I’m reading my Economics Basics books on a bench outside the school when a particularly incensed-looking girl wearing a black dress comes storming right at me.
“Where’s Dylan?” Penelope asks, breathing heavily, like she just ran a marathon. “I tried texting him, but he’s not replying.”
“Not here.” I close my book. “Weren’t you just with Felix?”
“He’s an insufferable asshole,” she growls.
I snort. Well, I can’t argue with that.
“You left the frat house with Dylan, so you must know where he went, right?”
“He went off with some chick. Said he was gonna get drunk and smoke some pot.”
“And he left you here?” she asks.
I shrug. “I’m not interested in getting high right now. Besides, he wanted to be left alone.” I pat the bench. “I am curious why you’re so mad, though.”
She folds her arms. “Like you don’t know.”
“No,” I retort. “Tell me.”
“You and your buddy hung those fucking posters. You know why I’m upset.”
“Yeah …” I narrow my eyes. “It was a necessary evil to catch Nathan.”
“That wasn’t the only bullying you guys did. And all that just because you think I made my own sister jump?”
So he told her, huh? No fucking wonder she’s so mad.
I stop patting the bench. I don’t think she wants to sit with me right now. Even though I would’ve loved her to. Maybe we could’ve finally had an actual conversation.
“Felix doesn’t trust you,” I say.
“No shit. I don’t trust him either,” she replies.
My brows rise. “Can you blame him, then?”
She opens her lips, but nothing comes out.
“Your sister was our friend too,” I tell her.
“You guys keep saying that, but you’re a little hard to believe when you’ve been using me to satisfy your wicked needs,” she seethes. Her hands are planted firmly against her side, but I can clearly see her cheeks turn red.
“Yet you’re the one who keeps blushing whenever you talk about it,” I say.
Now she’s blushing even more.
Lovely.
A perfect picture I’ll remember for my next drawing.
I grab my phone and snap a pic.
“Hey, what are you doing?” she asks, shocked. “Why are you taking my picture?”
“Just because,” I reply.
“Delete it,” she says.
“No.”
She lunges at me and tries to steal my phone, but I pull back and grasp her wrist midair. “Give me that,” she says.
“It’s mine,” I say.
She jerks her hand free, and I quickly tuck my phone into my pocket.
“Why do you even care?” she asks. “It’s just a goddamn picture.”
“Because I want to keep it,” I reply.
She gives me a strange, confused look. “Okay, fine, then. Keep it. What are you gonna do with it? Jerk off to it?”
Hmm. Now she’s giving me ideas. “Maybe.”
She rolls her eyes. “Pervert.”
“Aren’t we all?” I reply.
“Look, you wanna keep that pic? Fine, but you gotta give me something in exchange.” She taps her foot. “If you don’t know where exactly Dylan is right now, at least give me a time and place where you’ll know he’ll be so I can talk to him.”
“Have you tried his phone?”
She sighs out loud and shows me her conversation with him, which, for the past ten minutes, has all been one-sided. “He’s ignoring me.”
“He’s probably feeling a little butt hurt,” I reply.
“Over what?” She frowns.
I lean in. “You.”
Her lips part, but she just stands there, frozen to the ground like she can’t believe what I said. “But I’m just …”
“Something they want to fight over,” I fill in. “And I get it. It’s not often they meet a girl as vicious as you are.”
She snorts. “Me? Vicious?”
I smirk. “How many knives do you own? Two?”
“Five,” she answers.
The smirk on my face only grows. “Or more.”
“So?”
“That’s not normal.”
She shrugs. “To me, it is.”
“Why? Who gave them to you?”
She narrows her eyes at me. “What’s with the questions all of a sudden?”
I lean back against the bench. “Nothing. I’m just trying to get to know the girl we made a deal with. That’s all.”
She swallows, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Um … yeah, sure.”
“I mean it,” I say, looking up into her eyes.
Her cheeks turn that same reddish hue they did before, and it’s a sight to behold, especially because my words did that.
She wiggles around in an odd way and almost grabs her dress near her backside.
“You okay?” I ask.
“I’m fine. Look, I just need to speak to Dylan.”
“Why?”
“Because I need him to continue our search for my sister’s bully, okay?” Her voice sounds strained. “That’s the deal we made.”
“Can’t you ask Felix?”
Her nostrils flare. “He can go fuck himself for all I care.”
I laugh. “Cute.”
“What?”
I pause and check out her outfit, a fitted black dress that accentuates all the curves of her body. As if she’s dressed to seduce.
And fuck me, it’s working all right.
“You’re cute.”
Now she’s blushing even more.
“I would’ve helped you myself … if you’d asked.” I fish my phone from my pocket again and text her an address. “There.”
She waits for the ping and then checks her phone. “What’s this?”
“Dylan will probably be there tonight. He hates missing out on parties. It’s another bonfire. Some guys from the House of Tartarus are throwing it.”
She frowns. “Tartarus?”
“Hell or Hell fire,” Alistair says. “It’s biblical.”
“Jesus Christ, what a name,” she scoffs.
“I know, right?” I say. “Violent bunch.”
She raises a brow. “More violent than you guys?”
I shrug. “Well, more on the sexually deviant side. Rituals and stuff.”
“Okay … Anyway, I thought Dylan was supposed to stay home and stay low for a while?” she asks.
I shrug. “Where there’s fire, there’s Dylan.”
“Near The Edge?” she asks.
“Nope. The Hot Springs.”
She nods. “Okay, thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
She tucks her phone back into her pocket but doesn’t immediately run off. “You’re much nicer than them.”
“Thanks, I guess,” I reply, laughing it off. “I’m just giving the bare minimum.”
“Yeah, but they won’t even give me that.”
My muscles strain against the bench, but I hold back, for her sake and mine. “Felix will come around.”
She grinds her teeth. “I don’t care.”
“Yeah, you do,” I say. “I’ve seen the way you look at him.”
Her pupils dilate. “What? No, I—”
“You just hate that he uses you to his heart’s content without feeling anything,” I say. I tuck my hands into my pocket and look away. “I assure you, he does.”
I don’t need to look at her to fucking feel her eyes bore a hole into my chest.
“He sure has a shitty way of showing it, then,” she says.
“Felix doesn’t remember what love is. His family never showed him.” I look at the wind blowing through the trees beyond the school grounds, carrying their leaves toward the edge. “He hasn’t felt it since …”
I pause and let the wind carry my words away silently.
“Since when?” she asks.
“Nothing.” I shake my head. “Just go find Dylan. He’ll make sure to hold up his end of the deal. As promised.”
“And what about you?” she asks.
I turn to look at her, the fantasy of running my fingers up those thick thighs briefly invading my thoughts, but I brush it off.
Now is not the time or the place. Out here in the open in broad daylight …
I’ll wait my turn.
My gaze slowly rises to meet hers from underneath my curly hair. “I’ll be there when I’m needed …” I lick my lips. “And in return, you’ll be waiting naked the next time I sneak into your room.”
She gulps.
I shrug and pull out my book again, continuing my reading. “Good luck.”
She swiftly walks off in her high heels and that tight little dress that barely covers her ass. But every once in a while, she sneaks a peek across her shoulder, wondering if I’m still watching.
But I’m always watching.
