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“I don’t want to talk to you,” I say.
“What?” Felix scrambles to his feet. “No, you’re coming home with us.”
“Fuck no,” I retort. “You’re gonna let me fucking leave. And you’re gonna stay away. The end.”
“Penelope …” Alistair sighs.
“Penelope!” Felix growls, his voice thundering through the sky.
I lift my knife and jam it right into the wheel of his motorcycle.
Then I walk to Dylan’s car.
“No, no, no!” he yelps.
Too late.
BANG!
The tire slowly deflates.
I glance at them over my shoulder and grit, “Leave. Me. Alone.”
Felix narrows his eyes at me, but when I walk away, he doesn’t follow like before.
“What are you going to do?” Dylan rasps behind me. “You can’t just let her leave like that.”
But no one takes another step.
Good.
It’s about time they realize this won’t end well for them if they do.
In fact, after the horrible misery they caused my sister, they should be happy I didn’t drag them down that fucking cliff with me.
DYLAN
My fingers squeeze the cigarette tightly as I look around campus. I haven’t seen Penelope in days, and something about that makes me antsy as fuck.
Where could she be?
I know she told us to leave her alone, and we did what she asked … but that didn’t entail her skipping out on classes.
What the fuck is she up to?
My feet tap the asphalt as I try to listen to the conversations around me, but I can’t fucking focus.
“Dylan,” Alistair says, bumping into me. “Hello? You there?”
“Huh, what?” I mutter.
“There’s a party tonight at the Phantom house.” He leans in to whisper, “Wanna fuck some shit up?”
I shrug. “No, thanks.”
Alistair frowns and leans back. “Whoa. Are you serious?”
I take another drag. “Not interested.”
His jaw drops. “Wow. Dylan Caruso, not interested in a party? That’s a first.”
I ignore him and fish out my phone to scroll through my messages until I find her.
Sex_God: Where are you?
There are dots. And then it stops. More dots. And then it stops again.
Sex_God: You have class.
More dots. Then nothing.
Sex_God: Goddammit, Penelope, stop ignoring me.
The messages go silent, and they infuriate me beyond anything else.
God, I normally never cared this much.
When did I start getting so fucking invested?
Just one girl managed to pull me off my axis.
“She’s not answering my texts either,” Alistair says.
I know she told us to leave her alone, but that didn’t involve her ruining her own education.
“What the fuck is she doing?” I mutter to myself. “Hey, have you seen Felix, by any chance?”
Alistair frowns. “No, I thought you’d know. I haven’t seen him in hours.”
My eyes narrow. Suspicious. “He hasn’t told me anything.”
Ali shrugs. “I don’t know. Last I saw him was at the Skull & Serpent Society. He was fixing his bike. Said he’d be busy today and told me not to bother him.”
Strange because I don’t recall him telling me a single thing.
Suddenly, my phone rings. A private call.
I pick up, wondering if it could be her, and she got a new phone. “Penelope?”
“You still haven’t gotten rid of that girl?”
The raspy voice on the other end definitely tells me all I need to know.
“Dad …” I grit, and I move away from the group of people we were standing with. “What do you want?”
“Since you still talk about that girl, I take it you’re still in contact with her?” he asks.
“Why do you care?”
“Because someone entered the sorority house she was a part of last night and destroyed some of the evidence,” he says. “And if it was her, I need to speak with her immediately.”
“How do you even know it was her?” I frown.
He wasn’t there, so he couldn’t possibly know.
“Just because it’s her sister’s room doesn’t—”
“I have credible sources who say they saw her entering the room with their own eyes. I’m on my way to the school now.”
Credible sources? What the fuck?
“Look, I don’t know where she is, and I’m not interested in helping you.”
“Dylan,” he warns. “Remember who you are.”
Who I am. Of course, he always dangles the Caruso family name in front of my face like a fucking carrot.
But I don’t need to be reminded of that.
“I have nothing to do with her. Leave me out of this.”
And I click off the conversation before he can do any more damage.
Penelope
I slip into the back entrance of the school, mindful of who sees me. Anyone connected to those boys could give away my location, and seeing them is the last thing I want right now.
I just want to focus on my studies. Or at least, what’s left of them.
After culling the classes that I share with Dylan, Alistair, or Felix, there weren’t many left. Even the ones with Crystal and Kayla had to take the fall. But I’m sure if any of the boys see them, they’ll surely ask them about me. I just can’t risk Kayla and Crystal telling them where I am.
