“Yeah, well, you haven’t been here very long,” she says in a slightly offended tone. “Being under the East Marters’ protection is actually very valuable. They are one of the strongest gangs at this school—second only to the Vicious Crew. This town is dangerous, and it’s easy to get into trouble here. If you don’t have people protecting you, watching your back, you’re as good as dead.” I can hear a note of sadness in her voice. “And that girl, coming from the family that she does, she needs protection more than anyone—anyone except maybe you.”
“What kinds of things will she be asked to do?” I don’t know if I even want to know.
“It’s called the ‘Threesome Pact’ for a reason,” she says with a smirk.
That settles it. Without a word, I start pushing through the crowd. I can’t let her do this.
The other students shove back as I try to move through them, but I only push harder and quickly make it to the center. Being this close, I can see the unhinged look in Seth’s black eyes. His unnatural green hair looks even more garish in the sunlight. Standing next to Olivia, he’s absolutely massive compared to her small frame.
“Everyone say ‘hello’ to our newest property…” Seth announces to the crowd and all my big sister instincts scream at me to stop this. They scream at me to save her.
“—No!” Before I fully realize what I’m doing, I step into the center to stand next to Olivia.
She turns to look at me in surprise, and then embarrassment and horror quickly flash across her face.
“What are you doing?!” she hisses angrily.
“Saving you,” I whisper back, just as angry.
“I don’t need to be saved! I know what I’m doing.”
“No, you don’t. You have no idea how bad this is. I’m stopping you from fucking up your life.”
“This is none of your business—you aren’t Mom or Dad. Now go away! You’re embarrassing me!”
“Just because Mom and Dad bailed on you doesn’t mean I’m going to.”
The furious look suddenly starts to fade from her face as my words sink in. I stare into her eyes and a moment of understanding passes between the two of us.
“Sorry,” she whispers.
“It’s ok,” I whisper back—but it’s hard to speak around the lump in my throat.
“As touching as this is, could you guys have your little heart-to-heart some other time?—and make sure it actually involves touching next time.” Seth sticks out his tongue and leers at us and it makes my stomach turn. “Do it on your own fucking time. As I was saying, everyone welcome East Marters’ newest property, Olivia Hea—”
“No!” I yell. “She’s not doing it.”
Seth stops and looks down at me, the coldness behind his shark-like eyes makes me shiver. There’s something not all together human there. I can tell he’s pissed that I interrupted him and the other guys in his gang look annoyed too. I also know that the crowd is not sympathetic to Olivia and I, so we may be in big trouble.
He leans down into my face and I can smell his awful breath.
“It’s too late, it’s already done. She’s agreed to the pact and now she’s ours for the semester. There’s no backing out now.”
“She didn’t know what she was agreeing to.” I try helplessly to sound stronger than I feel.
“Too fucking bad for her.”
I look around desperately. Olivia is terrified. The gravity of the situation must finally be sinking in and she finally realizes what she just agreed to. All the other students are looking at me with a mix of annoyance and disgust. There’s no one to help me here, we are all alone.
I suddenly blurt out the only thing my desperate brain can think of.
“I’ll take her place.”
Olivia gasps and says, “No!”
Seth studies me for a couple seconds in surprise, before he leans back to stand up to his full height and lets out a long maniacal laugh.
“I love it. Sacrificing yourself for your sister. How fucking noble.” He leans back down to say quietly just to me. “I’ll make you regret being so fucking noble when you’re sucking my cock, spoiled bitch.”
My stomach turns in revulsion—and fear.
Seth turns back to the crowd and says, “Accepted. Everyone welcome our newest property, Addison Hea—”
“No.”
A commanding voice booms out from the crowd. Seth’s words sputter to a stop as he looks over in surprise. Everyone turns to look, but I don’t have to. I know who it belongs to. I’ve had the sounds of his deep, rumbling voice seared into my brain ever since he told me he hated me.
Seth catches himself and puffs his chest out to meet the new threat head-on.
“What the fuck you mean ‘no’?” Seth barks.
Daire steps out of the crowd and into the center. The other three members of the Vicious Crew move forward to flank him. The small circle is now filled with the five large members of the East Marters, the four huge guys from the Vicious Crew... and Olivia and I.
I’m aware of just how vulnerable we are—anything could happen to us. I move to stand in front of Olivia to try to protect her as much as I can. She grabs onto my arm and I feel that her palm is clammy with fear.
The guys are staring each other down and it looks like two groups of gladiators about to do battle—mean, heavily tattooed gladiators. It’s obvious from the way they are standing and the death stares they are leveling at one another, that these two groups hate each other. There’s clearly history there—brutal, vicious history.
There’s a long, tense moment where everyone is silent—no one in the crowd dares to speak even a word—until finally Daire says in a tone that’s calm, but you can tell that he is leaving no room for anyone to challenge him, “She’s ours.”
My head turns so fast to look at him that I think I give myself whiplash.
“The fuck she is,” Seth says angrily. “She volunteered for our Threesome Pact, so she’s ours.”
“We already claimed her, so it doesn’t matter if she volunteered,” Daire growls.
“When the fuck did that happen? I don’t remember you claiming any girls recently.” Seth is seething. He starts to pace back and forth. I can tell he hates being challenged and hates feeling like he’s not the one with all the power. He’s an unpredictable thug that wants to start swinging, but he’s holding himself back for some reason—then I remember what the girl in the crowd told me, “They are one of the strongest gangs at this school—second only to the Vicious Crew.” Seth’s holding himself back because even though the odds are in his favor—five to four—he isn’t sure he’ll win.
“We don’t have to run anything we do by you,” Daire says in a deadly voice. “I’m telling you she’s ours so that’s the end of the discussion.”
Seth takes a menacing step towards him, but Daire doesn’t even flinch. The rest of the Vicious Crew move closer, clearly sending a message that they are going to fight with Daire no matter what. The rest of the East Marters are on edge, ready to fight, but they also look like they don’t really want Seth to continue to antagonize Daire.