Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 157308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 787(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 787(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
“You’re our problem.” Giovanni pulled something out of his backpack and tossed it on his breakfast, exploding eggs in his face.
Roaring, Ashton shot out of his seat, towering to all six-foot-three inches of him. The quarterback flung off the ruined letterman jacket, fists balling. “Is that my laptop? What the fuck, guys?!”
“Yeah, that’s your laptop,” Owen flung. “We couldn’t believe it when we found out you were the one who spread those lists, blew up Giovanni’s car, poisoned Wesley, and all the shit you’ve done to us. We wouldn’t believe it unless we found proof ourselves.”
“What are you—?”
“We paid a maintenance guy to let us into your dorm,” Wesley said. “We got into your laptop and found the second round of truth lists you wrote. Not to mention the stack you already printed up and stashed under your bed!”
This show had the full attention of everyone in the room, including mine. I would be late to class that morning.
“Under my bed?” Ashton was not catching on fast.
“You were going after our families next. My mom. My brother.” Wesley shoved him. “Where the fuck did you get that stuff? Huh? Huh! You been spying on us?”
“Don’t put your fucking hands on me!” Ashton’s shove sent slender, five-foot-five Wesley flying into another table. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
I started walking alone by the river at night, just to get some peace and quiet. One night I was sitting by the bank when I heard a noise behind me. I spun around, and Ashton was there.
“Here he is, Royals. We told you some coward was attacking us and spreading lies.” Owen held out his hands, chest puffed out like the vindicated rooster. “Ashton Scott, one of our own, stole from us, almost killed us, and slandered the reputations of four important families.”
“No, I didn’t! You’re the one who is lying, you—” Ashton charged him and was grabbed by Levi, Giovanni, and Wesley. “Agh!”
“He made the Royals a laughingstock. Dregs fucking spat on me! Calling me a thief and rapist. Want to know why? Because we know something about him that would destroy his lie, so he thought he’d ruin us and our credibility before we got the chance.”
Murmurs, cries, and angry whispers spread through the room. I took Wilder’s hand under the table.
“The coward made our embarrassment public,” Owen called. “Does everyone agree his punishment should be public too?
“Yeah,” someone shouted.
“Traitor!”
“Liar!”
“Kick his ass!”
That was all the permission Owen needed. He reared, punching Ashton square on the nose. Blood spurted clear across four tables. The guys threw him to the floor, and started kicking.
He said I shouldn’t take it personally. It was time for me to get the fuck out of Regalia University, and I wasn’t taking the hint. I would after he was done with me. I didn’t understand what he meant, until he unzipped his pants.
My fingers strangled Wilder, body jerking with every shout and cry from Ashton as their kicks landed. Hidden under my shirt, I held the letter.
“Stop! I didn’t do anything!”
Students tipped their tables rushing to see the fight. The Dregs who craved watching a Royal beaten, and the Royals allowing a traitor to be punished. They packed in from all sides, blocking my view.
Neither Wilder nor I got up to move closer. It was good enough for me to hear his shouts and pleas for them to stop. After they all left him broken and bleeding on the carpet, and it was just us, I’d spit on whatever was left.
I don’t need to tell you what he did to me. Pushing me face down in the dirt, hurting me while I screamed and begged for him to stop. When he was done, Ashton walked away without a word like I no longer existed.
A plate or a glass smashed and his screams ratcheted higher. “Argh!”
“Okay, he’s had enough,” a guy said. “That’s enough, guys.”
A muffled grunt on the heels of a pained groan indicated they didn’t agree it was enough.
“Ease up,” someone else cried. “Stop before one of the cooks calls security.”
“Nah, let him have it! Break his fucking nose!”
I crawled all the way to the infirmary. Nurse Geller helped me. She cleaned me up and called the police. I told them what Ashton did to me.
“P-please, st-top.”
“Enough!” someone barked. “I outrank all four of you, and I say the fight’s over. He’s learned his—”
“When he calls you a murderer, Rivera, that’s when I’ll give a fuck about your opinion,” Levi growled.
Suddenly, the crowd surged, moving in on the fight. To stop the fight, or to stop the people stopping the fight, we had no idea from where we sat calm and clear of the fray.
I expected him to be arrested. I waited days for the news that monster was hauled off in cuffs. Instead I was hauled into the dean’s office.