“Good to have you back.”
I smile.
Rafael takes me out to the courtyard to chain-smoke before class. It’s my first day back, but I feel surprisingly calm about it. We sit with a few boys I haven’t met before, and to my great surprise Rafael introduces them as his friends.
“Since when do you have friends? Multiples?” I hiss at him when a couple of them stand up to take a piss break.
He keeps his face empty, but I can tell he’s pleased.
“You’re not the only one with a double life, I guess,” he says, quietly. “Don’t tell me you’re so obsessed with me that you can’t handle having to share?”
My jaw drops open, but I’m not given the chance to protest before the boys return.
I stay silent while he talks to them, feeling slightly embarrassed and yet, at the same time, proud to be included. I’ve known Rafael for quite a while now. This is the first time he’s introduced me to anyone he’s described as a “friend”.
And from the way they’re treating me, I’m not just Rafael’s annoying roommate. The boy Alex, marked by The Brotherhood.
They do, however, all think I’m a klutz, but hey—they’re not exactly wrong.
I’m thankful when Rafael deems I’ve had enough cigarettes. I’m so tired of the hot smoke wafting down my throat.
“I’ve got math first today,” I tell Rafael, shuffling back up to my feet with a little sigh of discomfort. The bandages beneath my clothes are stifling.
He nods and takes another drag. “All right. I’ll see you for second period, then.”
“See ya, Alex,” says one of Rafael’s friends, a boy they call Fox for some reason.
“See ya,” I respond shyly.
I’m not used to people here besides Rafael being anything resembling nice to me, so I’m awfully wary, but as I walk away, I feel a little sad that I have to leave that protective bubble. I could use more friends like Rafael, people who watch out for me, at least … as best as they can. Especially since math is going to be dangerous. I share it with the entire Brotherhood, after all.
And by now, they must be thirsty for blood.
Beck, Heath, and Jasper are already there when I walk in. All three of them look up at me with their usual glares, but Heath’s is especially intense today. The weight of it makes a bead of sweat trickle down my forehead as I scurry to my seat.
Scurry, like a rat.
And those three boys are hungry cats. Or eagles. Some sort of predator. And I … I am nothing. I melt under the weight of their gaze until I can’t help but glance back up to meet it, however briefly.
That’s where I make my mistake.
I remember, immediately, why no one’s really able to stand up to them.
It would be easy to chastise them, demonize them, view them for the bullies they are … if it weren’t for the fact that they just don’t look the part. They’re more cherub than devil, and they know it. Every smug, entitled line of their faces knows it.
The betraying butterflies in my stomach know it.
When the professor enters the room, Jasper leans over his work and I can see the corded muscles running down his arms. Heath lowers his gaze to his desk, and his eyelashes curve beautifully against his cheek. And of course there’s Beck, the tallest of them, with his razor-sharp cheekbones a striking take on the classic kind of handsome.
Stop it, I chide myself, returning to my work. They may look heaven sent, but they’re going to take you to hell. And there’s no guarantee I’m going to make it back.
What did it take, three days away from their constant torment for me to forget the monsters they are?
Even still … it can’t hurt to look, can it?
My desk is, unfortunately, close enough for them to easily jostle me and drop their textbooks on my feet—which Heath does as soon as the professor’s done explaining the worksheet we’re given. I hiss in pain and yank my feet back.
He stares empty-eyed daggers at me.