“I’m gonna have to look for a permanent alternative for Ro,” Nathan says as he takes a huge drag.
I lean against the fountain, and Milo hands me a cig too, which he lights up as I put it in my mouth. “How come?”
“Mom called. Said she and Dad got life with no parole.”
I almost choke on the drag I take, and I swiftly take the cig out of my mouth. “What the f—That’s bullshit!”
“It is what it is. All I know is they ruined our fucking lives.” He takes another deep drag.
I don’t think he wants to talk about them.
Poor Ro, though. To never see your parents again that young has gotta be tough.
“Did you tell her yet?” Milo asks.
Nathan shakes his head.
He must still be gathering the courage.
“What are you going to do now?” I ask. “Leave her with your aunt?”
“No, she’s the only family I have left,” he says, glaring at me. “I have to think of something else.”
“She can’t live with us at the Phantom Society,” Milo says. “I mean, she’s cute, but it’s too dangerous there with us and our murder sprees.”
I shush him. “We’re on public grounds. Not everyone needs to know.”
WHACK!
I feel something swoop past me before I turn to see a knife lying on the bottom of the fountain.
What the …?
WHACK!
A second one lands on the stones right beside Nathan’s hand, which he quickly lifts to avoid getting scratched. “What the fuck—”
“YOU LIED TO ME!”
The scream makes all our heads turn collectively as none other than Lana Rivera marches toward us, pointing her knives right at us in broad daylight.
“What’s going on?” Nathan asks.
She chucks another knife his way. “You did this!”
“Did what? What is happening?” Milo asks.
“Don’t play dumb with me!” she shrieks, chucking another knife until she’s all out. “I deserve better than that!”
“Let’s talk about this, little kitty,” I tell her as she approaches.
Suddenly, she dropkicks me out of nowhere, hitting me in the nuts. “Don’t fucking Kitty me!”
I’m bent over, coughing and heaving from the pain. “Jesus, fuck, I thought we were over this?”
“If you want to hit someone, hit me,” Milo practically begs, opening his arms, but she ignores him and steps over me to punch Nathan in the face so hard he’s bleeding from the nose. “What the fuck, Lana?!”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know,” she says, and she kicks him in the gut, knocking him to the ground.
“No, I don’t know!”
Then she pulls out her phone. “This!”
She turns the phone around to show me too, and my jaw drops the second I see us all in masks and her strapped to that chair the night at the Shack.
A picture sent straight to everyone’s email.
Fuck.
“You sent this! This was your picture! And now the whole fucking school knows!”
“What the f—I didn’t send this,” Nathan says.
She kicks him again. “Bullshit!!” She’s turning red with rage. “You promised me you wouldn’t send them!”
“No, I swear, I didn’t,” he says, holding up his hands.
She steps off him and snatches the knives out of the fountain.
“Lana,” I mutter.
She points the knife at me now. “NO. Stay back.”
“Nathan says he didn’t do it,” I say.
“And you believe him?” she retorts. “He had every reason. You just wanted to use me, and you got your wish,” she snarls. “After everything I gave to you three …”
It hurts to see her in this much fucking pain.
“I trusted you!”
Her voice is in as much shambles as my own fucking heart.
“Everyone saw me!” Tears well up in her eyes.
“Is it so bad everyone knows we’re a thing?” I ask.
“You don’t understand,” she says with a hushed voice. “That dead body is in the picture. They know I’m a killer now.”
I swallow. “We can fix this.”
“NO, YOU CAN’T!”
Everyone’s looking at us, but I don’t care.
They already know we’ve fucked with her in a disturbing way.
There’s no hiding anymore.
“Everything I worked so damn hard for, my reputation, my life, my family … it’s all destroyed because of you.”
“Don’t say that,” Milo mutters. “Your brother doesn’t know yet, does he?”
“He will,” she says. “It’s only a matter of minutes until someone shows him.” She sniffs, raising her murderous eyes up at me. “And then he’ll come for you.”
“I didn’t share that picture,” Nathan says as he crawls up from the ground.
“I don’t care. It’s your fault it got out,” she says, pointing the other knife at him too now. “I made a deal with you, and you broke your end.”
“Lana …” I warn, feeling my blood curdle.
“Don’t. That deal we had, it’s over.”
I raise a hand, trying to control my own emotions as well as hers. “Lana, think hard about the words you’re saying.” I look her deep in the eyes as her lip twitches with rage, but she doesn’t look away. “I think you know as well as I do there is no escaping us. Deal or no deal.”
“I should’ve left you all to die in that club,” she hisses.
Her words sting like a knife thrust straight into my heart.
“Don’t do this, Lana,” Milo pleads. “Please.”
“Too late,” she says.
“You won’t kill us,” I say, tilting my head as she pushes the knife underneath my chin. “You can’t.”
She grinds her teeth, clearly getting more enraged by the second.
Still, she retracts her blades and tucks them back into her pocket, then turns around and marches off.
“Where are you going?” Nathan balks.
