Vincent (34 page)

Enjoy an excerpt from Sarah Brianne’s book

Nero (Made Men, #1)

Chapter One

High School Dropouts

Elle sat in Spanish, staring at the clock. She swore the classroom was a hundred degrees.

With three minutes until lunch, she really missed Christmas break. Not once during the entire break had she gotten this sick feeling. No matter how many times the sensation took over her body, she could never become used to it. It was like an impending doom kind of feeling.

Elle hated school. No, Elle despised school with all her being. The one reason she was surviving Legacy Prep High was because of her only friend in the world, Chloe Masters.

Chloe needed her. Yes, Elle was bullied, but Chloe, now she was tortured. Elle would do anything to keep her safe. She deserved a protector, especially after what had happened.

All the money Elle had saved up working this Christmas break had to go to her high school tuition. Otherwise, she would get kicked out, and that would mean no protection for Chloe. Elle luckily had a scholarship to pay most of her tuition because of her grades, but she had to pay the rest by working at the diner almost every night.

Two minutes until lunch.
I thought when you stared at a clock, it was supposed to make time go slower.

Elle was dreading lunch. The students hadn’t been able to pick on her and Chloe since the last day before break, which meant they were all going to let out their pent-up aggression on them. God help them.

With one minute until lunch, Elle turned her head to see Chloe since the clock was no longer serving her any purpose. Her heart broke a little. Chloe’s head was, of course, hung down, and she was wringing her hands in her lap. That was her thing whenever she was nervous.

She pictured her sweet face under her sheet of hair, marred by the deep slashes on her features. One stretched from two inches above her eyebrow down to the hollow in her cheek; the other slash was one inch above and below her lips. Both were on the right side of her face.

Elle shivered at the memory of seeing her for the first time since the new markings and then jumped when the lunch bell rang. She grabbed her satchel and stood.

You can do this.
However, the sick feeling was because she really didn’t believe she could.

She went to the door and felt Chloe at her back. This was where you could always find Chloe, right behind Elle, for the last three-and-a-half-years. Slowly, Chloe had started inching over every day until she walked just one step directly behind Elle. They had quickly learned that walking side by side meant a bigger target.

She stepped over the line into the hall and headed toward the cafeteria, walking a slow pace. She had a system down for the usual hall breaks; you wanted to take the shortest route to the next class unless there was a huge crowd. A huge crowd meant the ones who picked on them like Cassandra, the school’s queen bee. She had learned to never linger because they were always better off in a classroom; the teachers usually stayed in it during hall breaks, waiting for their next class. Lastly, don’t look anyone in the eyes. Although, Elle never kept her head down to the floor; that was a bad idea, plus she was never that type of person anyways.

This was the only time the halls were safe for them, though. The cafeteria awaited with far greater dangers for her and Chloe.

Elle reached the lunchroom and looked at her options. Here there were two lines. Line one was different each day, whether it was pizza, turkey, or meatloaf; it was whatever had been decided for the menu at the beginning of each month. Line two was always the same; chicken patty or hamburger and fries every day. However, Elle and Chloe didn’t have two options; they had one—whichever line had the less scary people in it. It also meant they usually got stuck in the line that didn’t taste the best.

Elle walked toward the back of the shortest line, all of the other students having thought the other option was better. Elle looked over to it, coming to the same conclusion.

Far better
, she thought
.

Elle saw two figures cut farther up in the line. She and Chloe didn’t make a move to call a foul on it, though. It was better not to draw attention.

“You didn’t call or text me one time over break. Didn’t you miss me?” Cassandra wrapped her arms around Nero’s neck.

Nero grabbed her waist. “Sorry, babe. I’ve been busy.”

Nero Caruso. He was the definition of tall, dark, and handsome. He was more muscular than almost all of the other seniors but still slender. Cut is how Elle described that body-type. She could tell he had trimmed his hair over break. She thought it was strange because he’d always had it longer and slicked back for as long as she could remember. Now that it was much shorter, his hair had movement. She liked it better this way. “Does that mean you’re too busy for me tonight?” Elle could see Cassandra’s breasts rise higher.

In the next instant, Nero caught Elle staring. He held her gaze with his green eyes and then leaned down to whisper something in Cassandra’s ear.

“Get a room!” someone yelled in the line.

Cassandra snapped her head back and caught them staring at each other, giving Elle a menacing look. With that, Elle was able to break the eye contact. She felt embarrassed to be caught gawking at them. She had trained herself to never look any of the students in the eye, especially during PDA.

Geez, what is wrong with me today
? All Elle needed was to piss Cassandra off. She’d had it out for her since freshman year when a boy Cassandra must have liked complimented Elle on her hair. Cassandra made sure to make Elle the school’s target, and the boy had nothing to do with her from that moment on.

The line finally moved along and they were able to grab a tray. Lasagna, green beans, and applesauce were on the menu today.
Honestly, it could be worse
.

Taking a water out of the cooler, she reached the lunch lady, giving her lunch number to her. “1089.”

“You can charge the first week only, Elle, then you need to either put money in your account or bring money with you every day.” The lunch lady spoke louder than Elle thought necessary. “We are not going through this again this year.”

Elle didn’t think she could have felt any sicker. “I will.” She moved over so Chloe could give her number.

“1072.” Elle knew she could have, in fact, gotten sicker at the look on Chloe’s frightened face knowing they would have to make it to their table now.

