Just Drop Out (Hannaford Prep, #1)

by J. Bree

Between the bright blue tones and the tattoo, he looks like he belongs in an eighties punk band. The shocking part is that his eyes are twinkling with laughter rather than the malice I expected. “Good shower?” I prod at him. “Great. Just what I needed. How's your bowels?” “Lovely and cleared, thanks for asking.”

“I don't expect you to ever stop fucking with me. You came to this school swinging, like we wouldn't swing back. I meant your assignment.”

“Don't worry, Mounty, I don't want to fuck you. There's at least three guys in this school who don't want you.” Himself, Ash and Blaise. My stomach drops, and I want to scream at myself. Why the hell do I want them so much, when they are the ones torturing me? Some secret part of my brain whispers to me that the last few days hadn't felt like torture.

“What a relief. I suppose none of you need the money.”

“Not enough to fuck trash, no.”

“You might want to bury your nerves a bit deeper, Mounty. Putting them on display like that just gives us all a target.”

The students all arrive back Sunday night. By Monday morning, Harley's head is shaved, and he looks at me like I'm nothing again.

Avery Beaumont is always the calm before the storm. While her brother and his friends get angry and loud about it, Avery is silent as she efficiently makes her moves to destroy me.

As I lift my juice to my lips, I see a flash of regret pass over her face. I've never seen that sort of human emotion out of her before, and it makes me feel another pang of sympathy for her. We were both born into cages. Mine was poverty, drugs, the threat of gangs and violence. Her’s is a gilded cage, but the bars work just the same. She's trapped by her blood and her name.

“For the record, none of this is because of what you did to Harley. It’s not an eye for an eye anymore. If you stay here, Joey will kill you. He likes to break things. You're not shattering the way he likes; you're proving to be too strong. He doesn't let strong things survive.”

“It's okay. I'll survive it. Whatever it is you’ve done, and then I'll survive your brother too. I have no choice but to survive.”

He's in on whatever she's done, and he's torn about it. He had probably convinced himself to help because I was a stalker fan in their eyes, and then I'd gotten that higher mark. The last thing I remember thinking is that he wears heartbreak so fucking well. And then my mind knows nothing.

“Fuck, can you just stay alive? Can you just leave and keep breathing? Is that too much to ask?” he ground out. “Afraid your cousin is going to get life for my murder? I'm sure he can buy his way out of it. I'd rather risk death than leave here. Do you hear me? I’d rather die here than go back to Mounts Bay and become what's waiting for me there.”

“It’s pretty fucking simple. I don’t take orders from my cousins. You’ve just proved that you do, so you can kiss my ass goodbye.” He drops her wrist and turns to leave. Annabelle grabs his arm and screams at him again. “Over the fucking Mounty? Maybe Ash is right, maybe you are soft over her.”

“If you think I’m the soft one, then you’re dumber than I thought.”

The problem was the old adage that the Jackal had told me over and over again: new money can’t become old money without getting dirty first.

My mind is currently torturing me with images of Matteo doing to me what Joey tried to do. I know someday his patience will wear thin, and he’ll want to take what he thinks he’s owed. It’s why I have to do well here at Hannaford, so that someday I can disappear somewhere even the Jackal cannot reach.

“Dad’s not happy you called the cops on me, Floss,” he says in a sing-song voice. Avery’s eyes are cool, even as her shoulders tremble.

“Don’t call me that. Is that all you have to say? Because we both know it wasn’t me that called them.”

“Nevertheless. Just telling you what dear old Dad thinks. He asked me to pass this on to you.”

Joey’s hand cracks across her cheek so hard, she bounces back against her door. Her head makes a sickening thud, and I open my door up wide, the light from my room cutting through the darkness. Joey doesn’t look up at me, but Avery’s eyes grow wide.

“I’m quickly learning that personal humiliation isn’t the way to get you out of here. I’m tempted to look into what happened to you at your Mounty school to make you so resilient, but who has the time for that, hm? You need a 3.75 GPA or higher to stay here, right? How low do you think flunking math will drop it?”

