Inertia (Gravity Series, 3.5) (The Gravity Series) Read online

  “Oh, you don’t?” Phillip taunted. Then in one swift movement, he bent down and swept everything off of the top of his desk. The papers and books and his heavy globe all crashed to the floor, some thudding against the bookshelves.

  “You are going to forget all about her!” Phillip shouted. For the first time, Henry was genuinely afraid. His father was coming unhinged before his eyes.

  “How…”

  Phillip gripped the sides of the desk like he was about to leap over it. “I mean it, Henry!” He stood up, smoothing his hair back and pulling down the front of his suit jacket, trying to gain control. “Pretend you never even met her. Because if you get involved with her, that puts both her and all of my plans in peril.”

  “How so?” Henry insisted.

  “You don’t need to know any more. I don’t want her around you, corrupting you. She’s not good for you or the family goals.”

  Henry felt air move at his back as the door opened. His mother poked her head into the room, grasping the side of the door.

  “Is everything all right in here?” she asked, her voice unusually quiet. She looked at Phillip and her eyes widened.

  “Not now, Cheryl,” he barked, glaring at her. She swiftly shut the door, and he turned back to Henry. “You have a perfectly good match in the Ford girl and I want you to pursue it.”

  “I’m not dating Lainey Ford,” Henry said emphatically. “And I don’t give a shit about the family goals. Thornhill is turning into some creepy, new-age cult and I don’t want to have anything to do with it.”

  Phillip rushed around the desk and jacked him hard in the jaw. Henry felt his teeth clank together as pain smashed his face. He stumbled back, clutching his jaw, fighting the tears that stung his eyes. Looking up at his father in horror, he saw the insane rage churning in Phillip’s pupils.

  “You will obey me, Henry. The time for play is done.”

  “And if I don’t?” Henry croaked, still clutching his face.

  His father gave him his answer with his fists. He started pummeling Henry’s shoulders, back, stomach. Pain exploded like land mines through every part of him. His thoughts disappeared, replaced by one overarching feeling—pain.

  The beating felt like it went on for hours. At one point, Henry fell to his knees, but Phillip kept hitting him. Finally, he pulled away, leaving Henry in a defeated, bleeding heap. Tears ran silently down his bruised face. Phillip had been smart enough to keep most of the blows below the neck, but his jaw felt puffy and swollen, and his right eye was in the same condition.

  “Will you listen to me now?”

  “Yes,” Henry spat through a bloody mouth.

  “Good.” Phillip straightened, taking off his jacket and undoing his cufflinks. “You’ll see, my boy. It will all be for the best. It’s a good match.”

  His squeaky shoes departed the room.

  ###

  Henry looked at the extent of the bruises in his bathroom mirror. The side of his face was puffy and purple. His eye didn’t look as bad as it felt, but he still had an obvious shiner. He gently prodded the bruised skin there.

  What was he going to tell people at school?

  His mother appeared in the doorway. Henry glanced at her and frowned, looking back at the mirror.

  “What do you want?” he asked, still pressing on his eye.

  She held out a cold compress and a tube of concealer. He took the former but frowned at the latter. “I can show you how to cover it up so no one will know.”

  “That’s your specialty, isn’t it?” Henry accused bitterly, holding the compress to his eye. “Covering up all the evidence.”

  Despite the pain medication he’d taken and washed down with half a bottle of rum, his body still ached so much it was hard to stand up. Especially his back, which was black and blue.

  “What did you want me to do? I couldn’t stop him,” Cheryl said defensively, leaning against the door as if for support.

  “Keep telling yourself that,” Henry muttered.

  “He’s right. You haven’t been thinking of your family at all. You have to consider your past, Henry. You hurt him greatly when you betrayed him, acting like a fool and bringing shame to our house.”

  “Those were the actions of a stupid kid, mother,” Henry said, shutting off the light and pushing past her. “How long am I supposed to pay penance for my sins?”

  Cheryl gently grabbed his arm. He winced and she let go, looking as guilty as the ‘tox would let her.

