𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐘𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐁𝐀𝐃 𝐊𝐈𝐃.
He gets into fights. He talks back to teachers. He's the product of a nasty divorce. He has poor grades and a deep kind of anger in his heart that gets him in all sorts of trouble.
But worst of...
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𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋 𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐖𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐂𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐘 similar to California, and Harley hated it.
Sure, there was a lack of seagulls, and he and Max were the only kids with skateboards. But something about Billy pulling into the school parking lot in his Camero, and Harley and Max flipping him the bird before they walked away, felt eerily familiar.
They hadn't done it in about two years, but Harley remembered the routine like the back of his hand.
"It's going to be fine," Max told him in a low voice, her walkman hanging around her neck. "We've got homeroom together, Lucas and Mike are in your third period, and you've got Will for first and sixth."
For some stupid fucking reason, Harley's heart dropped into his stomach when he remembered his class with Will.
"Whatever," he muttered. He could feel the kids around them staring as they walked towards the main building.
The black eye probably wasn't helping, nor was the letterman jacket from a school several states away. But neither were going anywhere- and maybe, it was better that they stared.
He knew from their faces that they were intimidated by him- which meant nobody would try to approach him, and he wouldn't have to deal with stupid kids from Indiana trying to get in his business.
"Will said he'd wait for you outside of the classroom so you can head in together," Max went on. She was fidgeting.
"How do you know that?" Harley muttered. He ran a hand through his hair. "You been talking about me with your weird nerd friends?"
"Yeah, Harley" Max said in blunt exasperation. "They've got a lot of questions. And believe it or not, they wanna be friends with you. Especially Lucas, who you kind of threatened the first time you met him. He saw how much you were staring him down during the movie at the mall."
Harley snorted. "Well, I'm assuming Billy hasn't cared enough to give him the shovel talk, so it's my job."
Max went quiet at that, but it was a heavy silence.
"What?" Harley asked, and his voice came out a little softer than he intended.
"Billy hates Lucas." Max said after a moment. Her words were clipped.
Harley stared at her. There was something a bit deeper in the way she said it, and he really didn't like the implications.
"What do you mean?"
"Lucas is Black, Harley," Max said shortly. "Billy's a fuckin' racist, and he threatened Lucas last year, and Lucas has been through enough without another one of my brothers giving him shit."
Oh.
Shit.
"I don't care that he's Black, Max," Harley said firmly. "Does he think- that's not the reason I'm giving him shit."
