“It doesn’t matter how he found out.” I folded my arms, chewing my gum faster as my nervousness rose. Vincent hopped down from the wall, tugging his black beanie lower on his head as he came to stand beside Jason. “Don’t come to school tomorrow. Give him time to cool down.”

Manson laughed bitterly. “No. We’re not going to be catering to your boyfriend’s tantrums anymore.”

I threw up my hands in exasperation. “You’re walking into a death trap, Manson! He wants to hurt you!”

“Kyle has another thing coming,” Lucas said, and his voice sent a chill up my back. “If he thinks he’s going to touch my boy…” He shook his head slowly. “That’s not going to happen anymore.”

“You’re literally banned from school property,” I said. “What do you think you’re going to do?”

He didn’t answer me, instead giving me a look that could have curdled milk. Manson was haunting and creepy in his quiet manner, but Lucas was monstrous. Everything about him had been built for violence; his lean body honed by years of fighting his father and anyone else who dared cross him.

Manson would wait for you in the dark and you’d never see him coming; while Lucas would come in broad daylight, smash your windows out, and set your house on fire.

“Fine,” I snapped. “Deal with it yourself.”

I turned to go, flicking my blonde hair over my shoulder. But someone’s fingers closed around my upper arm and jerked me back.

Manson pulled me against his chest, his body warm in the cold night. He smelled like cigarettes and something deep and dark, an enigma of hormones and anger. Heat shot from the pit of my abdomen to my cheeks.

He’d tasted like peppermint gum and tobacco when I’d kissed him. He’d felt like corruption, like a sin. He’d put his hand around my throat and squeezed when he kissed me, and ever since I’d been unable to shake that feeling of his fingers digging into my flesh.

I wanted to feel it again, feel it harder. I wanted to rip open his viciousness and take it all in. I wanted to ride this man like a goddamn rollercoaster and then take his friends for a spin too.

But a girl like me wasn’t supposed to be with guys like them.

“What did you tell him?” Manson said softly. There wasn’t anger in his voice, but his question hung by a dangerously thin thread.

I pressed my lips together. I’d made him promise not to tell, but I’d been the one who betrayed our secret. All for a ridiculous fight with Kyle.

I shook my head. “I didn’t lie.”

“Are you sure about that?” He lowered his voice even more, a whisper he left right in my ear as his lips brushed against it. “You wanted that as much as I did. Don’t fucking lie about me.”

He let me go, and when I didn’t step back immediately, he widened the space between us. The sudden cold made me shiver, and without another word, I made my way back to the car. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as they watched me go.