Parker preferred the radio to play the popular rap playlist on Spotify the entire ride to school.

Normally, I wouldn't have minded; it used to be his favorite kind of music as well, but today...

Today I was not in a rap music kind of mood.

There were two ways my musical genres could've gone today:

1. Heavy death metal where the singer is actually a screaming banshee yelling about death and destruction and hell and devouring your enemies and drinking their blood while slaughtering everything in sight.

2. Haunting melodies with heady orchestral production and heavenly vocals with lyrics detailing love lost and hearts broken and a pain unending.

Not songs with thumping bass bragging about a lifestyle they probably didn't even live, men objectifying women and women objectifying men.

When the third song came on, the singer droning on about drugs and ass and I was about done.

"Okay, how about no."

I snagged Parker's phone from the dash, thankfully unlocked and already on the Spotify page, and typed in my favorite playlist. 'Chill and Atmospheric'.

I was worried he would've had me committed had I put the other playlist on my mind, 'Death Metal Classics'.

"Really? You listen to this? It's so slow and boring."

"I don't listen to music for just the beats and the fact that it's what everyone listens to at house parties."

"I don't just listen to music for that reason either. I like rap music because of the beats and the lyrics, too."

"'I won't love a ho, after we fuck she can't get near me, only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri,'" I quoted back to him from one of the songs we'd just listened to.

"Okay, maybe that's not a very good lyric, but..."

"Yes? I'm listening."

"Okay, yeah, the lyrics are shit, but it's a good beat."

"Well then, let me introduce you to one of my favorite songs with more than just a good beat."

The song swelled and the orchestration grew in the background, the production bringing chills to my arms.

Parker bobbed his head to the music and seemed to be getting into it, and then the woman's voice cascaded in a lovely interwoven melody that never failed to pull me out of whatever I was feeling.

"Holy shit. This sounds like it would be on Lord of the Rings or something. You just listen to this randomly?"

"Yep. It's fun to listen to it and get lost in that instead of my head."

"Why do you need to get lost in music? Everything alright?"

Jesus. His head had perked up from where he had been slouching against the steering wheel and was staring at me with intense scrutiny from the driver's seat.

Why did he care so much?

"It's fine. Everything is fine."

"Really? You know, you could tell me if things weren't. Fine, I mean. If you're in some kind of trouble, or--"

"I'm fine. You can stop your interrogation now."

I turned the song all the way up until its final finish, but it didn't give me the goosebumps I was waiting for. It did nothing for me at all.

We pulled up to the school and the only thing I'd accomplished was making yet another Hartingrove boy suspicious about my behavior.

At least I could (partly) trust one of them not to spill my secrets.

I was glad when Maria and her husband were gone by the time I descended the stairs in my uniform (which had been a bitch to put on with my burns) and met Parker in the foyer exactly fifteen minutes after he'd yelled at me through the bathroom.

I'd simply told him that he would be driving, and Grey who'd been set off to the side eating a banana and scrolling mindlessly through his phone hardly looked up.

So much for demanding that I ride with him to school.

I should've listened to him.

We pulled up in Parker's normal parking spot, which of course was settled around the rest of the expensive cars, though his friend group were all huddled around one in particular.

Colton's large Jeep Wrangler sat in the middle of the group of students all passing around what was probably a joint.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the girl draped under the arm of Colton's best friend, Carter Jennings, though.

Mori Catawnee, my best friend since joining Hartingrove, was laughing and smiling her brightest triumphant smile at Carter like he was the sun and she was just revolving around him.

Shit.

"Oh hey, isn't that your friend? Come on, why don't you go over there and we can just say the past is the past with Colton, it'll be awesome I promise. He's probably already moved on anyway and doesn't even care that you ditched him that one time."

"Uh huh. Right."

I was frozen. Completely.

A damn popsicle in the passenger seat, unable to move, unable to think, unable to feel.

Hot terror tore through me at the thought of what happened to me happening to Mori at the hands of someone else, someone even more vicious or rough than Colton.

Of course, admitting to myself that what happened to me was horrible enough to endure the presence of Colton himself just to get Mori away from those people was hard enough, but it was time to face it.

I had been hurt. Assaulted. Defiled. Whatever you wanted to call it, just not that word. I couldn't think that word. Not yet.

But I wouldn't let it happen to Mori. It wasn't fair, and it wasn't pretty, but one way or another I was going to get her away from these people and beg her to forgive me for ever putting her on their radar in the first place.

Was this Colton's revenge, then?

Get Mori involved with his best friend and then use her like he'd used me? Or would he tell the best friend to do it instead?

They were all despicable, each and every one of them.

