Page 15 of Sour Lollipops and Sweet Nightmares (The Society #1)

There were only four, weren’t there? Please God, tell me there were only four.

“Yeah, there’s Matteo and Aiden too, but no one has seen them in years. Maybe they transferred schools or something.”

“There are two more?” I squealed a little louder than I meant to.

“Technically, there are three more if you count Levi’s brother Graham.”

Great. Seven assholes. I suddenly felt bad for Snow White.

“Oh,” Rachel held up her hand. “There’s also Carlos, but he’s like thirty now.”

“So, there are eight of them?”

She looked up for a second, then nodded. “Yup.”

And now I wished I was Snow White. “Are they family or something?”

There had to be a reason people associated them with each other.

“No, but you know how it works. There’s the top of the rung and the bottom of the rung.” She used her hands to mimic what I assumed to be a ladder. “People at the top tend to hang out with other people at the top. They don’t slum around with us at the bottom.”

I was well aware of how social standings worked. “Just because you’re on the bottom doesn’t mean you have to do whatever they say.”

“Tell that to the guy whose family went bankrupt after he turned Levi in for cheating. Or the girl who went missing last year after making allegations against Slater.”

Allegations? “What kind of allegations?”

Rachel’s brow rose. “What kind do you think?”

Fantastic.

I huffed out a sigh. “So, I guess going to campus security won’t do any good?”

“Not unless you want them to go after your family.”

I could always go to the cops. That was probably the better option anyway. Campus security was usually useless in situations like this. They were more concerned with protecting the school’s reputation than getting justice for the victim.

Wait…

“Did you say they would go after my family?”

Rachel nodded. “And your friends.”

I didn’t have any friends, but I did have family. Mom didn’t need any more trouble. Her life was hard enough. Not that I necessarily believed what Rachel was claiming. There were always absurd rumors floating around about guys like Issac.

The quarterback in my high school supposedly dated Scarlett Johansson. Don’t get me wrong, he was good-looking, but nowhere in her league. Plus, the only time he left our town was for away games, and I was pretty sure Scarlett Johansson didn’t frequent high school football games.

“You realize how crazy that sounds, right?” People didn’t go after your loved ones because you didn’t obey them. We weren’t in a mafia movie.

“As crazy as a room full of people leaving because someone told them to.”

Okay, that was a fair argument.

“Maybe they all believe the same thing you do.” Fear was a powerful weapon. So was reputation.

“Did you see the missing posters of that girl around campus?”

“Yeah.” They were everywhere and kind of hard to miss.

“Well, I knew her. All Kathy ever wanted was to be a lawyer. She spent every night in the library studying for her LSATS.”

I could understand that.

“Ten days ago, she went missing, right after she got Slater suspended from the football team for inappropriate behavior. The cops insist she’s a runaway.”

That was a little suspicious, but not necessarily nefarious. Maybe she did run away?

“In the two years I knew her, she didn’t miss a single class, even when she had pneumonia.”

Okay, that was bordering on the nefarious side. “That doesn’t mean she didn’t run away. The pressure might’ve been too much for her.”

It wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened.

The arch in Rachel’s brow deepened. “Without her phone, wallet, or any of her clothes?”

That was harder to argue with, and didn’t make me feel any better about my situation. Was that going to happen to me? Was I going to become a face on a missing poster because I walked into the wrong room?

“Issac will leave me alone. He humiliated me, and he’ll move on now.”

I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince. Myself, Rachel, or the universe? Either way, the look Rachel gave me in response caused the sense of dread settling in my gut to grow.

“So, basically, I’m fucked and should go home?”

No Ivy League education was worth this. But then what would I tell Mom? She worked so hard to help me get here. She was so proud when I got the scholarship. We finally reached a point where she no longer thought looks mattered.

I proved to her that intelligence could take you further. She valued herself now. If I ran away with my tail between my legs because of a couple of jerks, I would shatter all that. Did I really want to do that to her?

