Page 22 of Dare To Break

I wait until the hall is mostly empty before standing.

“Mr. Travers.” Principal Warren steps in front of me. “How are you? I hear your father remarried during the summer break. Please give him my congratulations when you next speak to him.”

I lift my eyes to meet his, and his smile fades. “Alright, well … no late night tonight, and I’ll expect to see you bright and early, and ready to learn, in class tomorrow.”

He turns and walks away. I head in the opposite direction, out the door and up the stairs to my room. No one stops me, but I can feel their eyes following me as I pass them in the hallway. Kellan is already in our room when I get there, sprawled out on his bed. He lifts his head when I walk in.

“Word is your new sister is lined up to be Jace Black’s next conquest.”

“Not my sister.” I pull open the mini-refrigerator and take out a bottle of Coke.

“Close enough.”

I toss the cap from the bottle at his head. “She won’t be here long enough to form any relationships.”

“What if she isn’t the one to get the dare? She’s not the only new kid this semester.”

“She’ll be the one.” I say the words with the utmost confidence. I know she will be the one, because I know something no one else in the school knows. I know where the dares come from.

Kellan sits up and spins around to put his feet on the floor. “So, what’s the plan?”

I take a swallow of Coke, set down the bottle and face him. “We’ll see what the first dare is. It’s bound to be something stupid. It usually is. I don’t even know why people get so excited over it.”

“Because people have died.”

I snort. “Coincidence and rumor. No one ever died from filling a teacher’s desk with condoms.”

“No, they died from not doing it.”

“Name one person who refused to do the dare and then died,” I challenged.

Kellan stares at me. There is one person. But he knows if her name leaves his lips, I’ll lose my shit. My eyes narrow. His lips part and he’s going to fucking say her name. I know he is.

“She didn’t die because of the dare,” I snap before he can speak. “You know it. I know it.”

“No, I don’t.”

I spin away. “I’m not talking about it.” My stomach twists. I can’t even let her name form in my mind. I stalk over to the window and throw it open so I can lean out and suck in a lungful of cool air.

Other than Kellan, she’d been my only friend. There, I admitted it. Kellan is my only friend. My only fucking connection in this fucking hellhole.

Whose fault is that?

I dismiss that thought. I did what I had to do to survive. It made me a pariah, universally feared by students and teachers alike. I am fine with that.

“Eli …” There is a tone to Kellan’s voice that makes me turn and face him. “Why are you really going after Arabella?”

My lips curl up into their customary sneer. “I told you. She’s paying for the sins of her mother. If it’s too much for you, say so. I’ll do it myself.” It has nothing to do with the fact that just the merest hint of her perfume has me hard as a rock. Absolutely nothing to do with how her smile twists my insides.

It has everything to do with the fact she exploded into my world, my family, with her mother and expects me to behave like they both belong there.

He frowns. “No, I’m all in, you know that. I just … she seems nice, that’s all.”

“What the fuck would you know?” I snatch up my sketchbook and drop onto my bed, flipping through the pages until I find a blank one. Reaching into my backpack, I pull out my pencil case.

Kellan doesn’t speak, but I can feel his eyes on me as I stare down at the paper.

“I’m all in, Eli.” He repeats the words, and I nod without looking up, my pencil flying over the sheet as I start a new drawing.

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