There are kids everywhere when we pull into the parking lot.
Harley and Ruby jump out, more than ready to get started on the new semester, whereas I move with a little less enthusiasm.
Eyes move over to the three of us. It’s normal. Ruby and Harley have been appointed into Rosewood royalty with their squad places. That uniform means that everyone now wants to be their friend in order to improve their own social status or they just want to fuck them so they can brag.
I’m used to that kind of behavior. I’ve dealt with it for years.
I’m related to the king of Rosewood after all. Jake Thorn is Rosewood High. The girls all want him, the guys all want to stand beside him, and everyone bows at his feet seeing as he led the team all the way to the top last year.
And no one wants to be Jake’s little bitch more so than Preston.
He might have things that Jake never did. The money, the mansion, the daddy who gives him whatever his black little heart desires, but he’s missing one big thing that he’s desperate for.
Respect.
He might think he’s a little version of Jake hanging out with his JV teammates and playing the part of being important, but the reality is that no one likes him. And if someone were to take away his skill on the field, they’d drop him faster than he thinks is even possible.
He spends his time forcing people to grant him the position as the leader of the junior class but really his rule is all about fear.
Everyone is scared of him. He’s a loose cannon. One minute he can be completely normal, just your average school kid, and the next he’s like the devil incarnate.
My skin prickles as we walk inside the building and toward our lockers.
He’s here, I know he is. But then, I expected it. Since Jake and the Bears won the championship, his reign of terror has stepped up a notch.
He wants to be captain next year and for some fucked-up reason, he thinks I can convince Jake to give it to him.
What he doesn’t seem to realize is that Jake would never listen to football advice from me, or anyone for that fact. He has his own opinions and ideas for his team and his word goes. He’s not going to care what his little football-hating cousin thinks.
I roll my eyes at myself and the whole situation. If it weren’t so insane, I might care more but at this point, I figure I just need to put up with him. One day I’ll walk away from this place and never have to look him in his dead eyes again.
“Ew, what the fuck is that smell?” Harley complains when I open my locker.
My own stomach turns as it hits me, and I almost puke on my feet.
“I have no idea,” I admit, my watery eyes landing on a lunch bag on top of the books I left here over the holidays.
They both lean in closer to get a look at what’s causing the stench.
“Maybe I left my lunch here,” I say with a shrug, knowing that it’s not true but I may as well try.
“What the hell were you going to eat, a dead bird?” Ruby deadpans.
Her suggestion of a dead animal makes me heave as I remember walking out to feed Smidge, Austin and Sofia’s rabbit, a few days before we finished school for the holidays to find the cage open.
I shouted at them for not closing it properly the last time they played with her, which only made them cry harder and for me to feel like the worst sister in the world.
But it wasn’t them.
My stomach turns over.
Motherfucker.
My hands tremble with the realization that he’s been at the house. In the past, everything he’s done, any interaction between us has been at or around school. He’s never once sought me out at home before.
The sweet faces of my siblings run through my mind. I can’t let him anywhere near them.
“Well, whatever it is, you need to get rid of it. It’s stinking up the entire hallway.”
I look over my shoulder to see people starting to look this way with their lips curled in disgust.
“Great.” Reaching inside my locker, I hold my breath as I pick up the bag and bring it closer.
“Oh my God, that’s vile,” Ruby mutters, covering her face with her hand.
I can’t argue. It’s repulsive.
Right as I turn to hotfoot it outside to the nearest trash can, I spot him.
He’s standing right in the doorway—of course he is—totally blocking my exit with a smug smirk playing on his lips.
Kids around us seem to stop talking as they look between the two of us. It’s no secret that there’s no love lost between me and Preston. Unlike most of the kids around me, I’m one of the only ones who doesn’t go running when he so much as looks at me.
When I said that I’ve refused to back down over the years, I mean it.
Preston Hellburn is no better than me. So what, his daddy has money and he lives in one of Rosewood’s biggest houses? I don’t care that he can throw a football better than most. To me, he is just a person. A rotten one at that, and there’s no way I’m cowering to him just because he thinks he deserves it.
Holding my head up high and with the possible remains of our beloved pet rabbit in the bag I’m holding, I walk toward him.
Predictably, he doesn’t move.
“Excuse me.” There is no politeness to my tone. It’s cold, harsh, exactly the way he deserves to be spoken to.
“Make me.” His voice is low, ensuring no one else would be able to hear.
My teeth grind as he stands before me unmoving, totally unfazed by my presence.
The air crackles between us, pure hatred firing off.
There’s movement behind me, but I don’t look to see what’s going on. I soon discover who’s joined us though because Preston smiles down at me. There’s no happiness in it, I don’t think this guy has ever been happy, it’s full of malice and abhorrence. But only a second later, he steps aside and allows me to pass.
“Everything okay?” a familiar voice booms down the hallway. I want to feel relief, but I don’t. The last thing I need is Jake getting involved in this. Preston is trying to use me to get to him. I refuse to allow it to happen.
“Of course. Poppy was just taking out the trash.”
He nods to his little pathetic group of followers and they all take off in the opposite direction, allowing me to run outside and dump the bag.
As I run for the bathroom, the vile scent lingers in my nose. Slamming the door back against the stall, I drop to my knees and heave.
No one bothers to check that I’m okay. I’m not sure if that’s because the smell is clinging to my clothes and skin or just because they don’t care. Either way, it’s nothing new. I like living my life mostly in the shadows.
The only people I really expect to follow are Harley and Ruby, but they’ve got their own lives now, they hang out with the team and squad. And I’m more than happy for them to go off and do that. I have no intention of joining that crowd.
I know the three of us are unlikely friends with them craving the cheer spotlight and me hiding, but our friendship runs deeper than our hobbies. I don’t know what it is but it’s there and it means everything to me. It’s why I’m not worried about their rise to fame within the Rosewood hierarchy. They won’t forget me.
I wipe my mouth with some tissue and flush the toilet. I might have lost my breakfast thanks to that prick but I don’t feel any better.