Page 57 of Falling in Reverse

Um, no.

But I’m not going to correct her. Plus, I didn’t know she had siblings, never cared to either.

"Huh. Small world."

Nessa nudges me in the bicep. Layla has three girls flanking both of her sides and Nessa over here is riding off a suspension right now. One more and she's going to get expelled for—you may have guessed it—fighting.

"He's younger than you," Layla continues, disgust laced in her tone, as if I'm a monster. "What's wrong with you?"

“Aren’t we too old to be doing this?” I ping-pong my index finger between us. Is she really going to start a fight in the middle of a community school cafeteria? “I graduated high school, Layla. I know you barely did, but…”

“Do you think this shit is funny?” she sneers, her teeth baring with how livid she is.

Shit’s scary, lemme tell ya.

“Why is your brother fighting girls, Layla? I don't ask for IDs when someone grabs my ass and starts running their mouth. That's not my problem."

"It doesn't matter why he was there.” She points an accusing black-painted fingernail at me. “The problem is why you touched him."

I shrug, already bored of this conversation and how I’m confident of the ending. "He put his hands on me first." Layla lunches forward, but one of her friends with half a brain halts her by placing a hand on her chest. I perk a brow. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Bay," Nessa mutters. "I'm on probation, girl."

I snort through my nose. Layla knows what I can do. I only beat her ass senior year of high school for slamming a girl's skull into a locker because she wanted her cheap-ass necklace. I won't stand for that bullying bullshit. It's unnecessary, and when you're ganged up on—yeah, no.

Layla doesn’t heed my warning or the recollection of the last time she and I threw hands. “You think because you got me alone, you can—" I rise from my chair, shoving it back and hearing the ear-screeching scraping against the dirty tiled floors.

"Yeah, I can,” I retort sharply. “And, what, I get you alone, one on one, and that's unfair? The fuck?"

"I didn't go beating up on your sisters."

"Get over it." I plop back down, because she isn't going to touch me in front of all these kids, and I'm tired. I have a race tonight, and I require a nap. With not being able to run anymore through The Landings for a minute, I'm getting low on cash. I need to pay Dad’s caregiver by the end of the week, or she's not going to show up again to help out.

"Keep your eyes peeled," Layla threatens, like it's going to hang over me like a cloud for days. "You pissed me off and you're dead."

I rub my sleepy irises that she just mentioned. "Feeling like it." I wave her away like the bitch she is. "Enjoy the rest of your day, girl."

She mutters something I don't hear, then saunters away in her short skirt, with her little minions faithfully following behind her.

"Why are you taunting her?” Nessa chuckles, pulling her long golden blonde hair off her chest and throwing it over her shoulder. "You know I can't get into it with her when I'm on school property."

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have beat up a Karen at Walmart earlier this year and you wouldn’t be on the radar.” I pluck Nessa’s can of Coke off the lunch table and take a long swig.

“Layla is desperate to fight you again, girl.”

I shrug. “She ain't gonna do anything but run her mouth."

“Speaking of runs…” And here we go… “I’m gonna beat Levi’s ass for having you work with The Nameless when we said?—”

“Leave it alone,” I drone, long and worn out. “I’ve told you over a million times, I’m not working for them. I do it for the extra, needed cash. They don’t try to recruit me, and I’m not going to get a big tattoo with their gang name on my ass.”

“I don’t trust them.”

“But Levi does.” And, honestly, that’s enough for me. “They’re elusive because they have to be. They’re constantly under Sheriff Muncy’s radar, and you know his dick gets hard when he thinks he’s on to nailing one of us.”

She stabs a crouton in her salad but holds her unwieldy gaze. “Your dad is going to get pissed if he finds out.”

Speaking of dads…I’m getting another DNA test.

---