Page 29 of Science Project

If I couldn’t protect myself, the least I could do was protect someone I cared about.

Like Hannah had done for me.

“Crazy fucking thought, you bitch,” he growled, “but maybe ask him?”

I crossed my arms. “I don’t appreciate your attitude.”

“I don’t fucking appreciate that you just kicked me in my fucking balls.”

Fuming with anger that either João was lying or Akio was being beaten up by someone he refused to tell me about, I twirled on my heel and stormed toward the building. “Hurt him again, and I’ll kick them so hard that they come out through your throat.”

“Fuck you,” João spit.

After throwing up my middle finger at him, I crossed the teachers’ lot and hopped onto the sidewalk that led to my first class. If João hadn’t hurt Akio, then who had? Barely anyone knew who he was at Redwood.

Which meant that … it had to have been someone he knew. Well.

CHAPTER

SEVENTEEN

AKIO

After school, I sat across from Imani at Beestra, a fast-food restaurant where all the Redwood students hung out on the weekends. I picked at a fry on my plate and stared down at my Biology textbook.

My phone buzzed beside my book, Mom’s name lighting up the screen.

Mom: Since you’re a big boy now, I need your help in an hour.

Lips curling in disgust, I glared at the phone. I hated her.

Mom: Be home by six.

Once I flipped the phone over, I returned to the textbook. If she thought that just because I’d killed Joe and maybe Karmeen Kaiser, I’d start doing her dirty work for her, then she had another thing coming. I wasn’t going home until eight tonight.

Maybe later.

“I don’t know why Barnes decides to give us tests every other week,” Imani said.

“Because he has nothing better to do.”

I tapped my finger on the table and tried to focus on the material, but all that had been running through my head today was not kissing Nicole back last night. Why had I just stayed frozen to the spot? Nicole liked guys who took control, not geeky, nervous kids like me.

“We don’t even cover this much material in class,” Imani grumbled, angrily biting a fry and staring at the chapters. “Does he expect us to teach ourselves, understand the material, and ace the test?”

“We do, don’t we?” I asked.

She snarled, “Yeah, but still, he’s annoying.”

A couple of the football players strolled in to grab a milkshake after practice, Jace Harbor being one of them. The other guys stopped to flirt with girls from Redwood while Jace seemed highly unamused and uninterested. He typed aimlessly on his phone and barely looked up at the woman who was flirting with him at the counter.

Of course, he was probably texting Nicole. Making plans to hook up later.

Because I couldn’t even kiss her back.

Once Jace grabbed his milkshake, he turned around and made eye contact with Imani. He nodded at her, as if to say, What’s up? and followed the others out of Beestra.

Jealousy pooling inside me, I glared at the textbook.

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