“Hey, Kinsley!” I heard a familiar voice yell. I looked in the direction of the voice and saw Miley waving to me.
I waved back. “Hey, Miley.” I still felt shitty for being kinda mean after she was kind enough to me. “Everything okay?”
She rushed to my side and quickly got into step with me. “What are you doing later tonight?” she asked. “I know we haven’t spoken since I showed you to the art rooms, but a few of us are getting together at the beach tonight. A bonfire has been set up again, and I thought it’d be a good way for you to get to know some people.”
Not a chance in hell.
I dropped my shoulders, sighed, and let my brows pinch together and lift in the middle—a look I’d perfected over time. “I’ve got studying for the assignment Mr. Stanson gave us, and I have a couple more for art.” At the end of the class with Quinn, instead of staying to hear what work we’d been given, he just got up and left. Just like that. Out of his seat and out of the door, with his trusty sidekick following.
What a dick.
“So? Are you in?”
“Sorry, I was miles away,” I apologized, my stomach rolling that I hadn’t been able to get that class out of my head for the rest of that day. “In for what?”
She giggled and rolled her eyes with humor while grinning. “The beach?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Miley, but I don’t think I’m there yet.” Her puppy dog eyes had my mouth working overtime. “Maybe next time, yeah? I just don’t feel comfortable going out to party with a bunch of people I’ve never met.” Not to mention it was fucking crazy. After the crap I’d just come from, I’d be insane to agree.
Miley’s bottom lip pushed out into a child-like pout. “Okay, but only because you’re new. Now,” she linked her arm through mine and walked with me until we were outside. “I gotta head off, so I’ll catch up with you after the weekend.” Once we were in the parking lot, she walked away, waved while grinning, and disappeared.
“How was your day?” my mom asked as she drove through the quiet roads of Broken Hollow. We were going grocery shopping, one chore that we always did together, no matter what. It was the only time she drove me and picked me up.
“It was okay, I guess,” I replied, liking the cool breeze hitting me through the open window. “It still sucks to be here, though.”
“I know it’s not ideal, sweetheart, but once you graduate, things will look better.”
I snorted. “How can you be so calm about it?” I shook my head as it rested in my palm. My elbow pressed against the door, taking my weight. “I was kicked out, Mom, of one of the best colleges back home.” I lifted my head and looked right at her when we stopped at the red lights. “Kicked out for defending myself.” I clenched my jaw as angry tears burned my eyes. “Is still stings, Mom,” I said, my voice wavering and my chin wobbling. “We had to move here, you had to relocate your office, I had to transfer colleges, all because they didn’t want the embarrassment hitting their precious school.”
A rumble outside of the car had my attention, and I looked out of my side to see a motorcycle reflected in the mirror. Black and shiny with silver waves down the side of the tank. The rider was all in black, and when I looked up, their matching helmet was focusing forward, the visor tinted, disguising their face.
My mom lifted her hand and ran it down the back of my head and over my hair. “I know you’re angry, sweetheart, but what’s done is done. I’d much rather be here where you’re safe from their scrutiny than anywhere else.”
“Angry doesn’t even begin to describe how I’m feeling,” I growled. “And we’re here because Broken Hollow’s the only college that would accept my transfer in senior year, especially after it had already begun.” I swiped angrily across my face, refusing to let the tears fall any further.
I looked away from my mom and out of the window. The second my eyes raised, my lips parted. The person next to us was facing me, the visor showing my startled reflection. In what seemed like a split-second, they took off, the roar of the engine deafening until it started to fade in the distance. It reminded me of the one I’d heard on my first day.
“Deathtraps,” my mom muttered, then glanced at me. “Promise me you’ll never get on one of those things, Kinsley.”
I’d heard this before, every time we saw a motorcycle. “Sure, Mom.”
“I mean it, Kinsley. Those things are dangerous, and I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”
“You’re not gonna lose me, Mom,” I assured her. I reached over and placed my hand over hers on the steering wheel. “I promise.” My uncle Ray was killed in a motorcycle accident not long before my dad died. He called his bike his ‘babe magnet,' and I’d given him shit for it. Lovingly, of course.
“It’s not that I don’t trust your abilities,” my mom added. “I don’t trust other drivers. The guy who pulled out on Ray,” Her lip quivered, “didn’t see him coming.” Ray was my mom’s only brother, and when she lost him and then my dad, she’d been devastated beyond words.
“I know, Mom. I’m never going to ride a motorcycle, okay?” I assured her. “I promise.” They were awesome, though. Uncle Ray had a sexy ass bike. Silver, with a bold red stripe across the black tank, while the matching red seat added kick-ass character.
“Good.” She swiped at her face and smiled. “Now, how’s school? Have you made any friends?”
I went back to looking out of the window, watching the small town go by as we neared the store. “It’s fine, and not really,” I replied. “One girl, Miley, helped me find my way to class and asked for my number, but that’s it.” I didn’t want to tell her about the mini arguments I’d had already. Same shit, different city.
“That’s a good thing, right?” She glanced at me, then back to the road. “It’ll take time, but you’ll make a lot of friends—I know you will.”
“Sure.” I doubted that, and after the scene between Quasi and I, I’m pretty sure I’d made my first enemy.
Chapter 3
Quinn
“Quinn, you got this, man, easy!” Josh yelled from the sidelines, his booming voice carrying over the raucous crowd.
Aiden Shaw stood in front of me, blood oozing out of his nose, flowing like a river over his mouth and dripping off his chin. The unkempt hair there caused a crimson rainfall down onto his bare chest. He blinked rapidly, no doubt clearing the tears rushing to his eyes after my fist had connected with the bridge.
The satisfaction of feeling the cartilage snapping under my knuckles, even through the bindings, had put a sick smile on my face.
“Come on, Shaw,” I goaded. “It was only a light tap.” The opposite of what his nose was. It was still leaking like a faucet that hadn’t been shut off completely.
“Fuck you!” he roared, jerking forward from his waist, his veins and ligaments protruding from his thick neck. Red spittle flew from his mouth. He snapped it shut, his jaw working before he released a massive gob of saliva and spat it on the ground.