Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
I slip my belongings onto the shelf without looking and squat down, plucking a note off the ground to unfold it.
Hang the Pirate! it reads.
I laugh under my breath. I pick up another one and unfold it. Students probably slipped these through the vent.
We’re coming for you tonight.
The period at the end instead of an exclamation point really drives home the finality of the statement. It’s a fact, not a threat. I should be scared. Maybe I will be later.
Letting the notes fall, I swipe up another one. And then another.
You will never leave Weston.
Rich bitch.
Always Rebels.
Slut.
I drop each one, shaking my head as I pinch another one between my fingers, holding it open.
I’m going to kill you with my car.
My face falls a little. Okay, that was…specific.
I turn the paper over, seeing if there’s a name on it, but no one signed their handiwork on any of these little treats. I know they’re just trying to scare me, but that one was weird.
Slowly, I lift up another note.
I liked watching you this morning.
I narrow my eyes.
I study the words as my pulse kicks up a notch, and I read them again. Watching you this morning…
Remembering what I was doing in bed when the phone rang—what I was doing with Hunter sitting right there—I feel something crawl up my spine.
Even if Hunter registered what I was doing underneath the covers, he wouldn’t write this note.
But it looks like a guy’s writing. Blue ink, block letters, small. Jagged. Kind of like Kade and Hawke’s penmanship.
I turn the paper over.
She used to touch herself in that bed too.
Will you do it for me again tonight?
I drop the note.
I stare at the pile of papers.
It could be a coincidence. Maybe? Everyone knew where I slept last night. They could just be taking a shot in the dark. Messing with me.
I scoop all of the notes in my hands, crumpling them in my fists, and toss them onto the floor of my locker. I don’t want to keep them, but it’s evidence if any of these threats turn out to be real.
A shake rolls through my body, and I slam the door shut. I’ll do a better search of the house when I get back this afternoon.
I head to the cafeteria, noticing a Pirate skull and crossbones flag hanging upside down on the wall above some lockers.
I inhale a deep breath before I pull open the door. I don’t have anyone to sit with, even if Hunter does have this lunch period. He made that clear this morning.
I can’t hide out, though, either.
I walk in, my ears suddenly flooded with noise. Dozens of conversations go on to my left and right, the legs of tables and chairs meeting the floor as students sit or rise, and music plays somewhere, probably from someone’s phone.
And then, just like that, it starts to quiet.
Conversations fade, movement slows, and all I hear is the MXMS song playing from a table near the windows.
I scan from one side to the other, spotting Farrow and his crew at a table far to my right. Hunter sits on top of it, his foot propped up on the chair. A young woman stands close, between his legs.
Who…
But I turn away, grabbing a tray as I try to hide the lump rising up my throat. Is he seeing someone?
Waiting in the lunch line, I take a hamburger in a paper sleeve, moving for the carrots. The chatter starts picking up again, whispers mostly.
“Keep your voice down!” someone shouts behind me. “She’ll hear you!”
Laughter rolls across the cafeteria, and my back feels like it has a target on it. I exhale.
“Oh, don’t point at her like that!” another voice booms.
“Hey, hey, hey, Baby Trent,” a guy calls out.
Then others whistle.
I ignore it. I don’t like it, but I do like that Hunter is hearing all of it. He can’t escape my presence, whether he looks at me over the next two weeks or not.
I move down, taking an apple from the young woman on the other side.
I meet her eyes. “Thank you.”
“I’m good at it,” she says in a snide voice. “There’s nothing else for me, right?”
I hold her gaze for a moment, aware too late of the person stepping up and hacking up some spit before he drops it right on top of my hamburger.
I freeze for a second.
I guess my little monologue this morning has spread through the school.
“Rebel-lious for life,” the girl behind the counter taunts.
Farrow shows up at my side, laughing and pushing the guy away. He tosses my hamburger and grabs me another one. “Come on, guys,” he says. “We gotta keep her strength up. Let her eat.”
He puts an arm around me, but I shake him off as I follow him through the lunchroom.
“How was your morning?” he asks.