  “He has such big plans for you, Henry,” Cheryl whispered, her eyes big and gleaming. “There is a wonderful future in store for you.”

  ###

  “There need to be rules,” Henry informed Lainey as they were walking together at Hawthorne before school. Already people were stopping to stare at them, and reporting it to their friends. Lainey was prancing around like a peacock. She’d even dressed up, he’d noticed, in prime hooch-wear: a hot pink miniskirt and a low cut shirt with another of her ridiculous push-up bras peeking out. He was man enough to be a little flattered, but otherwise apathetic. If he’d have told his fourteen-year-old self that he’d be dating a hot piece like Lainey at sixteen, and not be the least bit attracted to her, the fourteener would’ve slapped him upside the head.

  But that was the truth of it. Even at her most compelling, all Henry could think of Lainey was desperate. And a little skanky, to boot.

  He hoped there was enough time to hide it from Ariel so that he could explain it to the right way. Of course, he knew there was no right way. Anxiety consumed him. She would be devastated. He already was.

  He put on enough concealer that he felt like a clown, and no one seemed to notice his fading bruises. It had been a week since his father’s assault. There had been a Thornhill meeting in which Lainey and Henry were put together, basically like an old-country arranged marriage.

  “Whatever you say,” Lainey said, teeth gleaming, as she weaseled her arm through his. Henry winced.

  “Can’t we make this a little less obvious?”

  “Fat chance. I’ve been trying to get you since the day you arrived.” She grinned at him again. He thought about how she’d intentionally hit Ariel in the face with the tennis ball, bragging about it later to her friends, and hatred turned his stomach sour.

  “Stop acting like it’s bad,” she said, half-whispering as she leaned closer to him. “We can have all kinds of fun, promise.”

  They stopped in the hallway. The bell had rung and people were scrambling to class. Henry stood next to the lockers, glaring at her. “I’m not interested in having any kind of fun with you. I’m in this because I have to be.”

  “Try this on for size,” she slithered, and kissed him. A feel of disgust filled his head. He could practically feel how awful and rotten she was inside. But he didn’t push her away. He was a teenage boy, after all, and his hormones were fully active. A small part of him responded to her, and that sickened him even more, filling him with a flush of guilt.

  She tasted like sugar and poison. Her tongue, hot and fat and wet, entered his mouth. He felt the urge to bite her, but suppressed it. He hated his body for betraying him.

  She stepped back, and looked into his eyes. “You don’t even have to tell me. I can tell you liked it.”

  “I…” Henry couldn’t think of a response.

  “Better get used to it,” she said, smiling up at him. She walked over, whistling, as she clutched her books to her cleavage.

  “What the hell was that?” Ariel’s voice asked. Oh no, she saw. He looked up and saw her standing at the end of the hall. His brain scrambled to think of the right words to say, but instead it shut down.

  “Ariel…What are you doing? Were you watching us?”

  Her pretty face was twisted in confusion, and her normally sparkling hazel eyes were dark with suspicion and hurt. She clutched her hands together tightly. It looked like a bomb had exploded in front of her, and he was the one that had set it off.

  He cleared his throat, trying
to hold his emotions in. All he wanted to do was run and hug her and forget his father’s words. But the soreness all over his body reminded him of the suffering he’d experienced. As selfish as it felt, he couldn’t do that. He knew he needed to make her to get over him. Better she hate him now than later.

  “Lainey and I are together now, Ariel. I’m sorry. I know it’s out of the blue. But it’s for the best. It’s a good match.” He felt like he was going to pass out, repeating Phillip’s words.

  She swayed, looking like she was going to faint. He wanted to reach out and catch her. He felt utterly helpless and scared that if he did the wrong thing it would hurt them both much worse than his betrayal. And he was hoping that she didn’t care for him as much as he cared for her.

  “Who are you? What is this?” she asked.

  “I wanted to tell you before you saw. I didn’t want you to find out this way.”

