“What the hell does that mean?” I asked, pulling back like I’d been scalded.
I knew I shouldn’t have touched him. I’d allowed my anger to get the best of me, and I couldn’t let it happen again. Not if I was ever going to live down the ‘Crazy Kinsey’ nickname that was doing the rounds thanks to that stupid Dirt post.
Jax leaned his head closer to mine. “It means I’ve got my eye on you now that you’ve decided to stay instead of listening to my warning,” he said. “But there’s still time for you to go home. I’m sure your trashy old school won’t care if you miss a few days at the start.”
“God, you’re such a prick,” I hissed.
Before I could say anything else, a stern-looking teacher arrived. “Excuse me, what’s happening here?” she asked, sticking one foot in the small space between me and Jax so we were forced to move away from each other.
“He trashed my locker,” I said, pointing across the hall.
The teacher turned to look. “Oh, my. How terrible,” she said, forehead crinkling as she took in the nasty scene. She looked back at me. “Kinsey Holland, isn’t it? Our new girl?”
“That’s right.”
She gave me a sympathetic half-smile. “This is an awful thing that’s happened, and I’ll certainly look into it for you, but you should know your stepbrother isn’t responsible.”
“He’s not my stepbrother,” I said, wrinkling my nose.
“I’m not her stepbrother,” Jax bit out at the exact same time.
The teacher pursed her lips. “Right. Anyway, what I meant to say is that Jax can’t be responsible for this incident,” she said, motioning to my locker. “He had a clash on his timetable which involved my class, so he was in my office getting that sorted over the last half-hour. He only left a couple of minutes ago, so he couldn’t possibly have done this.”
“But he—”
The teacher cut me off. “Like I said, we’ll look into it, but false accusations don’t help anyone,” she said sharply. “Now, the bell is about to ring, so you need to get your things and head to your homeroom. I’d also like to remind you not to shout at people in the halls, even if you think they’ve done something bad. That’s not how we treat others here at CPA. Understood?”
“Yes,” I muttered, cheeks warming with a mixture of anger and humiliation.
Jax smirked at me from behind the teacher’s back. The triumphant gleam in his eyes told me that the paint and creepy photo on my locker was definitely his idea. He must’ve had someone else do it for him while he created an alibi for himself with the timetable meeting in the teacher’s office.
He lifted a hand in a mocking wave, lips still twisted with cruel amusement. Then he turned and sauntered down the hall.
I clenched my hands into fists and stared after him, eyes narrowing.Game on, motherfucker.
5
Kinsey
Thick clouds had rolledinto town off the ocean, and the air on campus was crisp and biting. The creeping cold didn’t match my warm, buoyant mood at all.
In a twist I hadn’t seen coming, my life at the academy had done a complete one-eighty after my awful first day. I’d fully expected a death spiral leading to me becoming a permanent outcast, but instead the horror show had abruptly ended after that first Monday. No one laughed or sneered at me in the halls anymore. No one called me ‘Crazy Kinsey’ or ‘CK’ for short. No one scribbled anything new on my locker or posted threatening images of me.
A month had flown by now, and while I wouldn’t describe myself as popular, I certainly wasn’t the outcast I’d expected to be. I’d grown close to Erin—who’d received the stamp of approval from Jess when she visited last weekend—and the vast majority of students were civil to me. A few guys had even asked me out.
The only people who were still actively hostile toward me were Jax and Cerina. Cerina and her minions didn’t do much, though. It was mostly glares and whispers when we passed each other in the halls or cafeteria. I could handle that.
As for Jax, he never spoke to me, unless it was to stiffly ask me to pass the salt at the dinner table. I kept catching him staring at me with a hateful gleam in his eye, too. Again, I could handle that. His glares couldn’t strike me dead like a laser beam, and I actually preferred it when he didn’t speak to me.
Besides, I had some dirt on him now. Real dirt.
Given his obvious hatred for me, I’d refused to drop my guard around him, even when his friends started being nice to me. He was one of the most popular guys in school, so if he wanted to destroy my life, he could easily do so. That first Monday was clearly just a taste to give me an idea of what things could be like for me if I ever stepped a toe out of line. So, I’d decided to play the game and get myself some leverage, just in case that day ever came.
If push came to shove, I wouldn’t hesitate to use that leverage.
“How are things with Jax?” Erin asked as we trudged down the path toward the archery range. It was like she’d read my mind. Or maybe I just spent far too much of my time thinking about Jax.
Ugh.