if one of them is dead.

chapter thirteen.

Lilith.

"Lil, what the hell is on your hand?" Aven asked as they all sat in an old diner at midnight. The booth was ripping in some parts, but they didn't care. They were some of the only people there, aside from the creepy fifty-year-old man in the corner who kept smiling his black-toothed smile at the group.

Everyone looked over at Lilith's left hand, which was sitting on the table holding her butter knife as they waited for their milkshakes. Lilith looked down at her hand like she was seeing the scaring for the first time, or like it had been there for her whole life and had forgotten about it.

The truth was, it wasn't a scar yet. It was still fairly new. Beginning of summer wasn't that far away from the last time she had ever had detention with Professor Umbitch.

She shrugged, going to bring her hand to her knee under the table. "Nothing. Just some messing around at school."

Fynn, who sat on her left, grabbed her hand and examined it. "That's not nothing, Lil." He raised his brows at her before looking back at the words etched into her skin forever. He furrowed his brows. "'I must not disrespect'? What the hell, Lil?"

She shook her head and picked up the menu that she knew she wasn't actually going to look at. "It's nothing, okay?"

"Lilith," Raine said, raising their brows at her. "You can tell us what happened."

She sighed. "Fine. We got this new teacher, and she took to different idea in her detentions."

"What do you mean?" Alrik asked, leaning forward, putting his elbows on the table.

Darcy gasped. "Did she do that to you?"

Lilith shook her head, dropping the menu. "No, not literally. She made me do it." They all raised their brows at her. "She made a lot of kids do it."

"Did you tell anyone?" Darcy asked, and Lilith shook her head.

Aven was about to say something, but the waitress came over with their milkshakes. Fynn had tried flirting with the woman earlier, and after she showed she wasn't interested, Lilith smacked him to get him to shut the hell up.

They all said their thank yous and paid her before she left. Lilith gave her an extra big tip because of Fynn, and apologized for him. He rolled his eyes and slumped back in the booth.

"You're just mad that you can't pull anyone," Fynn grumbled, grabbing his milkshake to start sipping it loudly.

"Believe it or not," Lilith said, "I have a boyfriend now."

They all stopped what they were doing like they had just dropped dead.

"You're kidding," Aven said, raising her brows.

"You are kidding, right?" Alrik asked.

"Holy shit, Lil," Rain said, laughing. "You actually pulled someone."

"Why do you guys seem so surprised?" she asked, sipping her milkshake.

"Hold on!" Fynn said loudly, causing everyone to turn to him. He got up and climbed over Lilith and Raine's legs, making them both yell at him. He stumbled over to the jukebox. He started messing around with everything until he found what he wanted.

"Milkshake" by Kelis starts playing loudly on it. They all rolled their eyes as Fynn hits the jukebox with his hip.

"Get up here, you motherfuckers!" Fynn said loudly, starting to dance around the floor.

They complied and everyone grabbed someone else's hands. Aven grabbed Alrik's, Darcy grabbed Raine's, and Fynn grabbed Lilith's. They started dancing around together, laughing in the process. Thank God the employees were in the kitchen and the old dude left.

They grabbed their shakes, drinking them while they danced.

And when they stumbled out of the diner, they went to the record store.

They flipped and flipped through the vinyl.

"No, because Green Day is better than Weezer," Darcy said, grabbing a Green Day album.

Alrik gasped. "You did not just say that."

"They're both amazing," Lilith said. "I thought we covered this."

"Fuck you guys," Fynn said. "I'm going to look at the Nirvana ones."

"I'll be by Sublime," Raine said, walking a few shelves down.

"I'm finding Tiffany," Aven said, "I need 'I Think We're Alone Now' on vinyl or I'll lose my mind."

Alrik nudged Lilith with his shoulder, starting to browse the Blink-182 vinyl options. "What are you going for today?" he asked.

"I'm thinking Goo Goo Dolls," she said, grabbing an album. "But Counting Crows seems like a good option too."

"Oh, that's just sad."

"How dare you disrespect them!" she said, acting scandalized. "That is horrible. I cannot believe you said that."

He shrugged. "They're good, they're just sad."

"Fine, after I get my Goo Goo Dolls album, I'll go over to Rage Against the Machine."

"Oh, that sounds fantastic."

"Guys!" Fynn yells. "I just found the new Spice Girls record!"