Isaiah laughed, and Gemma smacked his stomach. “Hearing you say that is hilarious. But you’ve got it. We’ve already threatened them. No one will risk getting in trouble. The SMC has been a little bitch lately, huh?” He glanced at Mercedes. “No offense. I know your parents are on the committee.”
She shrugged. “None taken.”
Just as the headmaster explained that everyone needed to get back to the school so word didn’t get around that a bunch of students were hanging out at his house after curfew, Shiner walked back into the room holding an entire bag of chips in his hand.
“Did you guys find anyone?” he asked, acting like he owned the place. “There was nothing suspicious when I walked the girls up here. I did a perimeter check of the house, too. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
The headmaster stole the bag of chips from Shiner’s hand, and he huffed, licking his fingers.
“Alright, everyone out, except for Journey. I would like a word alone with her.”
Just as everyone began to shuffle toward the door, I surprised myself. “No.”
“No?” Cade repeated, looking down at me. His head tilted, wanting me to explain.
I shrugged, squeezing my hand tight around the wet rag. “If you are all risking your lives by searching the school and escorting me through freezing temperatures, I think it’s okay for you to know what's really going on.”
Silence followed my profound words that felt confident coming from my mouth, but after looking at everyone’s faces, I dropped my shoulders. “You guys already know, don’t you?”
“Not everything,” Gemma was quick to say. “But we do know that you’re in danger, and trust me when I say, I’ve been there.”
The headmaster waited a few seconds before rubbing a hand over his scruffy face. “All I really wanted to do was say I was sorry.”
“Sorry?” Cade asked. “For?”
The headmaster didn’t stop staring at me. “I told you that you were safe here, and you aren’t.”
It wasn’t a surprise. I knew I wasn’t safe. I had been attacked here once and now attacked again.
“Maybe not,” I whispered. “But I’m probably safer here than anywhere else, right?”
The Rebels all answered at the same time. “Right.”
That was the last thing said as we all piled out of the headmaster’s house together and headed back down to the school.
As soon asBrantley gave us the go-ahead, we all went back into our rightful dorm rooms—with the exception of Isaiah and Gemma going back to his room, and Cade coming into mine. Sloane rolled her eyes at us and said, “This school should come with a warning label. Warning: your daughters will end up spending the night with boys who have smart mouths and a penchant for rule-breaking.”
Shiner threw his head back and laughed. “No, it should say, Warning: the girls will corrupt your sons and beg them to sneak into their rooms late at night for a good time, only to pretend they don’t want them the next day.”
Mercedes scoffed before shutting her door, and Sloane's eyes narrowed. “Are you fucking around with Mercedes?”
“Come on,” Cade said, pulling me back gently and shutting my door. His hands rested on my hips as I stared at the oak wood, and he slowly spun me around and stared down into my eyes. “Are you okay?”
“You already asked me that,” I countered, avoiding answering him.
“And you lied to me.”
“I didn’t lie. Compared to a little while ago, I am okay.”
His hands left my hips, and he cupped my cheeks, keeping this face nice and smooth while I fought to keep my chin from wobbling. I was attacked. I was almost taken. The fear and anxiety that I had been pushing away was making itself present, and I didn’t like it. There was something buried deep within that told me I couldn’t show my real feelings. It might have been PTSD from the psych ward where they begged me to tell them how I was feeling, and when I did, they invalidated my response and told me I was lying. Maybe I was wounded from that. Jaded from my time away where I acted stronger than I really was.
“You know, you don’t have to pretend around me,” Cade whispered, rubbing the pads of his thumbs over my cheeks in a comforting way. I wanted to fall into his arms and stay there forever, because the truth was, I didn’t feel safe on my own. I was confused and frustrated, but most of all, I was terrified.
“I know.” I sniffed. Dropping my gaze to the floor, it grew blurry, and the area behind my eyes pricked like little needles stabbing them.
“Let’s go get a shower and wash this blood off you, yeah?”
I nodded as Cade dropped his hands, leaving our conversation unfinished. Cade had a way of knowing exactly what I needed at exactly the right time. Although I was secretive, and sometimes I felt like I didn’t even know myself, it seemed he knew me down to my core.