Insidious(59)

“Oh my God.”

“The rest of us were afraid that Trace would go off on us, so we stayed out of it. Out of nowhere, Bolton wound up on the ground. Nobody saw what happened exactly, but Trace ended up with a busted lip and a broken front tooth. He claims he tripped and fell. Rumors started, and certain bitches like Ava Ashford couldn’t resist taking advantage of the incident. You know how everyone’s all weird and superstitious when it comes to Reese?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, well, Ava told everybody that Reese used ‘black magic’ to attack him. After that, Blackburn was deemed the local leper. It’s stupid, but considering his…peculiarities, the stigma stuck, even after all these years.”

“Explains why he doesn’t trust anyone around here,” I mumbled. “Were any of the guys a part of Trace’s group at the time?”

She outright cringed. “Daniel always felt bad about what happened, but Eric and Mark just shrug it off as juvenile stupidity.”

Another piece of the puzzle had fallen into place. It made sense now why Reese had such a gripe with my friends. Why he did everything to avoid them. Why he judged me for hanging out with them.

The warning bell sounded off overhead, so Kelsey and I started making our way to History. Adam was leaning against the desk beside mine as we entered the room, and that weird force inside of me yanked backward, urging me to run out the door. After the other night, I’d made it a point to avoid him, but it seemed he had other plans.

“We need to talk,” he said lowly as I approached.

Had he somehow seen my runes? My stomach broke out into nauseating somersaults. “What about?”

“You know who. Privately.”

“No. Just say what you want to say.”

Adam stole an annoyed glance over at Kelsey, seeing her still standing at my side. “I just think you should keep your distance from Blackburn is all.”

“Is that right?”

“I don’t want to see you get hurt-”

I scoffed. “That’s rich coming from you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If you’re really that concerned with who your ex is spending time with, then maybe you should have worried about that before you pushed her away.” It was a cheap shot, I’ll admit it, but he had really hurt me. The fact that he suddenly took interest now just left me suspicious and all the more pissed off.

Adam’s jaw grounded. “Despite what you might think, I really am looking out for your best interest.”

“Is that why you didn’t say anything to me about what happened after the accident?” He opened his mouth, but I pressed on. “You knew. You knew what was going on with me, and yet you said nothing. You did nothing.”

He gave me a pleading look, so I finally relented, pulling him into the corner of the room.

“You saw what I was going through, with the cravings. You treated me like I was just being paranoid when I told you about the guy in the hallway. You knew I would be hunted,” I growled.

“I didn’t know for sure if you really had been changed—”

“Bullshit. You attacked Reese at the mall without any evidence. You called your dad for reinforcements. You knew.” Tears threatened to spill over my lashes. “You were my best friend, and you abandoned me. I loved you, and you pushed me away. I trusted you, and you lied to me. I don’t care about what you think of Blackburn. He’s the only one here who’s actually been honest with me.”

“Kat…” He reached out to me, but I recoiled.

Kelsey seemed to recognize my discomfort, because she immediately darted to my side from across the room, hooking her arm around mine. “I think it’s time for you to leave,” she said to Adam. She then guided me away to the other side of the classroom when Adam made it clear he wasn’t going to move.

“Thank you,” I mouthed to her as we took our new seats.

It appeared I wasn’t the only one changing around here. For as long as I knew her, Kelsey didn’t put up a fight when it came to social construct. She did what was expected of her, and she always acted like a lady, even when you could see she loathed it. She never butted into other people’s business. Yet, here she was, telling off our star boxer.

The theme from Dracula blared throughout the classroom, killing my moment of relief. I frantically dug into my purse, hoping to silence the phone before Mr. Hopkins came in and confiscated it.

“Wonder if Reynolds will still be your white knight when he discovers the truth.”

It was another text, from an unknown number. And there was a video file attached.

“Stanley,” begged Mrs. Corvets’s voice off screen. “Stanley, get over here, and stop harassing the poor girl!”