Path of Destruction (6 page)

“Please, angel face?” he whispered, effectively scratching the layer of steel she’d kept around herself.

On my way. I’ll explain everything, angel face.

Her mouth remained clamped shut despite the overwhelming emotions swirling inside her.

He hadn’t asked her to meet him at the ridge—she’d asked him. But he’d told her to wait and never showed. She didn’t blame him for Kyle’s death—she knew the blame for that lay squarely on her shoulders and no one else’s. But he was inextricably linked to the guilt she carried, to the memory of that awful night when she’d ruined everything, failed her brother, and lost him forever.

She’d gotten caught up in the attention, been bewitched by someone simply passing the time with the only girl around. He’d given the same grin to the girls sitting in front of her, random ones whose names he probably didn’t even know.

She’d meant nothing to him, and he’d cost her everything.

She shook her head almost imperceptibly, but he sighed before moving to the next student. She assumed from the way his shoulders lowered that the message was received.

She didn’t bother turning her quiz over when Coach McDermott said that it was time. She figured she’d just hand it in blank. Hardly seemed like it could really matter. It was the first day of school. How much weight could a meaningless pop quiz really carry?

Feeling eyes on her, she glanced over to see who was staring. Raquel. She lifted her brows at her in a can-I-help-you gesture. The girl sneered in response.

“Coach McDermott,” Streaks, as EJ now thought of her, called out, raising her hand. “I was just thinking… Don’t you think this material might be a little
advanced
for some of the Hope’s Grove kids? I mean, let’s face it. They probably don’t have much need for complex concepts in Hickville, now do they? Other than one cousin plus another cousin equals a deformed kid.”

“That’s enough, Raquel,” the teacher admonished her with a sharp glare. “If you’re struggling to comprehend the questions on the quiz, I can send Hayden over to help clarify them for you.”

“Oh, I’ve got a few things
Mr. Prescott
could clarify for me. Like his inexplicable interest in this hayseed hillbilly who doesn’t even know how to work a pencil.”

The jab was spoken too low for the teacher to hear, but it sent several searing gazes in Ella Jane’s direction. The heat of being watched spread from her toes to her face. Her breathing came in unsatisfying bursts that she struggled to control.

Hayden walked over and took the seat behind Raquel. Ella Jane couldn’t hear what he said. Something about Cameron and secrets and if she knew what was good for her.

Painfully aware of how many people were casting furtive looks in her direction, she turned the test over with a trembling hand. She couldn’t make sense of any of the small printed numbers or symbols as they blurred behind the tears flooding her eyes.

Realizing the irony of not having a pencil, she choked on a laugh that bordered on hysteria.

Screw this.

She didn’t want to be here. Didn’t have to be here. And she agreed with Streaks. She didn’t belong here, had no idea why Hayden Prescott had ever been interested in her. She wished he hadn’t. She wished with all her might that she could go home, go to bed, and start the summer over—managing to avoid him and keep her brother alive.

Standing abruptly, she ignored the shocked stares on the sea of faces around her.

“Miss Mason?” Coach McDermott’s eyes were wide with alarm. “Something I can help you with?”

Nope.

No one could help her. No one could bring him back. No one could rewind life.

Shaking her head, she started to step around her desk. Coach McDermott’s voice stopped her briefly.

“Miss Mason, may I remind you that the choices you make in the classroom will determine the rest of your life?”

The rest of your life.

The words echoed in her head.

Kyle had worked so hard. School hadn’t come easy for him like it had to her—he’d had to study twice as much, stay up late into the night after getting up early to mow lawns for the family business, and bust his ass at football practice. The injustice of it gripped her soul and squeezed. He’d worked harder than anyone she knew, and for what? For a future that would never happen.

And this guy wanted to preach to her about some stupid-ass quiz affecting the rest of her life?

Not today, buddy.

Ignoring the stares and Raquel’s not-so-quietly muttered, “Freak,” Ella Jane pulled her test off her desk, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it in the trash can on her way out the door.

She’d only made it halfway down the hall when she heard his voice. Not Coach McDermott’s as she’d expected, but the one she didn’t ever want to hear again.

“I didn’t know,” he called out from a few feet away. “I didn’t know about your brother.”

Pulling in a deep breath, she turned to face him. He came closer, close enough to touch, but she remained motionless.

“I’m sorry, angel face. I am so damn sorry. I swear to God I didn’t know.” He braced his arms beside her head on the lockers behind her. “I would’ve done something, would’ve come to the funeral. I would’ve been there for you.”

She swallowed hard, allowing herself to indulge for just a moment. Her eyes drank in his strong jaw, flexing with the same intensity of the deep emerald gaze burning into hers.

His head tilted forward until his nose was barely a fraction of an inch from hers. “Please don’t shut me out. We should talk. There’s so much—”

“There’s nothing,” she said, surprised by the foreign sound of her own raspy voice. “It was a mistake, all of it. Just…stay away from me.”

When he stepped back, she turned away, planning to put as much distance between herself and Hayden Prescott as humanly possible. But he wasn’t going to make it that easy. His hands pulled at her hips, holding her back against his front.

“Don’t say that. Please don’t ever say that.” His voice held a plea she couldn’t ignore.

She fought the urge to look at him, knowing she would fall, just as she had all summer, for his lies again if she had to look into those eyes. This close, she could hear his breath.

“With everything going on, the memories we made this summer are all that’s getting me through,” he told her.

“Some memories are best left in the past where they belong. Let me go.” She tried to tug out of his grasp, but his strong fingers held tighter.

“Ella Jane, please. Please just listen.”

