Scartissue by T.L Hodel
CHAPTER 27
Shelby
My first day at Ashworth was better than I expected. Everybody was so nice. Except for Naomi, who I suspected was a bitch to everyone, and the receptionist, Mrs. Grier.
I think Rye was right and she was a demon sent to collect high school kids’ souls. That, or an alien.
Most of my classes were with Rye, and the few that weren’t were with Lana or Harper.
All I wanted to do when I first met Harper was put make-up on her and dress her up. She was so friggin cute, and absolutely terrified. Of everything.
I saw her jump at her own shadow. Twice. It was sad. I kind of wanted to punch Mason, but something told me the youngest Kessler wasn’t her only problem. Otherwise, why would she still be scared? Mason wasn’t even here.
Her brother Sean was cute, and fun to be around. Until Logan punched him in the face. Which led to my current situation.
Sitting in the cafeteria, watching Logan and Sean snarl insults at each other while their friends held them back.
Welcome to Ashworth, Shelby.
“It’s usually Mason.”
“What?” I said, looking over at Lana, who was eating her lunch like normal.
“It’s usually Mason that’s fighting with Sean.”
“Can you blame him? He’s not exactly nice to his sister.”
Riley sighed and grumbled, “They’re all idiots.”
“Agreed,” Naomi added.
“Stop agreeing with me,” Riley curled her lip and shot Naomi a look, “It’s freaking me out.”
Naomi returned her glare with a lip curl of her own.
“When you two are done, maybe you can help me figure out how to break this up.”
Micha and Silas were holding Logan back, while two of the football players had Sean. I don’t know what infuriated me more, that no one in the cafeteria seemed to care, or that Harper was two seconds away from a heart attack.
“Fuck you, Hudson,” Sean snarled, “The second you fuck up, I’m gonna be all over that shit.”
Sean had no idea how close to home that hit. Logan held me tightly all night, like he was afraid I’d change my mind if he let go. It might be odd, but I trusted him more now than I did before. He’d told me the truth, knowing he might’ve lost me doing it.
“I’ll fucking kill you!” Logan yelled, loud enough to fill the whole room with his voice.
Harper squeaked and ducked under the table.
Alright, that’s it.
I got up and sauntered over to Logan.
“Shelby,” Micha growled, “Now’s not the time. Go sit the fuck down.”
There was only one thing that cut through a guy’s macho alpha crap.
“But the chair’s uncomfortable,” I whined with a fake pout. “I was hoping Logan could give me something better to sit on.”
A woman.
Logan stopped fighting against Micha and Silas’s hold and cocked a brow at me.
“I’m kind of cold too.” I swung my hips and twirled my hair, “Could you warm me up?”
I could practically hear Riley’s eyes roll as she groaned, “Good God.”
Whatever my best friend thought, it worked. Logan shook Micha and Silas off him and pulled me into his arms.
“You need me to warm you up, baby?”
“Uh huh.” I widened my eyes into a sappy puppy dog stare and wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’m really cold.”
He moved in, brushing his lips against mine, and softly said, “Well, we can’t have that.”
“Pussy,” Micha grumbled as he walked by to rejoin Riley at the table, who was making gagging noises.
When Logan shot him a dirty look, I leaned in and whispered, “Don’t worry about them. They won’t get to do to me what you will tonight.”
“Oo, I like the sound of that.” He pushed his fingers through my hair, tucking it behind my ear. “Do I get any details?”
“Well, I saw all that stuff in your wardrobe.”
I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Whips, and sticks, and other things I didn’t know what to call. I had to admit, I was curious.
“Let’s go now,” Logan growled, pressing in on me. “Fuck school.”
“Not so fast, big boy,” I said and led him back to the table, where he pulled me onto his lap.
Micha looked at us and cocked a brow at Riley, who waved her fork at him.
“Don’t even think about it.”
Despite Riley’s objection, he grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap.
