Dante, I wish you were here now. I wish I could curl up in your arms and hear you tell me that everything is going to be okay.
The rats in the walls circled around my head. Above the steady scritch-scritch, I could hear thumps and shouts as the rich students returned to their dorms after dinner. My stomach rumbled. I hoped I didn’t miss roast beef. I just couldn’t face everyone’s eyes on me today, the awkward dance of figuring out where to sit, especially after they’d all seen me coming out of Ayaz’s room, my hair all rumpled, wearing his t-shirt.
Footsteps sounded in the hall. “Hazel?” It was Greg. “You missed dinner two nights in a row. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I stared at the wardrobe I’d pulled in front of the door to keep out Courtney. “I’m just tired.”
“You didn’t come back for dinner last night, and you’ve been avoiding me all day.” There was a pause. “I heard you were in Ayaz’s dorm. Care to explain, honey?”
“Not really.”
“Hazel, can you open the door?” Greg sounded really upset. “I’d really like to talk to you. We could even go for a walk. The teachers are all at a faculty meeting tonight, so the place is pretty quiet.”
“Not right now.”
Greg stayed outside my door for a couple of minutes, then I heard his footsteps retreating down the hall to his room. The sun dipped below my window. I stared at the books stacked on my desk. I still had to write up the conclusion for the history assignment. Ayaz had given me the job once he acknowledged I was the superior writer. I shuddered at the memory of how my skin glowed from his praise. I was sick, chasing after the approval of those guys who were plotting something so terrible they needed a whole secret society in on the joke.
A fist pounded on my door, startling me from my stupor. I rubbed my eyes. I’d fallen asleep still wearing my skirt and Ayaz’s t-shirt. A whiff of his spicy scent wafted off it and caught me under the nose, causing an ache to tear through my chest. “Greg, I mean it. What part of ‘fuck off’ don’t you understand?”
“Hazel.”
I knew that voice anywhere.Ayaz.I sat up, noticing the time on Loretta’s ancient alarm clock, which for some reason had remained behind when she moved into her upstairs dorm. 1:22AM. Why would Ayaz be knocking on my door in the middle of the night?
Why would he use my name like that, his voice rising with fear?
I sat up, hugging my knees to my chest. My heart thudded. “What do you want?”
“Open the door. You have to come with me.Now.”
“You didn’t say please.”
“Hazel, this isn’t a joke.”
“No, it’s not. Fuck off, Ayaz. I don’t have to do anything with you or for you.”
“Just open the door.”
The desperation in his voice chilled me. What could make Ayaz lose his cool like that? I had to know, but that didn’t mean I was going to trust him. I pulled the piece of glass out from beneath my mattress and held it in my hand as I shoved the wardrobe aside and opened the door a crack.
Ayaz stood in the hall, holding an old-fashioned lantern with a flickering flame inside. He smirked at the glass in my hand. “You going to give me a haircut with that puny thing? Come on.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“You will if you want to live through the night.”
What?
I reeled at his words. “Is that a threat?”
“Nope. A promise.” He held up a lantern, the flames flickering over his muscled torso. “But not from me. We’ve got to be quick. They’re coming for you.”
“Ayaz, what’s this about? Who’s coming for me, Courtney? Is this the big prank you and the guys have been working on, because…”
My words died in my throat as Ayaz lifted the lantern, illuminating his features. Something burned in his eyes that I’d never seen before.Fear.
Ayaz, one of the rulers of the school, was truly afraid. Of what, I didn’t know. But it sure as fuck wasn’t me.
I stepped back and slid the glass into my skirt pocket. I yanked a hoodie off the end of my bed and pulled it over his shirt. “Fine. But one false move from you and I’ll cut your pretty face.”
