I advanced on them quickly, my right hand beginning to tremble, and my heart battered in my chest like it wanted to force its way out. I felt like bashing someone’s face in, and I didn’t care who it was.
“Hey, hey, pump the brakes, man.” Luke moved in front of me and forced me to halt.
Where the hell had he come from?
“Don’t touch me.” I shook off his hand and continued staring in a fugue at the unfortunate kids behind him.
“Calm down. We don’t know who did this.” I stared at him. Was this man trying to reason with me? “You can’t just beat up these random people. You’ve gotta keep your nose clean,” he chided me.
Since when did Luke dispense advice or try to give me pep talks?
“What the fuck do you know about it?” I exploded on him. “It’s my car, not yours, and some asshole bashed in the window. Get out of my way.” I tried to shove him aside, but Luke planted his feet.
“Neil…” he said sharply.
“Luke, I told you to move,” I repeated insistently. He didn’t listen. Then Xavier appeared to back him up and took me by the arm to drag me away.
“Come on, man. Don’t do this shit. It was probably some punk kid who picked the wrong car to fuck with.” He managed to pull me away, but I didn’t stop glowering at the little group behind Luke or even at Luke himself, who stood there motionless with a pitying look on his face.
I couldn’t stand being looked at that way by my friends any more than I could stand these random assholes sticking their heads in the sand.
And I definitely wasn’t used to not responding to a clear challenge.
“There’s nothing to see here, you assholes. Piss off!” I yelled at the rest of the students. Xavier’s hand was still clamped around my bicep to keep me from falling on someone like a wild animal. “Did you hear me? Get fucking gone. Now!” I was raging so loudly that everyone flinched.
“Come on, chill out.” Xavier kept tugging me back. I tried to recover some composure before finally breaking free from him and passing a hand through my hair. Instinctively, I went to the Maserati and opened the door to assess the damage. I made a face, however, when I saw there was a piece of paper attached to the rock in the front seat, tied down with crisscrossing red thread. I immediately picked it up and read the words on it:Hard Candy. Player 2511.
Why had this not occurred to me before?
Sure, I had a lot of enemies, but the only person who’d gone after me lately was him.
“Shit,” I whispered, holding the paper tightly in my fingers. I got out of my car and shut the door behind me. There was no point in rereading the note; it wasn’t going to help me come to any conclusions. His messages were typically indecipherable, but this one wasn’t even a riddle, so it would be more impossible than usual to figure out what he planned to do with just two miserable words.
“Hey, what happened?” Xavier asked, trying to read the sheet of paper in my hand. I glanced around and realized that I didn’t want to have that conversation in the student parking lot. So I pushed the threatening note into my pocket and jerked my chin at the both of them.
“Let’s get out of here,” I ordered firmly.
A few minutes later, we hit up a restaurant near the campus, a place we typically came after class. The smell of coffee and freshly baked pastries was in the air as soon as we walked in, along with the irritating cacophony of voices from other patrons.
We walked through the restaurant with our heads held high, not sparing a glance for anyone else. Everyone knew how prone to aggression we were; it didn’t take much to provoke any of us into a brawl. Ignoring the alarmed stares we received, we sat down at our usual table right next to the big window. My friends both looked at me, waiting for me to speak.
“You want to tell us what’s going on?” Luke asked first, but before I could answer him, a waitress materialized to take our orders. I shot her an irritated look and saw that it was the same one that Xavier had mocked and humiliated in the past.
“Don’t be stupid,” I warned Xavier, already knowing what he was going to do, and he gave me a lopsided grin.
“What can I get for you?” the girl—I’d never caught her name—said haltingly. She kept her eyes on the little notebook she had clenched in one trembling hand. She was obviously less than thrilled about our presence.
“Hey, Babydoll. Nice to see you again…” Xavier leaned sideways to get a better look at her ass in her short uniform skirt. Luke immediately elbowed him in the gut.
“Three coffees,” Luke said, deciding for everyone and allowing the girl to get away as soon as possible. Xavier made a huff of annoyance, but I silently thanked Luke for intervening. All we needed was for the owner to boot us for indecency or harassment.
“So?” Luke turned his attention back to me, and I rested my elbows on the table. My leather jacket tugged at my tensed biceps. I was so on edge it felt like I was suffocating.
I didn’t bother with words, instead just digging around inside my pocket until I grabbed the paper and slammed it down on the table. Both of them sucked in a breath.
“Hard Candy. Player 2511,” Xavier read. “This nutjob again?”
“What are you talking about? Who the fuck is Player 2511?” Luke asked.
