Chapter 8

Dallas

I took the long way to school again, the one that took me around the backside of the school where the parking lot was. The rain pattered against the hood of my rain jacket, dripping down onto my cheeks. It was too cold for Spring. The weather report said it was going to rain for the next week or so, and that the temperatures would stay in the single digits for at least the next three days. I didn’t like to ride my bike in the rain, so I walked. The colder and wetter I got, the more I wished I’d just stayed home. I didn’t have anything significant going on today, but if I missed school, I wouldn’t have been able to satisfy my daily curiosity.

I walked through the rows of cars, craning my head this way and that, before I finally accepted defeat. Shane’s bike wasn’t there. It had been missing in the parking lot for the past three days now, and I was seriously worried about him. Nobody I knew had seen him since Wes and Nelson took him away for their “meeting”. When I asked Wes about it, he said that all they’d done was talk and that Shane was probably hiding at home with his tail between his legs, but the longer this went on, the antsier I felt.

I trudged up the gravel path to the school’s back doors, cursing the weather. I didn’t love the rain. I cursed myself even more for not getting Shane’s phone number before he went AWOL. Even more than that, I cursed Wes. His problem with Shane seemed to extend far beyond football and Rob, but I didn’t understand what about Shane could draw so much of his ire. He was a good guy. I knew he was. Why was everyone so determined to think otherwise?

Sopping wet, I made my way to my locker and started tugging off my coat. My hair was mostly dry underneath at least, though makeup bled down my damp face. I started fixing it in my locker mirror and was surprised to see Wes standing behind me.

“Jesus!” I jumped, turning to glare at him. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

Wes bared his teeth in what I’m sure he thought was a smile. Why did I get the feeling he enjoyed seeing me startled? He gave me a once over, returning his gaze to my eyes and winking.

“You’re all wet.”

I frowned and wrapped my arms around my chest. The coat had kept my upper half relatively dry, but my jeans were soaked through above my boots.

“Yeah. I just got back from the waterslides,” I deadpanned. “Wes, where’s Shane?”

Last time I asked him he got visibly irritated, enough so that I decided not to ask him again. I was tired of his bullshit, and I was tired of people underestimating me and thinking they could intimidate me.

“How the fuck am I supposed to know?” Wes asked. “I already told you I don’t. What are you trying to say?”

“All I’m saying is that I haven’t seen him for days and you were cagey about your answer last time. I’m worried.”

Wes rolled his eyes and snorted. “Worried? Are you kidding me? That reprobate doesn’t deserve even an ounce of your concern. He’s probably in prison. Garbage does as garbage is.”

Even though Wes was sketchy about the “meeting”, he seemed to be telling the truth about not knowing where Shane was. Heavy on the “seemed to be”. As long as I’d known him, he’d been a horrible liar, way too cocky to be able to pass off a story that wasn’t the truth. Anyway, pushing him further would only irritate him.

I turned back to my locker and finished hanging up my coat, grabbing my binder and books for my first class. I didn’t dismiss him verbally, but my body language should have been clear.

When I turned around, Wes was still there. In fact, he’d gotten closer.

Him standing so close to me brought memories of my last conversation with Shane, where he’d all but pressed my body into my locker with his own. It gave me tingles just thinking about it. All this did was make my skin crawl.

“Can you move, please? I’ve got to go to class.”

Wes smirked. “The bell hasn’t rung yet.”

“I like to be early.”

“You’re such a good girl, aren’t you, Dallas?” He reached out and twisted a lock of my hair around his finger. I stiffened.

“I wanna ask you something.” Wes let the twist of hair fall from his finger and inched back just enough that I felt like I could breathe again. Not far enough for me to sidestep him, unfortunately.

“I’m a captive audience,” I said with a flat expression.

He chuckled. “You’re funny. I’ve always liked that about you. Other people don’t see it, but I do.” He met my eyes. “Be my date to the prom.”

A knot of disgust twisted my stomach, but I forced my expression to stay neutral. I didn’t think Wes was a guy who took rejection well, so I had to deliver the blow as softly as possible. One thing was certain—I didn’t want to go to prom with Wes. I’d known that for a long time. I made a new realization at that moment too, however. If Shane didn’t ask me to prom, I didn’t want to go at all. There was nothing there for me without him, particularly if my other option was this leering asshole, who didn’t even ask me so much as he did command me.

