“Come on, Barbie!” Charlie taunts. “Try it again.”
Jordan blinks, her hand lifting to her cheek as the shock slowly wears out of her system. Her teeth grit before she lunges at her new opponent, and Charlie sweeps her legs right out from under her.
Our girlfriend lands flat on her back, knocking the wind from her lungs as she gasps for air.
Maddox hisses, and Kairo sucks his teeth in disappointment.
“Clear the hall! Move it!” Mrs. Hurst bellows overthe students. Teachers maneuver through the crowd, apprehending Charlie before she can snatch Jordan’s hair.
“My office! Now!” Mrs. Hurst yells.
Mr. Johnson drags Charlie along as another teacher snatches Jordan off the ground. Coach stands over Dirt, his hands on his hips as he stares down at her. “You too, Beckett. Get up.”
Dirt sniffles before pulling herself up. As Coach leads her to the office, she gets one last look at us, and I give her a dead stare that bleeds every fucking way I hate her.
When I see her shiver of discomfort and the fresh tears streaming down her cheeks, I smile.
Chapter Seven
Maddox
Silence.
It’s what I thrive in.
The walls always bleed secrets when they think no one is listening. I soak everything in with methodical interest. Everyone has their own convictions—passions.
Our little bird has one that no one else knows about.
Except me.
While Dirt spends all of her time hunched over the ratty notebook she holds dearly, she has no idea I’ve seen every lyric and heart-wrenching confession. She’s clueless about the countless hours I’ve spent watching her scribble out her deepest trauma onto wide-ruled notebook paper like the naive thing she is…
If she thinks that’s enough to keep her secrets safe, she has another thing coming.
Her backpack is discarded and shoved into a locker in the girls’ changing room. I wait for gym to start before slipping in unnoticed.
My steps are the only sound in the empty changing room, and I scan until my eyes land on her locker. With quick, calculating turns of the lock’s dial, I pop it open before digging around until I find her songbook. I pluck it out, shoving everything else back into the cubby before locking it back and slipping out into the main hall of the school.
I flip through the pages lined with her deepest confessions before stopping on my favorite one. I smirk before I head off to our shared next hour class.
Music is my least favorite. The sounds are always too loud, and I hate the screeching of the off-tune, car crash that our teacher calls ‘band practice.’ These people wouldn’t know talent if it slapped them in the face, but I’m going to give them a taste today.
“Alright!” The teacher claps her hands together with a wide smile. “Who wants to go first?”
I raise a hand, and my friends stare at me like I’ve grown two heads.
“Oh!” Mrs. Christie grins. “Get up here, Maddox!”
As I pass the front row, I see Dirt digging around in her backpack for her songbook. When she comes up short, I pinpoint the panic that shakes her to her core. She dumps her backpack out, cursing when pencils and pens roll across the floor.
She gets a few side-eyes, but as her anxiety revs, she places a hand on Charlie’s desk. “My songbook!”
Her friend frowns. “Did you leave it in your locker?”
“Girls!” Mrs. Christie shushes as I take the floor. “Go ahead, Maddox.”
I brandish the songbook in clear view of Dirt, smirking when her eyes widen.
