Page 97 of Muse (Fighting Fate)

She took a deep breath as she watched me and slowly nodded her head. “Sure, baby girl. I’ll go get him now.”

She stood and leaned over to kiss me on the forehead before heading for the door. Before she walked out, she turned to look back at me. “Did you want to see Jace?”

The panic that surged inside me was instantaneous. The thought of Jace coming to see me was terrifying. I’d never even really had a conversation with him. I shook my head. “No. I…can’t.”

Mom nodded sadly. “Okay, baby. It’s fine.”

I exhaled slowly, trying to calm myself down. “Tell him…tell him, I’m sorry…”

She nodded. “I’ll send Aiden in.”

“Okay.” I breathed, long and slow. Aiden I could handle.

Chapter 47

Jace

Aiden and I were sitting in the waiting room when Kaeli walked in, scowling and tense. “They’re running an investigation at school,’ she announced bitterly.

“What?” I didn’t understand what she was talking about. I thought everyone involved had been suspended.

“It’s all bullshit. Everyone already knows what happened.”

I looked over at Aiden, seeing the same confused expression on his face. He raised his eyebrows. “You’ve lost me…”

Kaeli threw herself down on a lounge and huffed. It was obvious she was pissed. “I spoke to Ryan just before. He said when he arrived at school this morning, Corey came to ask him if Mia was okay. They talked for a little while, and Corey mentioned how he thought it was strange that Coach Anderson would ask Mia to come to see him in the gym if the Grunge Guys were in there.”

I hadn’t really thought about how Mia had ended up in the gym. With everything that’d been going on, I’d forgotten about it.

“When Ryan asked him what he meant, Corey told him that Melissa had been looking for Mia because Coach wanted her to tell Mia to meet him in the gym.”

I straightened in my seat, my brain switching to high alert. “Melissa told Corey that Coach wanted to see her in the gym?”

Kaeli nodded, still looking incredibly pissed off.

I frowned, thinking. “There’s no way Melissa would pass on a message to Mia. She’d purposely not do it just to spite her.”

Aiden grimaced. “When we were in the waiting room downstairs, Ryan said the basketball team had gotten wind that the Grunge Guys were going to destroy their stuff so they went on a rampage to find them.”

I nodded. “Yeah, someone said the Grunge Guys were pissed because someone from the team had put something on their cars.”

Kaeli smiled humorlessly. “Yeah, but it wasn’t anyone from the basketball team that did it. It was Melissa. April saw her do it.”

What the fuck?!

Aiden’s eyes narrowed. “Melissa set it all up?”

Kaeli nodded. “That’s what everyone’s figuring out now. Apparently Melissa put some offensive note on the Grunge Guys cars then happened to mention to someone who knew them that she saw some of the basketballers doing it. When she made sure the Grunge Guys were good and pissed, and heard of their plan to destroy the guys’ equipment, she told Jordan. Once she knew Jordan and the guys were out for blood, she sent Corey off to find Mia to deliver the message that Coach wanted to see her in the gym. The end result? Two very angry groups of guys and one very fragile girl with a fear of angry crowds.”

I felt fucking sick. What the hell kind of person did shit like that?

“What the ever-loving fuck is wrong with that girl?” Aiden spat. “I swear to god, the next time I see that chick she’s going to wish she were never born.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Kaeli said snidely. “Everyone more or less knows now, and if what Ryan says is true,” She looked at her watch. “She’s going to be feeling it right about now.”

I was lost for fucking words. I couldn’t believe someone could be so vindictive. I mean, she almost cost someone their fucking life! Did she not have a fucking conscience? I wanted to grab her by her scrawny little neck and choke the life out of her.

Kaeli sighed and stood up. “I need coffee. You guys want any?”

---