“That’s sweet of you, Wes, but I’m going to have to decline,” I said, trying to sound gentle. “I just don’t see you that way, and I wouldn’t want to risk our friendship.”

Yeah, that’s right, I thought, as I watched the cockiness drain from his face. I hope you brought a jacket, cause I just pushed you out into the cold.

My celebration was short-lived. Something else came in behind the smugness. Something worse. Wes’s mouth took on a cruel tilt, and his nostrils flared.

“You should reconsider,” he said. “I think you’ll find your family isn’t in any place to refuse a request from someone of my family.”

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

This conversation was the most aggressive one I’d ever had with Wes. I’d gone through my entire high school career without standing up for myself against anyone, which had earned me a reputation as a good girl, a girl who could be easily pushed around. I didn’t want to be that girl. I wasn’t going to be that girl. I was going to be a star on Broadway, dammit, and like a proper diva, I wasn’t going to let anybody tell me what to do anymore unless they were wearing a director’s hat.

“It means that it’s in your best interest to go to prom with me, sweetheart. Your dad’s, too.”

All the heat drained from my body. I told myself the shiver that coursed through me was from my wet clothes, and not from the look of icy contempt on Wes’s face. He was perhaps even more handsome when he was like this, like a precisely carved ice sculpture, but in a way that terrified me. Disgusted me.

“No, Wes. Please don’t ask again. And that’s not a funny joke.”

I stepped around him and was surprised that he stepped back enough to let me go. With my binder in a death grip and my sights set on the end of the hall, I started speed walking toward class. The bell rang, and the other students who’d been milling around all started flurrying this way and that, filling in the gap behind me until I was sure that I’d put enough distance between Wes and me.

He had to be joking, right? Surely he didn’t just threaten my dad because I turned down his prom invitation? Only a truly insane person would do that.

I turned into my English class and saw Sasha already seated at her desk, which was just beside mine. I felt relief flow through me, warming me to my fingertips. I was desperate to talk to someone about what just happened, and though Sasha probably would say something bitchy about me turning Wes down, at least she could calm me down a little and normalize the whole experience.

“Hey,” I greeted, taking the seat next to her.

She looked at my soaked jeans and grimaced. “Christ you’re wet. Did you walk into school or swim?”

“Tell me about it.” I sighed and opened up my binder, flipping forward to the English section. “The craziest thing happened to me before class. Wes asked me to prom.”

I dropped it on her casually because I didn’t want to give her a chance to control her expression. Sasha’s dark eyebrows furrowed and her lips pursed. She studied me like a hawk.

“And? What did you say?”

“I don’t like Wes like that, so I tried to turn him down as nicely as possible,” I replied. “He didn’t take it well. Made some comment about how there would be consequences for my dad and me if I turned him down... What do you make of that? He was just joking, right?”

Sasha completely ignored the latter half of the sentence, which incidentally was the only part of the whole thing that required her input.

“You turned down Wes?” She made it sound like the idea of me turning down anyone was inconceivable. It was hard not to feel offended.

“Yes,” I answered tartly.

“What the hell is wrong with you? He’s the hottest guy at this school.”

The second bell rang, and our teacher walked up to the front of the room. He started writing on the board, though we had another minute or so before we’d be expected to shut up and listen.

“Yeah, and I’m just not interested in him. Is that such a crime?”

Sasha rolled her eyes. “Could you be any more of a boring virgin? It’s like being friends with Mother Theresa except without all the free shit.”

“Great chat, Sasha. Really appreciate the help.”

“Christ, don’t be like that,” she replied. “I was just joking. Apparently, humor is not your forte. Of course Wes isn’t going to kill you and your whole family just because you didn’t go to prom with him.” She laughed. “Get a grip, girl. You’ve been way too on edge recently.”

I expected her comment about me being on edge was about how I’d been less submissive and more snappy recently. I wasn’t on edge. Or I suppose maybe I was, but not for any reason that she might think. I was just done—with this school, these people, this whole goddamn town.

As our teacher started up his lecture at the front, I slipped comfortably back into my New York fantasy. Me, Shane, and a world of possibility at our fingertips. Only another month and a half until I was out of this place. Only a few months after that until I was out of this town. And then? The world.