“How the fuck did the four of you get beat up by one person?” Dex asks, causing Danny to punch him in the stomach.
“Ouch.” Dex rubs the abused area.
“Can we finally do what we came here for, please?” Anneli asks in annoyance. She’s the no-nonsense one of the group and has had it with their bullshit.
Dex takes his laptop out of his carrying case and places it on the hood of the Mustang.
“Watch me work my magic,” he says.
He cracks his knuckles before getting to work. Dex is a phenomenal hacker. His job for tonight is to disable McKinley’s alarm system and video feed so there’s no evidence of who vandalized the school. Once it’s clear, Josh will use a drill to get through the lock.
“Zeke, do you have the mice?” Josh asks.
“Yeah, I’ve been catching these little motherfuckers in the barn for the last few weeks. I have a big tub filled with them in the truck.”
“And I have the liquid skunk essence,” Danny adds. He unscrews the top and takes a whiff. “This shit smells like donkey ass,” he says.
Bri walks over to Art and attempts to engage in conversation with him, but his attention is on me. It’s unnerving. She struts in front of him, flirting outrageously while flipping her hair. Lilah looks like she wants to bite her head off.
“Hurry the hell up, Dex. We don’t have all night,” Robbie complains.
“You can’t rush awesomeness.” Dex smiles.
“Speed it up, Dex,” Josh demands.
“Done. It’s time for Chaos,” Dex announces.
“Okay, let’s go,” Robbie says.
The group moves towards the entrance. I look back at Art before I realize what I’m doing. Lilah and Bri are on either side of him, vying for his attention.
Josh pushes the door open once he successfully drills through the lock.
“All right, let’s get this show on the road,” Robbie says.
I give Bri, Lilah, and Anneli a can of spray paint. “It’s a bit dull in here ladies, don’t you agree? How about we add a little color?”
“You three are on mice duty.”Josh points to Danny, Zeke, and Aiden. “You two are on stink duty with me,” he tells Trevor and Robbie. “I want this place smelling like rotten ass. Dex, you’re our lookout.”
“Come on. I want some Chaos too,” Dex complains.
“Next time, man.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you do,” Josh says to Art, walking by him.
Danny runs down the hall. “Yeah, baby! Let’s cause some Chaos!”
We disperse to complete our assigned tasks.
After making Chaos for an hour, we leave the school. It must be nice to be a normal teenager, doing normal teenager shit. I can’t relate to them. In another lifetime, they could’ve been my friends. I would’ve participated in the merriment of Chaos, taking shots to bring in the new year with them.
Fuck, I don’t belong here.
I’m a fool to chase Cin, but I’m drawn to her. I can’t explain why. I don’t care that she has a boyfriend. I still want a taste. As I watch her with that asshole Trevor, I experience a whole new emotion—one I’ve never felt before.
Envy.
Mix in guilt, hate, and grief—all of these emotions create an unstable bomb within me that can go off at any moment.