There are things I know better than most about myself and the ways of the world. A night of no sleep won’t kill me. A week without food won’t kill me. Finding my mother's dead body rotting on my kitchen floor won’t kill me. A bullet to the shoulder won’t kill me. The bullying at Hannaford Prep won’t kill me.

Why does Joey Beaumont want you dead?

He wants to fuck me. He’s made a game out of it. I have no intention of fucking any guy here, and when I expressed that to him, he tried to rape me. He was unsuccessful and doesn’t take kindly to the word no.

I will pay little Joey a visit. Do not argue with me on this.

I wouldn’t dream of arguing with you, Jackal.

As I grab my tray to head back out of the dining hall, I see Joey frowning down at his phone, and it feels like a victory to me.

“What’s your name, asshole?” I whisper.

“Mounty, this is Samuel Hanson. He’s a sophomore and he’s at risk of being kicked out by his parents because he’s been caught gambling away his trust fund. Is that why you need the money, Sammy-boy? Run out of funds to feed your addiction?”

“Your pain tolerance is worse than a child’s,” I hiss at him, and Ash snickers, but I don’t spare him a glance.

“I won’t fuck you. I won’t fuck anyone at this school, not for a hundred grand.”

“The pot is sitting around the seven hundred grand mark now, Mounty,” Ash drawls.

“Well, I won’t fuck you for that either, even if my percentage was a hundred percent. If you so much as look in my direction again, I will bury you. Do those rumors make their way up here about us Mountys too? About how easily I can and will kill you for insulting me?”

“I will report you, and you’ll be out for this, you little cunt.”

I. Hate. That. Word. My mom’s boyfriends all used to call her that, or me, or they’d tell me all about my mom’s gaping cunt. I was six the first time I realized what they were talking about. It still sends me to a crazy place in my head to hear it uttered.

“No, you’ll walk your ass out of here, and you’ll do exactly what she said,” Blaise says, and I’ve never heard him so angry. “See, you’re encroaching on my study time, and she’s the best tutor I’ve ever had, so if I have to beat you senseless myself to keep her here an...

None of us talk about how exactly it is that I know how to break someone's hand using only two fingers.

Now that I know how much money is on the line for having sex with me, I’m sure that’s what he’s here for. Even rich kids must be tempted by seven hundred thousand, especially those who don’t have unlimited access to their parents’ wallets.

“Tell me who the fuck did that to you, or I’ll tell the teacher you’re spreading Mounty diseases by leaking blood everywhere.”

“Spencer Hillsong. He had a couple of friends, but I didn’t recognize them.”

“Harley, you shouldn’t—“ He cuts her off with a sharp tone. “Shut it, Floss. Messing with her shit is one thing, beating her bloody is fucking disgusting. I’ll end that dickhead.”

“I told you to stay away from Joey. All of this is his doing. Honestly, you have no one but yourself to blame for this,” says Ash as he grabs my other arm.

“It wasn’t Joey, it was Hillsong, and he’s a fucking dead man walking,” snaps Harley.

“Calm the fuck down, Mounty. We’re going to take you back to your room so you can die somewhere more comfortable than the lab,” says Ash, and I can hear the laughter in his voice.

“Don’t be a dick, Ash. She’s probably suspicious we’re helping her. Twice in a week, I’d be suspicious too,” says Blaise, and I jerk my head around to see that he’s trailing behind us. He still won’t meet my eyes.

“Why are we helping her, again?” drawls Avery, not even bothering to l...

“Why the fuck does she flinch like that when you touch her?” Harley snaps, and Blaise backs up quickly like his ass is on fire. I shuffle into the room and drop my bag on the floor.

“How the fuck should I know? I’ve never touched her!”

“I don’t want him running off to your little shared fuck and telling her I’m stalking him or acting inappropriately. The last thing I need is that bitch starting a vendetta on me. I’d say thanks for the help up here, but I’m sure you’ll find a way to make me pay for it later.” I enjoy the twin looks of shock on their faces as I slam the door on them both.