Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis Read Free Book Online Page A

and come back.
‘Uh, I’m just going to run to the bathroom. I’ll be two minutes, I promise!’
Sky pulled a face. She didn’t want to be left standing on her own like a loser at her own party. But Cam made the universal sign of needing to pee, so Sky waved her off.
She didn’t get the chance to dwell on her misfortune before a hand tugged on Sky’s arm, spilling the punch she’d been holding. Black eyes met hers as Randy Swiveller yanked her arm again.
‘Come on.’
‘What are you doing?’ Sky tried to twist her arm free, but it was like trying to escape the grip of a hungry squid. A sickly feeling rolled over her as she wondered whether Randy did, in fact, have suckers on his fingers. ‘Randy, you’re hurting me!’
Sky felt Sean standing behind her.
‘Randy, get off her.’
‘This is none of your—’
‘And then you can apologise. Do it now.’
Sky tensed as she waited for Randy’s response. Sean wasn’t a big guy, and she’d never known him to get into a fight in the three years he’d lived in Blackfin, but Randy wasn’t usually the confrontational type either. He generally kept his creepiness to dark corners.
Randy slackened his grip on her arm enough that she could tug herself free, but he was still far too close for comfort. A look at his face told her how much he did not appreciate Sean’s interference.
‘You’re not one of us, Vega. Skylar’s not for you!’ His words were uncomfortably close to those her mother had used – you should stick to your own kind – and Sky felt the need to scrub her skin where he had touched it. ‘But we can talk about this outside if the message isn’t getting through your thick head.’
Sky was almost afraid to look at Sean, not sure how she’d feel if he backed down, and not sure how she’d feel if he didn’t .
‘Let’s do that.’
Sky stood shell-shocked for a moment as the two stormed out through the gymnasium’s side door. Once her brain had rebooted, she followed them outside.
They hadn’t gone far. She saw them outlined in the clear August moonlight, grappling clumsily with one another, throwing awkward punches and staggering as they landed. It was only as Sky came within a few feet that she was sure which outline was which, as neither seemed to have the upper hand in particular.
‘Randy! Stop it!’ Sky finally reached him, grabbing his arm to pull him away from Sean. Her hand yanked away clutching a torn piece of Randy’s sleeve, which he looked down at with nostrils flaring – one nostril oozing blood over his lips – before shoving her, hard. Sky, unprepared and a good head shorter than the eldest and gangliest of the Swiveller brothers, tripped on the hem of her skirt and landed on the tarmac.
Before she could recover, there was a wet thwacking sound, then a high-pitched wail like a rocket about to go off.
The rocket was Randy. Not quite screaming, but certainly making a noise outside the manly spectrum as he clutched his nose with both hands.
‘You … you hit me!’
Sky got back to her feet in time to see Sean shrug. ‘We were having a fight.’ Randy’s keening rose in pitch and volume, and Sky took an uncertain step toward him.
‘Stay away from me, you … you frigid whore!’
Randy shoved her again, and she and Sean both went sprawling. Randy fled, his footsteps and staccato sobs fading long after he’d disappeared from view. Sky was too busy trying to extricate herself from Sean to be particularly bothered about where Randy was going.
‘Sean, are you okay?’ He nodded once, eyes still focused on the spot where Randy had stood as though he couldn’t quite believe what had just happened. ‘Why did you do that? You didn’t need to fight him.’
‘Seemed like the right thing to do.’ He gave Sky a half-grin, but it turned into a grimace as it pulled at his split lip. Sky used the piece of Randy’s shirt she was still clutching to dab at it, then froze when Sean’s hand closed over hers.
It would have been the perfect