Page 148 of Wild Like Us
Once we hang up, I tell Banks, “Xander’s okay.”
His shoulders ease.
Sulli ends her call with Winona and rotates towards the boulder. “Have they moved?”
“Still warmin’ their cold hearts,” Banks mumbles, cigarette between his lips. Yeah, sure enough, they’re all just gathered around the fire. Still chatting.
Still laughing.
Their vocal happiness is almost as infuriating and grating as my talk with Price. Like five sets of nails scraping a chalkboard.
I pocket my phone. “Is Nona okay?”
“No.” Sulli winces, looking between us, her voice grows hot as she tries to whisper, “Shepunchedsome fucking bastard in the hallway at school, and she won’t tell me why. Just that he did something disgusting. She said that she can’t explain more because Kinney told her in confidence or something.”
Shit.
I go cold.
The incident at school—Kinney must’ve also told the girl squad.
“You know what happened?” Sulli realizes off my expression.
I nod, and I’m going to tell them. From my angle, the guy involved is a security threat, and if Xander really does go back to school, I’ll need to tell the rest of SFO: Quinn, Banks, Thatcher. And I can see everyone finding out and Sulli being the only one in the dark.
She’s the last to know a lot of things with her family, and I have the power to change that.
Quietly, I explain, “At Dalton, a guy followed Kinney into an art supply closet and showed his dick to her. He pressured her to touch his penis toprovethat she’s a lesbian.”
Sulli’s jaw is on the ground.
Banks mumbles Italian curse words.
“Fuck him,” Sulli growls after shock wears off. “Good fucking job, Nona.” To us, she reminds us like we forgot, “She punched him.”
Her dad must be flipping out. He’s been concerned Winona is being too much of a hothead like him. She can shift from a fun-loving sparkler to an explosive rocket. Sulli is more sparkler than firecracker, though she has that in her too.
I sit off of the boulder and tell Sul, “What goes around comes around.”
Banks nods, “Good riddance.” He passes Sulli the binoculars.
Eyeing us, she doesn’t focus back on the other climbers yet. “That’s not all.” Sulli looks scared, alarmed, worried.
Banks asks, “What’s wrong?”
“She got in trouble, didn’t she?” I realize.
Sulli nods. “A two-week suspension for punching that fucking creep.” We have no time to react. Team Apex suddenly unzips their tents.
As they crawl inside and start shrieking, the three of us rise to a stance. More visible to them as they race outside of their tents, shaking out their hair and clothes.
The one thing we’re not going to do is run away.
Banks takes a drag of his cigarette.
And the climbers shout loudly, “Fuck her!” and “That Meadowsbitch!”
I bite down hard. Glaring.
