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“We tried to find Akio’s parents last night,” João said, lingering beside my locker the next morning with a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth. His knuckles were bruised, the skin split open. “But we fucking couldn’t. We searched all over town. When I see them, I’m going to fucking kill them.”
“Did you at least find your mom?” Landon asked, grabbing two of my textbooks from me.
Kai eyed João, then looked back at us. He didn’t have to say anything for me to know that they had found her somewhere, but João wasn’t going to tell us that. At least not now, and I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to know.
Landon leaned back against the locker beside me and stared down the hallway. People in Redwood were whispering a lot more than usual today, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of us or something else.
“Nobody bothered you guys last night?” Kai asked, changing the subject.
I froze, unsure about what to say. It wasn’t really my place to tell.
“I killed my parents last night,” Landon said, brushing it off as if it were nothing, then nodding down the hall, where Akio walked through the crowd of people toward us. “Why don’t you ask Akio where his parents—”
“You killed your fucking parents?” João asked, cutting off Landon. “How are you so nonchalant about that? I thought that they were fucking gone?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Landon said as Akio approached.
Kai eyed Landon for another moment, then looked at Akio almost … normally, as if he hadn’t wanted to kill Akio for the past few years. What had happened with them? And when?
“You got info?” Kai asked.
“I tried calling them this morning,” Akio said, scratching the back of his neck with bruised fingers. “And nothing.”
I grabbed his hands, which earned me a growl from each of my guys, but I ignored them. Bruised and bloody knuckles might’ve been Poison’s thing, but Akio never hurt anyone or anything.
“What happened to your hands, Akio? Who did this to you?”
Akio glanced down at his hands, then quickly pulled them away from me and shoved them into his pockets. He gave me a sheepish, boyish smile that I saw right through. If I didn’t know him that well, I wouldn’t have thought anything was wrong.
“Nothing,” he said. “Don’t worry about it.”
Suddenly, as more people flooded into the hallway, the chatter in the halls became louder. I glanced around, unsure about what was happening with everyone this morning. Sure, it might’ve been Senior Night tonight for the football team, but this sounded like drama.
The crowd of students parted for Alec, captain of the hockey team and Maddie Weber’s secret fling. He hurried through the hallway toward an upset Maddie, who had tears pricking the corners of her eyes.
She ran toward him and slammed her hands against his chest. “How dare you!” She shoved him. “I told you that I wanted to keep us a secret.” Another shove. “And instead, you tell everyone that I’m a desperate slut who you bagged?!”
Alec stumbled back. “Maddie, stop it. You have it all wrong.”
“No!” she shouted. “You’re a piece of shit. I should’ve never trusted you.”
“I swear, I didn’t do it.”
“All the videos are from your social media accounts!”
“I was hacked, Maddie. I swear.”
As they argued back and forth, I pulled out my phone and opened Instagram. There were videos and images of Maddie and Alec having sex on school grounds, posted from, of course, Alec Wolfe’s account.
Shit had been brewing in Redwood.
“You have to believe me,” Alec said desperately, stepping closer to Maddie.
But she stepped back with hurt and betrayal sewn into her expression. Even from across the hallway, I could feel her pain. She looked so lost, so upset, and so alone despite having Vera and Piper as friends. They couldn’t help her. Those videos and images were out in the world.
Everyone in the halls watched them argue and confront each other, and then the crowd parted again as Maddie’s brother stormed down the hallway toward them. Before Alec could finish a sentence, Oliver slammed his fist into the side of Alec’s face. Once, then twice.
