Page 55 of Science Project

My parents did so much shit to everyone that I couldn’t keep it straight anymore.

What had they done to Kai again?

Kai released me and reached into his black cargo pants to pull out his phone. On the screen was a picture of Allie Hall with a stack of Playboy and Mayfair magazines and porn DVDs falling out of her locker. It looked like it had been taken moments ago, and it was already circulating social media.

“You’re fucking lucky that I have other shit to deal with,” Kai said to me.

The first bell rang, and Kai shot me one last warning look. Students rushed down the hallways, scrambling to get to their first period while gossiping about Allie and Jace. My phone buzzed, and an image popped up on the screen of Allie standing in front of a thick-as-fuck ten-inch dildo, suction-cupped to her locker.

Well, Imani was about to be livid. I should probably find her.

Curiously, I followed Kai down the hallway and toward Allie’s locker because Imani was bound to be around. I stopped at the end of the hallway and glanced around the corner, watching Carter—the quarterback of the football team—mess with Allie.

“Your date with Jamal go good?” Carter asked Allie, leaning against the locker and crossing his muscular arms over his chest. “You finally let him hit it after those soggy Saturday night fries?”

“Fuck you, Carter,” Allie said through clenched teeth, scrambling to get her books for the day without the DVDs and magazines falling out of it. Her cheeks were red and blotchy, and her eyes were filled with tears.

“Akio,” someone said from behind me, tugging on my wrist, “it’s not safe here.”

“What’s not safe?”

Nicole looked over my shoulder at Carter and Allie with Kai storming toward them. “That.”

Carter pulled the dildo out of her locker. “You buy this because Jamal wasn’t big enough for you, baby?” He stepped closer to her and rested his hand on her shoulder, leaning in. “You wouldn’t have to worry about that with me. I’d fill your tight little ass up until you screamed.”

Allie punched Carter in the jaw, who stumbled back and smirked.

“Feisty,” he said, licking the blood off the corner of his lips. “Just how I like them. You’ll fucking learn to be a good little”—he placed a single finger on her thigh, beneath her skirt—“whore?—”

Kai pulled a gun from his waistband and stuck it against the back of Carter’s neck. “You fucking move your finger a fucking millimeter up her thigh, and you’ll get a bullet in your skull.”

My eyes widened, and Nicole tugged on my wrist again.

“You see. Now, come with me.”

We headed down the hallway.

“What happened with Allie?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “But you shouldn’t associate yourself with Poison or Imani.”

“Why not?”

She stopped at the corner of the hallway and looked over. “Because they’re into her and they will do anything to protect her, just like—” She cleared her throat, cheeks reddening, then lowered her voice. “Just like I’d do anything to protect you.”

Warmth spread throughout my chest, but I wondered exactly what she was trying to protect me from. Was it Poison? Maybe Jace was involved in some bad shit somehow? Did she even know who my mother was?

The second bell rang, and I realized that I was late for class again.

“Get to class.” She turned on her heel, her blonde hair bouncing around her shoulders. “But stay out of trouble and meet me in the library at lunch.” She threw me a wink. “I have something for you.”

“Wait,” I said, taking her wrist and pulling her back.

Before I could stop myself, I kissed her on the mouth because something felt different about us today. Maybe it was my imagination, or maybe it wasn’t. But she had come up to me, told me that she’d protect me. And I wasn’t going to let her slip through my fingers.

Not this time.

I pulled away and tucked some strands of hair behind her ear. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

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