  Every second he was with her he felt more desperate.

  “Why would you even care?”

  “I should never have wormed my way into your life,” he said bluntly. “You told me once that we lived in different worlds. You were right…we’re not meant to be together.”

  Why couldn’t she see this? Why had he done this from her? He was truly seeing her feelings on display now that things were falling apart. He could tell by the hurt, betrayed look on her face that her emotions ran as deeply as his. Only now it was too late.

  “Where is this coming from?”

  “I just woke up, that’s all.” He finally turned and fled, regretting his devil’s pact.

  ###

  He’d been to a few of Thornhill’s functions before, but never one where the members had acted so excited. Usually the kids were forbidden from the meetings, but Lainey and Henry had been special guests this evening.

  He kept waiting for them to break into song. He stood alone by the buffet table, watching the others talk. Lainey was across the room, leaving him mercifully alone for once.

  A hand rested on his shoulder, holding so tight he could feel the rings on its fingers bite through the fabric. Henry didn’t turn around.

  “You hate me now, but you’ll understand someday,” Phillip said in a disarmingly soft voice.

  Henry didn’t answer. No matter what the old man said, the seed had been sowed. He’d hate him for the rest of his life.

  “Maybe even thank me.”

  Never.

  Phillip let go and walked up to the podium at the front of the room. They were at the community center, since the construction at Thornhill’s office wasn’t complete yet. It was hot and stuffy and Henry was already feeling drowsy. Sitting through an hour long or possibly longer meeting felt like torture. The others took seats in the folding chairs lined up before the podium, but Henry maintained his place standing up against the table, folding his arms and leaning back casually. Daring his father to protest in front of the others.

  No one called him out on it, though. The meeting began with his father discussing the same boring business as usual. Why they needed Henry at this little pow-wow was a mystery. He yawned and recrossed his arm.

  Suddenly, the room hushed. He hadn’t been paying much attention, but everyone had silenced. He looked up. There was a bright, instant flash—like a gigantic camera going off. His mind went foggy and soft, loose thoughts drifting out of his head.

  He didn’t remember much after that.

  ###

  The next day he was sitting in class, trying to recall the night before. He barely remembered getting home, like he’d been hypnotized. He didn’t like it.

  “Did you hear that Jenna Reed’s body was found?” one of the boys in his class said as he arrived and took his seat.

  Henry looked up as he continued. “I guess that’s case closed for her, then.”

  “Everybody knows about it,” Ambrose Slaughter said from beside Henry. His face looked even flatter than usual, his voice toneless, and it spooked Henry. Even his ridiculous golden hair was droopy. He was like a walking ghost, the shell of his former proud self.

  “I don’t know about it. What happened?” Henry asked the messenger.

  The boy explained the hows and wheres. Nobody knew the whys. “She probably disappeared before you got here,” he said.

  “Yeah, but I knew about her,” Henry said. “Do they know—”

  “The dumb bitch is dead,” Ambrose finally snapped. “So can we stop worrying about her?”

  That shut up the messenger and Henry. Ambrose hunched over his desk with his hand pressed to his forehead.

  Henry wondered if Ariel knew about it yet. She must be falling apart. He wished he could rush out of the desk and go and find her. He’d have next period with her. Maybe…

  He couldn’t do that. It would be totally against the rules, tragedy or not. The foggy cloud from the night before descended again, leaving him mute and lethargic.

  ###

  But that didn’t stop part of his mind from working the idea. He went to Ariel’s house after dark. Snow had begun to fall heavily with more in the forecast. He drove there in his mother’s car, and parked in the shadows at the end of the street. He walked the rest of the way up to the driveway.

  Her parents were home. He almost went up to the front door, but instead, he trailed around the backyard. From his pocket, he pulled out his father’s backup cellphone, the one he usually kept in his desk. He’d get a fresh round of beatings if Phillip knew he took it. But he had to try something.

  Dialing her number, he held the phone with his frozen, red hand up to his ear. The cold was beginning to settle in. He could make out the individual patterns of the snowflakes as they clung together in white clumps. He shifted deeper into his heavy coat.

