Mad Boys (Blue Ivy Prep, #2)(25)

“Maybe,” I forced the word out and when Aubrey glared at me, I shook my head. One of those guitars had been a gift from Dad. It was the first and only instrument he’d ever given me. It had been a gift to him from his father. I’d written the first three Torched songs on it.

I needed that guitar. The second one had been the first instrument I bought myself with the money we earned from our first album.

They meant the world to me, and I couldn’t replace either of them.

Not really.

With a sigh, Aubrey came to sit next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “I’m with Yvette, you scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry,” I whispered but it still came out hoarse. “I couldn’t leave them.”

“I know,” she said with a long sigh even as her cell began to ring—well sing. She answered it without looking. Yvette stared up at us from the screen.

“I’ve decided that you two need to ditch that school and just come up here to live with me. Or we can go back to California. Fuck it, we can move to France or Australia, just away from that insanity.”

“What happened now?” Aubrey asked when Yvette took a breath. “I mean, it’s only been…”

I held up all five fingers. We’d talked to her five hours earlier.

“Yeah, it’s only been five hours.”

Yvette rolled her eyes and glared at us. “That school has been nothing but problems for Kait, and not worth the level of shit you have to deal with in those boys. Not to mention, they’re talking about arson.”

I coughed, but it was Aubrey who said, “They haven’t released a conclusive statement about arson, only that they are investigating all possible causes. They don’t know what caused the fire and fires suck, but it’s not a reason to dump and run.”

“I knew you would say that,” Yvette practically sulked, but I adored her for being so worried about us.

“We’re fine,” I promised.

“You do not sound fine.” Yvette sniffed. “You could finish your degree quickly online, then we could do just about anything else. Or if you really want the “school experience,” we can choose a different one without all the baggage.”

I sighed. “We could,” I said, earning me a startled look from Aubrey. “Although I like this school—even with the stupid stuff.” I coughed, then took another drink of water to clear my throat. “Archie used to go here. There’s a Grayson building for Frankie’s family. I know they aren't here now…”

“But it feels like them.” Aubrey groaned then shoved off the sofa when a knock sounded at the door. She left me with the phone.

“I’m worried about you,” Yvette said. “Those stupid letters and notes. The emails. Now a fire?”

“The Forever Fan stuff is getting picked up by management.” Those letters increased over the summer. They seemed to come from a lot of different locations. Too many. The threats varied from creepy to just weird. “Why would they burn down our dorm?”

It didn’t even make sense. Aubrey returned with a rolling table loaded with our food. “Maybe because he kept bitching that we weren’t touring.”

“Yeah, a fire is gonna hurry me right back into a recording studio.”

“Not right now,” Yvette said. “And stop trying to talk. You’re making my throat hurt.”

I smiled at her.

“How about you guys just come up here for a few days while school is sorting things out? Come stay with me.”

I would love to, but we had so much to do. Clothes to buy, supplies to replace, and my books… fuck.

Slumping back on the sofa, I made a face.

“What?” Aubrey asked, worry in her eyes.

“My laptop,” I said. “I can’t remember if I saved that paper to the cloud and all our books.” The school liked to give us summer assignments to warm us up for the year.

Her grimace matched my own.

“I’ll order your books,” Yvette said. “It will give me something to do. You’re going to need uniforms and regular clothes. You left stuff here. Want me to send it down?”

That led to a debate about what we needed and when we needed it. Eventually, they made me shut up entirely and write things down.

By the time we finished the call, we had a plan…and it was almost time for Dix to get there. While I normally just liked Dix, right now, I was aching to see him. I just wanted to have a little calm and certainty back.

That would help. Course, we still had to sort out where we would be rooming. More clothes shopping, uniforms, books, electronics…

I glanced at the running clothes.

More douchebags.





Eleven





JONAS


Three days. Three days after the fire, I caught sight of blue hair ahead of me in the hall. I forgot to breathe for a full minute until she turned and I could verify it was her.

She was back, and she was okay. She and her bandmate were both in uniforms, so they’d gotten those sorted. That was good. I followed along with the steady flow of students into the auditorium. This was the largest of the three on campus. I doubted we needed this much space, except they’d summoned the entirety of the junior and senior classes.