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Chapter Ten
Ugh. It’s Saturday, and that means I have to meet with Michael. I really don’t want to. I’ve practically finished the English project without him. I don’t even sit by him in English now, because the teacher rotates the seating plan every half term. I’m sat next to some cool goth girl named Ellie now. It’s weird, but the more I hang around with the guys, the more something feels...off... about Michael.
I meet him in the library after I’ve had breakfast. We’ve reserved a private study room, but that just means the small room at the back of the library has glass windows and a door we can close. I feel like it’s public enough to meet with him. He’s suggested coming to my room, but I really wasn’t keen on that. He’s there already when I arrive, books spread across the desk and working.
He looks up when I enter, a smile spreading across his face. It looks sleazy to me. This guy’s too polished, too perfect, trying too hard. What did my sister see in him?
“Raven, hi!” he exclaims, getting up to give me a hug. I get out of it by holding up two takeaway cups and offering him a coffee. I sit down and sip my hot chocolate from the canteen. It’s pitiful in comparison to Thorn’s. Ugh, that boy has spoilt hot chocolate for me forever now. What will I do for my morning beverage when I leave in the summer?
“Shall we get started?” I ask him, pulling out my notebook and pen.
“Actually, can we talk for a moment first?” he replies. Uh-oh. I don’t like the sound of this. “How close are you to the Princes, Raven?” Erm, how is that any of his business?
“Friendly enough. We have a few classes together. Rebel and I are lab partners. Ace and I spar together.” I shrug.
“Do you hang out with them outside of that?” His questioning is more like an intense interrogation, and he’s beginning to get my back up.
“Occasionally. Why?”
“You should stay away from them Raven. Are you dating any of them?”
“That is none of your fucking business!” I bark. I challenge him back, “Why didn’t you tell me about them before?”
He hesitates now, and I feel like the tables have turned. “You were so keen to tell me all about the princesses in your letter, yet you never mentioned any princes. And apparently, you dated one of the princesses. Why did you fail to mention that to me? Why are there five princesses and only four princes? What’s going on, Michael? Tell me the whole truth this time!”
“Shit.” Michael looks thoroughly chastised as he holds his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay, just calm down. I’ll explain everything, but it’ll take a while.” I look at him expectantly, and he tells me he doesn’t know where to start. I wait, staring him out until he swears softly and begins.
“Fuck. Okay. So first of all, this school has always been made up of the inner circle, which always consists of the ten richest students. They’re almost always legacy kids, so the position has pretty much always been passed down from generation to generation. Traditionally, the ten inner circle members are made up of five girls, the princesses, and five guys, the princes. And they all pair up to date. There’s a kind of unspoken rule that you can’t date outside of the circle.”
He takes a deep breath before he continues.
“Up until your sister came here, that was the status quo... and I was one of the princes in the inner circle with Jax, our leader, Rebel, Thorn and Ace. However, I was banished during year eleven, when I was friends with Lizzie.”
“Were you banished because you were... friends with Lizzie?”
“Sort of. I refused to take part in the inner circle’s plan to bully the new girl. I don’t know why they wanted to bully her. After one conversation with her, I could see how fucking amazing she was, and I just couldn’t do it. To begin with, I just kept my head down and kept quiet, not taking part, but I’m ashamed to say, also not stopping the bullying either. Eventually though, they noticed, and they tried to make me join in. Repeatedly. I kept refusing until they threatened me and made me choose a side.”
Michael looks at me with sadness etched into every line on his pretty face. “I was gutted. You have to understand that I’d known these guys my whole life. I thought they were my best friends, my family, no matter what. I couldn’t believe it when they said that to stay with them I would have to...hurt your sister. They were forcing me to choose between staying with them or being friends with your sister. And even though I’d only known her a short time, I was falling head over heels for her. So I chose her.”
“I thought that the bullying might stop once I chose her, but it seemed to make it worse. I was ousted from the group and dumped, and because of that, I no longer had the power to protect her. I completely failed your sister when I was the only person in this school that she relied on.” Tears were streaming down his face now, and he looked so sorry, my heart ached for him. For Lizzie too. It seemed that I still didn’t know or understand what she had been put through. Would I ever really know the full extent of it?
“Are you saying that the guys were in on the bullying too?” My voice is quiet and disbelieving.
“Raven, nothing happens in this school without their say-so or approval.” Michael met my eyes with a level stare. “Everyone thinks that the princesses rule the place, but really they’re the puppets of the princes... You have to know that they all tried to date her and mess with her...for a bet, right?”
I shake my head, refusing to believe what he’s telling me. But of course, I know it must be true. Her crush, the boy she tutored, whose name she never mentioned, the one who stood her up and broke her heart a little when he dropped their friendship without a backward glance, was already stacked and covered in tattoos at sixteen. How could it be anyone other than Rebel? She even said in her letter to me that he was more my type than hers. I feel so stupid.
But Michael said they all dated her. Nothing in her letters to me ever indicated that she went on more dates. I needed to go back to her journal. I was sure that I’d find my answers there. I needed to decode more. I’d been lazy, distracted. Stupid. I thought Michael, the letters, and the few entries I had figured out so far, had told me everything I needed to know. But apparently, that was just the tip of the iceberg.
“Raven I’m so sorry. I didn’t tell you before because I was so ashamed of my part in all of this. I realise how stupid and wrong that was of me now. I’m really, really sorry. Can you forgive me? I’d still like to help you take them down if you’ll let me.”
“I have to go.” I stand up and gather my things, barely containing my tears. I rush to the door, and in my haste, I grab the handle and pull too hard, the door flies inward and bangs against the wall. I flinch at the sound and prepare to take off, but Michael stops me.
“Raven wait!” I pause and look back at him. “I don’t know exactly what happened to your sister in the end, but as awful as girls can be to one another, nothing has the power to tip someone over the edge more than a broken heart. Do you get me?”
Oh yes. I understand all right. Michael’s managed to bring my whole world tumbling down in the space of ten minutes. I race back to my room and let myself in quickly. Once inside, I lock the door and allow myself a moment to let out the tears I’d barely contained since leaving the library.
Hot tears streak my face, and I cry uncontrollably. Heart wrenching sobs break free and wrack my whole body, making it shudder. I cry for Lizzie. I cry for everything they put her through and everything she kept from me. I cry because she had no one. I cry a little for Michael, for judging him so wrongly when Lizzie had said all along how wonderful he’d been. And I cry for myself. Because as stupid as it sounds, in such a short space of time, I really really liked the princes. And I thought they were the good guys.
