“Who fed our dog?” Devlin demands, not even bothering to watch the public shaming his cousin ordered. No one answers, but a group of popular girls laugh nervously.
“You?” he asks, his gaze fixed on them with maliciousness that makes me scared for them. Yeah, they pulled a shitty prank to humiliate me, but I have a feeling they’re about to get something a lot worse than a locker full of dogfood.
“It was just a joke,” Lacey says at last.
“Am I laughing?” Devlin asks, his voice quiet but thunderous. His fingers are shaking with barely contained fury, and it strikes me how completely unhinged this guy is. If he looked crazy when he was holding me by the throat, all cool and calculating, now he looks… Straight psycho, batshit crazy, insane. I’m suddenly afraid for Lacey. True, she’s a bitch, but even bitches have dignity.
“It’s not that big a deal,” I say quickly.
“Quiet,” Devlin orders, giving me a little shake. Staring at Lacey and her friends, he holds out his other hand. “Give me your dolls.”
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
“What? No,” Lacey cries, her eyes going wide and her fingers flying to her throat.
“We didn’t mean anything by it,” another girl says, sounding close to tears. She shoots me a look of sheer panic, as if I can save her from the fate she chose.
“You’re not worthy of Dolly’s legacy,” Devlin says.
“It was Lacey’s idea,” whines another girl.
“And you went along with it,” Colt says. “You really shouldn’t have fucked with our puppy.”
Devlin narrows his eyes at the girl. “You’re weak. Not one of you deserves to be a Doll.”
“I’m sorry,” the girl whimpers, tears pooling in her eyes as she pulls a necklace from inside her shirt. A tiny crystal ballerina hangs on the silver chain. Her hand is visibly shaking as she drops it into Devlin’s outstretched palm. She shoots me one withering, hateful look before wiping her tears.
“I left mine at home,” says another girl, her voice trembling.
“Go get it,” Devlin says. “Until you get back, your friends will be feasting.”
“What?” Lacey asks, looking horrified. “I can’t dogfood. I’m a Darling Doll!”
“Not anymore,” Devlin says, a sadistic spark of triumph in his eyes as he wraps his hand around the three ballerina pendants.
“But… I’m gluten free,” she protests.
“On your hands and knees,” Devlin says slowly, a cruel smile twisting his lips. “All three of you will eat like dogs until she gets back.”
“Hurry,” says another girl, and the one who left her necklace at home turns and sprints down the hall toward the exit.
Preston’s hand lazily moves to his crotch, giving himself a stroke through his slacks. “I’ve got something else you can do on your knees if you’d rather.”
“No,” Devlin snaps. “They’ll clean up the mess they made.”
I feel sick as I watch the three girls sink to their knees in the dogfood kernels. I must not be alone, as there is no more laughter. The hall is silent as we watch Lacey put a single pellet between her trembling lips and begin to chew.
“That’s not how dogs eat,” Preston says, holding up his phone to film the scene. “Get your ass in the air and pick it up off the floor with those pretty lips you like to use so much.”
For a moment, Lacey’s eyes catch on me, and she glares at me with such intense hatred I shrink back. With a hiccupping breath, she lowers her mouth to the floor and gets a kernel between her lips. As she chews, the crunch echoes through the silence, and a tear trickles down her cheek. She sniffs and picks up another piece, more tears coming now. The other girls are crying, too, all of them silently eating the dogfood they filled my locker with as a hateful, ugly prank.
I can’t help but feel horrified at the pitiful sight of them eating dogfood off the floor. I don’t like bullies, but I don’t like this, either.
“I think that’s enough,” I say. “You’ve proved your point.”
Devlin spins around, pinning me to the lockers with his body. He leans on the metal with both elbows, caging me in. My breath comes faster as our bodies make contact, a contact that feels dangerously good in this bizarre situation, as if he’s somehow a comfort instead of a threat.
“You’ve completely missed the point,” he growls. “I say when it’s enough. What I say goes in this school. Not you, and not your city-boy brothers. Me.”