There were jerks everywhere. If I couldn’t handle myself now, then what was I going to do when I went out into the world and got a job, or had to fight for grants? If I ran away now, then I may as well give up on my dream. And that was something I was not willing to do.

“You don’t have to leave.” Rachel said. “You have a secret weapon that Kathy didn’t.”

Was it social awkwardness and the inability to talk to people, because if that was my secret weapon, then I was golden.

“You have Kash.”

Really? “Kash? The guy who makes sex appointments?”

That was my secret weapon?

“That’s right.”

“I fail to see how Kash is going to help me.” I held up my finger and pointed at her. “I’m not having sex with him.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not saying you have to fuck him…”

Good, because I wasn’t going to.

“And, I know he can come off as a little brash…”

That was an understatement.

“But he really is a good guy.”

That made me snort. “I’m sure Kash is an angel.” Angel of lust, maybe. “How do I know you’re not just trying to get me to hook up with him?”

After all, she was his so-called reference.

“Why would I do that?”

Why would she walk into someone’s house uninvited, or check on a girl she left alone with psychopaths? Everything she’d done up to this point made no sense.

“All I’m saying is you could use his interest in you to your advantage. Kash isn’t a bad guy to have on your side.”

“Why should I believe you? If Issac can make people go bankrupt and go missing, why wouldn’t Kash be afraid of them? What’s so special about him?”

“His family owns Murphy Media.”

Oh, well, I couldn’t argue that. Murphy Media was a massive corporation that even I had heard of. Half of the movies I watched were made by them, not to mention the various social media and news outlets they owned. If Kash’s family owned that company, then I could see why he wasn’t afraid of Issac.

Screwing with someone who had that much power would be almost impossible. It would take seconds for Kash to ruin Issac’s reputation on a global scale.

“Murphy Media?”

“Yup,” Rachel confirmed. “Not even Levi’s royal title could touch the Murphy family’s status. Kash has more money than God.”

We would come back to Levi’s royal title later.

“That doesn’t mean I want to be friends with him.” I didn’t want to be friends with her. I didn’t know why she was sitting here right now. Why couldn’t she leave me in peace to shower and cry alone? Was that too much to ask?

“Why not? It looks to me like you could use a couple of friends.”

I was feeling lonely and thought about making a friend, but this wasn’t what I had in mind. I didn’t trust Rachel, and I trusted Kash even less. “Why do you care?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “You remind me of Kathy, I guess. If I had helped her a little more, then maybe she would still be here.”

Ah, so it was guilt. I knew it had to be something.

Someone who looked like Rachel, with her manicured fingers and pretty smile, didn’t talk to someone who looked like me.

She probably had a closet full of cocktail dresses, whereas I owned three pairs of shoes, all of which were practical, not stylish.

“So, what do you say?’ Rachel tipped her head. “Will you let me help you?”

Help from the make-out queen, or give up and go home? Neither option seemed very appealing, except getting my degree was all I ever wanted. I didn’t need help for that. If I kept my head down and went to my classes, I should be fine.

I suddenly pictured the lone antelope straggling from the herd while the lions crept up in the grass.

Damnit.

Huffing out a sigh, I grumbled, “Fine.”

“Yay!” Rachel jumped up and clapped her hands. “You won’t regret this. We’re going to have so much fun, you’ll see. There’s a frat party next Friday night… you’ll need a dress, but don’t worry, I have lots…”

Frat party? Oh, hell no. I was not doing that. “Yeah, I was thinking more like a coffee once a month friendship.” Even that might be too much.

“Don’t you worry…” She stopped and tipped her head. “What’s your name?”

This friendship was off to a great start. “Georgia.”

“That’s so cute. Georgie, I love it.”

“Georgia,” I tried to correct her, although I don’t think she was listening to me anymore, if she ever was.

“We are going to have so much fun. Oh my God, I have the cutest heels for you…”

What the hell did I get myself into? I wasn’t sure what was worse. Issac, or the glint in Rachel’s eye as she looked me over like she was mentally calculating my dress size. One thing was for sure. I was never talking to anyone again.