"Try it," I challenge. "And I'll slice your balls clean off."
He doesn't do anything and I chuckle darkly. A singular dark brow lifts over one of his eyes. "You seem to think you have some sort of decision in everything that's happening," he says, "but I've got news for you, sweetness." He leans down and I inhale sharply at the feel of his teeth grazing my earlobe. "Everything that's happening is because of you. This is all the result of your fucking childish actions. If you don't stop acting like a brat, I really will spank you. You can try to cut my balls off, but I promise you that you're going to want them for something else so I'd suggest you leave my man parts alone."
"I'm never going to fuck you."
When he lifts his head, the smile that overtakes his face is anything but kind. It's cruel and menacing. Dark and wicked. Had I really once told Rylie that these guys were nothing but preppy rich assholes? The look on his face says otherwise. It's that look and the blood still coating his knuckles from the guy he knocked out just for touching me that make me think that maybe … just fucking maybe they've earned their ridiculous moniker as Sick Boys.
"Who said I was going to give you a choice?"
My blood runs cold. "Did you just threaten to rape me?"
Dean's lips part and his tongue swipes across his perfectly straight and perfectly white upper teeth as he looks down on me. That smile remains. The car stops and he backs off as the car door opens and he reaches back inside, grabbing me by my upper arms as he hauls me out of the car. My back hits the front lawn of the Havers dorm as he tosses me down.
"I never said I was a good man," he states, looking down on me. Abel was our driver, I realize, as he lowers the front window of the SUV—interesting that it wasn't the Mustang this time—and watches on. "In fact," Dean continues, "this is your official warning. Follow our rules, don't make any more noise, and you won't have to learn just how sick I can really be, Avalon."
With that, he turns around and gets back into the SUV. Abel takes one look at me, Braxton glancing over his shoulder from the passenger side, and rolls up the window before taking off.
I throw an arm over my face as I lay there on the wet, dewy grass. "Cowards," I spit out. The three of them are nothing but cowards. They think they're invincible. My arm lowers and my eyes lift to the night sky. Stars sparkle far above.
They may be powerful, but no one is invincible.
Even I know that.
23
Avalon
I’m being stared at. The prickly feeling only serves to irritate me even more than I already am. Turning my cheek, I fix the guy doing the staring—a grubby-handed man with a graying beard that looks more like a poodle's ass than an actual beard—with a dark glare. He blinks, dull blue eyes seeming surprised. He shouldn’t be. He’s been fucking staring at me for the last three stops. Finally, he ducks his head and looks away, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie as he scoots along the bus seat towards the dirty window as far from me as possible without getting up and moving seats. I huff out a breath and pull out the map I’d grabbed from the bus station when I’d gotten on an hour before.
I’d left before Rylie got up this morning, but it’s not like she would’ve cared. She’s still kind of pissed at me for ditching her at Urban. Then again, it wasn’t like I had a choice. A scowl forms across my face at the reminder, Dean Carter’s features coming to my mind. I imagine reaching out and punching him in his perfectly straight nose. I want to see it crooked and broken. Blood in his teeth. I wonder if he’d still have that same callous look he had the last time I saw him.
Fucking prick. I bet he would.
I’m about five miles outside of Eastpoint—the city, not the university—and the farther away I get, the easier breathing feels. I hadn’t even realized I was suffocating under their thumb. At first, it’d just been the party, but then with what happened at the club, it appears I’m no longer allowed to just have my anonymity.
If one more fucking bitch tries to cuddle up to me in class, I’m going to stab their eyes out with a pencil, I swear inwardly. I blame them for what I’m about to do. It’s completely their fault. The Sick Boys.
Had it not been for Dean’s proclamation, I wouldn’t now be dealing with everyone on campus and their fucking brother trying to metaphorically climb into my pants. Oh, no. No one is allowed to touch me. To touch me would mean pissing off the King of the castle. But everyone wants to be my friend and they’re not even attempting to hide their intentions. I fucking hate people.
The bus slows to a stop and I check the map once more before I get up and start to move towards the front. The stranger’s eyes dart up and when he catches me glaring his way, he ducks once more.
“Hey!” the driver snaps. “No moving while the bus is still going.” But the bus is already almost stopped. I flip him the bird, swipe the bus card I purchased earlier, and push the doors open before he has a chance to chastise me anymore. I really don’t have the energy to deal with his shit today.
My legs move with purpose as I stride to the end of the street and hang a right, following the path I memorized earlier. There, at the end of the second road is the hiking trail I came all the way out here for. I’m not wearing the right shoes for hiking—hell, I don’t have any. So halfway up the first hill, I can already feel it in the soles of my feet. I inhale the pain and let it rise up through my legs. It’s all just a precursor to what I’m really here for.
Dean fucking Carter thinks he can control me. He and his friends think that because they have all the money in the world that everyone around them will fall to their knees and do what they want. But that’s just not who I am.
I’m not the girl who lets anyone control her.
I’m the girl that you warn your children about.
Monsters don’t go bump in the motherfucking night, Avalon Manning does.
I reach the top of the final hill, feeling the ache in my calves like a wave of anxiety right before a swimmer’s dive. Despite the pain, though, the second I see what I’ve come for, everything else fades away.
A giant lake with waters that are green with age, moss, and algae. There’s no telling what’s beneath their depths. I take a step towards it, spotting a flat cliffy surface on the other side of the giant walls that surround it. It looks high. It looks dangerous. It looks perfect.
When I reach the flat cliff, I unload my bag, dropping it and my pants to the ground. I strip my shirt over my head until I’m clad in nothing but my underwear and bra. Scrubbing a hand down my face, I take a step towards the edge and look down. One wrong move and I could slip. I could fall. Hell, there’s no telling what’s beneath the surface. Could be rocks. Venomous snakes. My heart begins to race, and I shiver as a cool breeze drifts across my face while I pull my hair back and secure it into a ponytail.
Every time is like the first time. I close my eyes, thinking back to the very first time I realized I was just as fucked up as Patricia and the rest of the addicts that lived in my trashy trailer park. Everyone was an addict. She'd taught me that much. Even me.