The Weight of the Stars - K. Ancrum Page 0,26

scrambled to her feet. She strode to the door and knocked on it, but there was no answer. She twisted the handle. It was locked. “Shannon, are you okay?”

When there were just more muffled noises in response, Ryann yanked open a nearby desk drawer and pulled out a letter opener.

“What are you doing?” Carolina asked.

Ryann didn’t reply. She jammed the letter opener in the door hinge and hit the end of it with the back of her beer bottle. Then she turned the letter opener roughly until the nails fell out, and then pulled the entire door off the door frame. Ryann froze, blinking, trying to process what she was looking at.

Shannon was thrashing under Connor, trying to push him off her. Her blue eyes were wide with panic. Connor turned, startled by the unexpected noise and light.

Ryann yanked Connor off Shannon and backhanded him so hard his lip instantly split.

Alexandria rushed past her to help Shannon up, but Ryann couldn’t concentrate on that right now. She could vaguely hear Shannon gasping through the haze of rage as Ryann kicked Connor in the kneecap to bring him down. She landed hard on his chest and began punching him in the face and throat. He started to push her off, so Ryann curled both her legs over his arms and continued bashing in his face.

After a couple moments of shouting, several hands wrapped around her and dragged her off him.

Ryann turned around, ready to fight whoever was holding her, but it was only a white-faced Carolina and a furious Franklin.

“GET OFF ME,” Ryann shouted. “I’LL KILL HIM!”

“You can’t—you’ll get in more trouble than he will!” Carolina begged.

Franklin let go of Ryann’s arm. Then he lunged forward and punched Connor in the side of the head, knocking him out cold.

“Someone get Ahmed,” he said, chest heaving. He stared down at Connor in shock. “I’m so, so sorry Shannon, I didn’t know he was capable of that.”

Ryann snatched her arm out of Carolina’s grip and turned to look for Shannon, but she and Alexandria were gone.

11 MINUTES AND 14 SECONDS

Someone called the cops.

Two of them manhandled Tomas up the stairs and waited while he announced that the party was over. Franklin came down the stairs with an even bloodier Connor, who was standing on his own two feet and avoiding eye contact with everyone. He walked past the cops, who only gave him a cursory glance. That made Ryann see red again, and she started after him.

She was almost out the door when one of the officers placed a meaty hand on her shoulder and whirled her around.

“You got anywhere to be, Bird?”

Ryann had a history with cops. She didn’t know this one’s face, but the officer knew her name, which was never a good sign. The other officer turned his eyes in Ryann’s direction as well.

“Heard you’ve been fighting tonight,” he said, narrowing his eyes.

Ryann smacked the cop’s hand off her shoulder and opened her mouth to make a big mistake. But Alexandria and Shannon appeared next to her and stopped it.

“We’re waiting for my dad to pick us all up. She was just showing me around,” Alexandria said, coolly gazing into the officer’s eyes.

The second officer’s belt creaked as he put a threatening hand on the leather. “And who are you, now?”

Tomas jogged over. “Hey—hey heyheyheyhey. Please, no. I’ll give you two hundred dollars each to just let everyone go home. Party’s over. Everything’s fine, right?”

The cops glanced at each other, then pocketed the cash.

“Last time, kid,” the first one said as he jabbed a finger into the center of Tomas’s chest. “Or your parents will come back to you in a cell.”

They took one last look around the place and then walked out.

“Yeah, thanks, okay. Alwaysnicetoseeyoubye.” Tomas closed his eyes and leaned heavily against the door.

7 MINUTES

“Are you okay?”

Ryann reached up to touch Shannon’s face, but she flinched away.

“Don’t … just don’t touch her right now,” Ahmed said gently. “I heard you savaged Connor and ripped a door off the hinges, Ryann?”

“Yes. And I’ll do it again when we get back to school,” Ryann promised.

“You can’t,” Tomas said flatly. “His dad’s a cop. Why do you think he just walked out of here like it was nothing? Those ten minutes of justice are the only justice he’s going to get, probably.”

“I heard Franklin choked him out, too,” Shannon said quietly.

“That’s not enough—” Ryann started.

“It’s not Franklin’s fault,” Shannon said firmly.

Ryann scowled at that, privately disagreeing, then turned to Alexandria. “Is