Sneakers squeak against the wooden floors, and the pounding echo of a dribbling basketball and the grunts coming from the players are starting to do my head in, and I only just got here. LED lights illuminate the red bleachers surrounding the court, where variousdrills are being played out. The teachers haven’t said as much, but my theory is that they make us do high-intensity workouts first thing in the morning and the occasional team sport in the afternoon to tire us out so we won’t cause as much trouble.
Whether that theory is true or not is up for debate. I think Seraphic Hills ended up creating an army of uncontrollable athletes instead.
From my seat, I watch Blaze sidle up next to Aaron. I’ve never seen her exchange a single word with the guy, but then she places her hand on his arm.Absolutely fucking not.
I’m on my feet in a split second. Aaron can have hisarrangementwith Charlie all he wants, but if he goes near Blaze, he’s a fucking dead man.
I’m not the only one who’s taken offense to her choice of men, because Elijah rises from his seat in a heartbeat to pull her out of the group’s makeshift circle. The other three groupies don't seem to give a shit about the iron grip around her arm or that Blaze is looking at him with a fury that’s usually only reserved for me.No onegets to do that to her but me.
Rage seeps into my bloodstream. No one pays any mind to me—except Sarah, who flinches as I storm around the court toward them. Blaze slaps his hand off which only makes him step closer to her, but she doesn’t back down. Her shoulders square and she stares him down as he says something to her.
The closer I get, the more words I can make out above the clamoring and squeaking. If Elijah touches her or hands her something, I’ll paint my knuckles red with his blood.
She shouldn’t have ridden my leg because it’s awoken something primal inside that I’m beyond able to control.
My fingers ball into fists when he tugs on her shirt too erratically. “I’ve held up my end of the deal. Don’t be a blue-balling bitch, Blaze.” The words tumble out of Elijah’s mouth, fast and slurred.
My eyes drop down to his jittery hands, then up to the slight gnawing of his jaw.
Wait. He’s on something. Or withdrawing.
For fuck’s sake.
“I’m onto bigger and better things now,Elijah.” A surge of satisfaction rushes through me. That’s right. I’m the only one she’ll be seeing in her foreseeable future.“You’ve got a lot of audacity for someone with a receding hairline.”
“I didn’t ask for your bitchiness.”
“It’s on the house.”
Red explodes around my vision, and I break into a run when he latches onto her arms. She stumbles into his chest with wide eyes when he yanks her toward him. “They said you’d be a fucking leech just like your mother,” he spits out, walking her backward toward the stairs.
“Get your disgusting hands off me.”
Liam and Aaron finally get involved, calling out for Elijah to stop, but the dumb fucker summons inhuman strength and knocks Liam back into Aaron.
Elijah grabs Blaze’s face in a brutal grip. “You’re going to suck my dick like you promised, and your mouth better feel like fucking gold after all the shit I’ve put up with.”
The shrill sound of a whistle cuts through the air, and more yelling ensues from the rest of the gym.
“Bark at me, motherfucker. I bite.” They grapple for dominance—she’s mainly trying to get away, but he’s desperately clinging ontoher.
I’m a foot away from them just as he starts saying, “You’re going to fucking—”
Blaze yelps as they trip and tumble over the side of a bleacher row. I try to catch her flailing arm but she manages to stop herself two rows down from where they originally were, while Elijah keeps falling. One after the other, he goes over another row, unable to control his limbs. He manages to stop himself one row from the bottom, only to stand, then finish the job and make it to the bottom.
The blood dripping down Elijah’s head and the ludicrousness of his fall would have been comical if it weren’t for the fact that I’m three seconds away from finishing the fucking job.
The teacher rushes over to him—everyone does. They fawn over him like he’s a goddamn child. Apparently, the perpetrator should get more attention than the girl everyone loves to hate. The only person who runs to check on Blaze is Charlie, but I get there before her.
There’s an almost bleary look in her blue eyes as she scans the gathering crowd, and I mentally tally all the different injuries she could have gotten from the fall. But the lost look she’s wearing only has a couple competitors.
It’s either shock or a concussion.
Grabbing her chin gently, I lift her hair off her face to check for any obvious sign of head trauma, but she gut punches me the second my skin touches hers. “Stop touching me, creep,” she barks and shoulders past me.
It’s neither. Blaze is just a diagnosed bitch.
I narrow my eyes at her lopsided gait and unnaturally tensed shoulders, then to the white-knuckled fists at her sides. Each step is cautiously slow and tainted by a slight wobble. If Elijah wasn’tconsidered a dead man before, he might as well get his death certificate signed now.
