After all that shit with the Bones Brotherhood went down, I have so much of my studies to catch up on now, it’s ridiculous.
I sift through the book in front of me, trying to make sense of it, but economics is really getting the best of me. Maybe I shouldn’t have chosen this fucking course, but I wanted to make my parents proud.
I snort to myself. If only I’d known how things would play out. Maybe I would’ve made a different choice.
I glance to my right and spot a bunch of Lana’s friends near the window, chatting away. Irina and Brooke, I think. When they spot me, their eyes widen, and they look away, almost like they’re afraid I might come their way.
I smirk to myself.
“Hey, Nathan.”
I almost fall over in my chair when I hear that voice.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Caleb says, gripping my shoulders as he looks down at me.
“What the—What are you doing here?” I hiss, staring right into his coal eyes.
He chucks his bag on the same table and scoots back a chair. “Studying. What else? It’s a fucking library.”
He casually throws himself down on the chair, and he rolls up his white shirt to reveal even more tattoos added since the last time I saw him.
“I thought you said you were done,” I say.
“I know; I just couldn’t resist,” he muses, slapping his books onto the table like he owns the place. “Guess that’s what you get when you go through heartbreak.”
Grinding my jaws, I look the other way and focus on my laptop.
“What are you doing?” he asks.
“Homework.”
“Okay … what course?”
“Economics.”
“You’re awfully direct today,” he says, eyeing me down.
I throw him a look. “Because I told Milo I wouldn’t talk to you anymore.”
The cheeky smirk that appears on his face, pulling his lips from pierced ear to pierced ear, makes me want to roll my eyes. “And I thought he wasn’t the jealous type.”
“He’s not. It was my choice,” I say.
He grabs his heart. “Ouch. Don’t stab me.”
“Why are you sitting here?” I ask. “You could choose any seat in the room, yet you choose to sit here next to me.”
“Can’t I just sit? I’m not doing anything,” he says.
“Yet,” I reply.
His eyes narrow. “You don’t trust me anymore?”
“Have I ever?”
He snorts and opens his book, shaking his head. “Wow. Becoming a Phantom really has changed you.”
I put my hand under my temple to support my face while I stare at him because it’s fucking on now. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He licks his pierced lips. “I’m just saying … you used to be so much more fun and easygoing.”
“You’re only saying that because you’re angry with me,” I muse.
“I miss you, okay?” he says, clutching his book while throwing me a casual glance with his dark eyes every now and then. “Isn’t that enough?”
I take in a breath and scroll down on my laptop to pretend I’m working. “Nope.”
“Look, I tried to ignore whatever it is you’ve got going on with that Milo dude, but I need my friend back. Okay?” He glances over my shoulder at my phone, on which I have a picture of all four of us, so I turn it away.
“Who was that?”
I frown. “Just my friends.”
“No, there was a girl on your phone.”
Fuck.
I put the phone down. “It’s none of your business.”
“Is that why you don’t want to hang out with us anymore? You’re too busy with Milo and that girl, whoever she is?”
“What I do with my time is my choice,” I retort.
He sighs drearily. “Oh, c’mon. The Tartarus parties are no fun without you. You don’t miss it? At all?”
“I don’t miss being betrayed,” I say.
He frowns. “What do you mean?”
Like he doesn’t know exactly what Ares did.
“You weren’t there when we needed you guys,” I quip. “When Phantoms were being attacked by Skull & Serpent Society, and the previous dean threatened to close down our society, you didn’t step in and help us.”
“What were we supposed to do?” he quips.
“Offer weapons? Men? Money?” I retort. “Hell, anything would’ve been fine.”
“You know it doesn’t work like that,” he says, shaking his head. “I don’t make the decisions, and I couldn’t convince Ares to …”
“No, but you could’ve supported us. You could’ve supported me.”
He sighs out loud. “I know. I’m sorry. I just wish things would’ve been different. Can we please be friends again?”
“Whatever. I have to think about it,” I say, averting my eyes. “Let’s just focus on our studies.”
