Page 69 of Reckless At Raleigh High
How many times do I have to watch the guy I love being hurt because of me?
I flinch, my breath lodged in the back of my throat, alongside another pleading cry. I can’t work it free. It’s jammed there, unable to get out. Kyle lurches drunkenly, too far away to land his punch…
…as Alex wrenches himself free of Lawrence’s grasp. In a predatory, swift movement, he dips, pivots his hips, rises again, and grabs Lawrence by the side of the head. The crowd sucks in a communal breath as Alex digs his fingers into the other guy’s shaggy hair, reels him in, and then smashes his head into the lockers.
“Holy shit,” Zen hisses. “Did you see that? His eyes rolled back into his head. He’s out cold.”
Sure enough, Lawrenceisout cold. His eyes are open, staring up at the ceiling. Kyle and Naseem exchange a glance that spells trouble—their outraged that Alex has KO’d their boy. Naseem steps forward first. The hallway suddenly becomes stiflingly hot. It’s as though the walls are pressing in on all sides. Smirking like this entire fight has boiled down to this moment, Naseem eyes Alex like he’s about to give him a taste of his own medicine. My boyfriend laughs softly under his breath, eying him dubiously, though.
“One more step, Nas. Just one more.”
“And what? You can’t take meandKyle, asshole. Jesus, you really do think you’re god’s gift, don’t you?”
Alex answers with a subtle twitch of his mouth. It’s as close as he’s ever going to get to smiling in front of Naseen. “Youwerewarned. One step closer and you’ll—”
Naseem steps forward.
In a blur of arms and smudged black clothing, Alex flies at him. Naseem braces, ducking a little to take the brunt of Alex’s weight as he crashes into him, but he’s massively underestimated Alex’s strength. He goes down. Alex grabs the front of his shirt, pulling the guy off the ground to meet his fist, which he pulls back and unleashes again and again, until the asshole falls limp, his head lolling back.
“Darhower!” a girl cries on the far side of the knot of people. “Darhower’s coming! Get the fuck out of here!”
The crowd breaks, scattering like a bunch of cockroaches across a kitchen floor. Students flee in every direction, tripping over one another, pushing each other out of the way as they attempt to distance themselves from the fight. Alex lowers his fist. He also drops Naseem, letting him fall to the blood streaked linoleum beneath his feet.
Curses under his breath, Kyle braces himself against the locker door beside him; looks like he’s still winded from the very first hit Alex landed on him.
“Go on and get to class, Silver,” Alex says grimly, clenching his jaw.
What the…? Of all the ridiculous things he could say to me right now, this tops the charts. “I’m not going anywhere. Neither’s Zen. We’ll tell Principal—”
His nostrils flare. Shaking his head, he steps over Naseem and gently tugs me toward the rear exit of the building, urging me to move. “Come on,Argento. If Darhower’s shitty to you, even remotely shitty, then I’m gonna lose my temper and hit the fucker. This is already bad enough as it i—”
“What thehellis going on?”
Fuck.
Too late.
Principal Darhower’s enraged voice booms down the hallway as he draws closer. Sounds like he’s already clocked the two kids lying on the floor, and Kyle leaning awkwardly against the lockers, with Alex and me standing right in the middle of the carnage. It’s too late to go sneaking off now, even if I wanted to.
I turn just in time for Darhower to arrive. He places his hands on his hips, pushing his suit jacket back, disbelief etched into the lines of his face. “Heaven help me, but I thought this week was gonna be it,” he huffs. “This week, I figured things would be normal for once. Quiet, even. Hah!” His small snatch of laughter makes me jump. “I’m delusional. What is it, what’s the saying?” He clicks his fingers, urging the phrase he’s looking for to reveal itself to him. “Repeating the same act over and over and expecting a different result…that’s the definition of madness. Well, I must be out of my fucking mind, because I really did, once again, let myself believe that you two weren’t going to cause any more trouble. Yet here we are…again…”
“Alex was defending us,” Zen says, stepping forward. Her voice sounds strong. Her attitude—the way she’s set her jaw and is looking Darhower dead in the eye—is night and day from the anxious, scared demeanor she was rocking not five minutes ago. “These idiots threw a can of soda at us. They were threatening us,” Zen announces, everything about her tight and controlled. “I was scared. You know.For the baby.”
Whoa!
What thefuck? Did she just say that out loud? I jerk back, startled by Zen’s statement. I’m not the only one surprised by what she’s just said, either; Darhower pales, his cheeks turning ashen white. I can only image the looks on the faces of the students around us who didn’t run, because I can’t tear my eyes away from the man in the wrinkled suit standing five feet away.
“I—y—wha—” Principal Darhower’s mouth opens and closes a number of times before he breaks eye contact with Zen and looks briefly down at his feet while he gathers himself. He wasn’t expecting her to bring up the fact that she’s pregnant. Not in a hallway full of people.Iwasn’t expecting her to bring it up, either. Darhower kneads the back of his neck, pressing his fingertips into his skin like he’s attempting to ease a sudden pinched nerve. When he looks back up, he’s wearing a tight, unfriendly smile.
“Y’know what? I should suspend the lot of you. Send you home and demand your parents do something about this…thismayhem. It’d be a complete waste of time, though, wouldn’t it? You’re like goddamn wolves. I can’t handle a second more of this, I swear. Ms, MacReady, get yourself to the nurses’ station and get yourself checked out. We wouldn’t want any harm to have come to yourbaby. Once she’s finished, you three idiots drag your asses over there and get seen, too. Lawrence Davis, were youunconsciousjust now?”
Lawrence has woken up and has gotten to his feet while Darhower’s been ranting. “No,” he lies, shaking his head blearily. “I was fine. I was just…”
“Don’t even bother. Just make sure you don’t have a concussion, and then get the hell to your next class.” You can practically see the fumes billowing out of his nose as he turns his attention to Alex and me. “You were so sweet and easy when you were a freshman, Silver. I swear to god, puberty is a curse sent from the gods to punishmespecifically. And you…” he says, narrowing his eyelids to slits as he considers Alex. “The day you were foisted onto this school was a bad day indeed. Honestly, I literally pray at night that you all graduate with flying colors, purely so there’ll be no chance of you repeating your senior year. At this rate, I’ll be in an early grave before June. Get out of my sight.”
Alex arches a cool eyebrow at the principal, his dark eyes sharper than razors. “No suspension? No threats?” he asks. “Don’t you want to finally expel me from the school?”
That is what Darhower’s wanted for a very long time. This, right here, is plenty of cause to expel Alex from Raleigh, and Maeve wouldn’t be able to save his ass this time.
