Page 15 of Quiet Rage
“We need to put on more pressure.” Glancing around to make sure nobody is standing too close, I murmur, “Something that will make her drop out.”
Tiana’s eyebrows lift, but only for a second. It doesn’t take long for her to get over her surprise. “Good. I don’t wanna see her skanky face around here anyway.”
Something tells me I could say literally anything, and she would agree.
“Any ideas?” I look at the girls in turn, and I have to remind myself there’s a bigger reason for this. Even if the reason isn’t mine, really, it’s something I have to do. That means I have to stop thinking about the way Tamson’s hair smells—sweet, fresh, with a touch of some kind of flower scent.
The slow, knowing look Tiana turns on the girls tells me she has something in mind. “It’s funny you should mention that. We’ve been talking about an idea I had. But it would need planning to pull it off.”
“Well, yeah, there would have to be a plan.” I can really do without all the feet-dragging. Like she wants to keep me in suspense, like this is all a game. I guess to her, it is.
When she crooks a finger to draw me in closer and lowers her voice, I get the idea she’s not just playing games. This is serious. “What if we make it so she never wants to step foot on campus again because there’s too many bad memories?”
“Isn’t that kind of the point?”
“But what if we…” Eyes darting around, she murmurs, “Lock her in somewhere over the weekend?”
It takes a second for me to process what I just heard. “Lock her in?” I murmur.
“Like a closet. A janitor closet,” she explains. There is excitement in her voice, too, and she almost bounces on the balls of her feet. “We want to pick one to lock her in. Just for the weekend. It won’t kill her.”
“No phone,” one of the other girls points out, like I couldn’t figure that out on my own. “No way to call for help.”
Jerking me off in the library would look like a vacation compared to what two days locked in a closet would be like. I see her in my head, crying and begging for help, pounding on the door while the rest of us are enjoying the weekend. I see the tears rolling down her cheeks in the dark. I hear her sobs.
And it spreads a feeling of warmth through me. Satisfaction.
“Well? What do you think?” Excitement drips from every word. “We could do it this weekend.”
Yeah, go for it.I can’t force the words out. Not that it would take that many. Fuck, I could nod my head to get the point across.
But what if something happens to her? “How long can a person go without water?” I ask, not that I expect any of them to know the answer.
And I’m right. “Who cares?” Tiana shrugs, scoffing. “She’ll be fine.”
But will she? And even if she’s fine physically, what would it do to her mentally? I see her in my head, locked in a dark closet, no clue what day it is or what time, how long it will be before anyone comes to rescue her. What we’ve been doing so far is bullying, but that is a hell of a lot closer to torture.
Do I give this my okay? It’s not the kind of thing I can laugh off like the rest of what we’ve done.
“If you want her to drop out,” Tiana reminds me, “this is probably the best way to do it. It’ll get the job done fast.”
It’s kind of cute in a twisted, perverse way, how determined she is to convince me. Like all she cares about is getting the job done when we both know she’s in it to make an innocent person suffer. Even if she won’t admit it to herself.
Dad is expecting this, or something like it. Something major, something that will produce results. I need to get my head out of my ass—the girl means nothing to me.
And if she does mean something, she shouldn’t. I can’t let that get in the way.
“Go for it,” I decide, my stomach turning at the sight of Tiana’s satisfied grin.
This is for the best. The quicker we get it over with, the quicker we can all move on.
Tamson included.
Chapter 8
Tamson
It’s a beautiful day.Surprisingly cool, with a nice breeze that lifts the hair on the nape of my neck while I sit under a tree, eating my lunch on the fringe of campus. If I get any further away, I won’t even be on campus anymore.
