“I cannot wait until the school year is over so I can be free of him,” Josh says.
“You said after the fight, you two had an understanding. What changed?” Dex pops a few fries in his mouth.
“I thought so too. I’m really trying not to be an ass to him today, especially since it’s his brother’s birthday.”
“You should’ve said something sooner,” I say.
“Why?”
“Use your brain, for God’s sake. He shouldn’t be alone today.” Anneli rolls her eyes.
“He didn’t come to class this morning,” Trevor adds.
Josh pales a little. “He’s home alone since Missy and my dad are making deliveries today. You don’t think he would…”
“I saw him in the hall a few minutes ago,” I assure everyone. “He probably needed a little time to get himself together this morning, that’s all.”
My heart is telling me to seek him out and offer comfort, but my mind knows he’ll reject support from me. I’ll try to talk to him in class this afternoon, his reaction be damned. I can’t let him hurt alone.
It’s been almost twenty-five minutes since trigonometry class started, but still Art hasn’t arrived. I can’t shake the feeling that something is terribly wrong. Did he go back home? Why did he come to school just to talk to Bane?
I raise my hand.
“Yes?”
“Can I go to the bathroom?”
“Come get the hall pass.”
I head straight for Bane’s hideout spot. He’s notorious for cutting class. I enter the vacant classroom on the ground level. Bane sits on a desk, watching his friends shoot dice. Beer bottles litter the floor. I don’t understand why they come to school at all.
“Looky what we have here.” Jesse stands from his crouched position. “Not my usual type. Too damn skinny, but I’ll make an exception.”
“Back off, you know that’s Trevor’s girl.” Bane puffs on his cigarette. “I don’t need to be on his shit list.”
“I’m not afraid of her pussy ass boyfriend or stepbrother.” He twirls my hair around his finger.
I elbow him in the stomach. “You can look, but no touching.”
His friends laugh.
“Burn, Jesse,” I hear one of them say.
“Fucking bitch,” he snarls, clasping my arm.
“I told you to leave her alone.”
Jesse looks me up and down, then resumes the game with his friends.
“What do you want? I didn’t think you would be the type to ever seek me out.”
“I saw you talking to Art earlier.”
“The last time I checked, the US of A is a free country, giving me the right to talk to whomever the fuck I want.”
“What did he want?”
“What kind of supplier would I be if I went around breaching customer confidentiality?”
