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No entry. Kyle needed his privacy.
My heart plummeted into my shoes. I needed to do something, tell someone. Get the principal, a teacher, the security guard, anyone.
But I just stood there.
Someone brushed against my arm, and Ashley and I looked over to find Vincent standing beside me. He stretched his arms over his head with a lazy groan before tucking his hands into the front pockets of his hoodie.
“Ugh.” Ashley looked away, lip curled in disgust. “Volkov.”
“Garcia,” he responded in kind.
“Kill any small animals lately?” she snipped.
“Only the squirrel whose blood I drank for dinner last night.”
“God, shutup.” I turned to him, flinging my arm toward the bathroom. “Aren’t you going to help him? Or are you too stoned to care that your best friend is going home in a casket?”
Vincent snickered. “You think Manson can’t handle himself?”
“I think it’s three against one, numbskull!” I shoved his arm, my pink acrylics digging into his skin. “Kyle has never had a problem beating him one-on-one, let alone with his friends!”
“As if you’ve ever cared.” Vincent’s smile wasn’t so lazy anymore. It was bitter, frozen on his face. “I don’t think this concerns you anymore, Jess.”
Someone yelled from inside the bathroom, followed by a bangloud enough that I wondered if Kyle had ripped one of the stalls’ metal doors off its hinges. Students looked around in confusion, some gathering closer to the bathroom, but keeping their distance from Nate. Cell phones were out, everyone eager to record the latest drama.
No one cared enough to interfere. It was entertainment, another opportunity to upload a good fight video and rack up the views. If someone got hurt, even better. An injury could shoot a video to virality faster than anything else.
The bathroom door slammed open, and Nate nearly plunged forward into the crowd as Kyle stumbled out. His eyes were wide, and people hurriedly made way for him as he panted, pointing a finger accusingly back into the bathroom as Alex and Matthew hurried out after him.
“Knife!” he yelled. “Reed has a knife!”
It was instant pandemonium. Suddenly, teachers were present, yelling for people to clear out. Two security guards showed up, flustered and red-faced, as Kyle kept babbling, “He tried to stab me! He tried to fucking stab me!”
I covered my mouth in shock as the rushing crowd pressed me, Vincent, and Ashley against the lockers.
Ashley was breathless with disbelief. “Holy shit.”
“It shouldn’t have come to this,” Vincent said, his face somber and his voice barely discernible in the chaos.
My guilt was like a beast trying to claw its way up my esophagus, thrashing and gnawing. I crushed it under pride and blind self-assurance.
The security guards emerged from the bathroom, with Manson between them. Each of them kept an iron grip on his arms, leading him through the crowd as students tried to get shots of him with their phones. He wasn’t fighting them, and he wasn’t hurt other than a purple bruise on his cheek and a dribble of blood that streaked from his busted lip. They led him toward theprincipal’s office, directly past me.
Manson nodded to Vincent first, silent words passing between them. Then his eyes fell on me and his lips parted to give me a wide, bloody smile.
It was feral — a beast’s grin. Wild, reckless and, finally, victorious.
2
Jessica
The morning after The Dare…
Everything changes after high school.Everything.
You’re an adult now — or so people say. It’s time to get it all figured out. Life, love, career. You’re supposed to have a plan. The rest of your life is waiting for you.
But instead, you’re flailing in the rising waters of adulthood as time ticks away, overwhelmed and underprepared. How the hell was I supposed to plot out the rest of my life when it had barely even begun? I was doubting the person I’d believed myself to be, doubting every decision, and the dreams I’d once had.
