Page 32 of The Venom We Bleed

Cory chuckles. “Yeah, I ain’t all that surprised by that. You was bound to attract some bad mojo.”

“Yeah,” I draw out the word as I side-eye him. “That’s not what I’m getting at here.” Cory doesn’t look at me. He fixes his attention on the ring, but I keep going. “Principal Long seemed to already know a thing or two about me. Imagine my surprise when she admits that she got some of that information fromyou.” I emphasize that last word. “Care to explain?”

Cory glances my way and then heaves a sigh. “Heather’s a friend,” he says. “We go way back. Thought it might do a girl likeyou some good to have someonenotout to get you on your first day. You ain’t gotta worry ‘bout her. She’s a fair broad.”

Her fairness isn’t my point of contention. “So, you thought that meant you could tell her my business?” I ask. “Exactly how much did you tell her?”

Cory arches one brow before scrubbing a hand over his trimmed but still curly beard. “It don’t matter much,” he says. “It ain’t like everyone don’t already know your business—in a town this small? Ain’t nothing remain a secret for long.”

“It matters to me, Cory,” I tell him. “You know I can’t really trust anybody in this godforsaken town anymore.” He’s one of the few and perhaps the last.

Cory sighs and then turns to face me fully. His hands come out and land on my shoulders. I don’t push him away or brush him off. There are only a few people in my life now that I would let touch me so casually, but he’s one of them. Even if he meant good, though, by informing Principal Long of my circumstances—even if I know she likely would have learned it elsewhere—coming from him, it feels like another betrayal.

“You remember what I told you when you first came here?” he asks.

I frown but nod. “Survival is about more than fighting, it’s about learningwhento fight and when to back down,” I repeat his words and his face softens.

“That’s right,” he says. “You came in here looking like the world was tearing you down.”

“It was.”It still is.

He nods. “Yeah, but that don’t erase the fact that I taught you the skills you needed to make sure it didn’t rip you to shreds. Take this as another lesson. You can’t do anything alone, girl. You might think you can, but at the end of the day, you’ll need people on your side if you want long-term survival. If you want happiness.”

Happiness. The mere notion of being happy again is such a faraway concept to me now. What would make me happy? Getting back my life? Reversing time? No. If I’m honest with myself, I wasn’t truly happy before my life fell to shit. I was just pretending to be. I was frustrated. Confined. Tired. The only difference now is that I no longer need to hide any of what I’m feeling to keep up the facade.

“I want to leave Silverwood,” I tell him. “I think that’d make me happy.” Starting over. A new life. A new city. That will be good for me. Maybe I’ll even delete my email so that my dad’s lawyer stops trying to get me to see him.

The edges of Cory’s lips tilt up. “I think that’s a good goal to have,” he says. “But you’ve got months ‘til you can make it a reality. In that time, you should think about making a few friends. Happiness ain’t something you gotta wait on. You can make your own happy here too, for as long as you’ll be here.”

I shake my head and carefully step out from beneath his hands. “I trust you, Cory,” I say, “and I respect you, but I don’t think making friends in Silverwood is gonna do me much good. I’m just trying to live my day-to-day. I’ll figure out ‘happy’ when this place is behind me.”

Cory parts his lips, but whatever he’s about to say is swallowed by the sharp sound of a body slamming into the hard floor. Not the padded bottom of the sparring ring, but the cold, hard linoleum tile above the concrete floor outside of it. In sync, Cory and I pivot towards the ring. I gape up at the man standing on the other side of the ropes with his arms propped and his face dripping with sweat.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Prep Girl.” Gio Vargas grins down at me from where he stands in the ring, completely oblivious to the groans coming from his opponent who stumbles back to his feet. I have to crane my neck to look up at him as he sets thebottom of one bare foot on the lowest rope separating the ring from the rest of the gym and his elbows on the highest one.

“What did I say ‘bout throwing bodies out of the ring?” Cory’s voice booms out, the sound so loud it makes me jolt. Several heads turn.

Gio scrubs a hand back over his messy hair before supplying Cory with a sheepish grin. “That anyone who gets thrown out forfeits?”

Cory’s expression darkens for a split second before he sighs. “That anyone dumb enough to get thrown out deserves it,” he corrects.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t expect the prick to be able to lift me!” The opponent, a rather bulky man himself, grumbles as he rubs his back and limps to the side of the ring.

“I bench two-eighty, big boy,” Gio replies. “Think again.”

“You’re not getting back in the ring, Donner,” Cory snaps. “So, don’t even try it, old man. Get yerself back to the showers and grab a pack of ice.”

“Awww.” Gio grips the ropes between his fists and reclines back, pulling it as he tilts his head and whines. “Then who’ll play with me?” His eyes light on me. “Maybe Prep Girl wants to go for a spin?”

“Not a chance in hell,” I shoot back without hesitation. Getting in the ring with him? It’s a bad idea all around.

He arches a brow and straightens as Cory moves forward, snags Donner by the arm, and directs him away when he seems intent on climbing back into the ring despite Cory’s words. Anyone around here knows that, in the gym, Cory’s words are law.

“Go on now,” Cory says, shooing Donner away. “Get back there.”

The man grumbles but finally gives in and walks away, still limping ever so slightly. I blow out a breath as I watch himgo and decide that maybe it’s not best to come to the gym on a Friday afternoon after all. This was a waste of a trip since it looks like the punching bag is already in use, and there is no room for me to even catch a treadmill to run on without someone up my ass.

“I think I’ll come back later,” I say as Cory turns back to me. “When it’s not so crowded.”

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