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IMANI
Music thumped through Allie’s house from downstairs, the thick stench of weed drifting under Allie’s door. For some ungodly reason, Jace, her stepbrother who she definitely still had a thing for even though she swore she didn’t, decided to throw a rager the Thursday night before our biggest Biology test.
I lay on my stomach and tapped through the PowerPoint on my Mac, chewing on my bottom lip, unable to concentrate. I hadn’t been able to think straight all night, and it wasn’t because of the party. Poison was on my mind and wouldn’t fucking leave me alone.
Before they had kicked me out of João’s car, they had made their point clear—they didn’t want any of my parents’ money. No matter how much money I offered, even up to five hundred thousand dollars, no matter how much I promised—I could give them a better place to stay in Redwood, a vacation that they so desperately needed to stop being pricks.
They would accept nothing but me.
“Jesus Christ, I’m going to kill him,” Allie said under her breath about Jace, tugging on a strand of her frizzy brown hair.
“Why don’t we stop for tonight? We’ve been at this for six hours now,” I offered because I definitely wasn’t retaining any of this information tonight. My fate with the outcome of this test had been sealed the moment Landon realized that Rosy wasn’t my real name.
I’d fail the test tomorrow and get scolded by my parents.
But I’d rather be reprimanded than have my secrets revealed to all of Redwood.
When Allie frowned and pushed up the thick glasses on her nose, I closed my laptop and smiled at her.
“Or, if you want, you can come to my place to study.”
“No, it’s fine.” She tossed her notebook on her desk. “I’ll just fail.”
I rolled my eyes. “Girl, stop. We all know that you’re going to get over a hundred, especially with all the extra credit that Barnes gives.” I pushed my laptop into my backpack. “And if you don’t, you can always ask Barnes for more extra credit. You’re hot enough to seduce him.”
“Ew, gross.” She wrinkled her nose. “He’s, like, seventy.”
“All I’m saying is that you don’t even have to work for that A-plus, just shake a little ass,” I said, moving my next-to-nothing ass for emphasis.
Lucky for Allie, she had a little more to shake for Barnes, if she really wanted to. Her ass was fat with a capital F, and I was definitely saying that out of jealousy.
But I loved her, anyway. I always would.
After I swung my backpack over my shoulder, we walked down the hallway and into the living room, dim lights illuminating a haze of smoke that sat heavily in the air. I glanced around the room like a crazy woman, looking for Poison. They always seemed to show up at parties like this, where there was enough weed to go around for years and where they could take advantage of the rich kids, maybe even steal some of their parents’ shit.
“I can’t wait to get out of this shitty town,” Allie said.
“You can come back to my place for the night,” I offered again, tugging on the straps of my backpack.
I wanted to get out of here as soon as humanly possible, but I knew Allie coming over probably wasn’t the best idea if Landon tried to video-call me tonight. Who the fuck knew what was going through his mind now?
When we finally made it to the front door, one of the guys on the football team looked Allie up and down and made her cheeks flush a rosy red. She stared at Jamal for a moment longer than she should’ve, and I arched a brow.
“Well, I guess that’s a no … just be careful with Jamal. You know how guys like him act. He’s like your stepbrother, and he will break your heart too, if you let him.”
“Jace didn’t break my heart,” Allie said through clenched teeth. She opened the front door, and I sucked in a breath, my eyes widening. Landon and Kai walked up the steps, Landon passing a blunt to Kai. Kai took it and nudged him. As they hopped up the last stair and into the house, Landon looked me up and down and then … continued walking.
Weird.
I held my breath the entire exchange, my body tense and my cheeks flaming hot. Hoping that Allie didn’t see the look he had given me, I stared down at my feet and wiggled my toes in my sneakers, praying that if she did, she wouldn’t say anything.
“And you’re telling me to be careful,” she said. “The Poison boys are no good. You should know that.”
“I know,” I reassured, stepping out the door and waving her off. “Don’t worry about me.”
But she should worry about me because Poison terrified everyone.
When I finally made it through the maze of cars to mine, I slumped my shoulders forward and let out a loud sigh, wishing I could exhale all my problems just as easily. I unlocked my car and threw my bag into the backseat.
