the Devils’ numbers, like some sort of creepy, evil stalker.
Well, I sort of am…
Shaking my head vehemently, I move to the number directly below Elias’s. Emmett’s.
Me: u here?
His response is instantaneous.
Emmett: Why? You miss me?
I lick my upper lip, contemplating how I want to respond. In a way, I do miss the teasing, flirtatious boy with the mossy green eyes. But then I think about his hands on my ass. I know it was probably a spur of the moment thing, but I didn’t like it. At all. He should’ve stopped when I wanted him to, when I was pulling at him. Maybe he misunderstood? Maybe he thought I was pulling him closer instead of away?
Instead of responding, I slide my phone into my pocket. I told Mariabella about Emmett, and she was livid. She asked me, and I quote, if I wanted her to “kick his ass to heaven and then back down to hell.”
She’s downright scary when she wants to be.
Mr. Milk arrives a few minutes after the bell rings, looking frazzled and unkempt. His dark hair, speckled with gray, is hanging limply in front of his dull brown eyes.
“What’s up, Mr. M?” one of the football players from the front row inquires.
Mr. Milk places his briefcase on the desk and takes a deep, fortifying breath. When he glances up at the classroom, I’m surprised to see unshed tears in his eyes.
“I’m not supposed to tell you guys this yet…” Immediately, every student gives him their undivided attention, myself included. If we’re not supposed to know something…
That means it’s all the more sweeter when we do.
“But there was an attack on a teacher earlier this morning.” He forks his fingers through his disheveled hair. “His…um…manhood,” he glances down at his crotch, flames entering his cheeks, “was removed.”
“No fucking way!” someone exclaims. “A teacher had his dick cut off?”
“I don’t know why anyone would do that,” Mr. Milk continues. “I didn’t know him well, but the few times we met up at events, he seemed like such a good man.” He shakes his head sadly. “He’s in the hospital now.”
“Who was it?” a girl asks excitedly…though I find it kind of demented for her to get excited about a cockless teacher. But to each his or her own, I suppose.
Milk’s next words have me freezing in place, stealing the remaining warmth from my body. “He doesn’t teach in the high school, but the middle school. Science. Maybe you guys remember him? Mr. Gurrel. But again,” he levels us all with a penetrating glare, “you didn’t hear this from me.”
Mr. Gurrel.
Mr. Gurrel.
Mr. Gurrel.
His name plays on repeat in my brain as I stare blankly at my desk.
My middle school pervert teacher just had his dick cut off.
It could be just a random coincidence…
But when has life ever been that simple?
Chapter 44
When I arrive at the cafeteria, none of the Devils are there. I scan their usual tables and then the one I sit at with Emmett, Karsyn, and Mariabella.
But no Devils.
I don’t even know what I plan to do when I find them. Confront them about Mr. Gurrel? I know they’re behind this. Cassian no doubt told the others what I told him. Ask them if things have changed between us? Punch Lucas in the face? The last one sounds the most appealing, to be completely honest. While my anger towards Elias and Karsyn has ebbed somewhat after our nights together, I still can’t figure out how I feel about the two remaining creatures of hell.
I bite my lip, feeling uncharacteristically anxious as I approach the empty table, but a soft hand on my arm stops me.
“Pee!” Mariabella begins to drag me towards the table she sometimes sits at with the other cheerleaders. “You’re sitting with us today.”
“Don’t call me that,” I whine, scrunching my nose up and sticking out my tongue. “It’s worse than baby.”
“Baby?” She cocks a blonde brow as she slides into a seat next to Brittany, a senior cheerleader. I’ve always liked the quiet redhead with the pretty, heart-shaped freckled face and glimmering green eyes. “Are you getting kinky on me?”
“It’s a long story that involves one of those people who shall not be named,” I say with a pointed look at the other girls. I know all of them, but I haven’t ever engaged them in conversation. I think the one to my right is Laura? Maybe Laurel? And despite our budding friendships, I’m not quite ready to reveal all of my deepest, darkest secrets