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IMANI
After parking my car in the school lot the next morning, I stared at my phone and pushed out a breath, blowing away the thick curls in my face. My gaze lingered on the messages from Chris last night, my stomach tightening. When a little green bubble popped up next to his profile picture, I sucked in a breath.
Whoever Chris was … he knew me, and he went to Redwood fucking Academy.
Tapping on his contact, I waited one, two, three minutes for him to type something to me, but nothing came through. He was probably on his phone, smirking down at his messages and at how worked up he had made me.
To stop my fingers from shaking, I held them still. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t go to school today. What if Chris has told everyone already? What if I am now the laughingstock of the entire school? I didn’t want to be that girl—even though that was exactly who I was.
So, I scrolled to Mom’s contact and typed a message to her.
Me: Mom, I don’t feel good.
She texted me back less than a minute later.
Mom: You didn’t have a fever this morning, Imani. You’re going in.
Cursing under my breath, I found Dad’s messages and decided to text him instead.
Me: Dad, I don’t feel good.
Dad: What your mother says goes. Don’t get me in trouble.
After throwing a mini fit in the car, I blew out a breath, told myself that it wouldn’t be that bad, and that if I didn’t go in, Chris would tell everyone about our camming sessions. I opened the car door. During my entire walk from the parking lot to the school, I hugged my books to my chest and darted my gaze around like a crazy person.
While I walked down the halls, everyone stared at me—from Carter the quarterback, to Roger the nerd king of Redwood. Or … maybe I was overreacting. It wasn’t like they were staring intensely at me, just a couple side-glances.
I blew out a breath. That was what it was. Nothing more.
All I had to do was make it through the day and not draw attention to myself. Keep my head low. Stay out of drama. Talk to Allie like nothing was wrong. Like I wasn’t being blackmailed by someone at Redwood.
“Morning, Imani,” Mr. Freeman said, walking past me.
Halting in my tracks, I looked over my shoulder. My eyes widened, breath catching in the back of my throat. What if it is one of the teachers? Oh my Lord, Mom would kill me with a capital K. Chop me up into small pieces. Scream and lock my diced body in my bedroom for the rest of my life.
Pushing the thought from my mind, I hurried down the hall and decided not to go the short way through the main hallways, like I usually did to get to my locker. I needed to get through the day without having a heart attack at eighteen years old. It’d be nice to make it to nineteen. But the back hallways were where the bad boys of Redwood ruled—and by bad boys, I meant, the gang of boys named Poison, who scared the shit out of me.
After deciding that taking the long way was worth it, I slid into an empty back hallway and fast-walked down the corridor. I made it down the first two hallways quickly and without problem, but then I turned a corner—the last stretch of corridor until I hit my locker hallway—and stopped dead in my tracks.
Landon Caddell, the brawn behind Poison, slammed Akio against the lockers, Landon’s fist square against his jaw. “Where’s the fucking shit?” Landon asked through gritted teeth. “We gave you a fucking job.”
João Rocha and Kai Koh watched blood seep out of Akio’s nose. I stood completely still and held my breath, knowing that they hadn’t seen me yet. Catching Poison dealing or doing anything was sure to earn anyone an ass-kicking. And I vowed to stay out of drama today.
Akio actually punched Landon back in the nose, his fist barely landing. Landon smashed Akio back into the lockers, the red metal denting. I winced and held back a shout, knowing that Akio would die in Landon’s hands. Like all of Poison, Landon was a psychopath—and I meant that. He was pure fucking crazy.
Instead of walking away, like I should’ve, I found myself running toward the boys and pushing Landon away from Akio. “Stop it!” I shouted, my heart pounding as I blocked Landon from beating Akio to a pulp. I couldn’t let someone like Poison kill a kid right in front of me without at least trying to stop it.
“You lucked the fuck out today,” Landon said to Akio, spitting some blood on the ground. He nodded down the hallway. “Get the fuck out of here and don’t come back without the damn shit.”
Akio scrambled past me and down the hallway, disappearing around the corner. I swallowed hard and stared up at Landon with wide eyes, not sure if he was about to beat me up for interrupting their business.
Instead, João looked at Landon and let out a … laugh—an empty one, of course.
Sucking in a breath, I watched their interaction and hiked my thumb back. “I’m going to … go …” I whispered, taking steady steps back and looking at Landon to make sure he wouldn’t jump me if I turned around.
His gaze slowly traveled down my body and back up it, and he licked some blood off the corner of his lip, then smirked. Fucking smirked, like the psycho he was. My eyes widened slightly, and I shuffled back, nearly tripping over my own feet and stumbling into the lockers.
After cursing under my breath, I turned around and rushed down the hallway, needing to get out of there as soon as humanly possible because I did not want to be food for that wild, hungry, savage psycho of a man.
