The Rebel of Raleigh High (Raleigh Rebels #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,10

way.

It’s started to rain as I jump out of the Nova, grab my backpack from the backseat and hurry across the lot, avoiding the puddles of standing water as I go. It’s still fifteen minutes to the bell, which means there are plenty of other students loitering outside, sitting on the trunks of their cars, rough-housing and gossiping with one another. This is the perfect time to arrive—amongst all of the other students hunched against the cold, laughing and shouting, I’m almost invisible. Anonymous. It’s easy enough to slip through the clustered groups of my peers without drawing too much attention.

There’s no avoiding the girls, though.

Melody, Zen, Halliday, and, of course, Kacey. Once upon a time, I knew all of their secrets, and they knew mine. When my world combusted into a fiery ball of shit nine months ago, they were pretty quick to make sure everyone knew every single one of my secrets, while stupidly or otherwise, I clamped my mouth shut and kept theirs. I can’t even count how many hours I’ve spent lying in bed at night, imagining their faces if some of their skeletons were to come to life and leap out of their closets. It’d be so fucking satisfying to watch them scramble, to see them frantically trying to hold the pieces of their lives together after all the pain and suffering they visited on me.

But…

I don’t do it. I like to tell myself those bitches will get what’s coming to them. Karma will show up on their doorsteps one day, and they’ll pay the price for their actions, but honestly, the simple, quiet, sad truth is that I don’t want them to suffer. I miss my friends. The dumb practical jokes we used to play on each other. The sleepovers, and the silly traditions we used to share. I miss the late-night laughter, and swooning over boys, and…fuck. I miss being part of a ride-or-die group of friends who would do anything for each other.

I suppose now, in hindsight, it’s stupid to miss that. As it turns out, I never really had it. I thought I did. I would have bet money on the girls having my back. In the end, they are the ones who betrayed me the hardest, though.

I have to pass them to get into the building. I already have my headphones in, so I crank up my music and make sure to keep my chin high as I stroll past them. I will not hurry. I will not look away. I will not look ashamed. I will not give them the satisfaction.

Zen says something to Halliday, obviously about me. Her mouth is turned down, her nostrils flared, and I remember that same look being on her face the day she found that her dad had been cheating on her mom for a year—the fury and the disgust had poured off her like heat from a flame. I’d been the one to soothe her pain that night, and many nights after, too. I’d brought over gallon tubs of Ben & Jerry’s, and watched lame teen dramas, and listened to her while she’d ranted. The other girls had come by too, but I was there every night. I was a constant source of comfort to her when it felt like her life was ending, and the tear in her heart would never heal. And now she’s looking at me, the same way she looked at her father.

Halliday—silly, sweet, strawberry blonde Halliday—giggles, furtive eyes cast in my direction, and I recognize malice and spite there, where before there was only ever empathy and kindness. I don’t know what’s wrought this drastic change in her, but I’m brimming over with sadness as I take the first step up the stairs that lead into Raleigh High.

Billy Joel sings into my ears about rainy nights in Paris and the sitting by the Seine in the European rain, and out of nowhere I feel something hit my arm—light, barely a contact at all. I almost ignore it, but out of the corner of my eye, I see whatever hit me fall to the ground…and it’s a cigarette butt. Still lit, though smoked down to the filter. The cherry glows, flaring red, before the rainwater on the ground soaks along the paper, putting it out.

What the fuck?

I look back at the girls. I can’t help myself. My gaze meets Kacey’s, and my ribcage squeezes like a vice as a curl of smoke slips out of her mouth. Melody