Page 68 of Brutal Prince

Just fuck Jess and get her out of your system already.

Marcus had said that right after I told him that I had feelings for her.

When I don’t reply, he glances at me and then does a double take. Throwing down the game controller without bothering to pause this time, he says, “Tell me I’m wrong,” while cocking his head at me.

“I’ve known her for less than a week.” It’s a shitty defense, especially since he knows I liked Jessica from the moment I saw her, but it’s all I got.

“Well she’s obviously set off some kind of fucked-up chemical response in your brain.” Marcus grabs his dime bag of weed and starts rolling another joint, his eyes flickering up to me every other second as if to make sure I don’t launch myself at him while his attention is diverted. “That’s the only rational explanation, isn’t it?”

“That’s not—”

“You want the same thing to happen to Indi?”

Now he’s staring solid at me. For a moment, I don’t know what the fuck he means. Is he talking about the rape or the murder?

Cold fury bubbles inside me.

“I never asked you to do anything.”

“Yeah?” Marcus runs his tongue along the joint and then slips it through his lips in one movement. “Guess I should just have let her go to the police. Testify against you in court. You’d have done hard time, you know that, right?”

I swallow, but it’s as if all that guilt is stuck right there in my throat. “You didn’t have to—”

“But I did, bro, because that’s what friends do!” Marcus stands in a rush, toking hard at the joint before stabbing it in my direction. “We look out for each other. And I’m telling you, this chick’s gonna get you in a world of fucking trouble. Think the fact she’s buddies with Addison is a coincidence? Addy’s been looking for a way back into your life for months now. She’s got that chick wrapped around her finger.”

“Addy doesn’t have any proof.”

“’Course she doesn’t,” Marcus says. I look up at him, and ignore the joint he’s holding out to me. “’Cos I made it all disappear, remember?”

His head tilts to the side, eyes so dead they could have been chips of coal.

Is he seriously expecting me to thank him? I’d been in such a state after Jess left Marcus’s house that afternoon, when he came and told me that she’d jumped off the bridge at Angel Falls, I’d broken down like a fucking baby.

For three months, I’d been hanging out with Marcus, going to school with him, letting him stay over at my house when his dad was in town.

Three months before I found out the truth about Jessica’s death.

Just goes to show how deviant I am. When he did tell me, instead of beating him up and dragging him to the police station, I said nothing.

I’ve never said anything to anyone.

Because that’s what friends do.

I won’t thank him. What he did was wrong. Just like what I did was fucking inexcusable. But we keep each other’s secrets like best friends should.

It doesn’t explain why I keep thinking he wants to screw me over.

“You’re right,” I say, nodding slowly. Marcus takes a slow drag of the joint, watching me with unveiled suspicion.

I hold up my hand, palm facing him. “No, seriously, you are. This chick’s gotten into my head.”

The simple truth.

“If she stays in there much longer then no, I don’t think I’ll be able to control myself.”

Marcus nods, hitting the joint again.

“So we stick to our plan,” I say.

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