Page 93 of Pawn

Damien

I didn’t expect it to go this way.

Didn’t expect to be standing outside while I watch the place I spent the last four years go up in flames.

That shit spread quicker than chlamydia at Isaac’s junior ball after-party.

“I still can’t find her,” Allie comes back to our circle with worried eyes. Christian and Isaac stand by me on their phones, mine in my hand. We’re all looking for the same girl.

My girl.

Jo.

Taking a look around me, the entire senior class is here. Everyone except her. Chaperones are all trying to keep us in check but most of the students live-stream the chaos around us. Half of them drunk off their asses or on something much stronger.

No signs of the fire department yet and every second she’s not by my side is another second I have to fight my jaw from breaking.

“The girls haven’t seen her.” Lea approaches us with Vicky, Georgina and their squad behind her. She scans the lawn around us before glancing back at the school. “Any word?”

“No,” I say, shrugging off my blazer.

“Shit,” Allie says.

If Jo’s not out here, that can only mean one thing. She’s still inside. I can feel the heat from where I’m standing but it’s nothing compared to what I’d feel if she goes up in flames with the academy.

“You can’t be serious!” Lea exclaims as I head for the doors. “You can’t go in there!”

“Woah, wait!” Christian calls when I get closer. “King! What the fuck?!”

Voices call my name but my mind’s already made up.

The heat is almost unbearable when I get inside, smoke clouding my vision as fire spreads to the auditorium. I’m hoping she’s not upstairs because if she is, I don’t know if either of us will make it out.

There’s a small dark figure standing outside of a room and I can hardly breathe, making it hard to call out. “Jo?!” When I do, that figure turns towards me. It’s not her, this figure shorter and stalkier.

“Jordan?” I call again. What the fuck is Jordan Huang doing at the senior prom?

When I rush over, coughing from the smoke, he’s pulling at the door. “Jo’s inside!”

“What?!” My eyes widening does nothing for my vision, so I pull my shirt above my nose, pushing Jordan out of the way. “Get the fuck out of here. Go home!”

“B-but—”

“Go!” I push him down towards the front doors. Not to be a prick but if he doesn’t get the fuck out of here we’ll have another death on our hands.

“Jo?” Banging on the door, I don’t hear a sound. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

I know this closet. It’s the same one we lock the freshmen in as a hazing ritual every September. It’s one of the only two in the building with a fucked up locking system and Jordan knew it.

Throwing my body against the door doesn’t get it open. Neither does shoving my boot through it. “Jo?!” Banging on the door, I’m listening for a sound. Anything.

The fire grows in the distance, the smoke building making it harder to breathe. I’m not leaving this building without getting inside this fucking door. If I have to die, I’m dying right here with her. But not without a fight. We always fight.

Kicking at the knob, my mind flashes to Jo using her bobby pins to break into Cindy’s office. That’s when I reach into my pants to grab the pins Lea left behind. After straightening them out, I try to remember Jo’s movements, pushing them in the keyhole. My mind’s on the way her ass looked when I caught her bent over in front of Cindy’s office door, picking her lock.

Jesus, we can both die right now and I’m thinking about her ass.

Click!

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