“Away from you. And don’t even think of following me,” she yells back.
“It doesn’t matter where you go, Lana. I’ll always be there,” I say.
But instead of saying another word, she merely sticks up two middle fingers and struts off, right through the crowd of people who part just for her like she’s motherfucking Moses splitting the Red Sea in half.
Lana
I bury my face in my pillow and scream so loudly my voice box cracks from the sheer weight of my emotions.
I wish I could kill them.
I want to. So badly.
But I know I physically can’t. And it breaks me.
How could I let them get to me like that? How could I let them into my world, my life, my fucking heart, and crush it all up like it meant nothing?
That deal we made meant nothing.
I gave my body to those fuckers, and they betrayed me by throwing my secret out into the world.
“Fuck!” I yell, punching the pillow.
Someone knocks on my door, and I pause. “Lana? Brooke called and said you wouldn’t let anyone into your room so I thought I’d come over. Are you okay in there?”
It’s Crystal.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
I wipe away the tears and sit up straight.
She gently opens the door and peeks inside before stepping in and closing the door behind her. In her hair is that same rose from before.
“She told you about the picture?” I clutch the pillow against my chest.
She swallows and nods. “I saw it. I’m sorry. Can I sit down next to you?”
When I nod, she gently sits down and wraps her arm around my shoulders.
“It’s okay.”
“I’m mortified,” I mutter.
“It’s not your fault,” she says, sucking in a breath.
I glance her way. “Please promise me you won’t tell my dad or my brother.”
She places a hand on my knee. “I won’t. I promise, but I can’t guarantee other people won’t.” Her eyes travel off. “Most of the students at school already saw it.”
My nostrils flare. “I hope the one who spread it dies a miserable death.”
She rubs her lips and shivers a little. “You know what? I think you need some ice cream to cheer you up.”
“Ice cream?” I parrot as she gets up.
She pulls me off my bed and drags me out the door. “Yeah, let’s go. Before you turn into a pile of mush.”
Crystal takes me to Ice, Cookies, & Cream down in Crescent Vale City in her car and gets me two flavors on her. Chocolate and strawberry, my favorite. We sit on a park bench and watch the animals casually stroll by, looking for a nibble.
I take a bite and almost moan. “God, it’s so good!”
“I know, right? This shop’s my fav.”
“I get why you wanted to come here now,” I muse, taking another bite.
“Yeah, they’re far better than the one on campus. I mean, no offense if that’s your fav.”
“None taken. I don’t have a fav, but this one might just be it,” I reply, and we both smile.
“You know what? We should grab some food after,” she says, winking.
I snort. “We’re literally eating ice cream, and you want more?”
“Yeah, it’s almost dinnertime.” She points at the large outdoor clock hanging from the park entry. “I’m more of a ‘have dessert first, then food’ girl.”
“That’s actually a great idea,” I reply. I guess we could. I mean, it’s not like I have anything else to do now that the boys are out of the picture. “All right, let’s do it.”
“If you want, you can invite over those boys you’ve been seeing.”
I almost choke on some of my ice cream. “Ah…”
“What? You four are an item, right?” she says, taking a bite out of her ice cream.
I take another bite from my ice cream, determined to get brainfreeze before I have to answer, but a peculiar van outside the park catches my attention and I forget what I was about to say. I don’t know why, but it feels familiar, somehow. I just can’t put my finger on it. It definitely doesn’t belong to Kai, Milo, or Nathan, though.
“Hi, ladies,” someone behind us says.
I turn my head.
CLICK.
I know that sound.
The safety has been pulled off a gun aimed directly at my back.
“Don’t turn. Don’t make a sound.”
“Lana …” Crystal peeps.
I shush her.
“That’s right, you’re gonna be real quiet, and you’re gonna get up and walk to that van,” a voice growls behind me.
“And what if I don’t?” I say.
From the corner of my eye, I see the gun being pushed into Crystal’s head instead. “You really wanna try me out?”
Fuck.
I gulp and look at Crystal as a tear trickles down her cheek.
I would’ve fought him off if he only threatened me.
But now that Crystal’s involved, I don’t want to risk her life too.
“Move,” the voice behind me growls.
I get up and grab her hand, mouthing, “It’s gonna be okay.”
We walk stiffly toward the park gates, the guy tailing us, his gun hidden behind his coat as it pushes into my back.
He pushes me, and my ice cream drops to the ground.
The van pulls up to the gates, and the back doors open. Two guys wearing a hat and fake hair grab us by the arms and drag us inside, sealing us in.
“Please, don’t kill us,” Crystal mutters as the men hold us down.
“Shut up,” one of them tells her, and he directs his attention toward the guy in front of the wheel. “Drive.”
The van’s engine roars as it races off, veering from side to side like they’re in a hurry.
In the dark, Crystal’s fingers find mine, and I squeeze and hold on tight to the last semblance of hope I can offer her in this nightmare. A nightmare she got dragged into because of me.
