Page 1 of Fire Fight

CHAPTER ONE

CADENCE

When Drake Arlingtonslams through the double doors of the science block on Tuesday, my gaze drops to the floor. We’ve always had a thing. He looks at me, I look at him, we both look away if our eyes meet.

But his mumdiedlast Thursday, and I don’t have a clue what to say to him.

The air in the corridor is stale this late in the afternoon, a mix of dust, body odour, and deodorant. I glance at Drake from my peripheral vision, chewing the inside of my cheek with nerves.

When he turned up to school yesterday—far too soon—I muttered, “Sorry for your loss,” and felt its inadequacy down to my bones. But the more I tried to follow it with another sentence, something of substance, words to capture how much I adored his mum and how keenly I felt for his loss, the more I struggled.

My throat spasmed. My mouth went dry. After a minute of open-jawed gaping, I skittered away.

An ache lodges behind my sternum as I wonder where he’s living. She was a single mum, same as mine, and I’m not sure what’s worse; to think of him in a seedy group home, surrounded by brutal strangers, or alone, fending for himself.

“Cadence!”

The bellow startles me into turning, and his anger registers first. My shoulders hunch, then fear slams into me as he lowers his head andcharges, roaring, nostrils flaring like an enraged bull.

He’s twice my size and class has started; there aren’t any students loitering in the hallway to protect me. I stagger backwards and when he’s an inch away, he stops, shoving a prescription bottle in my face. Too close to read the label.

“This come from you?”

Hairs raise on my neck at his ragged voice. It takes three attempts for me to ask, “What does the name on the bottle say?”

“Madelaine Summers.”

I recognise it, but there’s no way I’m telling him that.

He encroaches another step into my personal space, and I fall back, his steel eyes slashing mine to pieces. My arse bumps against the metal locker at the same time his palm does, his shaking body blocking me to the other side.

My pulse races. I’m trapped.

“Doesn’t sound much like Cadence Rivers.” My voice is eerily calm, the opposite of my thumping heart. “Perhaps you should go bother someone else.”

His eyes narrow as he pinches my shoulder, the thumb digging into the nerve until I flinch with pain, knees buckling in surprise. “I asked you a fucking question.”

“And I gave you an answer.” I raise my chin. “Just because you don’t like—”

He smashes his fist against the locker, the metallic clang reverberating through the hall. A student saunters into the corridor, takes one look, and lunges out of sight.

Cowardly fucker.

Drake grips my face in his giant hand, fingers digging into my cheeks, puckering my lips until my jaw opens under the crushing pressure. He leans close, nose bumping mine as he growls, “Answer truthfully or I’ll force feed you every pill in this bottle until you do.”

I can’t fully grasp what’s happening, why he’s upset.

Since when hasDrakebeen some kind of drug-free campaigner?

Wrenching my chin from his grasp, I ask, “Where’dyouget them from?” Leaping straight to aggression as I bare my teeth, guessing the pills fell from my pocket in class.

“Harriet.”

I try.

I try so hard to keep the spark of recognition off my face.

But Harriet has been my ride-and-die since year four. We drifted apart since hitting the wrong side of puberty, but she’s still my girl.

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