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IMANI
I poked Allie on the shoulder and slid out of sight of her, my lips curled into a smile at finally seeing her for the first time since Friday. Friday! That girl had left me alone to go on a date with God knew who, and I’d had to deal with Poison myself all … damn … weekend.
And to say that I was in a better mood than on Friday would be an understatement.
Allie glanced over her left shoulder and locked eyes with Jamal, who was leaning against his locker, tossing a football. Her cheeks flushed, and I stepped into her line of vision with my brow arched.
“God, I tap you on the shoulder, and suddenly, you’re in love with Jamal, the football flirt”—I inched closer to her and lowered my voice—“just like your stepbrother, if I have to remind you. Please, don’t tell me he was the guy you went on a date with on Saturday.”
Allie playfully rolled her eyes, admitting it without speaking a word. “Nothing happened between us, I.”
I arched my brow harder, held my books to my chest, and leaned against the locker next to Allie’s, smirking. “Mmhmm, sure. That’s what we’re calling it nowadays … nothing.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Come on. You went on a date with him to the Overlook. That’s where everyone goes to hook up.”
Scrunching her nose, she frowned and continued picking her books from her glossy red locker. “Maybe in the summer, but not in the fall or winter,” she said, suddenly letting her gaze drift past me, as if she was thinking about something else.
And I knew exactly who that something was.
“Your stepbrother broke your heart,” I said, trying hard to hit it home.
For some reason, she could never get over that SOB, no matter how much I’d tried to get her to see the truth about who he was. She was stuck in a fantasy that I didn’t know she’d ever recover from, which was why I desperately begged her to go out with someone else. I just hadn’t thought that someone would be Jamal.
Someone smacked a tattooed hand against Allie’s locker door, slamming it shut. My eyes widened, cheeks flushing when I glanced up and saw João and Landon standing before us. They never came through this hallway, like never, never.
João towered over Allie, lips curled into a scowl. “Where’s your brother?”
Landon moved closer to me, his finger curling around a strand of my hair and tugging on it right in front of everyone at Redwood Academy. I pushed his hand away and looked around at all the nosy students staring at us. It wasn’t normal for Poison to confront two nerds in the main hallway.
“Can you not?” I whisper-yelled at him, turning my head back to Allie and João, feeling a bit perturbed that João was talking to her but barely liked saying anything to me. All I ever got from him were orders and a pissed off attitude.
“Are you still angry with me?” Landon asked, almost sounding … vulnerable.
I glanced over at him and crossed my arms, not in anger, but because I didn’t like all this attention Redwood was suddenly giving me. This was the main reason I couldn’t have Landon or any of the Poison gang leak that I cammed naked.
“I’m annoyed with you, yes,” I said, looking up at him for a moment, then away. “You couldn’t even tell me why you did it. It wasn’t even like you glossed through the people I had talked to in the past, but you went through all the messages.”
Landon shuffled his dirty, beat-up shoes across the sparkling floor and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
Fully pissed now that everyone was listening, I leaned in closer and lowered my voice to a whisper. “You don’t have to say anything. You made it completely clear that you don’t trust me even though we’re not even in a relationship!”
Landon stepped closer, placing one hand on the locker beside me. “It’s not that I don’t trust you.”
“You literally went through my Discord and got angry without even asking me about it first. If that isn’t you not trusting me, I don’t know what is. And worst of all, I don’t even know why I’m making a big deal out of this. I’m not stupid. You and your little gang are using me, anyway.”
My stomach twisted into tight knots. I didn’t care about Landon.
Not at all.
All he had been was someone to talk to. Every night. For almost a year now.
Yet, still, thinking that I felt nothing for him felt wrong. Because, if I didn’t care about him, I wouldn’t care that he went through my stuff. I wouldn’t feel betrayed and hurt and untrusting of him now. But I didn’t want a relationship with any of Redwood’s bad boys.
Mom would have my head.
So, I turned away from him and back to Allie, who shrugged at João.
“I don’t know. He’s not my problem,” she said.
João growled hoarsely under his breath and turned away without even looking in my direction. “If you see him, make sure he knows we’re looking for him.”
