Page 4 of The Darkness In You

My first day at my new school. I was standing outside the golden stone buildings of Alstone High School with Caiden, who had somehow managed to get through my walls in a way that none of my friends had ever been able to. Maybe it was the fact that our dads had practically forced us together every day since we’d first met, sometimes with Caiden’s brother, Weston, but mostly just the two of us. Or maybe it was the fact that I was completely out of my fucking depth, and he was the only person I was allowed to speak to who actually seemed to understand and seemed to instinctively know when to give me space. Whatever, we were friends now.

Now, I was glad of his presence as I looked around me. This school. Yeah, it was very fucking different to my last. I tugged at my uniform tie, suddenly nervous, although I did everything I could not to let it show on the outside.

“It’s not that bad here.” Caiden turned to me. “Stick with me, and you’ll be alright. I know everyone. Not only that, but your dad’s name means you’ll be popular without even having to try.”

“Thanks.” I followed his lead, leaning against the wall at the top of the stone steps, arms folded across my chest as I watched him greeting people. He hadn’t been joking about knowing everyone.

A pretty, red-haired girl stopped in front of us. “Who’s your friend, Caiden?” She blatantly eyed me like she wanted to kiss me or something.

I made a face. I wasn’t interested in kissing anyone. Not unless it was Fallon.

“This is Zayde. Zayde Lowry.”

At Caiden’s words, a sly smile crossed her lips, and she stepped closer. “Very nice to meet you. I’m Portia Thompson.”

I was saved from replying by another girl with long, dark hair coming up behind her and grabbing her arm, shooting both myself and Caiden a smile as she pulled Portia inside.

“Cass!” Caiden lifted his hand, and I followed his line of sight to see a tall guy with dark blond hair approaching us. He grinned when he saw Caiden standing there, and they greeted each other with a fist bump, all grins and excited talking. I felt like a real outsider right then. What was I even doing here? I didn’t belong. This wasn’t my life.

“Z, this is Cassius Drummond.” Caiden glanced over at me before turning back to his friend. He’d told me about Cassius and how the three of our dads owned this company, Alstone Holdings, and were the elite in this town. Whatever that was supposed to mean for me, I didn’t know yet, but apparently, it made you kind of a celebrity around here. I wasn’t looking forward to the attention. I preferred to stay under the radar if possible. My life so far had taught me that it was best to avoid the spotlight. If you went unnoticed, there was so much you could get away with.

Somehow, I made it through the morning. The classes were harder than I was used to, and I knew I’d have to pay attention if I had any hope of keeping up. By the time lunchtime rolled around, my head was hurting from all the new information I’d had to take in, and I needed a break.

“That’s Joseph.” Cassius was pointing out everyone to me, keeping up a running commentary while we ate. His voice hardened, and I gave him my full attention. “Stay away from him. Our families are enemies, and he hates us. Even though he’s older than the rest of us, he’s always trying to start shit with Cade.” I followed the direction he was pointing in and saw a group of guys standing at the side of the room, scanning the tables.

“Which one?”

“The one talking to the girl with blonde hair.”

The boy turned around, and I gasped, my stomach churning as I saw the same face that had stared at me from the framed photo in Fallon’s bedroom.

Joseph Hyde.

Fallon’s older brother.

Cassius carried on talking, oblivious to the shock and nausea that was overtaking my body.

“His brother Tim’s in our year. He’s a wanker. And his friend Elijah, he’s a fucking psycho. Then there’s their cousin, James Granville…” He paused. “Guess he’s not as bad as them. He stays out of it mostly; his family tries to play nice with both sides. Think they just want to suck up to everyone.”

“The Hydes and their friends are fucking bastards,” Caiden muttered, slamming his bottle of water down on the table. “Still holding a grudge and taking it out on us, just because our parents and grandparents had better business sense than them.” The way he spoke, it sounded like he was reciting something he’d heard many times before.

With every word he said, the sick feeling in my stomach increased.

The Hydes were the enemy, which meant that Fallon and I were now on opposite sides.

* * *

The punch landed exactly where I wanted it, and I sent Elijah reeling back with a howl of outrage. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Cade grappling with Tim, both of them getting in a few good hits, but I knew Caiden would come out on top. He always did. The bastards had tried to attack us after school, but they should’ve known by now that we were well prepared. Their reasoning for the ambush was probably because Alstone Holdings had beaten the Hydes to a contract, something to do with developing some land in the south-west.

Off to my right, Cassius and Weston were having a heated discussion with a couple of Tim’s friends who’d been caught defacing our lockers. Why the fuck the Hydes had to drag their friends into it, I had no idea. We didn’t drag any of our friends into our family shit. That wasn’t anyone’s business but our own.

The sound of a whistle blowing had us breaking apart and running for it. No one wanted to be caught out here fighting on school grounds. Even though our parents would ensure that it was dealt with, they’d come down hard on us. My dad’s typical punishment was to lock down my privileges, stop my access to my account and the internet, and I’d usually be confined to the house outside of school-related activities. So I’d learned to be more sneaky, to hide what I was doing so he’d never know. He did the same, too. I’d heard the staff talking. I knew that he still slept around, although I was assuming he was more careful now than he had been with my mum. I knew that he spent a lot of his nights out at the Alstone Members Club, the boys’ club in town that he frequented with Mr. Cavendish and Mr. Drummond. But he was nothing if not discreet, so I took my cues from him.

There was a part of me that knew he approved of me getting one over on the Hydes, because they were his hated rivals, but another part of him wanted to prove that he had a perfect son, a boy he’d taken out of a life that was going nowhere and was now being moulded into a future businessman that would one day take the reins at Alstone Holdings.

I knew the pressure I was under would be worth it in the long run. I had so many advantages here that I’d never even dreamed of. And it wasn’t like he was hard on me all the time—only if I stepped out of line. Honestly, he left me alone most of the time. He wasn’t at home much, always working, and he didn’t seem to be all that interested in getting to know me as a person. We’d never done any father-son things, not that I’d ever had any expectations of that happening. I had my friends, and that was enough for me. Caiden, Cassius, and Weston. At school, they’d started calling us “the Four” since we were always together, and there were four of us. Bit of an obvious nickname, but it was good to be part of a group. We all had each other’s backs, and it was different to when I’d lived with my mum in our council flat, on the twelfth floor of a tower block in a housing estate on the outskirts of London. Everyone looked out for each other there, but there’d never been anyone that I’d been so close to. Not even Mack and Creed, even though they were the people that had known me best growing up. Maybe it was because Alstone was smaller, so there were fewer of us. Maybe it was because I’d been yanked out of everything I knew and thrown in at the deep end, and I’d had to trust and rely on these three boys who had shown me the ropes and accepted me as one of their own without question.

Whatever it was, I was glad I had them.

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