Chapter 90. The Dare

The dare. The word itself felt like a splinter beneath my flesh. A week ago Ryder had come to me, his face white, his eyes haunted.

He wouldn’t say who dared him. He just said it was ‘team stuff,’ and that he’d taken care of it. But I guess it was more than that. The hockey team had its rituals, but this didn’t seem in keeping with that.

Darker.

It almost felt like the whispers in the corridors, the way certain older boys on the team moved with a certainty and arrogance that seemed even further distanced from jock culture. It seemed organized.

And I watched Madison, Salome’s new best friend and the queen of torment, laugh with her pack at her locker, and I knew, with a visceral certainty that settled deep into my bones that she too was a part of it. I needed to know why. .

I breathed deeply and began to walk toward her, my concerned friends trailing behind me. Madison’s smile tightened when she saw me coming.

“Can I help you?” she purred, all swee