Page 63 of Poison Touch

“Want another tiny piece of insight? Edge would have come after you even if you hadn’t parked in his spot.” The corner of his mouth lifts to one side. “He’s been my best friend since I can remember, but I haven’t seen the before-Ninja Edgein a long time, not since you arrived and stepped into our little world.”

“I haven’t stepped into anything,” I argue.

Gunner scoffs. “No? Are you sure about that?”

No, I’m not sure at all. It seems that Edge is full of secrets, especially dark ones that he keeps in the shadows about the ones closest to him. “What’s he got on you?” I ask.

“Nothing that another soul will ever know about.”

“That’s not an answer.”

He shrugs and gives me a lopsided grin. “Sorry, Ninja.” He turns an imaginary key over his lips and then pretends to eat it.

I don’t push him further. He already told me more than I expected. I’m not that much of an idiot to think he’d be more loyal to me than his friends he’s known forever. Besides, who am I to judge? I have my own deep, dark, dirty secrets.

“Tomorrow, be in the art room at seven,” he says.

I nod, still off-kilter by the turn in our conversation. “Yeah, okay.”

He takes a few steps toward the ocean, then whips back around, holding up his finger. “Oh, and, Ninja.”

I pause with only one leg in my shorts. “Yeah?”

He runs his hand over his golden hair. “Let’s keep up my badass persona. Ya know, for fun.”

I tug an invisible zipper across my mouth. “For fun.”

He offers me a salute and then runs into the breaking waves.

Secrets layered with more secrets. There’s a chance I may drown in them soon.

18

KINSLEY

This early in the morning,Monarch’s campus is a ghost town. I wonder if Gunner is even here. Only a few cars are in the parking lot. No Jeep. I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad. Either way, I make my way toward art.

True to his word, Gunner is already at his easel when I get to class.

“I thought you might have reconsidered. Maybe your secret is bigger than you’re willing to share,” he taunts.

Oh, it is.“I guess you’ll have to wait to find out if this was all really worth it.”

“It is. You’re too badass for it not to be.”

“Your confidence in me is quite high.”

For the next half hour, he helps me with the basic lines of my portrait and then explains how to blend colors. Applying them with certain styles of brush strokes and the amount of paint to use is the tricky part. How does any of this come so naturally to people? Gunner has an image in his head he’s working toward, so that’s what I’m aiming for.

By the end of class, I feel more confident about what I need to do to pass. I put the almost-empty tubes in my backpackto run by the store to match the colors of the ones I need to replace. Thanking Gunner, I breeze past Brielle. She spews some regurgitated comment that I ignore as I head for biology.

The rest of the day drifts by on a lazy current. I can’t wait to hit the dojo after school to release this pent-up energy. It’s only been a day, and my muscles aren’t nearly recovered, but I already decided by the time my last class is over. I head straight for the parking lot. It’s gorgeous out. On days like this, Luca and I would skip and make the two-hour drive up the coast to an old dojo. The owners, friends of my uncle and dad, are great. They loved it when we joined their classes on those rare days. Damn, I miss those times.

I slide off the suffocating blazer, then unbutton my collared shirt. Metallic waves of heat glisten off the black asphalt. I pick up my pace when I notice a group of people hovering around where I’m parked. When I come upon them, their chatter ceases.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

None of them answer. They separate, making a thin path for me to get to my bike. I abruptly jerk to a stop when I see my motorcycle. The word Ninja is X’d out with what looks like pink nail polish. Next to it is the word “Slut” along with a crude drawing of an open mouth next to a dick, hairy balls and all.