Page 245 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

I sigh again, reluctant to move. But she’s right—we won’t be solving any crimes sitting stoned in her car.

I have to get close to Briar. Maybe even through one of his friends. Addy said his whole crew was still there when she left. One of them must have seen something.

Especially that guy that sticks to him like a burr.

“Yeah, let’s go,” I say, levering my stoned ass out of the car. “Do you still speak to any of Briar’s friends?”

Addy laughs. “As if.”

Damn. Guess I’ll have to work my way into their circle by myself. If I can figure out who the weakest link is… maybe, just maybe, I can get someone to talk.

Chapter Nineteen

Indi

I’m lost in a fog of jumbled thoughts, moving on automatic as I head for my locker. I’m vaguely aware that Addy’s chatting to me, but I honestly couldn’t have remembered a word she said if she’d held a gun to my head.

There’s a strange smell in the air when I reach my locker, but there are so many different smells inside a school that I don’t think anything of it.

I should have.

My locker opens easily. Too easily.

I yell out in surprise. Red roses spill out and land on my shoes, thorns scratching my bare legs.

Music blares out of my locker, and everyone around me stops to stare as something blue tumbles out and lands on the floor.

Like a virgin, touched for the very first time.

Madonna screeches out to my massive audience.

Like a vi-ir-ir-ir-gin?—

The entire school erupts into laughter. Addison pulls up short and throws me a wide-eyed stare before slowly comingcloser. She reaches down to pick up the thing on the floor where it lays in a pile of long-stemmed red roses and petals.

“Don’t,” I say in a strangled voice.

But everything moves like a dream, and my warning comes too late. Addison picks it up, holds it out.

Lingerie.

Dark blue, ridiculously sexy, lingerie.

I snatch it from her. Then I fumble around inside my locker until I find the offending Bluetooth boombox, and pluck it out so hard that it goes silent it hits the floor.

But that doesn’t stop the laughter. That does nothing to prevent red-hot shame flooding my face.

I see movement further down the hall.

Briar.

He’s at his locker, the door partly open, but with zero interest for what’s inside.

Instead, he’s watching me.

Waiting for my reaction.

Hey, maybe it’s because I’m still stoned. Or maybe it’s because I have a fucking death wish.

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