Page 86 of Chaos at Westbrook High

Kai shakes his head, his gaze catching mine again as he speaks to him for the first time in months. “If you ever talk to her like that again, I’ll make you swallow your own teeth.”

Derek pauses before he lets out another muttered curse.

Kai grins evilly. “In case you haven’t figured it out already, I’m not leaving her alone.”

“Goddamnit, Kai?—”

Kai hangs up on him. Without asking me the questions I know he’s dying to ask, he gives me my phone back, he and his siblings still crowding me as Kai takes my hand and walks me to homeroom.

He doesn’t leave me alone, just like he said he wouldn’t, but he does manage to make all of the pictures disappear. Within the hour, they’ve all vanished from the group chat as if they were never there to begin with. Some people probably still have the pictures on their phones, but Kai already not so nicely warned everyone not to let any more pictures of me end up on the group chat or online.

At lunch, I’m sitting between Kai and Callie at the Kingston’s table, Kai’s arm around my shoulder while I scroll through the endless chat on his phone.

“Does this happen all the time?” I ask.

I’ve only skimmed through the last three days so far. It never stops. It’s an endless string of brutal high school kids giving each other shit and gossiping about every little thing the Kingstons do. There’s even a picture of Kai and Wren eating at Lucky’s Diner the other day, sitting side by side in a booth, their plates piled high with food.

Derek’s not in this chat anymore, meaning someone must have sent him the pictures of us before he called me, but there’s not much I can do to figure out who it was.

“Pretty much, yeah,” Callie says around a mouthful of pizza. “You should have seen the shit they were saying when Wren and Levi outed themselves in the hallway out there.” She tips her head at the doors behind me. “It was insane.”

Curious, I search back, scrunching my nose at all of the wild, intrusive messages. There’s a video of Levi kissing Wren in public for the first time in front of everyone, but I don’t watch it. I keep scrolling, stalling when I get to one of the messages beneath the video. I look up at Wren and Levi with a brow raised. “Did you two really hook up in the bathroom after that?”

They smirk at each other.

“They’ve got an exhibitionism kink,” Kai tells me.

I nod, digging into my own pizza. “Yeah, I’ve noticed.”

Chapter 27

HAILEY

Wyatt doesn’t get the chance to ask what the hell is going on with me and Kai because Kai hasn’t left my side since the minute he picked me up this morning. I’m kind of grateful for that because I wouldn’t know what to say to Wyatt. I’m just as confused as he is. Not just by Kai’s actions but by my own too. Despite the fact that he’s refusing to leave me alone, I could get away from him if I wanted to. He wouldn’t really force me to stay. But I don’t try to get away for real. I should, but I don’t.

He followed me around at school all day like he usually does, minus the loud, filthy comments made to embarrass me—he still made them, but they were whispered in my ear this time, only for me—and then he drove me to work and stayed until closing. Now he’s driving me home despite me telling him not to, his eyes on the road as he strokes my daisy tattoo with his thumb.

“What’s wrong?” he asks when he catches me looking at our hands on my lap. “Are y?—”

“Why are you being so nice?”

He blinks at me. “I can be nice,” he says defensively, his mouth curling up in amusement when he catches the suspicion on my face. “You like me better when I’m mean?”

“No.”

My too quick answer seems to amuse him even more as he pulls into the parking lot outside my apartment building. When I see Derek’s Aston Martin parked across from us, a mixture of relief and anxiety rolls through me. I blow my cheeks out and open the car door. Kai snatches my wrist, pulling me into him. “Let me come with you.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

I hesitate, dropping my eyes to his mouth. “I don’t trust you with him.”

“I don’t trust him with you,” he grits out, his fingers still wrapped around my wrist, his other hand reaching up to cup my face. “If he touches you…”

“What?” I ask when he doesn’t finish. “What will you do?”

His eyes darken, and I can tell he’s thinking of a few different possibilities, all of them bloody. “Baby, I don’t think you wanna hear the answer to that.”

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