When I glanced back at my locker, the thing was slithering toward a corner of the hall.
Away from me.
Thankfully.
I sucked in a relieved breath and closed my eyes as my panic subsided.
That’s when my embarrassment set in as I heard the first laugh bubble up around me. I knew when I opened my eyes, they would all be staring. A hallway full of my classmates would be ready to get the best of their Sophomore Kill Day prank.
One chuckle I heard distinctly though. It was low, melodic like a siren’s song, beautiful enough to lure someone in, but dangerous enough to ruin them as well.
When I searched out that laugh, I found him. Jax stood in the middle of his friends and slapped one of them on the back. “How’d you get Ms. Gering’s snake in there? You went above and beyond, man. Above and beyond.”
They high fived, and I saw red.
I shot up, snake and embarrassment completely forgotten, and stomped toward them.
They both stopped laughing as I shoved in between them and looked up at Jax.
His friend said from behind me, “Welcome back. Don’t take offense, Sophomore Kill Day applies to everyone.”
I wasn’t paying him any attention. My tunnel vision was aimed directly at the boy in front of me whom I wanted to hate so badly but had a crush on instead. We were a breath apart, and I could smell his spearmint mixed with some sort of sandalwood aftershave.
I hated how he treated me, and I hated how I didn’t hate that smell.
“Do you have no shame?” I seethed, looking up at him.
His hand shot out, too quickly for me to dodge, and ran through my hair.
The angry red that I saw melted to black and white as I realized my bun must have come loose when I’d fallen. The rage pumping through my veins turned ice cold as Jax’s gaze—always so calculated—flashed so many emotions in a second, I couldn’t read even one.
Jax whispered so softly that I barely heard it, “Your hair, Peaches, what happened to your beautiful hair?”
The tears that hadn’t come in days, that hadn’t fallen when I combed my newly short hair or when I looked in the mirror or even from the embarrassment of falling in front of everyone at school, began to fall then.
I started to curl in on myself.
I felt my heart seizing from the cold in my veins, everything was black and white but him and me, and I wanted so badly to just tell someone.
To tell him.
I was ready to give in.
An unlikely ally showed up to save me from spilling my secrets. She had bright yellow and black hair, chopped lethally right at her chin. She looked like a bumblebee ready to sting when she stepped in front of Jax and shoved his hand away from me. “You are a piece of shit, Jax Stonewood,” she seethed.
People were looking on, and I realized I’d lost a few tears in front of them. I turned away from them and toward her. This girl stood tall, ready to go to war for me even though we’d never talked before. Her anger radiated through the hall, blinding us with its brilliance.
“Next time you want to take Ms. Gering’s snake, I’ll make sure there’s a poisonous one to inflict some serious pain on you. Get off your high fucking horse for once and act your age.”
Everyone stood by silently, probably in a little shock that this girl was attempting to tell off the most popular people in our school.
Then, the guy who’d slapped Jax’s hand before stepped forward. “Katie, it was just a joke. It's Sophomore Kill Day.”
Katie just scoffed at him. “What are you? Ten? Don’t come near me after school today, Nate. We are done.”
Then, to my surprise, Nate looked crushed and stepped toward her. “Please, Katie ...”
She just held up her hand and turned to look around on the floor. She saw the snake had slithered to a corner and badass that this Katie was, she hunched over and held out her hand. The snake slid up onto it and wrapped itself around her wrist.