We both stand slowly and make our way outside. I don’t miss the way Sawyer looks at Amelie, I just can’t quite interpret it. I will ask him about that later.
“Amelie, my father would like to see you in his office. I will see you tonight, at six PM sharp in the gym. Wear appropriateclothing this time.” Sawyer has a no nonsense tone. Amelie shocks me by pulling me into a hug.
“Thanks for last night,” she says. “I really enjoyed myself.”
“Me too, going all night is my specialty,” I say back and she heads off to see my dad.
“Get a move on, Kalen,” Sawyer snaps. Wow, someone really pissed in his cornflakes today. Whoever he fucked at the weekend must have done a real number on him for him to be this grouchy.
We walk the rest of the way to his office in silence, and when we get there the twins are already waiting. Each of us takes a seat, all three of them look at me.
“What?” I ask.
“Did you fuck her?” Onyx demands. Why do they care?
“What does it matter?” I add, crossing my arms over my chest. “Someone needs to fill me in, because I’m lost.”
“It matters because she is up to something. I have to show you all something, but you have to promise not to tell Dad.” Sawyer is never this serious, and he doesn’t keep much from Dad.
He slides his phone across his desk and the twins and I lean in. Slate taps the phone and an image of Amelie and Sawyer lights up the screen. They’re in his bed, I recognise the pillows mum insisted he needed. She’s clearly topless, at least. Him too.
“I hate to break it to you bro, but that looks an awful lot like our new sister, in your bed.” Fuck. What else can I say?
“Now I’ll ask again, Kalen, did you fuck her?” I’m surprised the twins have said nothing.
“Did you?” I counter. Sawyer just glares at me until I cave. I sigh. “Nope, maybe some groping but that’s about all...that I can remember. I actually like her, so if this is some kind of ploy to turn me against her, it won’t work.”
“Not even if she tried to seduce me, and use it to blackmail me?” Sawyer asks.
“Can you blame her? But what would she gain from blackmailing you, really? If you figure that out, then you might change my mind. But if you ask me, she probably wanted to fuck with one of us to piss off her mother, because if you haven’t noticed, they really donotget along. And after what the twins did to her, it really doesn’t surprise me that she would be out for blood.”
“What did you actually do to her?” Sawyer says, turning to my brothers.
“Who cares what we did? She needs to go, and by the looks of it, you two are trying to shack up with her and shag her, which leaves Slate and I to do the dirty work.”
“Don’t try and justify what you did, you found a picture of her being gang raped and spread it around the school, making out like she was a whore. Maybe someone normal would have broken down and run away, but Amelie doesn’t strike me as the type to run at the first sign of trouble.
“If you three want her gone, get to know her, that will be the only way to find her weakness and exploit it… but I do not want any part of it. I kinda like having a sister. So you can all sod off and tell dad I am leaving to sleep off this dreaded hangover, and if you don’t, I will tell him what you have all done.” I stand and leave the room. My anger has boiled over. Those three always stand together, and poor old Kalen is just supposed to follow along. Maybe when I was a kid, I wanted to follow in my brother's footsteps, but not now.
If I’m being honest with myself, I may be a little jealous. Seeing her in his arms burned. I thought we had a connection and that look I saw him give her earlier when he took us out of class, that was a look of longing. Now I know why. He slept with her. How fucked is it; my parents helped the twins and Sawyer,by adopting them and I am still sorting through the mess in my head about that. I know I should be happy that my brothers have a loving family, yet my father shows me less love, always taking their side on everything. At least I have my mum. I know I’m her favourite. After her and my dad split, my brothers only really visit her once a week for dinner. I see her everyday.
Screw them all, I’m going to make sure Amelie realises I’m the better choice. If she thinks I laid it on thick before, she has no idea what she is in for tomorrow.
Chapter Twelve
Amelie
When I found out that I had a two-week suspension, I was happy. Then I was disappointed when I discovered that being suspended in a boarding school meant that I’d still have isolated classes, but things looked up when I got assigned to spend all of my school hours in Sawyer’s company. Plus self defence classes in the evenings.
Only, for the last two weeks, it’s pretty much sucked. Sawyer has either been riding my ass hard - figuratively, unfortunately, not literally - or he’s been cold and distant, ignoring anything I ask or say unless it’s about school work. It hasn’t stopped me from trying though. I’ve been working out in my tightest outfits, undoing extra buttons on my shirt, texting him at night. He might have blocked my number though. He’s definitely not rising to the bait.
I even broke the number one rule: I asked him what he did to get sent to Knox Academy. I expected him to go mental at that, but he remained annoyingly calm. I don’t know how to provoke a reaction out of him; I’d even settle for anger, like in the kitchenon my birthday. Instead, he said that if I could knock him on his ass or kick his ass before the suspension was up, he’d tell me.
Suspension is up. Tonight is our last in isolation self-defence class. I’m going to get him. I have to. Ineedto know why he ended up here. Just how bad do you have to be to get a Knox sentence?
The only positive of the last two weeks has been Kalen. I’ve been surprised by how much I like him hanging around. He has a crazy energy that’s almost manic at times, but it’s stopped me from losing it. I haven’t even minded the isolation, because he’s been there during every spare moment. He’s had me doing all sorts of crazy pranks and stunts, and although he’s been there for a good time, we really have gotten close. I don’t know if it’s a friendship, a brother-sister thing, or something more. He calls me sis at every available opportunity, but flirts relentlessly too. Whatever it is, I like it. I’m starting to like him. Which is crazy, for so many reasons: I want to leave, and I’m going to try to get out of here; Smalls has my heart; I have to destroy this family to punish my mother; and I can’t fight the connection between Sawyer and I, even if he is.
Speaking of Sawyer, it’s time for our self-defence class. I tried being late a couple of times to make him mad, but he just worked me extra hard to make up for it. And not in a good way. So I’ve been nice and compliant - for the last couple of days at least.
