going to need this.”
I take the knife from him, and my arm throbs in response. The rumor at Prescott High is that my dad cut me up with this fucking thing. For once, the rumor is right. My father is a monster that deserves to be put in the ground; I’ve just been biding my time with him. Havoc is always busy, and there’s always something that needs doing. Looking at us now it isn’t hard to see that we’re being pushed to the edge of our abilities. But as soon as things slow down—and I know they will—I’m going to deal with my dad.
Bernadette Blackbird isn’t the only one who has a list.
I flip the knife around in my fingers, and then lift the blade to my lips, running my tongue along the side of it for dramatic effect. Cal rolls his eyes at me as Oscar appears at the top of the stairs, but I don’t care. Life has to be fun, or else it isn’t worth living.
And I’m really going to enjoy the look on Ophelia’s face when we snatch Aaron right out from under her. Because I know we will. Because no matter how bad things get, we always recover.
Right?
This time … isn’t allowed to be any different. We’ve all suffered enough tragedy; I’m not sure any of us would survive another.
Aaron Fadler
The next time Kali comes back into the room, she has a glass of water with her and some pills. I don’t like the idea of that, especially not after having just seen her drag her dead boyfriend out of the room and throw him down the stairs like so much trash.
She sits down beside me again, holding the pills and the water and watching me like something precious that needs to be locked up and kept a secret. Fuck my life. Her mouth is insanely swollen from what Stacy Langford and her girls did, but there’s also quite a bit of mottled bruising from when Bernadette smashed her face into the locker.
That almost makes me smile.
“I got you some ibuprofen,” she says, leaning forward to place the pills in my mouth. I let her do it, holding them under my tongue and intending to spit them out the first chance that I get. They might actually be painkillers, but also … they might not be. When she tries to get me to sip the water, it dribbles down my chin and soaks my shirt, making her frown. I pray that she’s stupid enough to take one of my arms out of the handcuffs, but I doubt it. She might be crazy, but she isn’t an idiot.
There is very clearly a plot here, one that’s been brewing for a while.
“Maybe a water bottle would work better?” I suggest, and she nods, standing up and moving out the door again. I take that opportunity to spit the pills onto the bed next to me, adjusting my body so that they’re as hidden as possible. She didn’t seem all that concerned about me actually taking them, so I’m guessing they really were painkillers.
I could use them, too. My entire body hurts; my leg is killing me. It’s clear that one of my eyes is swollen since my vision is distorted a bit. But I’ll worry about all of that later. Right now, my only concern is getting out of here, so I can make sure Bernadette is okay. Ophelia seemed to prefer leaving her alive—smart choice, honestly—but Kali … There was something about the look on her face that says she isn’t quite ready to retire the idea.
As requested, Kali brings the water bottle over to me and helps me drink before setting it aside on the nightstand. And then, much to my horror, she crawls onto the bed and straddles me.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask her as she runs her palms up my chest and makes my skin crawl. My heart begins to thunder, and I can feel beads of sweat breaking out on my forehead. No fucking way. No, no, no. This is not happening to me; I can’t let it happen.
“Aaron,” Kali says, digging her nails into my chest and grinding her hips against my crotch. My body shudders with revulsion, but when I try to struggle, all the movement does is jostle Kali around and make her smile. “We’ve known each other for a long, long time, haven’t we?”
“We have,” I manage to grind out, panic taking over me