AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“A drag race.” She hitches her thumbs around the handles of her backpack and shrugs. “It’s sort of a thing in Honeyton.”
“Drag racing?”
“A drag race duel.”
I’m unsure what to make of this, and she must read the confusion on my face because she adds, “Okay, so let’s say Nina over there”—she gestures at a brown-haired girl standing amongst the group of cheerleaders—“has a thing for jock head number one”—she points at a blond-haired guy standing next to the brown-haired girl—“and jock head number two.” She points to the guy standing next to him. “And she ends up sleeping with them both, and they both find out. And for some dumb reason, they start fighting over her. Instead of beating each other’s asses, they declare a racing duel. Winner gets Nina’s heart forever.” She pulls a look of disgust.
I cock a brow. “That’s really a thing?”
“Well, not the whole thing about Nina and jock head one and two. I was just giving you an example. But yes, in this hick town you’ve decided to declare your new home, we sometimes settle our lame-ass problems with racing.”
I mull over the idea. While a drag race duel seems a bit strange and old-school, getting Blaise to back off is appealing. Plus, I’d get a lot of satisfaction in beating his ass in a race. On the other hand, he slit my tires and showed the entire school my family’s messed-up history, and winning against him in a race doesn’t seem like much of a payback.
“Just think about it,” Scarlett says then walks off as the bell rings, announcing that yes, once again, I’m late to class.
Needless to say, by lunchtime, I’m pretty tired of the day. So, when I meet up with my sisters at my locker and Londyn and Bailey inform me that Payton went home before school even started, I volunteer to go check on her.
“Are you sure?” Londyn double-checks as I put my stuff in my bag. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to miss half a day on our first day of school.”
“I’ll be fine,” I assure her as I bump my locker shut. “It’s not like I’ve never missed a first day of school before.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean you should continually do it either.” Londyn walks down the hallway beside me with Bailey trailing at our heels.
Londyn’s right, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to do it. I don’t like that Payton is home alone and upset. Or worse, what if she isn’t home alone because our dad came home drunk?
“I’ll see if I can coax her into coming back,” I tell Londyn as we reach the exit. “I’ll text you if we do. If not, I’ll pick you guys up when school gets out.”
Sighing, Londyn steps back. “Fine. But I’m really starting to hate the Porterson brothers.”
“Me, too,” I agree, thinking about how the duel could end this. Either that or I could get over my pride and let what Blaise did go.
“Give Payton a hug for me,” Bailey says. “She was really upset when she took off … Those flyers … They said a lot of bad stuff about her—about all of us.”
“I’ll give her ten hugs,” I promise, then wave goodbye and push out the doors.
The drive home should take about ten minutes, but I manage to make it in seven by speeding and cutting corners. By the time I pull up, I’m fuming mad. Not at Payton. No, I can understand why she was upset and took off. She has one of the worst reps out of the four of us, and that flyer basically declared her a kleptomaniac.
I’m mad at Blaise Porterson.
I don’t give a shit if he bailed me out of getting detention. He never should’ve messed with my sisters.
My rage only simmers hotter when I find Payton locked in her bedroom.
“Go away!” she shouts through a sob.
I knock softly on the door. “Come on, Payton. You’re stronger than this.”
“No, I’m not,” she cries out. “Just leave me alone!” She then cranks the music up, the walls vibrating with the bass.
I consider picking the lock, but I decide to give her a bit of time to wallow before I go that far. Instead, I send Londyn and Bailey a text that Payton and I aren’t returning to school today. Then I trudge to my room and work on bottling up my pride while I wait.
Wait until it’s time to go pick up my sisters. Then I’ll declare a duel and hopefully put an end to this battle with the Porterson brothers that’s making our lives a living hell.
13
HADLEY
I decideto clean the house while I wait, though I hate cleaning. But the empty boxes cluttering up the house are starting to drive me crazy.