  The phone rang in his ear, sounding empty and lonesome. Then it went to voicemail. He shut it off, sighing.

  He was in full view of the back of the Donovan’s house. Stalkery, yes, but safer that way. Then she came to the window, bundled up, rubbing her arms. She was framed in the frosty pane, her usually sparkling eyes looking dark and strained.

  He hid behind a tall tree and watched her. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. The snow was getting high and heavy around him. He worried about leaving his footprints in the fresh snow, but realized that by the time she came out the snow would probably cover them.

  He was about to try the phone again, but Ariel turned and disappeared. It was no use. He shouldn’t be here. He went off and walked the long walk back to his car, blinded by the snow.

  5. LAINEY

  “WHAT EXACTLY DO you want from me?” Lainey asked, pressing the phone tighter to her ear. She had been in the middle of a party, having a decent time, when she’d been interrupted. She didn’t even know who owned the house, but now she was standing in the person’s creepily cheerful bathroom, trying not to let anyone see or hear her. A knit toilet paper cozy with googly eyes stared at her and she turned towards the wall.

  “I want you follow my orders and not sass me,” he father yelled over the line, making her wince.

  “I’m sorry, daddy, I don’t get what I’m doing wrong. I showed Harlow around the school like you asked.”

  “You’re still spending too much time with that Madison friend of yours. What have I told you about her family?”

  “I don’t know, something about mice?” Lainey said, exasperated. She checked the door, making sure no one had found her and spied on her yet. That was just what she didn’t need. Only a matter of time before someone needed to puke and opened the door.

  Cliff Ford growled at his daughter, making her anxious again. “Born from rats, stay a rat. Memorize it. I want it on your mind. Be on your guard.”

  “But nothing’s going down for a while, right? I don’t really think Madison would be a spy—”

  “You are such a little idiot! What’d I do to raise such a moron?”

  Lainey cowered, pulling the phone away and wiping the tears that stung her eyes. He’d treated her that way for as long as she could re
member, ever since she hit puberty. She just wanted to make him happy. If the girls from school could see her now, red-faced and childish, they wouldn’t recognize her.

  “Okay, daddy, I’ll do whatever you say. Just please don’t yell at me anymore.”

  “I wouldn’t have to if you’d listen. You better not be lying.”

  “I’m not,” she pleaded, not thinking anymore about how loud she was being. “I promise!”

  “That’s a good girl,” he said, and hung up on her.

  She dropped to the floor with her chin beneath her knees, feeling like a sad little girl in time out. Why couldn’t he see that she’d do everything to make Thornhill successful? Anything to make him proud of her, just once?

  Someone opened the door and leaned in. The light made her squint.

  “Hey, Lainey, aren’t you going to come help us with the car?” the girl asked.

  “I’m getting out of here.” Lainey pushed past her and out as she gathered her insides together.

  ###

  She tried to keep both her father and her friend happy. She spent as much time as she could with Thornhill matters, while still trying to maintain her friendship with Madison. The problem was that Maddie kept asking too many questions. The girl had never cared much before about anything that wasn’t fashion or boys, living in her own cotton candy cloud of delusion.

  But she was awake now. The starting incident had been stupid, slutty Ariel Donovan finding Jenna’s necklace at her party. The fact that Ariel had crashed in the first place had infuriated her.

  When Harlow arrived in town, shoving Madison even further into the background than she already was, it sent her into a downward spiral. But Lainey didn’t know how to talk to her about that. They’d never shared deep feelings except when Ambrose died. And that had been too painful and uncomfortable to revisit.

  Madison started to bug her with questions. Once, when they were getting high on some pot she’d found in her all-star brother’s gym bag, she seemed especially thoughtful. They were sitting on Lainey’s canopy bed, joking about things one minute. Then the mood completely shifted.

  “What if somebody else helped Warwick kill Jenna? What if it was somebody we knew?” Madison asked.