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JACE
The cheerleaders screamed around me, and the football players rushed off the field through a back entrance. Vaughn’s head lay feet from me, blood splattered across the white field lines, and I didn’t move.
Everything turned to pure chaos within mere moments, the crowd erupting into screams and shouts. Red and blue police lights turned on around the field. When Poison had told me to show up tonight, this was not what I’d fucking expected them to do.
People started rushing down the bleachers and knocking people out of the way. In a moment, I lost sight of Allie and Imani in the tall bodies of other students. My stomach twisted at how violent some of the students were being. I feared the worst.
“Jace!” someone shouted behind me, the voice lost in the crowd.
I turned around, expecting to see Allie, but Nicole rushed up to me in her tight cheerleading uniform with Redwood across the chest and goose bumps on her bare arms. After seeing her, I turned away and scanned the crowd for Allie, unable to find her in the large stampede of students rushing toward the exits.
Nicole wiped her cheeks with the back of her trembling hand. “We have to get out of here, Jace. My father is—”
When she grabbed my hand, I pulled it away. “Stop it, Nicole! We’re not dating. We were never dating. Learn your fucking boundaries and don’t fucking touch me again. I don’t have the patience to deal with your fucking ass.”
Yet Nicole didn’t stop. She grabbed my wrist and tugged me toward the exit. “My dad texted me and told me to leave. I think he’s going to blame you for this. He knows that you’ve hated Vaughn because of how much he hated you.”
More and more people pushed and shoved down the bleacher steps. If Allie tripped over a single step, she could be fucking trampled because kids at Redwood were ruthless pieces of shit.
“Jace, listen to me! We have to go!”
“I need to find Allie first.” I pushed through the crowd. “When I find her, we can talk.”
“Jace,” she shouted again, her voice getting lost in the murmurs.
But I didn’t have time for her nonsense at the moment. Once I made sure Allie was safe, I could talk to her—maybe. I didn’t want to. I really didn’t fucking want to. But because everyone in Redwood seemed to hate me, I would get blamed for this. And Nicole’s father definitely had it out for me, not only because I used to hang out with his daughter, but also because when I left Redwood in a few months, I would set out to do something he could never do—become one of the biggest things Redwood would ever see in the NFL.
Her father had played football all throughout college, and the last game of his senior year, he had gotten hit by a defenseman so fucking hard that he tore both of his ACLs and never recovered. Now, he wanted to destroy all my fucking chances at a life like that too.
People rushed past me as I hurried toward the bleachers, but I shoved them out of the way, pushing against the crowd. I raced up and down the student section, checking under the seats where Allie usually sat. Though I couldn’t find her or Imani, I found Allie’s phone, her screen recently broken in four places and kicked under the bleachers.
After shoving it into my pocket, I glanced up and scanned the area outside of the field. I caught sight of a red car with tinted windows sitting in the parking lot. The headlights flashed once, and my phone buzzed in my pocket.
João: Allie is fine. We have eyes on her. Meet at Landon’s.
I let out a huge sigh, my shoulders slumping forward, and rubbed a hand across my face. Jesus Christ, tonight had not gone as I’d expected it to. I’d thought Poison would start small, not kill someone for the hell of it.
But I wasn’t complaining. Vaughn deserved to be six feet under, just like my father.
