She nods.
“I promised to make nice with Gabrielle so she could save face with the fuckheads at Suckshore, and he promised not to mess up Justice’s face.”
“Oh, shit,” she gasps.
I nod. “So, as much as Justice wants to kill him, he’s not first in line.”
She rolls to her back and rubs her hand over her face. “So fucked up.”
“Yeah, well, it is what it is.”
“And Reeves?” she says, trying not to laugh.
I shake my head and try not to laugh, as well, as I tell her, “He wants to eat my ass.”
She burst out laughing, and I quickly cover her mouth. “Shh …”
“So, you’re into him then?”
“I don’t know. I think I was more into wanting to—”
“Piss off Easton.”
I shake my head. “No.”
“So, you had your first big public kiss with a boy you say you don’t like just for… what?”
“Brisa told us to,” I whine.
She gives me the look, you know, the one your mom gives you when she knows you’re lying. Yeah, that one.
“Fine, I wanted to see if it affected him at all. And look what happened. Justice paid for it.”
“Justice is a big boy. It was his choice to fight.”
Shocked, we both sit up and look over the side of the bed.
Tris stands up, grabs her blanket, and looks at us. “I’m over your head-trips.” Then she walks out the door.
“Did you know she was fucking there?” Kiki gasps.
“Hell no!”
We both cover our mouths and start to laugh.
“She’s a creepy little shit lately, isn’t she?”
“Try living with her,” comes from the other side of the bed.
Kiki and I both jump, and then die laughing when Brisa pops up.
“No, really. She’s losing her shit. She’s recently started collecting crosses.”
“What?” Kiki laughs harder now.
“Dark crosses, like really dark.” She climbs on the bed and stretches out like a cat.
Tris walks back into the bedroom with her toothbrush and paste in hand, then walks by us, shaking her head and sighing.
“Tris, babe, we need more girl time with you.” Kiki laughs.
She calls to us from the bathroom, “They’re not upside down, for God’s sake. Chill.”
And we all lose it.
I open the door to Justice’s room and peek in to make sure he’s still asleep. I find him, eyes closed, lying on top of his covers.
I tiptoe in to pull his blanket over him, and not just as a comfort thing, but to ensure if Mom or Dad walk in, they don’t see the bruises.
“T, I’m awake, probably going to be staying awake if you keep coming in here, checking on me like I’m five.”
“I just—”
He sits up. “Or there’s something you wanna talk about that involves you kissing Reeves, because the guy you really like was kissing on the number chick.”
I sit down on his bed.
“Or that, while I was getting my face pounded, all I could hear, aside from get up, Justice, was how much you hate him.”
I close my eyes.
“You made a deal with him, and he broke it.”
I shrug.
“To be honest, if I couldn’t tell that in your voice, I’d have probably still been lying there. So, for that, I’m grateful.”
“So then you get why you can’t go after him, that it’s literally my fight?”
He chuckles. “He’s safe until I get him back in a ring.”
“No! Hell no! Fighting doesn’t work for you. You lost your shit. You didn’t want it to end. Promise me right now that you—”
“Not gonna do that, because I am. Still want to know what the deal was.”
“I accept her apology so she can save face with her peers, and he doesn’t touch your face.”
Justice laughs as he lies down. “He fucked that up now, didn’t he?”
“Clearly,” I say, lying across the foot of the bed.
“Good. That’s a game changer.”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Why’s he protecting her, T?”
“Honestly, she’s not got it easy.”
“The fuck she doesn’t. But if that’s the angle he played, it makes it a fuck of a lot easier to figure out how to get back at him.”
“Can you just let it go, please?”
“He manipulated my sister. That’s fucking low, T. That’s bottom of the barrel shit right there.”
“He’s gone in a couple months.”
“Wars aren’t won overnight.” He smiles, and it’s not a comforting smile.
“Justice …”
“No, T. I’d take twenty blows to the face over that shit.”
“Just don’t break any laws.”
He sits up and smirks. “Not even a misdemeanor, T.”
“Why do you look happy now?”
“ ’Cause I am.”
“What are you planning?”
He turns and fluffs his pillow. “A good night’s sleep, maybe a run before breakfast, school, baseball, home, dinner, chess with Mom, and repeat.”
“And nothing in between?”
“We’re good, T. You keep me in the loop from now on, and I’ll do the same.”
“And no fights at school.”
“Mom and Dad pay way too much for us to have that so-called privilege, and I like ball, so we’re good there, too.”
I stand up and walk to the door.
“You’re gonna get an early morning wakeup call, T. Gotta fix my face before they see.”
I nod. “Yeah, I know.”
Chapter Twenty
Idiom
Give It A Shot.
Truth
How about some kevlar.
Gabrielle is the first person I see when I walk down the hall toward my locker, because she is standing at my freaking locker. She’s alone, sort of; her minions are just down the hall, waiting for her.
Right away, I give her a warning, “I’m not a morning person.”
“Neither am I without at least three cups, which is probably why I’ve been in a shit mood for the past year or more,” she jokes as I cup my combination in an attempt to shield it in case she decides to fuck with it.
I give a passive-aggressive response. “Guess we’re all having that kind of year.”
I pull my locker door open and shove my backpack inside. Then, I begin digging through it to find my weekend assignments. Assignments I half-assed this morning between getting ready, covering up Justice’s bruises, and on the ride here as Justice drove us to school.
“You lose your nanny, too?” she jokes.
I don’t reply.
“Mine made the best coffee. Now I’m forced to drink this American shit.”
I close my locker, spin the combination, give the lock a tug, and then turn to look at her.
Her smile begins to fade, which is a good thing. It was kind of nauseating this early on a Monday morning. A Monday morning following this weekend’s near catastrophic events.