1
Kess
One more step would mean certain death.
The words were scribbled on a piece of paper, taped to a bathroom stall, and I was about out of patience. I ripped it off, balled it up, and tossed it into the garbage. I knew why they put the note up, because this was the druggie stall.
Asshats.
There were three other stalls open, which wasn’t normal, but we were in the end run of the school year. Graduation was in two days. It was our last official day of school, though most seniors stopped coming a long time ago. Not me. I was here because of detention.
Detention.
I growled under my breath.
I was about to head inside the stall, find the drugs I knew were stashed somewhere, and I was going to mess with them. I was going to hide them somewhere else in the bathroom, but just as I hit the door to open, the main door to the bathroom swung wide.
In walked Tasmin Shaw.
“Hey, Kess.”
I paused, trying to stomp down some of my irritation. It wasn’t her fault I was here for detention, but it was her brother’s and his whole group’s fault. There was a situation they brought about that ended with me getting detention. It was a whole round-about thing, and it didn’t really matter in the long run. But, I couldn’t be mean to Tasmin Shaw, or Taz as she was called by her friends. There were a few different reasons why I wanted to, but none really had to do with Taz as a person.
One, Taz was nice. Like actually nice.
Two, she was connected. Taz was not only popular, but she was well connected with the toughest crew still going strong in our school. We have a system, or had a system. There used to be a whole chain of groups that weren’t gangs, but we weren’t all friends either. We were in the medium between those extremes, and tended to look down on those who weren’t in a crew. That meant you weren’t loyal, and if you were crew, loyalty was like blood to us.
You needed it to be crew, or you were simply ‘less than.’
Or I used to think so.
And three, there was a respect issue here because Taz’s brother’s woman was now the only female in a crew. There’d been one other girl, but no more, and I can say that because it was me. I used to be in a crew. We weren’t big or even tough, but we were a crew and I loved my crew.
Now we were nothing.
“Hey, Taz.”
She stopped before going into her own stall, noted where I was standing, and raised her eyebrows. “You okay?”
I’d forgotten what I was going to do.
“Yeah. I’m good.”
Taz gave me another smile and went into her stall.
I moved inside mine, and a second later, her voice came through the room. “Do you have any plans for the weekend?”
The weekend. Shit. I usually did, but that was before my crew broke up.
Now, “Not really. You?”
Her toilet flushed—when had she even pissed? A beat later, her door opened, and she went out to the sink. Me, I was still standing just inside my door. I hadn’t even closed it behind me, so here we go I guess. I nudged it back open, edging farther out as she washed her hands. Her eyes found mine in the mirror.
An emotion flickered in them, and oh no.
I was already readying myself, because whatever that was, I didn’t like it. My gut was tightening up.
“You know, I heard that Zeke Allen from Fallen Crest Academy is probably going to throw a rager. They party almost every night over there.”
I wanted to snort in disgust, or at least disdain. I didn’t.
“Yeah?”
She nodded, finishing up drying her hands, and stepped back from the sink. “Where are your guys? Usually they’d be out in the hall if you’re in here.”
There was the whole gut tightening again. Right there.
I jerked a shoulder up. “They’re out doing their thing. I’ll catch up with them later.”
“Are you dating one of them? Monica mentioned that one time.”
“Monica doesn’t know anything.”
She was referring to one of her friends, who truly didn’t know shit.
“Oh.”
Those eyes of hers. Tawny and hazel, and there’s a reason she and her brother were some of the most ridiculously good-looking people in our school. It wasn’t fair. But the kindness and concern were what was really setting my teeth on edge.
I didn’t need her pity.
“Anyways,” I blasted her with a bright, but dismissive smile, “I gotta go to the bathroom. So…” Enough said. I moved inside my stall, shut the door, and sat. Then I waited.
That was rude.
I was feeling like an asshole, but a moment later she was edging for the door. She was going slow, and that tugged at me because Taz Shaw wasn’t known for moving at a slow pace. She bounced. She hurried. She darted. She didn’t move slow, and she wasn’t my friend.
The door swished open and closed, and I cursed under my breath.
But, what? Go and attend a rich asshole’s party tonight as a tagalong? I wasn’t a tagalong. I’d never been a tagalong, and fuck if I was going to become one.
But because my day was still in the toilet (lame humor), that didn’t mean I couldn’t mess someone else’s day up, too.
I found the drugs, but I didn’t hide them. I flushed them.
Then I went to my last detention of my high school career, and that sucked too.
I wished I hadn’t flushed the drugs.
2
Kess
I was walking to the parking lot when I heard the bike’s engine roar. A moment later, he parked on the clear opposite end of the lot, right next to my own motorbike. He did that on purpose. His head turned, his helmet still on, but I already knew the cockiest smirk of all smirks was on his face as he was watching me come toward him.
Christopher.
How I knew this guy was beyond me.
He transferred in the beginning of the year, and he was barely around. In fact, people really didn’t know he was even at our school and I could get why. He showed up for first period, ducked out, and who knew where he disappeared to until seventh period.
I didn’t know his story. I didn’t know why he was only around for those two classes, how he got exempt from class projects, speeches, anything that might’ve drawn attention to him. But somehow it worked. The teachers never called his name for roll call. They literally skipped over him as if he wasn’t in the classroom, and after a month of whispering from the girls and weird looks from the guys, they all accepted it.
It helped that he didn’t say anything.
It also helped that he didn’t linger after class. I’d never seen him talk to anyone. He showed up in the morning, went to class, left, and repeated the process at the end of the day. Did he have a locker? I hadn’t a clue.
But I did know he was gorgeous.
Dark hair that he liked to run a hand through and pull on so the ends were a sexy mess. Then there was the square jawline. It always looked as if he’d done just a quick buzz over his jaw for the whiskers, and he let it go until the night again. And his face, nice and hella smoldering.
Seriously. It wasn’t fair.
But he had the clearest blue eyes, and that’s what gave him away. He didn’t know I knew where he got those blue eyes, and that little fact kept my mouth shut. I didn’t say one word about the secret I did know about Christopher Raith, besides his name and how him just waiting on his motorcycle gave off this intense pulse in the air.