Page 48 of Make You Mine

I really have to go shopping.

“Wait. Are you telling me that’s how it looks when it isn’t hard?” Ryan asks.

“Naah, we would have noticed, dude,” Brandon says.

“He is usually wearing dark bottoms, though. It’s a bit harder to notice that way. This is the first time I’ve seen him in something that isn’t black or dark gray.”

“We’re not talking about this,” I state, completely ignoring the way my cheeks flare up. “And you’re both heading to detention today.” I smirk. That’ll do it. “Now, what were you guys trying to say?”

“What?” Ryan messes his blond hair with a hand. “Are you serious, Coach?”

“Dudee,” Brandon complains.

“Very serious. And you better not argue with me, or you’re gonna be spending the whole week there. Now, what’s the problem?”

Ryan twists his mouth, breathing hard.

Brandon pats his shoulder, his own sagging. “Let it go, man. We’ll do detention today and be done with it.”

“This isn’t fair,” Ryan whispers to him.

Brandon pats his shoulder again and again. Then, diverts his attention to me.

“Karl tripped me with his stick,” he says.

“He did? Well, that’s a penalty.” I blow my whistle and signal for him to come to me. “Karl?”

The shorter kid is chatting at the back of the rink with the rest of the team. He skates toward us.

“Yeah?”

“You’re going to the penalty box.”

He opens his mouth to complain.

I blow my whistle again and stretch my hand toward our DIY penalty box, a corner of the bleachers with a sign that reads just that.

“Go, go, go.”

Once the game resumes, my mind wanders again, this time not to sexual fantasies about my stepsister, but the anonymous note I got that warned me to stay away from Madelyn. I get this psycho telling me he wants her to provoke me and mess with me. But stealing her diary, and now leaking a page onto the school bulletin board?

He could have gotten her fired.

A thought speeds through my mind. What if his leaking her diary was a double-edged sword meant for me and only me? As a way to torture me? Make me pay for what I did by sabotaging my sister’s life?

It’s possible. I got there in time. I picked up the pieces and hid the evidence.

Maybe that’s what was supposed to happen.

He’s playing with me. Not Madelyn.

Unless…Maddy’s aware of this, and she’s being blackmailed by him?

The possibility makes my lips quiver.

Talking to my little demon would clarify things. Except there is no easy way to do this.

If I talk to her, I’ll have to tell her why this is happening in the first place.