Page 76 of Reckless At Raleigh High
The moment her layers are stripped back and her insecurities are revealed, she’s no longer special and she knows it. She’s just as afraid, and tired, and scared, and fucked up as the rest of us. A seventeen-year-old girl, affecting a level of calm she doesn’t possess, pretending that she has even the slightest control over her own life, when in truth she’s confused and spinning dangerously out of control.
“Jesus, just fuck off and die.Please. Do everyone a favor and expire already. We’re all so over of the Silver Parisi show.” The venom in her voice is toxic. It’s there on her face, in the way she’s leaning toward me like she’s desperate to lash out and hit me but she doesn’t quite know how; Kacey’s always been far more efficient at hurting people with her tongue than her fists.
Her words only have an effect on me now because of the yearbook nomination ballots that just came tumbling out of my locker. She really does want me to die. She’s not just saying it, attempting to wish me away, out of her life. She hates me so badly that she wants me dead and buried in the ground. That kind of ice-cold hatred is enough to make anyone’s teeth chatter.
Perfectly timed as ever, Jake decides that now’s the right moment to saunter over, absently toying with an olive in between his teeth. He sucks it into his mouth, winking at me as he chews. He’s the type of guy who’s comfortable in a suit. He wears the expensive-looking cloth like it’s a second skin. Looking me up and down, he does nothing to hide his disdain at my outfit. “A dress? Brave of you, Silver. I was expecting you to show up in a hessian sack. Something with a little more material?” he sneers.
Alex bristles beside me, his anger palpable at such close quarters. This kind of confrontation is exactly what I wanted to avoid. We were supposed to be having a good night. Supposed to be keeping to our side of the gym, minding our own business. It would have been fine, too, if Kacey hadn’t noticed Halliday checking out the ring on my finger.
She clearly still hasn’t forgotten about it, either. Glaring at it pointedly, her mouth twisted into a sour pout, she pops out a hip, arching a sculpted black eyebrow, and announces out loud, for everyone to hear, “Come on now, baby. Tonight’s a special night for Silver. She’s just agreed to become Mrs. Trailer Trash. Shame her loser fiancé couldn’t afford a proper ring. Looks like it came out of a fucking gum ball machine.”
A chorus of titters and awkward laughter travels from one side of the crowd to the other like a Mexican wave. All around me, seniors avert their gaze, avoiding making eye contact with me as they hide their smiles. They react this way because they’ve been conditioned. Kacey lashes someone with a cutting barb, and our classmates all respond in kind, giving her the reaction she so craves. It’s a fucked up symbiotic relationship that I thought had ended the day Leon Wickman bled out on the rough grey carpet in the Raleigh High library.Seems as though people here are all too willing slip back into old routines, though, acting out the roles that are expected of them.
They can laugh and smile all they want. They can mock me until the end of time. It wouldn’t matter if Alex had bought my ring from a gum ball machine for all I care. I’m wearing my grandmother’s ring. It’s legendary in the Parisi family. I don’t think even Alex realizes that the stone, mounted in the simple yet elegant silver setting, is a pink diamond, and one of the rarest stones money can buy.
Gram used to tuck me into bed at night sometimes, and I’d beg her to tell me the story of how her parents fell in love and survived the war. And at the center of my great grandparent’s story, was the beautiful ring I’m lucky enough to be wearing on my finger. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
I’m about to fire off a retort to Kacey’s shitty comment, when I notice the stunned look on Jacob’s face. His full lips are parted, a glass lifted halfway to his open mouth, and his cornflower blue eyes are wide, doubled in size. “What the fuck is that?” he sputters, staring at the ring. “You can’t be fuckingserious.”
“As a heart attack,” Alex growls, stepping in front of me. He’s stood his ground, letting me handle the situation until now; I know he held back in order to try and rein in his anger, but Jake’s shocked statement has tipped him over the edge. With bared teeth, he prowls forward, a biblical rage burning in his dark eyes. “It kills you, huh? You wanted her so bad, you took her against her will. And when you couldn’t break her, you decided you’d do the next best thing and kill her. You failed at that too, though, Weaving. Silver’s stronger than you, and you know it. You’re never going to best her. And you’re never gonna fucking own her, either. She’ll never belong to you now.”
What the hell’s happening here? Jake’s eyes shine, wet and glassy looking. He downs his drink, swallowing down the whiskey in his cup—I can smell the powerful, sharp tang of it on his breath from where I’m standing. His nostrils flare as he puffs and blows like a wild, angry horse. Out of nowhere, the cooler-than-cool attitude he was affecting when he strolled over has vanished and he comes alive with fury. “Stupid fuck. You think you own her ’cause you slipped a ring on her finger?”
Alex pushes out a sharp bark of laughter, loud over the pounding music. “That’s the difference between you and me, isn’t it, Jake? I’ve never tried to own her. I want her to be free. You only wanted to crush her to your will, regardless of how you accomplished it.”