I tap the pen vigorously against the paper, trying to write down this essay I have due, but I can practically feel Caleb’s eyes boring a hole into my back. I open a folder on my laptop, but I accidentally click on the wrong one, which holds all the photos of Lana, so I quickly tap away before he sees and starts asking questions I don’t want to answer.
Suddenly, my phone rings, the name appearing on the screen making my heart palpitate.
“Fuck.”
“Who is it?” Caleb asks.
Crescent Vale City Penitentiary is calling.
I jump up from my seat. “I gotta take this one. Watch my stuff.”
I run off to take the call in private.
“Mom,” I mutter as I close the door to the bathroom behind me. “How are you?”
“I’m doing good. I just wanted to call and ask if you’ve been taking care of Rory.”
“Of course,” I reply. “But it wasn’t easy.”
“Don’t let them get to her, you hear me?” she grits. “I cannot lose my little girl to those sons of bitches.”
“Mom, I’m trying, okay?”
“Try harder!”
“Is that why you’re calling me? To badger me? I’m already taking care of it; don’t fucking worry about it.”
“Yes, no, my point is, take care of her because she’s all you got.”
I frown, clutching the phone tightly. “What do you mean?”
“We’re not getting out.”
I swallow away the lump in my throat. “How long?”
“Life.”
The phone cracks.
“Without parole.”
It feels like I got struck by lightning just now.
“That has to be a mistake,” I say. “There’s no way—”
“They know about everything, Nathan. All the money, it’s gone. They took it. And since our businesses got hounded by that Bones Brotherhood, the feds assumed we were part of them too.”
“What? That’s bullshit!”
“I know, but you have to stay away from them,” she says.
“I’m trying, but you left us with a giant fucking debt they wanted paid,” I say through gritted teeth.
“I know, and I’m sorry, Nathan. I wish I could undo what we did, but I can’t.”
“Why did you do it?” I yell.
“Because we wanted to give you two a good life!”
My fists ball so hard my nails dig into my skin.
“A good life doesn’t mean shit when Ro has to live the rest of her life without her parents,” I grit. “Because of you, I’m all she has left.”
“Nathan, I—”
I disconnect the call.
I’m done with them.
I’m done talking with them for the rest of our lives.
They made a mistake, and we’re the ones paying the price.
But how am I going to tell Ro she’ll never see her mom and dad again?
I punch the door as hard as I can before I tuck the phone back into my pocket and storm out the door.
When I bust back into the library, Caleb’s already gone.
I snatch my laptop and my books off the table, marching out of this library that requires silence when my heart wants nothing more than to roar.
Lana
I take lots of notes in class, making sure I’m all ears to the teacher as I’ve already missed too many classes. But as the time goes by, more and more buzzing on the phones of the people in my class distracts me from what the teacher is trying to explain, and by the time his class is almost finished, it’s really starting to grind my gears.
“Lana,” Brooke mutters next to me, but I’m far too busy staring angrily at other people in the class.
“Am I missing out on some group chat or something?” I mutter. “Why is everyone’s phones buzzing?”
“Lana. I think you need to see this,” she says, and she holds out her phone.
There’s an email that got sent to almost the entire school, and all the students are going wild over a picture.
All the blood slowly drains from my face.
It’s a picture of me without my mask, strapped to a chair, being taken from all sides by Kai, Nathan, and Milo.
Right next to the dead body in the Shack.
My whole body goes numb, and I don’t think I have a heart anymore … because it stopped beating.
Everyone saw me getting railed.
Everyone knows I’m a killer now.
Everything I ever wanted to avoid has happened.
I scoot my chair back.
Everyone’s looking at me like they’re seeing a living corpse.
I take out my phone and open the email to see for myself, but I can’t even stop my hands from shaking so vigorously I almost lose control.
The sender was anonymous.
But I know an anonymous.
The only anonymous who had access to those pictures along with his friends.
“Lana Rivera, can you please sit back down?” the teacher says.
Instead, I grab my bag and storm out of class, hell-bent on revenge.
If they’re going to drag me down into my own personal hell, I’m taking those fuckers with me.
