Page 42 of The Wrong Side of Kai
Reluctantly, Mr. Boyd lowers his handgun and huffs and puffs his way back upstairs. We all wait until his footsteps disappear out of hearing range, then Harrison sets his fierce blue eyes on me.
“What the fuck, Vanessa?!” he hisses through gritted teeth. “Was slashing my tires not enough for you? Are you here to set my house on fire next?” He marches toward me, stopping a foot away, then shifts his gaze over to Kai, only for him to go totally silent. Recognition flashes in his eyes. “And what the actual hell areyoudoing here?”
“Dropped by to see how your truck was doing. Total bummer about those tires, huh?” Kai taunts, stepping away from his position by the bar. He calmly walks over and stands by my side, facing Harrison. The smirk he gives him is full of hatred.
“That was you?” Harrison says stiffly, as it dawns on him now that I haven’t been doing all of this on my own – I’ve had an accomplice the entire time. Kai Washington, to be exact, the ex-boyfriend of the girl who Harrison made sure to steal. Kai is no stranger to him.
Kai dares to take another step forward. He lowers his voice and says, “Yup. I hope Sierra is worth it.” Suddenly, he tenses up and shoves Harrison backward. It’s the first time I’ve seen Kai look so furious, his eyes glistening with loathing, like he’s waited months for this moment.
Before Harrison can lunge forward to hit him back, I jump between the two of them. The testosterone in this basement right now is overwhelming – the two of them are glowering at one another, fighting the urge not to wrestle each other to the ground.
“Don’t,” I warn, looking between them both. As much as I’d love to see Kai slam his fist straight into Harrison’s smug little face, I know it won’t help our cause. We need to get the hell out of here unscathed. My nerves are shot from Harrison’s father pulling out that gun. I’ve suddenly realized that what Kai and I are doing is serious. We’re out here causing real trouble, and trouble has consequences.
“Get the fuck out of my house!” Harrison orders, exasperated now. He looks helpless, as though he doesn’t quite know how to handle the situation. He has two people who hate him standing in his basement, and heknowswe’re out to screw with him. He slowly backs away.
Kai holds up his hands in surrender. “Alright, we’re out of here.”
I seize the opportunity for escape and spin around on my heels, scrambling over to the small window that we climbed in through. From the inside, the window is eye-level. I use my elbows – and adrenaline – to haul myself up, then pull myself outside on my stomach onto the snow. I turn back to offer out a hand to Kai, but he’s already swiftly pulling himself up with total ease. He joins me outside in the cool, fresh air and then lowers his head back to the window.
“Bye, bye, Harrison,” he sneers, just as Harrison grabs the window and slams it shut. We hear him lock it too.
We grab our coats and stand up, our breathing rapid, and look at one another. Talk about a wild ride. We know it now – we’ve taken things a step too far. My pulse races at a million miles an hour and my throat feels tight, and, judging by the unfamiliar, stunned expression on Kai’s face, he feels the same way. It’s like I’ve left our fantasy world and come back to reality with a thud, because now I realize we wereluckyto get caught when we did. If we’d followed through with our plan, we’d have ended up in much bigger trouble. Harrison’s parents would have called the cops if they woke up to the scene of someone having ransacked their home during the night. And my and Kai’s fingerprints would have been all over that place.
How come it’s so easy to throw all caution to the wind?
“C’mon,” Kai breathes, and he slips his hand into mine.
We run from Harrison’s house, dashing past the cars on the driveway again to make a speedy getaway. Kai pulls me along behind him, both of us watching our footing on the snow so that we don’t break an ankle, and we stumble all the way back down the street until we reach our bikes that we abandoned by a tree. Of course, they haven’t been stolen – this neighborhood is too nice for petty theft.
“That was insane!” I say, letting go of Kai’s hand so that I can run my fingers through my hair. I’m shaking from the rush and fear of it all and I can’t stay still, too hopped up on adrenaline. I bounce from one foot to the other while repeatedly glancing back over my shoulder as though Harrison and his father are going to come bounding after us, all guns blazing. Literally.
“I know,” Kai agrees. He leans back against the tree and kicks at his bike tire as his adrenaline begins to fade and the true danger of our actions sinks in. “Thanks for standing up first, by the way. I was going to, but I didn’t wanna get shot,” he mumbles, looking at the ground. His cheeks flare. “I feel like an ass. So much for my chivalry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I say, waving away his apologies. I definitely don’t mind covering for Kai when he needed me to. When the chill of the night hits me, I begin pulling on my coat and it occurs to me that we didn’t achieve what we set out to do. “Damn. We broke into his house and had a gun pointed at us for nothing.”
“For nothing, huh?” Kai says. He straightens up and steps around the bikes to join me, a coy smile playing on his lips. We’re standing in the snow on the sidewalk in the middle of a residential street, everything around us quiet and still at such a late hour. Kai stops in front of me, his gaze intoxicating as his lips part slightly. He places a hand on my hip. “Maybe the best revenge,” he whispers, “is kissing you.”
And, as we stand there together in the midnight cold, Kai’s mouth finds mine.
17
For the first time this week, I think I may actually arrive to first period on time. Chyna and I are walking from the student parking lot toward school still with five whole minutes until the first bell is scheduled to ring. The campus is an ice rink – it hasn’t snowed again since Wednesday night, so the snow has now fully hardened into a sheet of ice that makes everyone look like Bambi as we skate toward the main entrance.
“He actually pointed agun?” Chyna whispers under her breath. She looks sideways at me, her mouth an “O,” shocked. Thank God I have a best friend who listens to my daily updates on the drama in my life. Chyna doesn’t need reality TV when she has me for entertainment.
“Yeah! Like, sure, wewerebreaking in, but still,” I say. “It totally freaked me out.”
Just then, several people skid past us, scrambling in the opposite direction from the school entrance. There’s lots of excited murmuring, mostly from young freshmen, as they skate off. I glance over my shoulder, back toward the student parking lot, and notice even more people heading back that way.
I catch a glimpse of Hailey Wilson among the crowd as she passes us, and I reach out and grab her arm. Last week, we were friends. She used to love talking to me, but just like everyone else, she has totally avoided me this week. This is now the first time I’ve spoken to anyone else in my circle of friends since that video was leaked. “What’s going on?”
Hailey stares at my hand on her arm like it’s a gross imposition, then mumbles, “I think there’s a fight or something,” before she continues sliding her way across the ice.
“A fight?” Chyna says, exchanging a look with me.
My stomach tightens with a sense of unease. There’re a thousand kids in this school – anyone could be throwing punches right now, but it’s usually only seniors who know to keep the fighting off school property. Just beyond the student parking lot is where the campus boundaries are.
“I just got a weird feeling,” I say, swallowing hard as I stare at the crowds amassing off in the distance. People are sprinting past us now, desperate to see all the action.