“God, back off, Trailer Trash,” Kacey groans. She studies her nails, angling them under the white lights that strobe on and off overhead. She can feign boredom all she likes, but I can see that she’s sizzling mad from the impatient, repetitive tapping of her heel and the way her mouth has flattened into a straight line. “The grown-ups are talking, okay? You’re embarrassing yourself. You’d be better off keeping your dirty mouth closed, sweetheart.”
Oh, shit. Alex is three seconds from exploding like a goddamn IED. On the outside, he’s perfectly calm. Anyone would be forgiven for thinking he was absolutely fine. He isn’t though. Not even close. I take his hand, as he took me by mine before, and I try to get him to look at me, but it’s no good. He’s too far gone to be reached.
“You,” he says quietly, addressing Kacey. “I’m confused by you. You’re soweak. There’s absolutely nothing remarkable about you. You’re uninteresting to look at. Below average intelligence. Your obsessive struggle for power has ranged well past the border of pathetic and is you’ve now officially hit pitiful territory. Somehow, you’re still trying to best the girl who adored and doted on you, even though you know you can’t. You know you lost to her a long time ago. You know she’s better than you in every way imaginable, and yet…you keep on trying. He calls her Second Place Silver,” he says evenly, jerking his chin in Jake’s direction, “but in your heart, you know she’s first place. She’s all he cares about. He can never love you as much as he hates her. She consumes his entire fucking being, doesn’t she? He’s so determined to despise her, that there’s hardly any room left inside his head for you at all. You’realwaysgoing to be second place.” Taking a measured step forward, he tips his head to one side, shaking his head slowly, like he feels sorry for her.
“I get what it’s like to feel worthless, Kacey. You’re right. I lived in a trailer park, and I come from poor stock. That doesn’t really set a guy up to excel in life. I see all of the things I used to hate about myself in you, and my heart breaks for you. But I swear to god,” he says, leaning into her face. “Call me Trailer Trash again, and I’ll make you wish you’d never been fucking born. I don’t care if you’re a girl. I haven’t forgotten that bullet in the library, Winters. Now, you closeyourmouth like a good little girl now, or I’ll happily slam my fist into it.”
Kacey pales. The haughty expression on her face fades and dies as she shrinks into herself a little. “You wouldn’t. You wouldn’t hit me. Your dumb masculine pride wouldn’t let you.”
“Oh, believe me. You grow up in the places I grew up and things like pride are a luxury you can’t afford. Do not doubt me. I’ll break your fucking neck if you piss me off again. And if you do or say anything to hurt Silver, then god help you, Kacey Winters, because only he will be able to save you.”
“All right, senior students of Raleigh High! Is everybody having an amazing time?” An overly cheerful voice on the PA cuts over the top of the music. The DJ stops the track, and a strained quiet falls over the gymnasium. No one’s paying attention to Susan Foyle, class president, who’s apparently commandeered a microphone from somewhere. All eyes are on Alex and Kacey. All eyes are on me and Jake.
“It’s that time of the night, guys! The votes have been counted, and the candidates have been weighed. I’m delighted to announce that this year’s Raleigh High Prom King and Queen have been selected by you, the people, and we are ready to unveil their identities to the world!” Susan claps enthusiastically up on the stage. No one joins her.
At any moment, this place is going to go up in flames. The tension’s so thick, you could cut it with a dull knife. Jake grabs Alex by the suit jacket, pulling him close. I can see his mouth working, hard words being spit out of his mouth as he snarls something at my boyfriend, but I can’t hear what he says, because Susan starts speaking again.
“Okay, okay. Not quite the response I was looking for, but hey. Tradition is tradition, people, and we are still excited to have our Raleigh High senior coronation. If everyone could please look this way, we’ll call our new king and queen up to the stage and then everyone can get back to dancing.Yaaaaayyyy!”
Poor Susan. She’s trying to inspire some sort of excitement in the crowd, but her Raleigh High pep is falling on deaf ears. Alex shoves Jake away, a hard, murderous light in his eyes. He turns his back and walks away from the other guy instead of hitting him, though. Alex isn’t going to try and kill Jake in front of two hundred witnesses. Thank the fucking lord.
“It’s okay. It’s over,” he whispers, ducking down to place a kiss against my cheekbone. “Come on. Let them parade themselves around in front of everyone all they like. I wanna get you a drink.”
Whoa.
The deadly, quiet rage that was oozing out of him just now has gone. I’ve never seen such an immediate turnaround in him before; it’s miraculous that he’s so suddenly so calm. “Really?” I search his face, looking for any tell-tale signs that he’s about to lose it and start throwing his fists, but when his eyes meet mine, all I see is frustration and weariness.
“Yeah. Come on. We’ve had enough of this shit to last us a lifetime. Zander’s got some tequila in a flask somewhere. We should find him.”
“Okay. Sure.”
Kacey still looks stunned, white as a sheet, as Alex pulls me away through the crowd. I don’t look back at her, or at Jake, as we walk across the gym, cutting a path toward the emergency exit.
