Page 3 of Science Project

At least not here.

Before I could pull it back, Landon smashed me into the lockers so hard that the red metal dented behind me. I grunted, my gaze darkening for a moment as footsteps approached from my left.

“Stop it!” someone shouted, pushing Landon away from me.

I slowly blinked my eyes open to see Imani Abara—the girl that Dad kept trying to convince me to date. She stood in front of me as if we were friends, but most importantly like she didn’t fear Poison at all, her stance strong and stoic.

Characteristics that I only hoped to have one day.

“You lucked the fuck out today,” Landon spit at me and nodded down the hallway in the opposite direction from where Imani had come from. “Get the fuck out of here and don’t come back without the damn shit.”

I scrambled past Imani, hurried down the hallway, and rounded the corner. Screw João for always needing that medication. Just because I worked at the pharmacy didn’t mean I could steal pills for him whenever he felt like it.

Blood continued to spray from my nose. I pinched it shut and tilted my head back, hurrying down the corridor toward the restroom because, apparently, I now had to sit in class with toilet paper stuffed up my nostrils.

As I rounded another corner and slammed into someone, I tripped over my own two feet and landed on top of them. Blood continued to pour from my nose, stars dancing in my vision for a moment until the woman underneath me screamed.

“Ew!” Nicole screeched.

She shoved me off her, shuffled to her feet as her heels scratched against the floor, and stared down at her white jacket, stained with my blood. When she unbuttoned it and pulled it off, my eyes fell to her low-cut top.

Fuck.

“You ruined my jacket, jerk!”

Her jacket, Akio. Focus on her jacket. Not on her?—

“Are you even listening to me?” she exclaimed in a huff.

“I’m sorry!” I scrambled to my feet and pinched my nose closed again because if I didn’t, I would seemingly bleed to death through two small holes in my face. “I’m so sorry, Nicole. I didn’t know you were?—”

“Forget it.” She twirled around, her blonde hair drifting through the air, and headed toward the women’s restroom, then murmured, “My dad is going to kill me if he finds out,” underneath her breath.

“I’m sorry,” I shouted before she slipped into the restroom.

After sighing—because I’d definitely ruined all chances that I might have had with her—I walked into the men’s restroom and slipped into a stall to grab some toilet paper. I stuffed it up my nose and walked out to the sink to wipe the blood off my face.

Carter, Redwood’s quarterback, sauntered into the restroom with one of his friends, laughing with each other. I splashed my face with water and rubbed the blood off my chin, glancing over at them.

“Heard Jace found you with his girl in the locker room.”

“With Nicole?” Carter chuckled. “Harbor was pissed.”

“Pussy good?”

“Best in Redwood.”

The friend nodded in the mirror at me. “The fuck you looking at?”

“Sorry,” I mumbled under my breath.

My gaze dropped to the red blood mixed with water in the sink. Nicole was a prize that every guy at Redwood wanted to claim, and I would never have a chance. Especially when I had to compete with Carter and Jace. Hell, she didn’t even know my name.

Besides, it was probably better this way.

Mom wanted me to get closer to her so she could use Nicole against her father. And I wasn’t about to be a part of her illegal games. Never had been, and I had vowed never to be. I hated living with her.

I glanced up to catch Carter not even washing his hands as he and his friend exited the restroom. I finished up and walked out of the restroom to my locker, making sure to avoid Poison at all costs.

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