Page 78 of Reckless At Raleigh High
Oh boy. This is gonna be interesting. Bemused, I try to hunt down Alex’s wretched, grinning face in the crowd but typically he’s nowhere to be found.
40
ALEX
“Outside. Fifteen minutes. Just me and you. Let’s end this once and for all, Moretti. Unless you’re too chicken shit to face me without your girlfriend ’round to protect you.”
The words Jake spat into my ear were filled with violence. They still ring inside my head as I hurry out of the emergency exit, glad that I slipped out unnoticed as Silver ascended the stairs.
She’s going to hate me for this. She might never forgive me for what I’m about to do, but there’s only so much a person can take, and I’ve just about had enough. Not for myself, but for her. She’s stronger than me. I don’t think there’s an end to the amount of abuse she can take if she has to, but I can’t stand by and watch it happen anymore. I’ve allowed it for long enough. It’s time I stood up and finally said enough on her behalf. I should have done it a long fucking time ago.
Snowflakes float in the still night air, hauntingly suspended in place as I follow the channel of footprints that have cut a path through the labyrinth of looming snowbanks covering the basketball court behind the school. There’s no wind to speak of, but the cold still knifes through my suit, sinking its fangs into my bones. The sky’s clear overhead, and the waxing gibbous moon—a shining smudge of light in the vast, sweeping midnight blue—casts long shadows from the naked trees.
There’s death in the air and I can feel it. It tries to seep inside me, just like the cold, as I hurry around the back of the gymnasium, keeping a sharp eye out for Jacob. The prick has no honor. I expect him to jump out of a fucking tree and lynch me—it’s definitely his style—so I’m surprised when I turn the corner around the building and there he is, waiting for me in an open clearing. His hands are in his pockets. Fog clouds on his breath when he opens his mouth and speaks.
“Well. Didn’t think you were this stupid, Moretti. Gotta say I’m surprised.”
For fuck’s sake. What an asshole. “You got me all wrong if you think I’d ever be afraid of facing you, man. You’re nothing special. I’ve taken down bigger guys than you and I didn’t even break a sweat.
“Nah.” Jake shakes his head, laughing as he looks down at his shoes. His hands are still in his pockets. “Nah, I know you’re not worried about facing me. I didn’t mean that. I meant that I didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to come out here on your own.”
Snow compacts, creaking under the soles of boots, as two…no, three other guys come into view, appearing around the other side of the gymnasium. My old friends Kyle, Naseem and Lawrence. Jesus. What did I just tell myself as I walked out here? Jake has no fucking honor. It’s no surprise that he told me to come out here alone, and yet made sure he’d have an entire crew of guys with him. This is on me; I should have known he’d never have the stones to go toe-to-toe with me in a fair fight.
“Coward.” I toss the word to him like a pebble, but Jake flinches like I hurled a boulder at his face. He recoils, scowling deeply, as his friends come to stand by his side. They remind me of hyenas, laughing moronically, skulking through the shadows to stand behind their pack leader.
“I’m not a coward,” Jake snaps. “I’ve dealt with shit you can’t even imagine.”
“Right. Sure. Daddy confiscate your Ferrari? You actually had to buy groceries and make your own lunch once? Tough life, Jake.”
His grimace deepens. With the moon casting warped shadows across his face, he looks like a grotesque gargoyle, eyes sunken and cheeks hollow. “Having a drug runner and smuggler for a dad’s not as fun as it might sound,” he says. “Thugs and criminals at the house every night of the week. I’ve seen people beaten. I’ve watched people get shot and die on my living room floor. I listened to my mother cry herself to sleep every night between the ages of seven and thirteen. Nothing in my house was easy, you dumb piece of shit.”
“Aw. Condolences.” I laughing scathingly down my nose. “Sounds like a fucking summer camp to me, but hell. What do I know? I had to watch my mother blow her own brains out when I was six, so I’ll never know how hard it must have been for you to hear your spoiled, rich, Percocet popping mommy sniffle into her pillow when she went to bed at night. Must have been hard. Christ, you really do think you’re the only person in the world who’s ever had to deal with hardship, don’t you? Well your brand of hardship looks an awful lot like privilege to me. I’ve literally been fuckingtortured, and I never used my shit as an excuse to hurt and defile people weaker and more vulnerable than me. Only a sadomasochist does something like that.”
Jake chuckles, winking at me playfully. I want to ram my fist into his fucking face so hard that his skull bursts like a motherfucking balloon. “Ahhh, Alex. You been speaking to my therapist? You and he sound an awful lot alike. Y’know, you’re brave, I’ll give you that. You’re about to die, but you’re not about to let a small inconvenience like that prevent you from saying whatever dumb shit is on your mind, huh?”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention; there’s someone behind me. I sense their presence, even if they’re light on their feet and I can’t hear their footfall crunching in the snow. Terrible at keeping his cards close to his chest, Jake’s eyes flit to the right and briefly lock into something over my shoulder, confirming that my odds just took an even bigger nosedive. Four against one was pretty bad; I’m guessing it’s more like six against one now, from the smug, shit-eating smile on Jake’s face.
I have better reflexes than most people. I was eight years hold and still living in the group home for boys when I learned how to hone my senses so I could tell whenever someone entered or exited a room. Takes me a moment, but I pinpoint the location of the guy closest to me, about four feet directly behind me. The other guy, the one hanging back, seems less sure of himself and hovers by the gymnasium wall, about ten feet away.
I’m a proficient fighter, more than able to take down two or even three dudes who are a lot bigger than me, but six? That’ gonna be difficult. Still, no point in giving Jake the satisfaction of making this easy for him.
“I feel so fucking sorry for you, man,” I tell him.
“I beg your fucking pardon?”
“You heard me. I pity you. I pity you, because just like Kacey, you’ve lost.” I say it matter-of-factly.
Jake’s lips pulling back, exposing his teeth as he slowly walks toward me. He’d never fucking dare to approach me if his boys weren’t following his every move. “NO!” He barks out the word like a military general issuing an order. “You’re the loser, Moretti.Ihaven’t lost. I’m the fucking winner. I’malwaysgonna come out on top. Don’t you see? These are our lots in life. I was born to be great. You were born to shovel shit and fail at every turn.Youdon’t get to feel sorry for me!”
Jake may have stepped off the ledge and surrendered his self-control, shouting for all the world to hear, but not me. I’m calm as can fucking be. “You hate herandyou love her.”
“What?”
“You’re in love with Silver. And you’re so fucked up and broken that this is the only way you know how to let all of that emotion out from inside you. You love her, so you lash out at her, and you try to break her, because that’s what your father did to your mother. And that’s the only kind of love you’ve ever known your entire fucking life—the kind that really fucking hurts.”
“Quit trying to psychoanalyze me, asshole. You’re way off base. I hate that girl. She’s the worst thing that ever fucking happened to me. She’s a lying fucking cunt who can’t keep her legs closed. End of fucking story.”
Smirking, I begin playing out how this thing is going to go in my head. Jake’s gonna throw the first punch, because he’s going to want to demonstrate his superior strength first. Kyle, Lawrence and Nas won’t be far behind him, though. He’ll have told them to back him up as soon as the shit hits the fan. They won’t give me time to hit the guy back before they’re on me, tearing into me, trying to pull me apart.
