Ace of Spades Sneak Peek(13)
“You good?” he asks, shoving papers into his bag.
I nod. “Yeah.”
Someone snickers nearby and Jack slams his locker shut, turning to face them.
“Go and find a fucking hobby,” he says to a random girl whose smile immediately disappears. He pulls his bag on, then turns without saying bye.
“Wait.”
“What?” he asks, turning around without meeting my eyes. My stomach flips. Maybe he is avoiding me.
“What do you mean ‘what’?”
“I mean, what do you want? I need to get to registration. It starts in ten.”
He finally looks at me, and the realization hits. He’s angry.
“Did you see that picture … going around?”
He doesn’t say anything at first. Just stares at me, his brown eyes unreadable. “They’re gonna kill you. They won’t let you deal for them like before.”
My heart hasn’t stopped beating this fast since yesterday.
“Who?” I ask, playing dumb.
“You know who.”
I say nothing.
Jack sighs. “I don’t know what you got yourself into, man, but I want nothing to do with it. I can’t have my brothers targeted.”
I grab Jack’s arm as he tries to turn. He pulls it back, looking around all uncomfortable.
“I can … I’ll talk to Andre. I can tell him to sort this—”
“Course you can,” he says, the disgusted look on his face unsurprising but still painful. I wish he wouldn’t look at me like that whenever I mention Andre. “I can’t do this right now.” He moves back a bit, looking at me one last time. “I’m sorry.”
And then he’s gone.
I stand there, feeling worse than I did yesterday when I saw the picture.
I can still hear the whispers around me, because that’s all anyone ever does here. Talk about people.
Jack’s words echo in my head.
I can’t do this right now.
I’m trying not to let it get to me. He has his brothers to think about, and the area we come from doesn’t operate like Niveus. Here, they whisper about you. In our area … If they see or even hear about the picture, and Jack’s seen with me, they could do things to him and his younger brothers, as well as me.
It wouldn’t be the first time Jack has suffered because of my bullies. I just hope they don’t know about the picture already.
As I turn, I’m met by three girls, all blond-haired and peach-faced, staring at me like they know me, even though I have no idea who they are.
“Is it true that Scotty cheated on you with Chiamaka?” the one in the middle asks. She has a huge blue bow in her hair and a large rainbow-colored lollipop in her hand. I know it’s taboo to push a girl, but I want to. I dig my nails into my palms to stop myself from moving the girls out of the way.
I knew about Chiamaka, believe it or not. Scotty cheated on me with some other guys at parties he went to. His relationship with Chiamaka, he explained once, was a mutual popularity contract, not a real relationship. And I was stupid enough to accept that as an excuse.
“Excuse me,” I say, before barging past them. I need the music room. I need to drown, I need to play. Jack once joked that music to me is like nicotine to a heavy smoker. I’m not a smoker, so I can’t exactly say if that’s true, but sometimes I feel like I’d die without music.
As I walk up the stairs to the music room, there’s a buzz in my pocket. I stop walking, letting my eyes shut so that I can focus on calming my breathing—which is hard to do when your heart keeps hammering away like mine is. I slowly reach into my pocket, and beneath the old candy wrappers I’d forgotten to remove, I feel the warm, smooth plastic of my phone.
It could be anything. It could be anyone.
It might be them … talking about me again.
Then again, it might just be Andre texting or my ma …
[1 new message from unknown]
My heart stops.
Just in …
I scan the screen.
And my nerves shatter when someone nearby says, “No fucking way.”
6
CHIAMAKA
Tuesday
In my soon-to-be four years at Niveus, I’ve encountered many secrets, whisperings, and rumors. While some of them have been about me, they were certainly never enough to ruin my reputation. The worst gossip was always about some other poor soul who would either drop out from the weight of having to face their mistakes every day or have a mental breakdown, leave school for a week, and come back with a new nose or handbag. And if I’ve learned anything during my time here, it’s perfecting the art of making a rumor work in your favor—and coming out unscathed.
So it comes as a surprise when I walk through the double doors—later than usual because my hair straighteners were acting up—and everyone stares at me like I’ve got something to be ashamed of.
My stomach flips as I walk toward Ruby, who is by my locker, scrolling through her phone.
“Hi, Ruby.”
She looks at me, a smile slowly forming, her ginger hair wrapped around her head in a braided crown.
“Hey, Chi.” There’s a playfulness in her eyes, like the look a wolf gets when it’s hunting for prey.
I open my locker and push my bag inside. “Is there a reason, other than eternal jealousy, for all the stares this morning?” I joke, trying to seem unbothered. I pretend to search for something so that I don’t have to look at her. “It’s like I shaved my eyebrows off or something.”