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IMANI
Walking down the bleachers with Allie during halftime, I looked into the parking lot and on the street for the guys. I hadn’t seen them since school ended, except Landon. Poison rarely showed up to football games, probably thought that only rich kids like Allie and I went to them, but I kinda wished that they had tonight. I had been hanging out with them about every night this week, and not seeing them tonight felt off.
After last night with João and even earlier today with Landon, I was starting to … maybe … miss seeing their annoying asses constantly. They were bad people and even worse influences, but they were all a bit misunderstood. At least, João and Landon were. I hadn’t gotten a chance to crack Kai yet.
“If my mom asks, I was with you last night,” I said, grabbing a hot dog from the concession stand and bouncing on my toes to keep warm.
When some raindrops hit my face, I pulled my hood up over my hair and stared out onto the football field during halftime. The cheerleaders shouted at the stands, dressed in the smallest and tightest outfits the higher-ups at Redwood could find for them.
Allie wiped some rain off her glasses and grabbed her soda. “Do I want to know?”
I grinned at her and hooked my arm around hers, walking back up to our seats in the stands. “Hmm …” I said, tapping my chin, then resting my forehead against her shoulder. “Probably not. You’d yell at me, like Mom did.”
“Your mom yelled at you?” Allie asked. “For what?”
After unwrapping the tinfoil around the hot dog, I scrunched my nose. God, Redwood had all the money in the world, yet they still couldn’t buy hot dogs that didn’t smell like ass. Go figure.
“Trying to ignore me, so you don’t have to answer?” Allie teased.
Once I collapsed on the bleachers with the most annoying brats behind me, I took a bite of the hot dog and sighed. “You know how I redid that test for Barnes? I got a ninety-eight percent—ninety-fucking-eight—and she had to scold me for missing one question. I’m so done with it.” I tightened my hand around the hot dog. “I try so hard, Allie, just to get screamed at.”
Allie frowned at me and pulled me closer. “Don’t listen to her. You’re in, like, the top five of our class. Who cares if you get first or not? We’ve both already applied to colleges, our fate is sealed, so … it shouldn’t matter at this point.”
“I know,” I whispered. “I can’t deal with the constant pressure. If I fuck up, she makes sure I know that I did, and she punishes me for it.”
After grimacing, Allie stole one of the fries from my plate. “Yeah, but at least she cares, right? She could be like any of the other parents in Redwood and not give a fuck about their children anymore.”
And while I knew that she was trying to cheer me up and look at the positive side of things, it didn’t make me feel any better. Mom didn’t really care about me. If she did, she would understand that I couldn’t be perfect all the time. Nobody could.
“Speaking of people who don’t give a shit …” I started, clearing my throat and thinking back to my conversations with João last night, after he told me that Ana had contracted HIV from some careless rich pricks. “Do you know any of Jace’s father’s friends?”
She glanced over her shoulder with her brows furrowed. A cold fall wind drifted through the stands, her hair blowing against her glasses. After pushing it away, she frowned and leaned closer to me to shout because the crowd started cheering.
“Harlan’s friends? Not really. Why?”
I thought back to João last night, my heart aching. The look in his eyes—damn it, I’d never thought I’d see such despair from someone like him. Though I knew that I would never ever be able to find out who it was or who had done that to poor Ana, I wanted to at least see if I could help.
Maybe then, João would start really trusting me.
If I could help him in any way I could, I so would.
“I was talking to a couple of the guys …” I started, gnawing on the inside of my cheek. “And one of them mentioned something about Harlan’s friends doing drugs, like hard drugs. Does Harlan do that kind of stuff?”
“Not that I know of.” Allie scrunched her nose. “At least, I hope that he doesn’t. I don’t want my mom to get into that kind of stuff. He’s completely taken her away from me, and I hate it so much.”
“Me neither,” I said and grabbed her hand. “If you find out any information, please, tell me. I can’t really answer any questions about it, but … but I need you to trust me on this. If you find out who does it, please, I—”
“You’re not trying to get Poison business, are you?” Allie asked.
“No,” I assured. “Just, please, trust me.”
After a couple moments, Allie wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pulled me closer to her. “Sure, I’ll do that for you, but I don’t want you getting into any trouble with them. Promise me that you won’t.”
“I promise, Allie.”
“Imani!” Akio shouted from across the stands.
He stood at the very bottom and waved at me, looking so out of place here. Akio never—and I meant, never—went to football games. He had told me that his dad didn’t let him, but I knew that he just didn’t like attending them. None of his friends went, anyway.
