Gates heard the crunch of someone stepping on a plastic bottle behind him. He turned back.
Colton stood in the middle of the floor.
His skin was gray. He wore his black shades, and full St. Patrick’s attire, a blazer, tie and sweater, slacks, and penny loafers. His brown hair was combed neatly to the side. Black blood dripped from the hole in his forehead.
Colton walked toward him. Gates scrambled out of his chair and into the corner. How was this happening? His dead brother made fists of his hands as he strode toward him.
“Get back!” Gates said.
“Gates?”
Will was standing at the entrance to the mess hall, staring at him, perplexed. Colton was gone. One second he was there and the next he wasn’t. Gates didn’t know if he’d just seen a ghost, or he was losing his shit, but just like earlier when he had seen Will in the gaming chair, just Will’s presence calmed him. He needed to stick with Will. He’d be safe with Will. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he could feel that it was true in his bones.
“Hey, man,” Gates said.
“Are you… messing around? You look all scared.”
“Yeah. You know me. Can’t keep it serious,” Gates said, assuming a relaxed pose. He hoped he wouldn’t have to talk about it anymore.
Will stretched and yawned. “So when does the partying start?”
“Right. Fucking. Now,” Gates said.
27
LUCY WATCHED A NAKED GIRL DO PUSH-UPS over broken glass. Her name was Frida. She’d been a Freak since the gangs formed, but now she was fed up. She’d hooked up with Bobby last year, but it wasn’t that great and she’d tried to move past it. Bobby wouldn’t let her. He hounded her with requests for dates, gave her creepy gifts, and got more mad each time she turned him down. Finally he told her she couldn’t be in the gang anymore if she wouldn’t date him. Frida decided enough was enough and she came knocking on the cafeteria door.
Now that she was staring at a pile of broken glass, with Lips yelling at her in her ear, Lucy wondered if Frida regretted her choice. The girl was on her sixth day of Naked Week.
“Thirty…,” Frida grunted out, as she pushed up and locked her arms in place.
“What are you stopping for, bitch?” Lips shouted. “I wanna see forty! I’ve been listening to this thirty crap for days.”
Sophia walked away from the group of Sluts next to Lips to join Lucy, Raunch, and some others that were watching from a distance.
“God, part of me just wants to tell her how to make it stop,” Sophia said, shaking her head.
“I’m so glad you said that,” Lucy said. “Me too.”
“She’ll pull through,” Raunch said. “She’ll figure it out soon, I can see it in her.”
Sophia nodded. “I know. It’s just so hard to watch.”
“That’s what we have Lips for,” Lucy said, and the others laughed.
The girls settled back into watching Frida struggle through more push-ups as Lips jabbed at her ribs with her foot. Frida began to lower herself toward the glass again. Lucy could remember that moment vividly, making the decision to push beyond her limits when she didn’t know how it was humanly possible.
“Come on,” Sophia whispered to herself, but it was meant for Frida.
“Fight back,” another girl muttered.
Lucy never would have thought something so vicious would have warmed her heart. When it had been her in Frida’s place, she’d thought all the girls around her were monsters. She couldn’t understand how someone would treat another person in this way, but now that she was on the other side, Lucy knew how much love there was in this room. Each one of these girls had suffered through similar trials and they were stronger for it. They only wanted the best for Frida, and none of them, including Lucy, had any intention of letting her fail.
This was Lucy’s family now. Her life. She belonged. It was everything she’d hoped for when she’d joined up. So, why had she been thinking about Will every day since the bonfire party?
It still bothered her that their conversation that night hadn’t gone the way she’d expected. Being in the Sluts had felt thrilling before she saw him at the party. And the look on Will’s face when he comprehended completely that Lucy was a badass Slut had been the cherry on top. She’d wanted to see him eat his own words, feel horrible for the things he’d yelled at her in the Stairs. And he did, and he’d apologized, and he’d told her he missed her. That should have made her happy, but instead, it had only upset her.
“Hey, Virgin!” one of the guards at the cafeteria entrance shouted. “Somebody here for you.”
Lucy swallowed hard. She wasn’t expecting anybody. She looked to the other girls, who shrugged. Lucy walked toward the cafeteria entrance. When Lucy laid her hand on the door handle, she took a deep breath and hoped that it wasn’t Will. Lucy pushed open the door.
Bart stood alone under a bright hall light. He had a crooked smile and his pompadour looked a little bigger than she remembered from last time. He gave her a big, friendly wave. Lucy felt her body relax at the sight of him.
“Hi, Bart.”
“Yo.”
So goofy. So cute.
“Wanna go on a date?” he said.
“Yes, she does!” Raunch shouted from somewhere behind Lucy.
Lucy laughed and stepped out into the hall.
When Bart had told Lucy they were going to the Geek show, she didn’t know what to say. The last time she’d been to one was on a date with David. Those few hours she’d had with him, before everything went wrong, were immortalized in her mind. She could only recall the sights and sounds of that night as part of a perfect bliss. And so, Lucy was afraid that tonight Bart could only fail. She wouldn’t be able to help but compare, and everything he did would only pale in comparison to how David did it.
She liked Bart, and she didn’t want that. Thankfully, he was one step ahead of her.
Lucy’s legs dangled over the metal ledge of the lighting catwalk, where Bart sat next to her. It was one of three catwalks that ran the width of the auditorium, each one mounted with powerful lights aimed at the proscenium stage at the far end of the room. A partying crowd, populated with heads of different colors, swirled below. Gangs mixed freely, in a way Lucy had never seen before, at least not from this perspective. Kids mingled. Pairs and threesomes from different gangs drank together, played games together, laughed together. The bonfire party had greased the wheels and started a phenomenon of impromptu parties that were happening nearly every day now. She’d heard about them, but this was the first one she’d been to since the bonfire.
“I can’t believe it,” Lucy said.
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool up here,” Bart said. “That Geek, Lane, you met, could only hook us up for a little bit before the show starts, but I figured it’s way better than the same old Geek show stuff.”
That wasn’t what Lucy was talking about, but she was happy to keep it light. “Definitely,” she said.
“I love heights,” he said. “When I was little I was pretty sure I could fly.”
Lucy laughed. “Really?”
“Yeah, one day I flapped my arms so hard I dislocated my shoulder. My mom freaked out when I came back in the house with one arm hanging to, like, my knees.”
Lucy covered her mouth in shock. “No way.”
Bart grinned. “The next week I built a pair of wings out of tree branches and bed sheets. I jumped off the roof and broke my leg.”
“Shut up,” Lucy said, snorting a laugh.
Bart nodded, his grin getting bigger.
“What did your mom do?” Lucy said.