Broken Trust: A Dark High School Romance(15)
Jasper grabbed my hand and started leading me out to the student parking lot, but I couldn’t help myself. I turned over my shoulder and gave Beck a smirk and the middle finger.
“You’re going to be the death of me, Riles,” Jasper complained as I hurried across the freezing parking lot behind him. “Do you have any idea how badly I’m going to get chewed out for taking your side over Beck’s? He’s going to kill me. Oh my god, I just committed suicide for a chick with nice tits.”
He was fast deteriorating into melodrama, and I couldn’t help laughing a little at his expense. “Oh stop it, drama queen,” I teased him, “Beck isn’t actually going to do anything to you. His ego is just a little bruised, and if you ask me, it’s about damn time. Now, can I drive?”
We’d just reached his canary yellow Lambo and Jasper threw his hands up, mouthing words at the sky like he was cursing out a god for landing me in his life.
“Sure,” he finally said on a heavy sigh, tossing me the keys. “Only cuz you drive like a wet dream and I need to enjoy my final moments on this earth.”
I snorted a laugh but happily slid behind the wheel of his sports car. Maybe I should thank Brittley … this was a much better use of my afternoon than sitting in detention.
7
Beck
“This is getting out of hand,” Dylan told me, totally unnecessarily. As if I didn’t fucking know. As if that scene in the hallway hadn’t made me almost totally lose my control and throw Riley’s lush ass over my shoulder like a caveman.
Fucking hell.
“No shit,” I snapped back, staring after Jasper’s obnoxious yellow Lambo as it peeled out of the Ducis Academy parking lot, carrying my girl away. “I want every fucking phone in this school wiped of all photos. Not one image of Riley in her underwear had better hit the internet or I will break some faces.”
“I’m on it,” Evan replied, whipping out his own phone and scrolling for the right contact. As tempted as I was to physically snatch all those phones and stomp all over them, Delta had more subtle ways of getting it done.
From the corner of my eye, I saw him pause before hitting dial.
“Is there a problem?” I demanded, glaring at him.
Evan’s jaw clenched, and he darted a sharp look around us—probably checking that none of the other students were within earshot—before replying.
“Yeah, Beck,” he said quietly, “I have a problem with all of this. I hate leaving Riley at their mercy. They’re fucking animals when they smell fresh game, and we all know it.”
“I agree,” Dylan muttered, “This doesn’t sit right.”
I snorted a sarcastic laugh, unable to help myself. “Of course you don’t like it, Dylan. If you had your way, Riley would be playing the part of your girlfriend.”
I wasn’t being dramatic. When we’d discussed how to best handle Riley’s safety at school, Dylan had offered to be her “fake” boyfriend to keep the haters away and divert attention away from my clear weakness where she was concerned.
Not that Riley would have ever gone for it, given how pissed she was at all of us. But I shot that suggestion down pretty fast. I hadn’t expected her to take this angle, though. The whole threat of publicly denouncing her had been nothing but bluster and bullshit. But one of Katelyn’s little bitches had been spying on us and we’d been forced into a corner.
Fucking appearances.
“She’ll come around,” I told them both, but really I was trying to convince myself. “She’s not stupid, and Jasper will talk her down. It’ll be fine.”
Dylan grunted a disagreeing noise. “She’s not stupid, but she’s damn stubborn. I think she’ll put up with a whole lot more than a bit of public nudity before we’re forgiven.” He eyed me up with pity. “You especially.”
I clenched my teeth hard to prevent punching my best friend in the face. “I’m aware that I fucked up. That we fucked up. But she will get over it, in time.”
This time it was Evan who sighed and gave me a skeptical look. “Whatever you say, boss.”
“In the meantime,” I continued like they hadn’t just been questioning my judgment, “we need to keep an eye on her, from a distance. As much as possible, just try to keep her in sight. Delta won’t let us remove Katelyn until they know what Huntley is up to, but I don’t trust her near Riley.”
Both of my friends nodded their agreement then headed out. Dylan was no doubt going to tail Riley because it was fast turning into his favorite pastime, while Evan was dealing with getting the pictures erased from every phone in Ducis Academy.
“Quite the show your little throwaway put on for the school,” a sultry, sarcastic voice commented, and I didn’t need to look to know who’d just slinked up.
“Fuck off, Katelyn,” I snapped.
She made a sound of indignation and batted her overly mascaraed eyelashes at me. “Such hostility, Sebastian. I thought our generation was meant to forge alliances, not continue the warring ways of our parents.”
“Don’t call me that,” I told her with a growl underscoring my words. “We are not friends, and I have no interest in forging any sort of alliance with a common high school bully like you.”