Chapter 2

Akio

“Where the fuck is it, Akio?” João, the leader of Redwood’s most feared student-led gang Poison, asked after he, Landon, and Kai had cornered me in an empty hallway before school started Tuesday morning.

“I don’t have it.”

Landon, the brawn of Poison, grabbed hold of my jacket and hurled me against the lockers. Then his fist followed, slamming square against my jaw. “Where’s the fucking shit?” he asked through gritted teeth. “We gave you a fucking job.”

With blood spraying out of my nose, I threw my fist back at him in a weak attempt to protect myself. My fist barely landed on Landon’s lower lip. They could kill me and make it look like an accident, but I had something that they needed, so they wouldn’t murder me.

At least not here.

Before I could pull it back, Landon smashed me into the lockers so hard that the red metal dented behind me. I grunted, my gaze darkening for a moment as footsteps approached from my left.

“Stop it!” someone shouted, pushing Landon away from me.

I slowly blinked my eyes open to see Imani Abara, the girl that Dad kept trying to convince me to date. She stood in front of me as if we had ever been friends, but most importantly like she didn’t fear Poison at all, her stance strong and stoic.

Characteristics that I only hoped to have one day.

“You lucked the fuck out today,” Landon spat at me and nodded down the hallway in the opposite direction from where Imani had come from. “Get the fuck out of here and don’t come back without the damn shit.”

I scrambled past Imani, hurried down the hallway, and rounded the corner. Screw João for always needing that medication. Just because I worked at the pharmacy didn’t mean I could steal pills for him whenever he felt like it.

Blood continued to spray from my nose. I pinched it shut and tilted my head back, hurrying down the corridor toward the bathroom, because apparently I had to now sit in class with toilet paper stuffed up my nostrils.

As I rounded another corner and slammed into someone, I tripped over my own two feet and landed on top of them. Blood continued to pour from my nose, stars dancing in my vision for a moment until the woman underneath me screamed.

“Ew!” Nicole screeched. She shoved me off her, shuffled to her feet as her heels scratched against the floor, and stared down at her white jacket stained with my blood. When she unbuttoned it and pulled it off, my eyes fell to her low cut top. “You ruined my jacket, jerk!”

Fuck.

Her jacket, Akio. Focus on her jacket. Not on her–

“Are you even listening to me?” she exclaimed in a huff.

“I’m sorry!” I scrambled to my feet and pinched my nose closed again, because if I didn’t, I would apparently bleed to death through two small holes in my face. “I’m so sorry, Nicole. I didn’t know you were–”

“Forget it.” She twirled around, her blonde hair drifting through the air, and headed toward the women’s bathroom, then murmured, “my dad is going to kill me if he finds out,” underneath her breath.

“I’m sorry,” I shouted before she slipped into the bathroom.

After sighing because I definitely ruined all chances that I had with her now, I walked into the men’s bathroom and slipped into a stall to grab some toilet paper. I stuffed it up my nose and walked out to the sinks to wipe the blood off my face.

Carter, Redwood’s quarterback, sauntered into the bathroom with one of his friends, laughing with each other. I splashed my face with water and rubbed the blood off my chin, glancing over at them.

“Heard Jace found you with his girl in the locker room.”

“With Nicole?” Carter chuckled. “Harbor was pissed.”

“Pussy good?”

“Best in Redwood.”

The friend nodded in the mirror at me. “The fuck you looking at.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled under my breath.

My gaze dropped to the red blood mixed with water in the sink. Nicole was a prize that every guy at Redwood wanted to claim, and I would never have a chance. Especially when I had to compete with Carter and Jace. Hell, she didn’t even know my name.

Besides, it was probably better this way.

Mom wanted me to get closer to her, so she could use Nicole against her father. And I wasn’t about to be part of her illegal games. Never had been and I had vowed never to be. I hated living with her.

I glanced up to catch Carter not even washing his hands as he and his friend exited the bathroom. I finished up and walked out of the bathroom to my locker, making sure to avoid Poison at all costs.

Once I grabbed my books from my locker, I spotted Nicole walking with her friends on the cheer squad down the hallway to their first period. I wanted to apologize again, but I kept my mouth shut as they passed me and inhaled her cider-perfume.

Didn’t even recognize me as the fuck-up that bumped into her this morning.

When she disappeared around a corner, I sighed through my nose and dragged my feet to the main doors to head across the quad to calculous with the infamous Mrs Dawson. Mrs Dawson flirted with all the popular guys at Redwood, and it was the only time I didn’t wish I was one of them.

But if I was popular, maybe Nicole would notice me. I had had a crush on her since elementary school, but she never looked my way. Not once. Not even today! She never went for guys like me and she never would.

I was last on that list.