“I swear to God, Micha, I’ll stab you with this fork.”
He nuzzled in her neck and growled, “You like it.”
As amusing as the flush on my best friend’s face was, I was much more interested in what was happening at the other end of the table.
Parker’s death glare was locked on Lana. His jaw ticked every time she lifted her fork to her mouth. For the first time since I met him, I could see the similarities with his brother. The dark look on his face reminded me so much of Preston, it was scary.
Lana didn’t seem to mind. She completely ignored him, and continued to eat her lunch as if he wasn’t boring holes in her skull. Which he did not like.
“You sure you should eat that?” Parker tipped his chin at the cupcake on her tray. “Your ass is fat enough.”
Without so much as a word, Lana lifted her cup and threw the contents in his face.
Logan burst out laughing while Parker spit out a mouthful of orange juice and glared at Lana. She returned his look with a sweet smile and went back to her lunch.
Go Lana.
“Damn girl, you’ve got good aim,” Logan sang, “Not even a drop on Silas.”
Silas frowned and ran his light eyes over the juice dripping off Parker’s face. “You might want to clean that up.”
“I’m fine,” Parker grumbled, and tore his shirt off, using it to wipe off his face.
Damn. The boy was cut. And I mean cut.
“Do I need to fuck you in front of my friend?”
“Why would you need to do that,” I rolled my eyes over my shoulder to Logan, “When you say such sweet things to me?”
He smirked.
“Next step, poetry.”
Speaking of poetry…
“I think you need to work on your poetic skills,” I said, passing him the note I found in my locker this morning.
It was sweet that he tried, but the poem was kind of creepy:
Shelby Grace, Hudson’s cherry pie,
She kissed the boy that made her cry,
Now The Piper is ready to play,
Shelby Grace should run away.
The Piper.
“Sorry, but The Piper isn’t the kind of cute nickname I’d give you.”
All the guys got suddenly really quiet and Riley was staring at me with wide, worried eyes.
“What?”
Did I miss something?
“Baby, where did you get this?”
“It was in my locker.” I didn’t like the way Logan was staring at the piece of paper in his hand. “Didn’t you put it there?”
“No, I didn’t put it there.”
“He could’ve mailed them before?” Riley said with a hopeful gleam in her eyes, “Post dated them?”
“How’d he know she’d be here?” Logan pointed out, “Or that I call her Cherry Pie?”
Micha’s dark eyes rolled up.
“You know what this means…”
“What, what means?” I was so confused.
Instead of answering me, Logan answered Micha. “He has a partner. Probably…”
“My brother.”
“What about our brother?”
I swear it was like I suddenly manifested the power of invisibility.
“Better call your old man.”
I slammed my hand down on the table. “Will someone tell me what’s going on?”
***
Sometimes it wasn’t bad to be in the dark. I wish I was still there. Cloaked in an illusion where everything was safe. Now I saw danger around every corner. Every new face was the monster in my closet.
My only saving grace was Silas’s angry scowl, watching me from the sidelines. I had to send Logan to pick up Mags. I was more afraid for her, and didn’t trust anyone else to keep her safe. So he left Silas to watch me. Didn’t make me feel any better.
“Come on, Grace, pick it up. I know you can do better than that.”
The assistant coach, Luke Lannister seemed nice enough. The other girls on the team seemed to like him. Can’t say I blamed them. He was handsome. Dark hair and kind light eyes that reminded me of my mom, but all I could think when I looked at him was, does he want to hurt me?
“Sorry,” I said, hunching over to catch my breath. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
Lie. I knew exactly what was wrong.
“Hey, I get it.” Luke laid his hand on my back. “It’s tough being the new kid in school.”
Or having your life threatened.
“You just got to push forward and move on.”
Easy for you to say.
“Now, come on.” He ushered me back onto the track, “I know you’ve got the speed to out-run every girl on this team.”
I smiled, and took off.
Let’s hope I was fast enough to out-run the boogeyman.