Page 55 of Their Cruel Play
Do I hate them sometimes? Yes. Do they frustrate me? Yes. Would I trade it for going back to being invisible? No.
“I expect to see you at six tonight. All of you.” Mom gives me one more Mom look before she heads back upstairs.
Sighing, I pull out my phone and text the group chat.
Me:
Mom wants you guys to come to dinner tonight. Eli will explain.
War (Caden):
You still good to come over this afternoon
I glance around the house. Mom will sleep until almost dinnertime. I’d rather spend time with them than work on homework. Besides, we have a lot to talk about.
Me:
Yes
Death (Luke):
Good
Eli
“Zach Gray.” His name is like a bomb in my mouth, waiting to detonate.
We’re in the locker room after practice let out. We watched last night’s tape and this week’s competition’s game. Afterward, Coach made us all run a few laps.
I explained to the guys what happened this morning when I dropped Harper off. Ms. Davidson isn’t stupid or an uninvolved parent like most of ours. She cares about Harper, and I’m not looking forward to having my ass handed to me.
“We should discuss him this afternoon with Harper.” Caden leans against his locker, checking his phone. Maybe for the time. Maybe on the tracker app to keep an eye on Harper.
“Why would he target us?” Jack runs a hand through his hair. “We’ve got no beef with him and his guys.”
“Sidney.” Luke shuts his locker and picks up his gym bag. His blue eyes are icy as he looks at each of us. “She’s pissed.”
“But to ask a guy to rape Harper?” Nico’s hands clench into fists. Yeah, that’s the part that unsettles all of us. It would be one thing if he did like Tanner, try to get friendly and take advantage of her, but he went straight to assault.
My hands clench, but I relax them.
“What about Tanner? Do we know if he and Zach are friendly?” I look at Jack, who keeps track of that shit. Tanner isn’t stupid. He’s playing a long game. Maybe Zach is part of his plan.
Jack rubs the back of his neck. “I’ll stop and grab my laptop so I can find out who Zach has been in contact with.”
“This might not be one person targeting us.” Caden blows out a breath. “Plenty of people don’t like us or didn’t like what we did to them. Rachel Hayes was in the locker room when Harper got trapped.”
“A technical virgin who came to me to be her first.” I rub my eyes. She wasn’t even that memorable. “She definitely got what she wanted.”
The chick practically threw herself at me at a party over the summer. Begging me to be her first. It wasn’t like she wanted to date me or spend time with me. We fucked and that was it.
“Last I heard, she was dating someone on the baseball team,” Jack says. “It’s possible she and the other girls might have trapped Harper as a joke.”
“We need to get going.” Luke walks to the door. We all join him. “We need to discuss this with Harper present. And we’ll have to prepare what to say to her mom tonight.”
“Her mom doesn’t like me,” I admit as I toss my keys into the air and catch them. Usually parents like me, but it’s like she has a sixth sense.
“She probably doesn’t like any of us.” Jack pushes my shoulder.
