Page 85 of Cruel Prep (Princes of Ravenlake Academy 1)

“You’ve been off for weeks,” he snaps back. “And neither of us can afford for you to be off.”

“You meanyoucan’t afford it.”

He narrows his eyes and leans in, voice low so no one else can hear. “What does that mean?”

“Exactly what I said.”

His hand clenches at his side, desperate to grab the collar of my jersey and yank me down to his eyeline, but he can’t do that. Not with all these people around. It wouldn’t be a good look for the unofficial king of the city to be seen physically accosting his son.

Instead, he lays his hand on my shoulder, looking to everyone else like a father giving his son a pick-me-up after a bad game.

“If I go down, do you really think you won’t be going with me?” he hisses. “Because I know rumors are spreading about you being the last one to be seen with Dallas. I’m friends with Officer Ingram, too, you remember. You and I are tangled in this shit together, and that little girlfriend of yours is the lynchpin in all of it. Deal with her, or I will.”

The idea of my dad doing anything at all to Lily makes my vision go red.

My first instinct is to wrap my hands around his throat and choke the life out of him right here.

I suck in a deep breath and try to cool my raging temper. It works—barely.

“Don’t worry, Dad,” I say, slipping my shoulder out from under his grip. “I’ll take care of your mess. Just like I always do.”

Then I jog into the locker room with the rest of the team.

An hour later, the rest of the Golden Boys and I are sitting in the back of Caleb’s pickup truck in the parking lot, drinking and brooding.

“I’ve never actually heard a crowd boo their own team before like that,” Caleb says, taking a long sip from his beer. “It was a new experience for me.”

“They weren’t booing us,” Viktor says. “They were booinghim.” He points at me with his bottle of beer and scowls.

I’m so beyond tired of talking about my performance, but it seems to be all anyone else can discuss. First my father, now my friends.

“Seriously,” Viktor says, kicking my leg and pulling me from my thoughts. “What is going on with you, dude? Are you even listening to us?”

“I’m never listening to you.” I crunch my empty beer can on my thigh and throw it in the pile in the middle of the truck bed.

“Fuck the game,” J.C. says, shedding his hoodie and balling it up like a pillow so he can lie back. “Do any of us really care about it? It’s not like you need the scholarship, Caleb.”

“It would be nice, though,” he snaps. “Some of us don’t have multimillion-dollar trust funds to fall back on.”

“Right, only one million, isn’t it?” J.C. says with an eye roll. “Tell us more about how unfortunate you are, Caleb.”

“We’re all unfortunate compared to Finn, and he’s the one who fucked us over.” Noah lights a cigarette and exhales a cloud of smoke. “Probably because none of it matters to him.”

I open my mouth to respond, but Viktor cuts me off. “Wah, wah, wah to all of you. My dude Finn is clearly upset about something. If you all could stop thinking about yourselves for five seconds, you’d see that.”

All at once, the other guys chuck empty cans and, in Caleb’s case, an elbow at Viktor, knocking the wind out of him.

“If you all would leave me alone, maybe you’d notice Caleb has a fresh black eye.” I tip my head towards Caleb.

He just glares at me before turning away.

“Another one?” Viktor jumps down from the rock he is standing on and squats down in front of Caleb, trying to get a better look. “Let me see.”

“Fucking mother hen,” Caleb grumbles, swatting him away. “It’s nothing.”

“Who were you fighting?”

“And who did you let get a punch in?” J.C. asks, eyebrow raised. “I’ve never seen that before.”

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