Part 2

Axl

By the time lunch period rolled around, he was ready to go home. School was boring, but attendance was important here. You could even be the valedictorian, but if your attendance was spotty, you were in trouble. Axl sighed as he headed to the parking lot. They never ate in the cafeteria. It was overpriced, and the portions were ridiculously small for the price.

The hallways pressed in on him as he walked, packed with noise and perfume and polished smiles, all of it grating against his nerves even as people parted for him, making a path for him as they whispered rumors and lies.

“Hey,” North said. He was Axl’s best friend, had been since they’d been nine, when the same oversized kid who had tried to bully him tried to take North’s lunch money as well. It was an instant reaction, and the kick Axl landed to the little asshole’s jaw had made North his sidekick.

“Come on, I’m starving. Tell Aspen to move her ass,” Axl said.

“She’s bringing a friend,” North said, and grinned at the look on his face. Axl didn’t like people in general, and he was only friends with Aspen because she was North’s girlfriend, and had been since high school started. She was a legitimately awesome chick, and they got along well. If she couldn’t reach North, Axl was the second person she’d call if she was in trouble.

North unlocked his Jaguar just as Axl spotted the two girls. The one who had greeted him in English. Nobody ever greeted him. The elite saw him as an outsider, but mostly let him be, because North was on the top tier of the wealthy elite, and North hung out with Axl.

He could tell she was part of that circle as well. Her designer book bag, shoes, and clothes told him everything he needed to know about her. The fact that she was gorgeous didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. At least, that was what he told himself.

“Hey, guys. This is Merit,” Aspen said, as they climbed into the back of the car.

Axl nodded his head, and North sped away from the school. He pulled in at one of their favorite fast food places, and they waited in the drive-thru lane. He turned in his seat and looked Merit in the eye. “What do you two want?”

“I’ll have a turkey sandwich,” Aspen said.

“Do they have chicken salad?” Merit asked.

Axl scoffed and shot North a look. “One of those that don’t eat. How predictable.”

Merit glared at him and turned her attention to North. “I’ll have a cheeseburger with fries.”

He grinned, as North chuckled and pulled up to the ordering window. “Hi, I’d like one turkey sandwich, one cheeseburger and fries combo, two double all-rounder combos, and the square double burger with cheesy fries, and four Cokes.”

North handed the bags of food to Axl and sped back to the school. They had an hour for lunch, and they’d only been gone for fifteen minutes. Back at the school, they headed to the cafeteria, and Axl unpacked the food, sliding North’s burger across the table to him.

Grease soaked through the paper bags and into his palms, the smell instantly cutting through the recycled air of the building. They ate in silence, and Merit’s eyes had widened when she saw two burgers and a double helping of hash browns in front of him.

“Want a bite?”

Merit shook her head, as he inhaled his food without breaking eye contact. He did it on purpose, the stare, the speed, the deliberate lack of manners—people were easier to handle when they were unsettled.

Axl had no idea what her deal was, and he wasn’t really interested in finding out. Aspen always took the new girls under her wing until they made a move on North, or discovered Aspen wasn’t one of those ditzy girls that only shopped and got manicures. This one would move along quickly, too.

“Did you know Merit’s new stepbrother is Jackson Cathwell?”

Axl choked on his Coke and coughed, as he looked at Aspen. “Good luck with that one.”

“Why?” Merit asked, with a frown.

“Oh, she already knows he’s a douchebag,” Aspen said.

That got a grin out of him, and North clenched his jaw. Jackson Cathwell was more than just a douchebag; he was the kind of guy to drug a girl and take pictures of her, which he could use later on for blackmail. He got away with a lot because his dad had enough money to spread around. Guys like Cathwell didn’t need fists—they had lawyers, silence, and carefully edited stories.

“Does your room have a lock?” Axl asked Merit.

“Uh…yeah, a normal one,” she said.

“Get a better one. Jackson won’t kick your door in, but he will try to pick your lock,” Axl said.

North glared at him, but he shrugged. “What? She should know what kind of guy she’s sharing a house with.”

“And what kind is that?”

“The kind of guy you don’t leave your drink unattended with,” he said, and finished his food. The words tasted ugly in his mouth, but pretending danger didn’t exist had never saved anyone he knew.

The bell rang, and he started collecting their empty wrappers and balled them all together. Aspen’s hand landed on his arm as he threw the trash away, and he turned to look questioningly at her.

“Would you show Merit the way to History? It’s the only class we don’t share,” Aspen said.

“Fine,” Axl said. “Come on, princess.”

Merit pushed past him and huffed out her annoyance with him. “I’m not a princess.”

Aspen gave Axl a pleading look, and he sighed. “Fine, I’ll be nicer.”

She smiled, and he felt like a sucker. Aspen could ask him anything, and he’d almost never say no.

“See you later,” North said, as they headed in the opposite direction.

Axl grabbed Merit’s elbow, and if looks could kill, he’d be a pile of ash, but few things in life really fazed him. “It’s this way.”

“Oh,” she said, and her death stare disappeared.

When they reached their class, the only two seats open were next to each other. Again. He had the worst luck in the world. He let her walk ahead of him; she chose the seat next to the window, and he sat down next to her.

Sunlight spilled across the desks in pale stripes, dust drifting lazily through the beams as though time itself moved slower in this room.

The teacher droned on about World History, and Merit took so many notes, Axl almost laughed at her eagerness to ignore him. Just before the end of class, he pulled his phone out and snapped a picture of her notes.

“Thanks,” he said, and started packing up his books.

“Asshole,” she murmured under her breath, and Axl grinned again.

If she stuck around their little group, it was going to be dangerously easy to enjoy pushing every single one of her buttons.