Page 73 of Twisted Minds

“What . . . what is he talking about?” Hunter’s face twists with pain. I can’t watch it. There’s no coming back from this. Derrick is ruining everything.

No. I’ve ruined everything.

“You know your friend Sawyer . . . Yeah, you know how his family’s restaurant went up in flames over the summer?” Hunter’s eyes widen. “Yeah. Our friend here is the reason. He set fire to their resturant and begged me to keep his secret.”

Okay, that’s not fucking true, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve never begged him, but Derrick does hold it over my head. “Mark—”

“Have a nice fucking life.” Derrick claps me hard on the back and leaves the room.

Everything is out. There’s no way Hunter will forgive me now. Maybe if I’d come clean . . . Maybe if I’d explained . . . But I was just so fucking scared. “Is that true?” I reach for him, but he takes a step back. “You lied to me? How . . . why?”

“No wait that’s—”

“And Sawyer. His family’s restaurant? Why?”

“It’s not . . . this isn’t right. I . . . I . . .”

“You know they think it’s a hate crime, right? You know they think some racist piece of shit set fire to their restaurant. And it was you, you did . . .”

“No. Holy shit, no. That’s not why . . . I mean didn’t, it wasn’t that. He’s not . . .” I didn’t fucking do it. I didn’t! Still. What the hell have I done? I didn’t do it.

I feel like I’m falling apart. I’ve been a piece of shit for hiding this, though. Even if I didn’t do it, I know who may have. The reasonable part of my brain tells me it doesn’t matter. No one would believe it was Derrick. He always goes free. People like Derrick always fucking win. They’re rich and from powerful fucking families who buy their way out of everything.

“I didn’t do . . . I didn’t do . . . I never meant . . .”

“You meant to hide it,” Hunter cuts in, shaking his head and backing away. “I don’t know why the fuck you involved me. What the fuck is wrong with you!?”

“Derrick threatened you. He wanted me to hurt you, jump you, or some insane shit. He’s blackmailing me and . . .” Fuck, I can’t say he’s giving me my watch back. That watch means everything to me but explaining that to Hunter right now . . . Fuck, he isn’t listening to me. “I told him instead I could break your heart. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“You didn’t want to hurt me?” Hunter barks out a laugh. “You fucking killed me.” He walks away and it takes me a stunned second to move my feet and go after him. Downstairs, I feel a tug on my shirt, and I flinch before I realize it’s Noah.

“Mark, I’m so—”

“Not now, Noah.” Following the path Hunter is taking, I push through the crowd. I need to stop him. I need to talk to him. Chasing him out the door, I see Xavi’s jeep as Hunter storms to it. “Hunter, wait!”

“Why!?” His glassy eyes punch me in the gut. “Why me? What did I ever do to you to deserve this?”

“You kicked him off the team.”

“Because he fucking drugged Sawyer’s sister’s drink at a party they were at and tried to assault her! She turned him in, and no one did a fucking thing about it!” he screams.

What? I didn’t . . . But as the shock of that truth hits me, I know it’s true. Those girls over the summer, how fast they gotwasted . . . Now Noah. This is so much bigger than Derrick being a dick. What the fuck have I done?

Then it clicks.Jane.

Derrick set it on fire because of Jane.

As the last piece of puzzle clicks inside my brain I am crumbling, breaking, but the pain I’m in is nothing compared to the heartbreak on Hunter’s face. What have I done?

“I didn’t know that, I swear. I didn’t know about Sawyer’s sister, or that he tried to assault her. I swear I didn’t know about—”

Hunter walks up to me, his voice deadly calm. “I don’t fucking believe you.” Shaking his head, he backs up. “I will never ever believe you.”

“Everything we did, all of it . . . it was all real. I was trying to get out of it the entire time. He fucking blackmailed me and I didn’t . . . I didn’t do—”

“You’re a fucking coward.” He shrugs. “A fucking coward. I’m telling Sawyer. Don’t talk to me again. Ever! I never want to talk to you again.”

He slams the car door, and I watch him peel out.

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