely with another student inside the classroom. Brow arched, I nudged Imani. No doubt that man had some deep, dark secrets to expose too.
“Just be careful, Maddie,” someone said to my right, breaking me out of my stare.
The shy girl in my class, Maddie, crossed her arms over her chest and nodded at her brother, Oliver. Oliver hiked a large duffel bag—probably filled with his hockey gear—over his shoulder.
Alec, another guy on the hockey team, slapped Oliver on the shoulder. “Come on, dude. Let her be. You think she has secrets worth knowing?” Alec threw Maddie a smirk behind Oliver’s back and persuaded Oliver to leave.
When he was gone, Maddie inched closer to the wall and shuffled from foot to foot. She glanced over at us and her cheeks tinted red. “Did you see that?” she asked us, eyes wide in fear.
Imani and I burst out laughing at the same time.
“Girl, we don’t care.” Imani cocked her thumb at me. “She’s sleeping with her stepbrother, and I’m about to forgive the three most fucked up guys in the entire school. Your secret is safe with us.”
She moved closer and lowered her voice. “Are you talking about Poison?”
My lips curled into a smile, and I nodded. “Yep.”
She widened her eyes even more. “Rumor has it that they are the ones who killed the principal last Saturday. Is that true?” she asked.
Imani and I looked at each other.
Maddie grinned. “Because I want to thank them. That man was nothing but a creep. Every time I was around him, I thought he was staring down my shirt. He …” She shivered. “He always got way too close to me, and nobody would believe me.”
Deciding that Maddie wasn’t going to be a tattletale, I leaned closer to Imani. “Exhibit A for why you shouldn’t hate them for what they did,” I whispered. After turning back to Maddie, I grimaced. “He did more fucked up things than that. I’m glad he’s gone too.”
