Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 108988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108988 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
I was in seventh grade, but everyone already knew. No one went against Creighton Lane.
I had a black eye and bruises all over, but I was fine. Will and Hector had mostly just knocked the wind out of me, but them—Hector’s elbow was what had given me the black eye. He came to school a week later without a hand. And Will, he was the one who was blamed for the fight in the first place.
Will never came back to school.
Will never came back at all.
His face went up on a missing persons flyer, but everyone knew what happened to him.
Creighton killed him.
Chapter Nine
Blake
A pile of books dropped beside me on the table.
I jumped from the suddenness of it, and at the same time two chairs pulled out from the table.
My guy roommates both dropped down into the chairs. I still hadn’t met the girl who lived on the main floor of the townhouse. Niko. That was her name, but Marshall and Heath, I’d met them my second day there. They’d originally met each other because they came from the same fraternity, which was also how they met Palma because she was in the sorority that they partied with a lot. Marshall beamed at me while Heath glowered from across the table. And this summed up how they viewed me.
Marshall liked me.
Heath very much did not. I didn’t know what his problem was. I thought maybe that was his default setting.
It wasn’t.
He was gentle with Palma.
He was friendly with Marshall.
I hadn’t witnessed him with anyone else, so as far as I could tell he had a problem with me. Or maybe new people? I hadn’t spent a lot of time with my roommates because turns out, being graduate students, they were busy. They were really busy. Between my own studies and looking for a job, the time when I’d been at the house had been spent alone. I heard Palma come home a couple times, but our paths rarely crossed during the day. And none of them had been around last weekend.
“So.” Marshall whistled. “I think we need a housemate hangout. You’ve been living with us for two weeks now, and we’ve barely seen you. Come out with us tonight.”
“I don’t know,” I started to say.
He added, “It’s Palma’s birthday.”
Well. Fuck.
“Palma said you’re cool. You look cool. I’m thinking you’re cool. Come out with us tonight.” He flicked a finger under my book, shutting it. “You’re in college. You got your whole life to study. It’s Palma’s birthday. Eh? Eh? You’re coming out, aren’t you? I can see the wheels turning. You’re totally coming.”
Going out with people?
I used to daydream about what it would be like to be normal. It never happened for me because I was a foster kid first. Then I was Creighton’s, just . . . Creighton’s. When I came to New York, there’d been a time period where I’d just been Blake Green. No Creighton shadow over me.
I loved it. It’d been glorious, and I tried having the normal friend thing.
It hadn’t worked out.
I wish there wasn’t a flutter of anxiety in my chest. I really did, but there was. Creighton’s watchdog was sitting at a table a few over. He didn’t quite have his back to me. His clothes blended. He had a backpack. A coffee. A textbook and notebook spread out on the table. He looked like a college student. Except he wasn’t.
And suddenly I was pissed off because fuck Creighton.
If I wanted to try and be normal, and going out with college friends was almost as normal as I could imagine, then I was going to do it.
“You know what. Yeah. Let’s go out tonight.”
The guy lifted his head, his eyes flicking to me. He reached for his phone, and I wanted to jump up, grab that phone, and bash it to pieces because I knew who he was notifying.
There’d been a line outside the club where Marshall told me to head. I needed to study, and they went ahead to pick up some of Palma’s friends, so I arrived later. Nightclub 1. It was a new club that Palma wanted to check out. I laughed a little at the name of the club, seeing the owners had put a lot of thought into it.
I didn’t see Palma or anyone else in line that I knew, so I bypassed it for the door. I didn’t know if this would work, but they might’ve given my name to the bouncer. I was right. He whisked open the door almost right away, nodding to me. “Go right in, Miss Green.”
A few people grumbled that were still waiting to get inside, but the other guard raised his voice, “Shut it!”
The first guy nodded again to me, reassuring. “Go ahead. Go on inside.”
Loud hip hop dance music blasted me as soon as I stepped inside. The place was packed, but I weaved through the crowd, seeing Palma at the edge of the dance floor. Their group had claimed two tables. I skimmed over the others but only recognized Palma and Marshall. I didn’t know the others. I’m sure Heath was there, but I couldn’t see him. I wasn’t exactly going to go looking for him.