I shouldn't have ever thought Parker was a good person, someone crush-worthy.

I was clearly a terrible judge of character if I'd let myself be Colton's plaything for so long, practically whoring myself out to him for a warm place to sleep and food in my belly.

I was pathetic. A useless worm who'd be better off gone.

Who did I have in this world? A dad in prison who'd murdered my mother, a social worker who couldn't care enough about me to make sure I'd been placed in good, loving homes before now, a broken, damaged boy who couldn't (or wouldn't) speak, and his mother--a seemingly lovely woman who'd I'd only known for less than a week.

Sure, I'd had Mori, but how was it going to go over when I told her she couldn't be with Carter, without any reason why?

I couldn't tell her. Would she even believe me if I did?

Parker was at my door, holding his hand out to me, and the rest of his group were staring.

Mori was waving, a brilliant smile on her face, and I wanted to puke.

My heart wouldn't stop beating in my chest. God, what I'd give for a heart attack right now, for my stupid fucking heart to just skip a beat, then two, then just give out completely in my chest.

What a headline that would read.

What a cautionary tale I'd be.

"Cami. Come on. Aren't you gonna go over to your friend and say hi?"

No. no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no nononononononononononono

Fucking. NO!

"Yeah. Let me grab my bag from the back."

He stepped back while I reached behind me and winced as my burns rubbed against their bandages.

My legs and body moved of their own accord.

My mind was screaming, begging, pleading for me to turn around and run into the school, or better yet--steal the keys dangling from Parker's hands and make a mad escape from this shit show that was soon to go down, but before I could convince my body that it was a good idea, I was already walking in short, staccato steps towards the group.

Four guys and four girls including Mo, they watched us with a strange look on their faces, like they'd smelled something bad. Everyone except Mori of course. And Victoria. She just looked confused. Okay, and Parker's best friend Alec, who looked like he didn't give one single shit what was happening around him.

"Hey guys," Parker called, and then my feet stopped. We were standing in a tight circle, and Colton, Carter and Mo were standing to my right.

Nate, Alec, and the three girls were to my left, with Parker standing partially behind and to the right of me.

I might've subtly angled myself toward Parker's body to shield me.

Don't look at him. Don't look at him. Don't look don't look don't look don't--

"Cami. Surprised to see you here." Colton's first words to me since it happened.

I inhaled air, but it scorched down my throat like smoke.

"Yeah, heard you were too good for us to show up last weekend." One of the girls, maybe Leah.

Don't look. Don't look. Don't look.

"That true? You too good for us?" Colton again.

They laughed, but I stared down at the pavement that I wished would open up in a sinkhole and swallow me down whole.

"Cami's actually staying--"

Parker was cut off from telling everyone where I was staying by the voracious sound of a motorcycle pulling up directly in front of everyone, like a raging beast come to save the day.

Grey was darkness and danger incarnate--his helmet sliding off his head with perfect ease, and some long forgotten part of me stirred awake at the sight of him climbing off and leveling me with a deep look that only I could discern.

"Here we go," someone muttered to themselves, causing some of the girls to giggle.

"Wonder what emo-boy wants." There was no mistaking Leah's voice on that one.

They all held their breath once Grey signed to me, though. Their mouths hung open, agape.

Was this the first time he'd ever signed at school?

"What are you doing with these assholes? Come on, let's go."

"I have to make sure my friend's alright first," I signed back, not wanting the others to know what we were talking about. I didn't wonder if any of them knew ASL. I frankly didn't care if they did or not.

"She looks fine to me."

"She's not if she's with him."

Grey shook his head and strode to the group he'd just pulled up beside, though they all moved back like he had something wrong with him.

Everyone except Mori, the one nice girl Victoria, and Parker's best friend Alec, who was so lost in his own world with his foot up on the tailgate flicking a lighter that we could've turned into mermaids on the spot and he wouldn't have noticed.

Grey didn't stop advancing until he was directly in front of me, blocking me from Colton's searing gaze.

"Then get your friend and let's go. You're a part of the freak show now baby, you can't take it back."

I scoffed out loud, wondering what the others were thinking about this silent conversation until I realized that they were whispering to themselves. And then I remembered--I honestly didn't give a shit.

"Hey Mo, can I borrow you for a second?"

"Uh...yeah, I guess."

Grey went to-to-toe with Parker who widened his eyes and stepped away from me, Grey taking his brother's spot to my right as we both walked away from the group, every single eye trained on us, even Parker's friend Alec who couldn't be bothered before were staring.

"What was all that about?"

Mo's eyes were wide and questioning, and I couldn't blame her.

"We need to talk."