Elle started walking to their usual spot. There were several tables scattering the cafeteria. The studious students used the tables closest to the lines; they weren’t picked on, just ignored really. The tables in the back of the cafeteria were used by the popular crowd. Elle and Chloe, on the other hand, had always eaten at the same table for the past three and a half years—the one closest to the door. This table was in-between the two sides but closest to the studious side. Just one table full of nerds separated Chloe and Elle from the popular kids. The robots.

Elle sat with her back to the door; she liked the full view of the cafeteria. Chloe sat opposite of her; she wanted the back of her head to the rest of the world.

“Did you sleep last night?” Elle asked sympathetically. Elle knew Chloe never slept much with the nightmares, but today she looked like she hadn’t even slept a full hour last night. She looked pale, almost ghostly. Her black hair was now dull as it attempted to conceal the right side of her face. She noticed the hollows under her stark, gray eyes.

“Not much. I really didn’t want to start school back up, I guess.” Chloe forced a smile for her friend.

Elle looked at Chloe sympathetically. “Don’t worry, Chloe. This will be our last semester of high school. Then, we don’t have to see the robots’ faces ever again. Besides, maybe forty-five minutes will go quicker than we remember,” Elle said, trying to make light of their situation.

“We were gone three weeks, Elle, not three years,” Chloe replied lightly.

“Hey, a lot can happen in three weeks. Robots could have asked for a heart over break.” They both laughed over that.

“If that was the case, then my whole high school career was one long nightmare and I will wake up right…” Chloe squeezed her eyes shut and opened them a second later, “Now. Well, it looks like no one asked Glenda the Good Witch for help.” Elle laughed hard and Chloe couldn’t help joining in. Elle was glad when Chloe loosened up.

They both began eating their lunch while Elle carefully looked at the robot’s tables. That side was actually pretty diverse. You had a few athlete tables consisting of a full football team table and the rest being a mixture of baseball, softball, basketball and soccer. This left just a few tables.

Her most hated table was the fashionista one, who only bought designer labels and were all mostly cheerleaders. Cassandra was, of course, the head of that table. The table adjoining Cassandra’s consisted of the filthy rich, and I mean,
filthy
. They were all boys with the head being Sebastian, which was Cassandra’s twin brother. Elle shivered in fright at not only the sight of him, but the sound of his name.

This brought you to the final table, which Elle really couldn’t describe. Three guys had always sat there; one was Nero, who was basically the king of Legacy Prep, and the other two were his crew, as the school liked to call them. The big one was Amo and the smaller one was Vincent; both were seniors, as well. However, Elle noticed a new boy sitting with them.

He must be a freshman
. Elle wondered who he was. All she could see was his dirty-blond hair from the back.

She suddenly felt like someone had stepped in her personal space. That was when she realized she had made a huge mistake—she’d dropped her guard.

“I have been looking for you all day. I have a little mess and I needed the waitress to clean up for me.” Cassandra took Elle’s plate and pushed it off the table. Then the high-pitched screech of her voice started back again. “Go on, clean it up, waitress.”

The whole cafeteria grew silent at her words. That word
waitress
made Elle’s skin crawl, and yet it might as well be her birth name here as far as they were concerned.

Elle thought about the two options she had. Option one: blatantly ignore it or pretend you didn’t hear it; and option two: respond with either a witty response or a few short words. She chose the first then stared at Chloe, wishing she hadn’t by her panicked expression.

“Bitch, I know you hear me.” Cassandra took Chloe’s plate and held it above her head. Chloe quickly tried to move out of the way, but two of Cassandra’s fake blonde bimbos moved to stand on either side of her, forcing her to sit back down. “Clean up the mess like a waitress is supposed to do, or the little freak will have her own mess to clean up.”

Freak
was the only other word that made her skin crawl more than waitress.

Elle felt a washrag hit her face, courtesy of Sebastian. She took a moment to see Chloe wringing her hands. She didn’t want this for her.

Okay, this couldn’t be worse. Of all days to have the three messiest foods.
Elle swallowed her pride and picked up the washrag. Then she really swallowed her pride when she got down to clean the mess up off the floor.

When Elle was done shaming herself, she walked over to Chloe. “Come on, Chloe. Let’s go.” She held her hand out. She knew Chloe would never take it, but she would get the message to get out of there.

“Sorry, you missed a spot.” Cassandra was about to tip the plate over Chloe’s head, and as a result, Elle did the only thing she could think of. She pushed the plate harder in the opposite direction, all over Cassandra.

The cafeteria was filled with mixed emotions. Some couldn’t help laughing while the others were too in shock of what had just happened to react at all. Elle felt sicker than she had ever been in her whole life. She was seriously about to vomit up the little lunch she hadn’t mopped off the floor.

“You fucking bitch!” Cassandra’s voice screeched higher than anyone thought imaginable. “You are done.”

Elle knew only one option remained now. Run.

Elle grabbed the back of Chloe’s shirt. She was in serious shock, but not enough to hinder her from getting the hell out of dodge. Elle ran straight for the door; this was the whole reason they sat at the table closest to it.

Right before she was going to pass through it, though, she noticed Mr. Evans standing in the doorway. Mr. Evans was her first period English teacher and the only English teacher in Legacy Prep who believed you could be creative in English; not to mention he was nice to look at—all the girls had a crush on him since he started teaching here at the beginning of the year.

Shit
, she was trapped. Elle stood there, knowing she was a goner. There was no way anyone did that to Cassandra and got away with it.

“Elle, Chloe, go on back to class,” Mr. Evans spoke calmly, maybe too calmly, but Elle wasn’t about to waste another second of this golden ticket. She had just won the damn lottery.

Elle and Chloe high-tailed it out of the lunchroom. On their way out, Elle heard Mr. Evans calmly speak.