Free ARC: Crushed by Eliza Crewe Page A

she could be back on the roster. She attacked physical therapy and came back to S and C with a bang, but recently she’s regressed.
    We don’t discuss it. I pretend not to notice her failures and she pretends they didn’t happen. She doesn’t like to talk about it and I don’t like emotions. It’s why we’re friends.
    We’re also friends because she doesn’t have a choice. By the time we finish S and C, she always needs a friend to lean on as she limps out of class. Thanks to her association with the Monster-girl, and the fact that everyone thinks she’s going to going to get the golden-boy Chi killed with her incompetence, there’s not exactly a line of people waiting to help her.
    Jo’s face is already flushed with effort, but I swear it gets redder. She manages to get one hand over the other, and kind of half-assedly pulls herself up. She was holding her breath, and when she lets it out, she loses the tension in her biceps and dangles limply like a lure on a fishing line. I can see her labored breathing from here.
    The whispers get less subtle, and I make my way into the thick of the watching crowd.
    “She doesn’t belong here,” a voice to my left says.
    “She’s going to get someone killed.”
    I stop to glare at everyone within my line-of-sight and they shut up.
    In the sudden quiet, a muttered “Demon-lover”, by one of Isaiah’s crew sounds exceptionally loud. It almost makes me laugh. Jo hates demons more than anyone I know. I haven’t the puniest, most pathetic shred of doubt that, had I not met Jo back on that night in March, her single-minded hatred for demons would have made her my nemesis. Instead she’s forced to defend me.
    What a thing, to have your best friend also be your worst enemy.
    I shove the jeering boy hard with my shoulder as I move past, to let him know I heard. Instead of the fear I want, he jerks up his chin.
    Problematic, but I’ll have to deal with that later. I hear something that pulls my attention away from the little dirtbag. Something I never thought I’d hear in a million years. At least not from Jo.
    “I can’t.”
    My head snaps around to where Jo still dangles, her arms visibly shaking. “I can’t do it,” she repeats, a little more firmly. Then softer, almost broken. “I think I need to go to the infirmary.”
    The professor doesn’t look pleased by Jo’s admission, but he doesn’t look disappointed either. He looks… relieved. A failure here, on a stupid rope-climb, would bring her one step closer to admitting defeat. I want to deck him.
    He opens his mouth to say something, but I cut him off. “Yes, you can.” She’s always harassing me to be better; it’s only fair I return the favor. I push through the crowd, carelessly shoving kids out of the way (some with more force than others), until I’m at the bottom of the rope, looking up at Jo.
    “Come on, Jo. Climb,” I order.
    Her reply hits me like a slap. “Stay out of this, Meda.”
    Some of the meaner kids snicker, and their nasty comments fill the air. I don’t think they all hate Jo. I don’t even think half do, but they all love Chi, and are frustrated by Jo’s refusal to accept “God’s will”. If any of them bothered to ask Chi, they’d know he’s not the least bit worried about being partnered with Jo. Even if he were, he’d rather die a dozen times than live without her. But no one asks Chi. Besides, it’s honorable for him to sacrifice himself for her, but it’s sinful for her to allow it.
    I don’t know what’s going on with Jo, but unlike any of the other jerks in this room, I actually have fought demons with her. And she’s good at it. Great even.
    She just needs to remember that. “No,” I tell her. “Now climb the damn rope.”
    “I. Said. I. Can’t,” she grits out.
    “Yes. You. Can.”
    She snarls at me.
    “Miss Porter,” Crusader Keller places a hand on my shoulder. I manage to shrug it off rather than rip it that way. “I think Miss Beauregard knows