Page 11 of Brutal Kingdom

Looking down at my plate, I spoon some eggs into my mouth. I can feel a shift. Everything’s changed over the summer. Kass and I aren’t roommates. Noel and Sterling won’t be around as much because they’re doing year round internships and Dixon’s dating.

I’m not a person who needs a lot of people around, but I’d gotten used to the friendships we formed. We’re already being pulled in different directions. Kassidy and I were roommates, Noel gravitated towards me because of art and his dislike of Logan, and Sterling was part of his frat boy circle. Dixon and I bonded over classwork and being the odd man out at parties. If we take those things away, what do we have left?

This is all way too much self-reflection for nine in the morning. Pushing away from the table, I head to the hallway to get some air. Walking the halls, I study the paintings and portraits on the wall. I’ve never been in this building before, but I can see and feel the history. Damn shame it’s infused with greed and inhumane treatment of others. Is this what the founding fathers really envisioned when they started the town and this school?

I’m staring at a poster on the wall, trying to make sense of the slogan. This must’ve been from one of those poster contests, and I guess you had to be a student at that time to understand the message behind it.

“If you and Noel are out here scheming on who to take a run at next, don’t bother. Your credibility is shot at this school. No one will trust you ever again, and that speech the dean gave doesn’t apply to you. You’re never getting hired by anyone affiliated with us.”

I stiffen at the sound of his voice. Willing myself to relax, I turn, and say, “Oh, I don’t know about all that. I hear I can be quite convincing.”

“So was that the plan the two of you came up with before you transferred here? Target the most influential families and sleep your way to the top? I gotta say you swung for the fences with me. There’s no one left.”

“Unlike the mindless simps you spend time with, I don’t have to spread my legs to get noticed. But if I were as ambitious as you make me out to be, you know better than anyone, that sex with me could change the trajectory of someone’s life.” Tapping my chin, I ask, “How’s your dad?”

He steps closer, his jaw ticking. I struck a nerve.

“Logan…” Tabitha calls from over his shoulder. He walks backwards, before slowly turning and following her back into the room.

I let out a breath as Kass walks over to me. She came out of the bathroom just as I was bragging on my sex skills. She quietly watched our exchange, but I can see she has some thoughts on the matter. And she should. These are the people she grew up with. “What’s wrong, roomie?”

“I told you this summer it was none of my business. It’s still none of my business.”

“And I appreciate you giving me space and not asking questions. But we’re back on campus now and I don’t want there to be any tension between us.”

“I get why you think you had to go as far as you did. But I gotta ask. Was any of it real? Or is Logan right and you and Noel cooked up this scheme before you got here?”

“My first time meeting Noel was on campus in class. I know it seems like I had this sinister master plan to dethrone Logan, but I didn’t come here looking to hurt anyone. He and Bella crossed my path first. They’re the ones who thought it would be funny to humiliate me for reasons of their own. My only crime was that I was just stupid enough to fall for Logan.Thatwas real.”

Her mouth gapes open, but I push on.

“Everything that happened after that is on me. Do I feel bad about what I did? For some things, yes. But for protecting myself?Never. The BPs are toxic to this school and get off on hurting people. Nobody deserves to be made to feel like shit because they’re not as rich as everyone here, or because their families aren’t as influential as the Kingsley Hollow elite are.”

This wasn’t the way I wanted to start my day. I open my heart to be fully transparent with Kassidy, for just a few more moments, feeling the jabs in my chest. “I carry what I did to Logan and what he did to me. The guilt, the pain, I bury it, and underneath it all are the moments when I was perfectly happy. Stupidly so. Maybe a part of him felt the same way. Maybe he was in love with me too, but none of that matters anymore, because we can’t go back. We’ll never get those feelings or that trust back again. Kass, I know he’s your friend, and you’re trying to be a good friend to us both. But, we both know, the entire school knows, whatever we had is over.”

“Is your vendetta over too?”

Looking at the door where Logan disappeared with Tabitha, I say, “That’s entirely up to them.”

SIX

JORDANNA

My hand lands on a package of index cards at the same time as someone else’s.

“Sorry.”

Looking up, I come face to face with the guy from the cafeteria. His voice is rough, curt, and deep. His thick brows frame chocolate brown eyes with long dark lashes. He has the jawline of a roman soldier but with his coloring he could be from Italian or Hungarian descent. He’s staring at me in a way that would have made me uncomfortable before, but now I stare right back.

He hands me a stack of index cards and grabs another before walking over to the register. The same girl from before joins him a few seconds later with a basket full of school supplies. I’m third in line when I finish my shopping. When I get called over to the next available register. I’m reaching for my debit card when they finish checking out. By the time I reach the door, I see a group of men I didn’t notice before falling into step behind them.

The guy pauses to stare at me again, before ducking into the backseat of a car. What is his deal? I think walking by the car as it pulls out of the parking lot. He has a security detail and a driver. That screams power and importance, the exact brand of wealth that Bella surrounds herself with, so why is his girlfriend the only one trying to hang out with Bella and her new robots?

I know they’re new here. I got a glimpse of the textbook in the girl’s hand. It’s from a freshman course, and with the way he looks, the girls would have been making fools of themselves if he went here last year.

Okay, Jordanna. Whoever they are and whatever interest they have or don’t have in Bella has nothing to do with you. Stay focused on your mission. Right now it’s trying to figure out what happened to my thumb drive and pretending the files still exist.

I turned in my photos yesterday, but Mrs. Morgan has asked for a nighttime shot of the senior class’s back to school bonfire at Teardon Lake. So here I am, scouting the crowd for the perfect shot, and walking through a thicket of trees, snapping photos of the horizon as the sun makes its descent. A hand grabs me, trapping my scream in my mouth, and I’m dragged behind a large oak.

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