“Let. Me. Go.” Slamming the steel walls down around her heart, she glared at him over her shoulder. “You of all people know I’m not interested in being your dirty little secret. Move.”

Shoving his arm aside, she took two steps before he grabbed her arm and whirled her around to face him.

“Stop running from me, dammit. I’m done begging.”

Before she could blink, he crushed his mouth to hers.

For one minuscule second, she allowed herself to feel. Pleasure coursed through her, weakening her knees while filling her with a strength she thought she’d lost. She wanted to grab his neck, yank his hair, and pour all the pain and passion into that kiss—the hurt, the heartache, and the loss. But she couldn’t. This was the same brand of weakness that cost her everything she cared about.

“Stop,” she commanded, pulling back.

They couldn’t do this. It wasn’t just about his girlfriend, though that certainly made her feel pretty vile. It was Kyle. He would never kiss anyone again, would never be kissed again. He’d never been in love that she knew of, and it felt treacherous to have anything he hadn’t.

“We can’t do this. I-I can’t. If you care about me at all you’ll leave me alone.”

B
etween trying to figure out the labyrinth that was Summit Bluffs High School and keeping tabs on Ella Jane, Cooper was over school by the end of first hour. He’d heard that she stormed out of her first class like her ass was on fire but when found her in the hallway, she didn’t mention it. She just kept her lips pinched shut and pointed down at her crumbled schedule before leading him into gymnasium for the P.E. class they had together. It was the only class they shared, but he’d take whatever time he had with her. At least if they were in the same classroom, or gym, he could keep all the assholes away from her. Luckily for them, the second-hour class was filled with Hope’s Grove students.

The two of them settled in on the bleachers and waited for the teacher to come out and give them their marching orders.

Coach Bowman, a middle-aged woman with a short, brown bob, stood before them. “Morning, everyone. No one has to dress out today. We’re going to assign lockers and get you all squared away with uniforms.”

Her tone was different from the history teacher he’d met last period. She was warm and had a look of understanding on her face as she greeted all of her new students. The last guy had acted as if he didn’t know—or at least didn’t give a shit about—what had happened in Hope’s Grove only two weeks ago.

SBHS T-shirts and shorts were passed out to all the students and they were each assigned lockers in their respective locker rooms. By the time all the students had funneled back out into the gym, there was only fifteen minutes left in the period. No one mentioned a word about Kyle or the tornado. It was as if they were all out of condolences and sick of reliving that horrible night. Coop knew he was.

He sat next to Ella Jane and looked around the gym.

Jackson Clark sat a few rows up, still sporting a cast and sling on his left arm. He’d driven past his house and seen that the damage was severe.

Kelli Lacey bit her nails furiously on the other side of EJ. She even used her fist to shove her cheek deeper into her teeth so she could devour the inside of her mouth once she’d finished with her nails. Coop knew from hearing his parents talk that her dad had been pinned beneath a support beam in their house and would be in a wheelchair for the foreseeable future. Seeing the obvious anxiety she wore reminded him that his family wasn’t the only one that had been affected. Everyone was suffering in his or her own way.

He knew that his senior year gym class wouldn’t include a pickup game with Kyle or cracking jokes in the locker room, not because he was gone to college, but because he was actually
gone
. It was a tough pill to swallow, and judging by the looks on his classmates’ faces, they too were getting hit with a heavy dose of the reality that was their lives now.

“Guess I’ll see you after school,” Coop said when the bell rang. “Meet you out front?”

Ella Jane nodded and walked away, still not saying a word. He could tell by the way she’d chewed her lip all period that she wanted to say something. To scream. To cuss.

He’d take her telling him to piss off at that point. But she didn’t. He wasn’t going to push her. She’d talk when she was ready. And he’d listen.

“I
don’t want to talk to you.”

They were the first words Coop had heard her say in two weeks, and even though they were the exact words she should be saying to Hayden Prescott, it stung a little that he was the one she’d chosen to speak to first.

Coop had just pushed through the double doors that led out into the parking lot when he saw her standing, arms crossed, next to Kyle’s—now her—truck. Prescott was pushing his luck today. He’d already warned him to stay away and now he found him in the parking lot, entirely too close to her and visibly upsetting her once again.

“Can we please go somewhere and talk? I want to be here for you.”

“There’s nothing you can do,” she said with an adamant shake of her head. “It’s done and over with. We’re done and over with.”

“Stop saying that.” Hayden’s voice was filled with desperation as he slapped his hand down on the hood of the truck, garnering the attention of every person in the parking lot and startling Ella Jane.

Her eyes were wide, and Coop knew exactly what the loud noise was doing to her. The poor girl had been in the middle of a tornado for Christ’s sake.

“I’m sorry,” Hayden apologized, recognizing his mistake and reaching out to her. “Please, baby,” he pleaded, running his hand down her arm.

Cooper’s stomach turned. He’d asked her that morning if she wanted to stay and talk to Prescott or if she wanted him to handle it. She’d answered by walking away.

“Don’t.” She turned from him quickly, but he kept his hands on her.

The shade of red Coop was seeing shifted to black. He’d heard enough. He knew all about desperation and begging for second chances, but this dipshit did not deserve one. All he’d done was hurt her.

Cooper stormed between them, taking Prescott by his shoulder, turning him quickly on his heels, and pushing him up against the side of the truck.

“You hard of hearing, Prescott? Do we need to go see the nurse?” Shoving him once more, Coop enjoyed the satisfying slam of metal. She hadn’t spoken in two weeks and the first words she said were to a complete asshole. Naturally. At least they’d been words telling him to leave her alone.

“Mind your own business, man.” Hayden’s eyes were wide, but his voice was even. “This has nothing to do with you.”