The Rebel of Raleigh High (Raleigh Rebels #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,124
a demand that sends panic skating up my spine: “Let me in!”
“Are you the police?” Alicia yells.
“No, I’m not the fucking police! I’m standing out here in the wide open. Let me in, for fuck’s sake!”
I recognize the voice. It’s been haunting me for the past nine months, forcing me to relive the most traumatic thing that’s ever happened to me every time I’ve heard it in the hallways of Raleigh.
“That’s Jacob,” Sophia says, sniffling. “Jake, is that you?”
“Yes!”
“Prove it,” Alicia demands.
“God, do you want me to slide my fucking driver’s license underneath the door? Open up.”
Alicia and Sophia almost climb over each other in their haste to unlock the door. I step in front of them, the tiny room spinning like a merry go round, blocking their path.
“What are you doing?” Alicia hisses. “Let him in. We’ll be safe if he’s in here with us.”
I stand firm. “How do you know that? What if he’s the shooter?”
The girls pause, uncertainty all over their faces. “Well…why would he sound so panicky if he was the one with the gun?” Sophie reasons.
God, this girl would be the first to fucking die in a horror movie. “To trick us into opening the door obviously!”
“Who’s in there?” Jake shouts through the door.
“It’s me, Allie. Sophia and Silver, too,” Alicia answers back.
“Why did you tell him that?” Sophia growls, slapping her friend’s arm like she’s a naughty little child.
Alicia rubs at her arm, feigning hurt. “What’s the harm in him knowing if he can’t get in?”
A thick, heavy silence has fallen in the music room beyond the sound booth. Jacob’s obviously realized how little chance he has of being admitted into the booth now that he knows I’m inside.
I allow myself a sick, twisted moment of satisfaction.
“Silver? Can you hear me?” he says softly. “Silver, please. If you don’t let me in and I die, what do you think’s gonna happen to your family? My father’ll know you shut me out. He’ll ruin them. You know it’s true. Be better if you let me in so I can wait this out with you.”
It’s a ridiculous thing to say. He’s grasping, trying to concoct something that’ll scare me into giving into him, but it’s not going to work. “Really? You really think threatening me is an appropriate tactic?”
Another loud thud crashes against the door, this time bordering on violent. “Let me in, Silver, or so help me I’ll—”
“You’ll what, Jake? Hurt me? Humiliate me? Bully me? Destroy my entire fucking life? You already did that, remember?”
“Silver, please…”
Below us, in the library, a jarring, thunderous round of shots sound out, shaking the floor beneath our feet.
“See. Jake can’t be the one with the gun if they’re shooting down there,” Sophia says. “What the fuck is your problem. Let him in.”
“Please, Silver.” On the other side of the door, Jake sounds like he’s about to break down and start sobbing.
For all that he’s done, I should not open the door.
The initial assault was reason enough to leave him out there to be shot, but add the months and months of psychological abuse I’ve suffered at his hands within the very walls of this school? Jacob Weaving deserves whatever brutal death awaits him.
He tried as hard as he could, but he didn't succeed in truly breaking me, though. He stole so much from me, but he didn't take my humanity. A part of me almost wishes he had, as I reluctantly unlock the door to the sound booth and let him in.
He rushes inside, collapsing to his knees, shaking just as severely as Sophia was a moment ago. He cowers, holding his head in his hands, and a strangled sob fills the cramped booth. Alicia and Sophia look down at him, shock and concern developing on their faces, and I allow myself the smallest moment of victory.
“You really think he's going to protect you now?” I ask bitterly. Stooping low, I scoot down so that I'm level with Jacob, eye to eye with the bastard who pinned me down and raped me. “I don't think so. See, you've always been a fucking coward, haven't you, Jake? Your strength and bravado are a pathetic act. Deep down, you've always been…this.”
He flinches at the raw disgust in my voice.
He doesn’t deny it. He doesn’t deny a single thing. He casts his gaze down at his hands, and he silently weeps.
34
ALEX
“I’m afraid you’ve caught me in the middle of a crisis,” Leon says, laughing shakily. His hands are steady on the