Page 62 of Chaos at Westbrook High

She rolls her eyes. “It was Levi’s.”

Our eyes lock, mine widening in shock as her face pales a little. I’ve heard the rumors about the Kingstons, that they like to share and pass each other around, that the five of them are in some kind of group relationship together, but I’ve never really believed any of them until now.

“I—no, that’s not—” she stammers. “Jesus. I met Levi once before I moved here. When I was fifteen, he…he gave it to me back then.”

“Okay.” I say again, unsure why she’s acting so weird about it.

I feel her staring at the side of my face. Just as I’m about to get up and leave, she says quietly, “He saved me,” and I turn my head until our eyes meet again. “Jason, my dad… He was a nasty piece of shit. I got hurt pretty bad one night and Levi was there. He got hurt too, but he saved me. He got me out of there.”

I stare at her, and she stares at me, still pale and wide eyed as if she can’t believe she just said all that. I can’t believe she did either. I don’t know her well, but I know enough to assume I’m probably one of the only people outside her boys she’s ever told about that.

“Callie, you don’t have t?—”

“I have a scar on my back that I don’t like people seeing,” she goes on, and I shut my mouth and let her talk. “Jason cut me and I made Levi stitch me up in a park. Anyway.” She pulls her sleeves over her knuckles, wrapping her arms around herself protectively. “I know my hair’s long enough to hide it, but I wear this just in case, you know? It makes me feel…”

“Safe,” I whisper, saying it for her.

She nods once. Her body is tense, her head down and her jaw locked as she waits for my reaction.

“So…you don’t all fuck each other?”

Her eyes snap back up to mine, and she laughs. I laugh lightly too, leaning back next to her, my shoulder touching hers.

“You did fuck Kai that one time though.”

“And Wren,” she adds, wiggling her brows. “But you don’t really care about that part, do you?”

“Fuck off.”

Another laugh. I smile before I can stop it.

When I hear the sounds of two hushed voices approaching, I startle, and she calmly rolls her head to the left. I follow her line of sight, seeing Levi and Wren coming from the direction of the bleachers, stumbling as they make out while trying to fix their wrinkled clothes.

They freeze when they see me sitting with their sister-in-law. Instead of being hostile and telling me to beat it like I thought they would, they grin at us. The grin falls off Wren’s face when he drops his eyes to Callie’s empty hands. “Dude, did you smoke it all without me?”

“Dude,” she mocks him. “You were gone for like twenty minutes. What did you expect?”

He huffs, and then the boys look at me again, both studying my face as if they’re searching for something. I scrunch my nose at them, wondering what the hell it is they’re looking for.

“I didn’t smoke any of it.”

Chapter 24

HAILEY

I can’t sleep. Partly because I can’t stop thinking about Kai, but also because I hate being alone in this apartment.

Derek was gone again by the time I got home from work today. I don’t know where he is or who he’s with. He’s avoiding me. We haven’t spoken a single word to each other since the other night. I don’t like it. I’m worried about him, and I miss him even though I can’t stand being in the same room as him right now.

I miss Valerie. She worked a lot at the coffee shop, but she was always home at night. Always. She never went out on dates, never had any real friends to go out with, never did anything but work her ass off to give me the best life she possibly could.

My heart clenches, and I bury my face into the pillow. It kills me that I’ll never see her again.

My phone goes off on the nightstand, and I reach out to pick it up.

Unknown

Are you awake?

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