Thankfully, the house is empty as we walk inside and head upstairs. We go into my room, and I pull the bag out of my pocket. Taking the heroin out, Knox watches me intently as I go into the bathroom and flush it down the toilet. Then, I pull out some of my own money to pay for the now disposed-of drugs.
“He has no idea you're doing that, does he?” he questions.
“No,” I answer. “But as long as he gets his money, there's no reason he should find out. I just can't find it in me to ruin some innocent freshman's life by getting them hooked on that garbage.”
He hums. “Always such a hero.”
A dry laugh bubbles out of me. “And yet I can't save the one girl I want to rescue the most.”
We both sit on my bed, and I cradle my head in my hands. No matter what goes through my mind, what solutions I come up with, they never work. Everything ends with one or both of us dead.
I never should have let her be on my radar. Maybe then, Blade wouldn't even have looked in her direction. But I was stupid, and I exposed the fact that she's important. And he's a fucking leech who will feed off anything he can to get his way.
“What the hell do I do, man?” I lay back on my bed.
Knox sighs heavily. “Honestly? You're not going to like it.”
Great. “I don't like any of this, so just tell me.”
He looks down at me. “You need to treat her like she means nothing to you.”
“What?”
“And you need to make it so she hates you even more than she already does. Blade has to honestly believe she's useless to you, and you have to do it before she becomes valuable to him.”
He's right.
I don't like it.
The stadium is filling quickly, with students and other fans filtering in. I reach up and make sure my hair is perfect and my uniform is flat. Not that I'd be able to fix it now, if it wasn't, but it's all part of the process. Chrissy is a total stickler when it comes to our look, and if she saw me with a wrinkled uniform, she'd probably off me.
We've been rehearsing stunts for the last week now, and today, I'll finally be able to show them off. To say I'm excited would be an understatement. Though, I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed. I asked Blade to come, but he said that football games just aren't his thing.
“Are you nervous?” Kennedy asks me.
I shake my head. “I think I've got it pretty much down.”
“Really? You're not afraid you'll slip and fall on your face in front of thousands of people?”
My stomach churns. “Well, I wasn't, but I am now.”
She chuckles and gives me her most innocent smile. “I'm just messing with you. You'll do great.
We both will.”
I'm stretching out my legs to make sure I'm as ready as I can be when I notice Kennedy looking around for something. Before I get a chance to ask what it is, she finds it and perks up.
“Look,” she gleams. “It's your brother. Let's go say hi.”
I glance over to find Easton standing there with both Zayn and Knox. I didn't even know Knox was back in town. He only went back to school a few weeks ago. Then again, maybe him visiting often is a thing they do. No one ever thought he would leave North Haven, so it's not surprising that he'd come back a lot.
“You go ahead.”
Kennedy sticks her bottom lip out. “No. Come with me.”
I shake my head. “He's obviously not here to see me, and things between Zayn and me aren't exactly on good terms after the other day.”
She sighs heavily. “Maybe not, but do you really want to be the girl who avoids people because she's pissed at one person?”