The Rebel of Raleigh High (Raleigh Rebels #1)(39)

“No, man. You’re just…you’re a guy. You’re you. Whatever.”

Leon rocks on his heels. There really isn't any physical reason I would have thought he was into dudes. You meet some people and you know instantly, because of the way they speak or gesticulate, or because of the specific things they say. That didn't happen with Leon. It just seemed true. “No one's ever said that to me before,” he says tightly.

I begin to think I might have overstepped, which kinda sucks. I don’t want to fight him. He’s a big guy, but I’m more than capable of kicking his ass. Leon’s big and broad with a huge fucking reach on him, but he’s not a brawler. No fucking way. He shifts from one foot to the other, his eyes sharp, searching my face. “You don’t give a shit, do you?” he says, the statement an accusation.

“I’m sorry?”

“You wouldn't give a shit if I were gay, would you?”

I jerk my head back, my mouth turning down as I consider what he’s just said. “No. Of course not. Why would I?” I wait for him to say something back, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t move for a second. He just stands there, hands still in his pockets, eyes boring into me…and I realize that he’s holding his breath. Eventually, he shakes himself, as if he’s coming back to life, and scuffs the sole of his shoe against the buffed concrete floor.

“Well I’m not gay gay,” he says stiffly. “Obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t have been with Kacey. I like guys and girls. Anyway, let me know if you wanna use this place to work on your bike sometime,” he adds, changing the subject rather clunkily. “I’m never in here. Seems like a shame to let everything just…sit.”

I recognize that as our cue to leave. I climb off the back of the bike and take my drink from him, swallowing down half the liquor inside in one go. I finally feel the effects of the booze, my legs beginning to feel heavier and heavier as we walk back up the slope toward the house.

“You ask me, you’re better off without that Kacey chick, anyway,” I tell him. “She’s a piece of work. Probably would have bitten your dick off if you’d put a foot wrong.”

Leon glances at me out of the corner of his eye. “You’re more right than you know. Kacey’s beautiful. Popular. Fun. But Jesus fucking Christ, her teeth are sharp. Cross her or any of the other girls at your own peril.”

I laugh under my breath, draining the last dregs of the punishing drink. “Don’t worry. I’m not interested in any of those dumpster fire bitches.”

“No. You’re only interested in the weird, quirky, indie outcasts, I s’pose?”

I say nothing, but we trade dry looks and it’s very obvious who and what he’s referring to.

“I won’t tell you to be careful of that one,” Leon says, rubbing at the back of his neck awkwardly. “I know Jake’s already done that.”

“Do I really need a warning?”

For a moment, Leon looks uncomfortable. “I don’t know the details. I can’t say either way. That night just got…it got really fucking crazy, and when the shit hit the fan, Kacey still had her claws in my back so deep, I’m ashamed to say I just did whatever the fuck she told me. All I do know is that Silver used to be one of them…and something really horrible must have happened between her and Kacey for everything to have blown up the way it did.”

I frown, crushing the solo cup in my hand. We’re almost back to the kitchen’s sliding doors. The sounds of the party have reached a fever pitch, the music pulsing like an angry heartbeat. Someone opens the door, throwing an oblong shard of golden light out into the darkness. Inside, someone screams raucously at the top of their lungs, but I’m not focused on what they’re shouting. I’m still trying to process what Leon just said. “Wait, what do you mean, she used to be one of them?”

Leon nods, rocking his head from side to side, as if he finds the idea of Silver and Kacey being friends absolutely un-fucking-believable, too. “Yeah, I know. Kacey and Silver were inseparable not too long ago. You couldn’t say one of their names without the other. Kacey and I were in a relationship for years, but you’d never hear the names ‘Kacey and Leon’ put together. It was only ever Kacey and Silver. You couldn’t picture it now if you tried.”

I am trying. I’m trying to picture it, and he’s right. I can’t fucking do it.

He gives a brittle, hollow laugh. “I guess now it’s not Kacey and Leon, or Kacey and Silver, anyway. It’s Kacey and fucking Jacob. I wonder how long that’s gonna last.”





15





ALEX





Leon goes back inside, but I need a moment to clear my mind. I can’t face the football team right now. All I really wanna do is think for a second, to try and wrap my head around the idea that Silver used to align herself with Kacey and her clones. I don’t hate Halliday, but the rest of them are vacuous witches without an independent thought between them, and it’s strangely unbearable to think Silver used to be like that. Like them.

Around the side of the house, I'm unsurprised to come across a swimming pool. Steam rises off the illuminated body of water, up toward the night sky. Leon made it seem as though his father didn't want to support his commitment to his swimming, wanted him to do anything else but swim, but this makes a different statement altogether. Usually, people have modest pools in their back yards, kidney-shaped, maybe with a fountain or a waterfall. Not Leon's, though. Leon's pool was clearly not put here for relaxation purposes. It's an Olympic sized pool, fiercely rectangular, long and thin with only three lanes. Leon must come out here every morning and swim a thousand fucking laps to justify such a huge, obnoxious body of water.