Page 64 of My Brother's Best Friend

Sandra: What if people at school bully me? You know how people at Redwood are, Alec. And my parents … they’re not going to accept me when I tell them I don’t like guys. They expect me to get married, be a trophy wife for some doctor. If they find out … my life will be over. They’ll disown me.

Sandra: Will you please go to my family’s winter party with me to …

Sandra: You know … make it at least seem like we’re dating so they don’t get suspicious? If my dad finds out what I’ve been doing with Tiffany, I’m so afraid he’ll hurt her.

The more I scrolled through the messages, the harder and harder they became to read. I stared at the screen with so much pain inside me because this was exactly how I felt about Redwood Academy. So many people judged others here for the stupidest things. It wasn’t fair.

But Sandra was one of the people who had made it worse for me.

Bully so you don’t get bulliedmust have been her motto.

“Do you believe me now?” Alec said, watching me with hopeful eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. That wasn’t fair to you, but I haven’t been with her since we stopped dating. You can ask her yourself if you want confirmation.”

I handed him back the phone and frowned. I didn’t know if I was stupid for freaking out or stupid for actually sorta, kinda feeling bad for Sandra now. Still, what if this was all some scheme to get closer to him? Someone had sent those texts to me and hacked his accounts.

Since they had dated, she might’ve known his passwords.

Headlights shone on us from a distance. Alec took my hand and led me to the side of the road and back toward his car. My body was trembling from the frigid air, the tearstains left on my face frozen.

After sitting down in the car, I rested my head on his shoulder and stared through the window at the raging sea. This town was fucked up, so fucked up that I couldn’t even trust the one guy who had been nothing but honest with me this entire time.

“I believe you,” I whispered. “I’m just hurt.”

Alec pulled me back into his arms and gently rocked me from side to side. “I know.”

Again, headlights shone in the rearview mirror, blinding me. The car pulled up beside Alec’s car on the side of the road. I glanced over at it with Alec and frowned. Someone rolled down the window, and Imani Abara and Allie Hall looked over at us.

What are they doing here?

I rolled down the window.

“Sorry for interrupting,” Imani shouted. “We’ve been texting you all night. I even got Kai to find your street address. We knocked on your front door, but nobody answered, so we decided to come and find you.”

They’re worried about me?

Alec tightened his grasp on me. “You gonna answer them?”

“Thank you,” I whispered, voice hoarse. “I’m good.”

“Redwood is shit,” Imani said. “If you ever need anything, we’re here.”

“Actually,” I said, sitting up straighter, “there is something you can help with. We need a favor from Kai Koh.”

CHAPTER39

MADDIE

“If you want us to hack back into your accounts and delete all that shit from the internet”—João, Poison’s ruthless leader, stood in the middle of Poison’s basement as he lit a cigarette and gently pushed on Alec’s chest—“then it’s going to cost you.”

I stood next to Alec, Allie, and Imani and crossed my arms, feeling very uncomfortable. Usually, I didn’t come to the slums side of Redwood unless I was visiting Vera, and even she lived in a somewhat better neighborhood.

Imani rolled her eyes, as if she didn’t fear Poison at all. “Please, can you just do this one thing for me? You know how shitty Maddie and Alec have had it today. All Maddie wants is to have her life back.”

João raised a brow and glared harder at Imani. His mere stare gave me the fucking chills, but didn’t seem to affect Imani in the slightest. In fact, she glared back just as hard and crossed her arms over her chest, refusing to back down.

“Please.”

“No,” João said.

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